Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Beyond Donations: Why strategic fundraising plans matter (Summer Repeat)
Transcript
- 0:04SPEAKER_01: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBucks.
- 0:09SPEAKER_01: If you're a nonprofit leader, founder, or fundraiser, you know that you have to fundraise to keep your mission moving, to keep the lights on, and maybe even bring home a paycheck.
- 0:18SPEAKER_01: But fundraising is simply overwhelming some days.
- 0:22SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast.
- 0:24SPEAKER_01: I'm Kara.
- 0:25SPEAKER_01: I'm a nonprofit leader and fundraiser, and I have the honor of serving as podcast correspondent for DonorBox.
- 0:31SPEAKER_01: We are here each week with practical actions you can use today to increase donations and take your nonprofit to the next level tomorrow.
- 0:39SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I just feel like I'm flailing.
- 0:41SPEAKER_01: I face challenges of balancing fundraising tasks with building those personal connections and maintaining a healthy work environment.
- 0:49SPEAKER_01: And there's always just so much to do.
- 0:51SPEAKER_01: And I'm personally in a season of being overwhelmed with it all.
- 0:55SPEAKER_01: And so that's why I'm excited that today on the Nonprofit Podcast, we have John DeLang and Evan Cox.
- 1:01SPEAKER_01: Together, they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience.
- 1:04SPEAKER_01: And they're the founders of the strategic fundraising plan.
- 1:08SPEAKER_01: They work hard to help nonprofits get unstuck and they bring clarity to confusion and they help make that fundraising just a little bit easier.
- 1:16SPEAKER_01: So welcome, John and Evan.
- 1:18SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us, Karen.
- 1:19SPEAKER_02: We're looking forward to the conversation.
- 1:21SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you both.
- 1:22SPEAKER_01: You know, fundraising is a necessity, but it's often viewed as an uncomfortable task.
- 1:28SPEAKER_01: How can organizations shift their mindset to view fundraising as an integral part of their mission rather than just a means to an end?
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
- 1:37SPEAKER_02: As I think about healthy organizations, Kara, oftentimes it's organizations that welcome people into the mission through all avenues, right?
- 1:48SPEAKER_02: So whether they're serving an underserved population or they're interacting with their volunteers or their supporters, there's an opportunity to extend a mindset of ministry and care and value to each audience.
- 2:02SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the things that Evan and I have recognized over the past years of serving clients is that fundraising, instead of being a necessary evil, is an avenue of helping people feel seen, be known, and be appreciated through our intentional interactions with them.
- 2:18SPEAKER_01: Evan, what are your thoughts there?
- 2:20SPEAKER_03: Really, instead of it just being a transaction, I love to view fundraising and working with donors as an act of transformation.
- 2:28SPEAKER_03: And so oftentimes what John and I really try to emphasize is that the transaction may be one small piece of a monetary component of fundraising, but it's not the entire thing.
- 2:37SPEAKER_03: And the transformation, as John mentioned, is helping someone not only help fund someone else's transformation, but also be transformed in the process themselves.
- 2:46SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I think the goal is to become your supporters' partner in the good that they want to do in this world, right?
- 2:52SPEAKER_01: You want to be their preferred partner.
- 2:54SPEAKER_01: Um, John, I read an article you wrote that emphasizes the importance of making supporters, volunteers, colleagues, whomever is in your community feel seen, feel appreciated and valued.
- 3:07SPEAKER_01: Can you share some practical strategies or examples of how a nonprofit leader can incorporate this approach into a daily routine, especially when they're feeling overwhelmed with all these tasks and responsibilities that are on their plate?
- 3:21SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
- 3:23SPEAKER_02: I have a background in major supporter work.
- 3:26SPEAKER_02: So as a major gift officer, I paid very close attention to the preferences, the family background, the motivations, the programs that really resonated with my constituents that I was responsible for cultivating the relationship with.
- 3:42SPEAKER_02: And when I transitioned uh internally to at a national organization to run direct response, some of my key stakeholders were then internal.
- 3:50SPEAKER_02: And I had a mentor who challenged me as a fundraising leader, take that same external mindset of hey, these are people that when you do a good job cultivating that relationship, they love to support your mission and apply that same thinking.
- 4:07SPEAKER_02: So, what I call it is add your coworkers or add your volunteers to your caseload.
- 4:13SPEAKER_02: And when we have that mindset, we take the time to instill that mentality of, I see you, I'm glad you're here, and I value what you ever can bring into the organization.
- 4:24SPEAKER_02: And that takes that takes different levels of deposit for each relationship.
- 4:30SPEAKER_02: As an organizational leader who's always pressed for time, believe me, I know I've been the development director at a small shop organization where I had to wear all of the hats.
- 4:40SPEAKER_02: So you can't spend a half a day with every individual like you might be able to in in major gifts work, but we can be intentional in those interactions and keep track of those preferences, motivations, and backgrounds.
- 4:54SPEAKER_01: In that scenario, you really value community, which is nice.
- 4:58SPEAKER_01: This is a topic that many of our listeners struggle with.
- 5:01SPEAKER_01: It's that overwhelm from endless to-do lists, the things that you want to try that are on the back burner for a long time, all the big ideas that you have popping in your head.
- 5:10SPEAKER_01: How can nonprofit leaders swap out those sticky notes, those never-ending lists for a simpler plan that helps create margin?
- 5:19SPEAKER_01: Margin is a luxury sometimes, and then manage that workload really effectively.
- 5:24SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think there's probably a core principle that can be applied in multiple different ways.
- 5:28SPEAKER_03: So, like to John's point, maybe you are a small shop and you don't have the luxury of having a full team.
- 5:34SPEAKER_03: And you're like, oh my gosh, I think when I go to coffee with a friend, I'm just gonna ask for some feedback on this to-do list and see what they would value versus going to somebody else in the organization if there's nobody else, but it's just you, right?
- 5:48SPEAKER_03: Like figure out like how can I get some additional perspective.
- 5:51SPEAKER_03: One of the things that John and I did in working with a client just a couple of months ago is they came to us with nine or 10 different spreadsheets of all of their donors and all of their gift evaluations.
- 6:04SPEAKER_03: And they were like, this is our donor system.
- 6:06SPEAKER_03: Now, apart from the technology side where we could optimize and build a CRM, one of the most helpful pieces of that engagement for that nonprofit was to take all of the spreadsheets and all of the attachments and say, Hey, can you help me get eyes on this and give a different perspective?
- 6:24SPEAKER_03: And so swapping out those to-dos for a simple system to follow in that instance looked like, okay, yes, you do raise a large sum of money.
- 6:33SPEAKER_03: It's definitely, okay, this is great.
- 6:35SPEAKER_03: But out of all the supporters, we've got less than 100 who add up to the majority of your monthly giving every single year.
- 6:43SPEAKER_03: Maybe you should prioritize those as your major gift evaluation and piece for the next six months to a year.
- 6:51SPEAKER_03: Have coffee, reach out and email you who's going on a trip so I'm like, get postcards, send out a postcard to everybody that's on that list.
- 6:59SPEAKER_03: The things that you do beyond that are great, but why don't we not lose the most important piece?
- 7:05SPEAKER_03: And sometimes that's perspective from bringing in somebody like John or me or you, but oftentimes it can just be how do I remove myself from the daily list of tasks, help sort, refine that, and turn the to-dos into a simple plan to follow.
- 7:20SPEAKER_01: Actually, I like layering that with John's thoughts on intentional community and building the relationships.
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: When you look at the individuals on that list as people and partners, it gives you a different perspective.
- 7:34SPEAKER_01: Um, I think is moving to relationships from a to-do mindset.
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 7:42SPEAKER_03: 100%.
- 7:43SPEAKER_01: So maybe for either of you here, can you elaborate on how nonprofit leaders can balance those professional goals with those personal heartfelt interactions and why that balance between the two is really crucial for long-term success?
- 8:00SPEAKER_02: So every aspect of our world, people are fighting distraction.
- 8:05SPEAKER_02: They're fighting confusion, and especially trying to fundraise in an election year can be a headache for every executive director or small organization and the large organizations that that we've interacted with so far here in 2024.
- 8:23SPEAKER_02: And the temptation can be to simply do more, to put out more, to go faster, and to try and um just double down on all of the busyness in order to overcome that.
- 8:41SPEAKER_02: But as we as we've seen and as I'll advocate for your depth of relationship with your key supporters is how you move from transactional giving to significant giving to ultimately transformational opportunities with them.
- 8:59SPEAKER_02: And so for organizations that want to be sustainable in the long term, the the churn and burn of acquiring new relationships and hoping that they stick around and just running on the treadmill faster and faster has to be balanced with surfacing those critical few relationships and investing deeply in them.
- 9:19SPEAKER_03: And I love that, John, because oftentimes I told you about like the post-it note that's on my desk or that's in my office that says the highest motivation comes from having the greatest motive in the first place.
- 9:32SPEAKER_03: And I think about donors specifically in that context, that if our highest motivation is to get fundraising done and to get more transactions, and if conversations only are centered around money, it's going to limit the kind of relationship we have, the kind of transformation they see and the kind of long-term partnership they have with the organization.
- 9:54SPEAKER_03: But if that highest motivation is to see them become the person they want to be in the world or to make the impact they want to see.
- 10:03SPEAKER_03: Well, that changes how I interact and it changes what that conversation, that relationship turns into.
- 10:08SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 10:09SPEAKER_02: I was with a family who are hosting a VIP dinner this fall.
- 10:15SPEAKER_02: And we were in a planning session for that event.
- 10:18SPEAKER_02: And what what we recognized was a key question to ask of them, because I was helping the organization do the planning and put together the program, and they're articulating their vision.
- 10:31SPEAKER_02: And we stopped and we asked this champion couple, what is your vision over the next five to 10 years for this organization?
- 10:39SPEAKER_02: And that question, of course, they'd heard the vision from the president and the COO of that organization and the fundraising staff from stage and in appeals and that sort of thing.
- 10:50SPEAKER_02: But allowing them the opportunity to articulate it back opened up the reasons why they gave and why they might double down on their commitments and their advocacy for the organization.
- 11:02SPEAKER_01: That's a beautiful illustration.
- 11:04SPEAKER_01: You know, nonprofits sometimes worry about over-communicating their message.
- 11:09SPEAKER_01: But again, it's balance.
- 11:11SPEAKER_01: You need to consistently be in front of people.
- 11:13SPEAKER_01: Um, so, like you said, so that your supporters can glean what it is that you're trying to share, that they can glean your vision, that they can get to the heart of the mission and kind of remind your audience that you're still there.
- 11:24SPEAKER_01: But how do you share all of this without causing donor fatigue?
- 11:28SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's a great question.
- 11:29SPEAKER_03: John, I'll go first.
- 11:30SPEAKER_03: I know you've got thoughts on this too.
- 11:32SPEAKER_03: Most nonprofits, grassroots all the way up to global and everybody in between, usually don't hit the middle.
- 11:38SPEAKER_03: They hit one of two extremes.
- 11:41SPEAKER_03: It is over-communication, where your email list turns into a vending machine and you're giving all of the details when they don't necessarily need everything and it's four emails a day.
- 11:52SPEAKER_03: You're like, oh my gosh, this feels like old navy where I sign up.
- 11:56SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say that.
- 11:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 11:57SPEAKER_03: I signed up for a discount with my sweater that I wanted to buy my wife, and now I've got all these like, how do I unsubscribe?
- 12:04SPEAKER_03: And then the other side is it's crickets until it's fundraising season, or it you need something, or it's an important, dire moment, and then it's a long stretch or gap with very little reporting, thinking, and updates in between.
- 12:18SPEAKER_03: If we can find the balance and that cadence is unique for every individual organization, oh my gosh, I think that's the sweet spot.
- 12:26SPEAKER_03: John and I were just raving about a couple of different organizations.
- 12:29SPEAKER_03: One of them does human trafficking work.
- 12:32SPEAKER_03: And what I love about their email updates is yes, they're frequent, but it's usually like, hey, last night um we rescued somebody in this country.
- 12:42SPEAKER_03: And here's a quick snapshot.
- 12:43SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, ooh, not only is that relevant and time-bound, but it's an effort to report back on a partnership level that I'm like, oh my gosh, I wanted to know that.
- 12:55SPEAKER_03: And so in that case, that's actually not too frequent.
- 12:57SPEAKER_03: I would love more of that.
- 12:59SPEAKER_03: And I think striking the balance of not being a vending machine and not going crickets is probably where we want to lie.
- 13:06SPEAKER_02: But John, what else would you add to that?
- 13:08SPEAKER_02: In my work with an organization called Summit Ministries, where I lead their direct response fundraising uh digital and mail and that sort of thing, we've been optimizing an end-of-year email playbook that is guided by this ratio.
- 13:25SPEAKER_02: Once we get to the end-of-year fundraising timeframe and we know that people are inundated with asks all of the time, we go for a 60-40 split.
- 13:36SPEAKER_02: So 60% of the time we're making an ask in the email, and 40% of the time it is pure cultivation.
- 13:42SPEAKER_02: We don't have any asks for donations.
- 13:46SPEAKER_02: We don't link to a donation page, we don't put it in the footer, there's no buttons.
- 13:50SPEAKER_02: You can't click the logo at the top of the email and get to the donation page on our website.
- 13:55SPEAKER_02: It is purely cultivation.
- 13:58SPEAKER_02: And that opportunity to let people interact with the mission of the organization and kind of zig and zag at the same time that other organizations might be pursuing the four email a day strategy has consistently grown the results of that program.
- 14:16SPEAKER_02: In 2023, it performed 40% higher than 2022.
- 14:21SPEAKER_02: And I'll throw this out there.
- 14:23SPEAKER_02: If if you hit me on LinkedIn, I'll be happy to send you the titles and the dates and the sender names of who it was in the organization that we coordinated those from.
- 14:33SPEAKER_02: But the thing that I'll I'll throw out there with this, Cara, is every organization has to recognize that they want an authentic relationship through these channels with with their people.
- 14:46SPEAKER_02: If it's just, hey, I gotta get this thing out so people will do this this other thing for us, that changes the what Evan was referring to earlier, the the motive for the piece of communication.
- 14:58SPEAKER_01: It's always about the relationship more than the transaction, the value of the transaction of the gift for sure.
- 15:04SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 15:05SPEAKER_02: And to jump in there too, I'm not advocating against uh making clear asks because even a clear ask can can be a relational action.
- 15:15SPEAKER_02: Because I I was talking about this the other day.
- 15:18SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you think about the numbers of nonprofits that are here in the United States, there's nearly two million nonprofits.
- 15:25SPEAKER_02: And Evan's work building websites for nonprofits.
- 15:29SPEAKER_02: Almost every nonprofit has five pages on their website or more.
- 15:34SPEAKER_02: And so you have two million nonprofits, minimum of five pages.
- 15:39SPEAKER_02: There's 10 million website pages out there for nonprofits, and somebody got to your donate page.
- 15:45SPEAKER_02: And if we don't give them a clear way to take the next step, we're simply losing the opportunity to build a relationship with them.
- 15:52SPEAKER_02: So, so make clear asks when it comes to the end of the year.
- 15:56SPEAKER_02: Make clear asks several times in the last days of the year, because that's when the majority of Q4 giving happens online is in the final week.
- 16:06SPEAKER_02: But don't over ask in the entire season.
- 16:11SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, people will tune you out when it comes to those special times.
- 16:14SPEAKER_01: So, Evan, you shared a little bit about the story, the newsletter, the email update that you received from that human trafficking organization.
- 16:22SPEAKER_01: It was very timely, it was very relevant.
- 16:24SPEAKER_01: It probably told a really great story in a really short amount of words or amount of time that you had to watch it.
- 16:30SPEAKER_01: But some people are numbers people.
- 16:32SPEAKER_01: I met with a donor recently who said to me, Don't tell me about Mary and her sad story.
- 16:37SPEAKER_01: Show me the numbers.
- 16:38SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh, okay then.
- 16:41SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm naturally my language.
- 16:44SPEAKER_01: I am not naturally a numbers person.
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: So that comes harder for me.
- 16:49SPEAKER_01: But data tells a story too.
- 16:52SPEAKER_01: What are some ways that nonprofits can effectively utilize their data, those analytics, the impact numbers, those kind of things to inform their fundraising strategy or speak to those donors who need to see the numbers before they decide to trust you?
- 17:08SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that question.
- 17:09SPEAKER_03: So I think there's two primary audiences when we think about storytelling through data.
- 17:14SPEAKER_03: Uh, to John's earlier point, one of them is internal.
- 17:18SPEAKER_03: It is the person who's sitting next to you in a cubicle, or now that we're maybe remote, someone across the city.
- 17:24SPEAKER_03: It could be your CEO or executive director, your leader, somebody that's underneath you, a volunteer.
- 17:30SPEAKER_03: But internally, we have to make sure, first of all, that we're capturing some kind of data and then interpreting that data at least semi-correctly, right?
- 17:39SPEAKER_03: There's probably more than one way to interpret it, but try to have like a coherent thought.
- 17:43SPEAKER_03: And then that we're sharing that internally because you might feel pressure, especially if you're in that middle management seat, that oh my gosh, donors want less of this, but my CEO wants more.
- 17:55SPEAKER_03: Like there might be some power struggles internally.
- 17:57SPEAKER_03: Part of that process is having data to be able to tell a story to say, listen, what John talks about was actually tested over not just one season, but two or three years.
- 18:06SPEAKER_03: And now we have data concurrently year over year that helps us make an informed decision, not just for this year, but also for next year.
- 18:15SPEAKER_03: If we intentionally hold back the number of links, the overall giving is greater, the relationship outcome is greater.
- 18:22SPEAKER_03: So that's the internal piece.
- 18:25SPEAKER_03: Externally to your point, yeah, I would recommend whether it's your CRM, a robust spreadsheet in the beginning, however, you're tracking data details for your donors, find a way to categorize them, build a donor profile, attach their wants and values to what you know to be true about that kind of individual.
- 18:44SPEAKER_03: And if you're giving attention and time to someone who has a business email address, and you can tell, oh my gosh, they are the CEO because you checked out the website.
- 18:54SPEAKER_03: They probably don't just want a story to your point.
- 18:57SPEAKER_03: They want to know, um, maybe in a spreadsheet, what is the investment and what is the ROI?
- 19:03SPEAKER_03: Or they want to know how many wells have you drilled this year versus last year.
- 19:08SPEAKER_03: Have all of those things ready so you're not scrambling in the moment.
- 19:11SPEAKER_03: Have a data-driven story and a narrative story at the ready, so that at any given time you can pull one of those up.
- 19:20SPEAKER_03: And I think this could be a good hack too.
- 19:22SPEAKER_03: You could pre-write out some of those thank yous and updates, whether it's in an email template or physically writing those out, so that you have both versions.
- 19:31SPEAKER_03: That way, when it's super busy end of the year, you're not writing individual emails every single time.
- 19:36SPEAKER_03: You've got a proven collection of maybe a dozen templates to pull from.
- 19:39SPEAKER_01: I love it.
- 19:40SPEAKER_02: So so, as one of the things that we do when we work with organizations through strategic fundraising plan is to help them craft a simple one to four sentence case for support.
- 19:53SPEAKER_02: And now most times case for supports are extensive, they're multi-pages and that sort of thing.
- 19:57SPEAKER_02: Our our intention is to give somebody something that they're actually going to use and say, but that's guided through a process that we learned from Dr.
- 20:07SPEAKER_02: Russell James from Texas Tech.
- 20:09SPEAKER_02: He's an excellent researcher.
- 20:11SPEAKER_02: He knows what motivates people to give in a transformational way through their legacy planning process.
- 20:17SPEAKER_02: And what he says is as an organizational leader and as a fundraiser, you need to advance the donor's hero story without triggering their logical error detection system.
- 20:28SPEAKER_02: And so, what that means, what we need to do is give someone a reason, a logical reason, maybe a data-driven reason about why we're doing what we're doing and also ground the work that we do in reality.
- 20:41SPEAKER_02: We were just with a client who has a global vision, but they have a very small team.
- 20:46SPEAKER_02: And so as they articulate their mission to some of their key supporters, they need to have intermediate steps about what they're going to accomplish in the short and medium terms.
- 20:57SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, the vision and the work of the organization have a disconnect in the mind of the donor.
- 21:03SPEAKER_02: They've they've triggered the logical error detection system.
- 21:06SPEAKER_01: And sharing information the way the donor wants to receive it grows trust.
- 21:10SPEAKER_01: And when they trust you, they tend to stay around a lot longer.
- 21:14SPEAKER_01: I love that.
- 21:15SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you guys very much.
- 21:16SPEAKER_01: This sounds like this is transformative for all the clients that you work for to have these insights.
- 21:22SPEAKER_01: If someone wanted to learn more about you or they wanted to work with you, or just learn more about strategic fundraising, where should they go?
- 21:31SPEAKER_03: If you go to strategic fundraisingplan.com, um, you'll see that case study that John was mentioning kind of built out for some of the ministries, along with some helpful resources.
- 21:41SPEAKER_03: And then we actually have built out, because we work with small, medium, and large nonprofits, an easy way to get a template started that you can fill out your yourself for a fundraising plan or a more custom engagement that includes either coaching or us kind of carrying the load.
- 21:57SPEAKER_03: If you go to strategic fundraising plan.com, you can find all those options and more resources from John and I.
- 22:03SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
- 22:03SPEAKER_01: And I know I follow you both on LinkedIn and you always have a lot of insights there as well.
- 22:09SPEAKER_01: So people can reach out that way.
- 22:11SPEAKER_01: I think what I loved most about today that these are some really terrific but really easy to do concepts, practical actions that can transform fundraising efforts.
- 22:22SPEAKER_01: So thank you, John, and thank you, Evan, for sharing your insights today.
- 22:26SPEAKER_02: Glad to join, Kara.
- 22:27SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having us.
- 22:28SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
- 22:29SPEAKER_01: And thank you to our listeners for joining us on the Nonprofit Podcast.
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: I hope you've left with the confidence to take a small step today that will make a big difference tomorrow.
- 22:39SPEAKER_01: Be sure to click the download button on your podcast player, then leave the nonprofit podcast a review, or give it a thumbs up if you're listening to the nonprofit podcast on YouTube.
- 22:49SPEAKER_01: Your review is a great way to help others find us.
- 22:52SPEAKER_01: You're here to help others, and we're here to help you.
- 22:55SPEAKER_01: So until next time, stay inspired.
- 22:58SPEAKER_00: That warm feeling when you help someone, it's not just happiness, it's fulfillment.
- 23:03SPEAKER_00: And we believe it should be available to everyone.
- 23:05SPEAKER_00: From frontline heroes to first time fundraisers.
- 23:09SPEAKER_00: Our tools empower you to help others.
- 23:11SPEAKER_00: This is our mission.
- 23:13SPEAKER_00: This is DonorBox, helping you help others.