Donor Growth

Hasta luego. Tot ziens. À bientôt.The podcast got too big, too quick for these two social sector entrepreneurs and we need some time to regroup.What’s NOT changing?The concept of Donor Growth - more AND deeper relationships with more of your donors. We want to be here to support you–intellectually, emotionally, professionally–and will figure out more and better ways to do i

Everyone wants new donors.But few organizations are ready to invest in donor acquisition—and more importantly, the work it takes to invest in the relationship with new donors. Or are they?Today we talk about a few different ways organizations are acquiring—and keeping—new donors. We get into what’s working, what isn’t, and what we wished worked.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis D

Acquisition… the final frontier.Everyone thinks they know what acquisition is and seem to be either firmly for or against.How did some nonprofits get really big through direct mail acquisition?Now that many nonprofits are losing donors, how should they think about it?On Part 1, we dive into acquisition tactics—from faith-based organizations to higher education.If you feel like

Are we in a recession? Who knows. But it’s no secret: a lot of nonprofits are seeing a decline in revenue after the covid bump we experienced for a few years. On today’s podcast, we get into 7 principles of fundraising that will help you keep the main thing the main thing—even when cash flow changes.These aren’t just principles to whether a recession. They’re timeless fir

Jump in, we’re going for a ride.On today’s podcast, Louis and Mike have a chat about some of the things they’ve been thinking about.From why focusing on the fundamentals in fundraising is so hard, to building a cheap CRM using no-code tools, to wondering if an ask string really matters in fundraising. No frameworks. No deep insights.Just two fundraisers in cars, getting coffe

Should you focus on donors, dollars, or something else?Some shops have over 25 metrics that they use to measure gift officer performance!Others, don’t have any… (or maybe just this one: the is-the-board-happy metric)What should a fundraising shop measure to make sure it is accountable and progressing toward the nonprofit’s goals?The answer, according to our conversation today

Can a simple checklist reduce the complexity of your fundraising operations? It sounds too simple. Maybe even too systematized and rigid and robotic.But what if the complexity of our lives requires the simplest of solutions to give us back the time to do more human stuff…like having coffees and lunches? Or calling someone on the phone? Or making a meaningful connection?And what i

You’ve likely heard this before: “your nonprofit is competing for market share—so you need a clear value proposition to win.”But is that really true? Here are some assumptions we’re making if we think that way:That giving to charity is like buying a product or serviceThat our competition is other nonprofits (vs. inaction, building up more savings to pass down to kids, or

For decades, the common way of talking about donor-centric fundraising was defined as “the donor is the hero.” The sentiment was harmless in its intent. Noble, even.It was meant to help charity administrators realize that people play the main character in their own lives. They care about their kids and family; and their values and legacy. Few wake up in the morning thinking abo

It may not feel like it, but large parts of the world live in greater abundance than ever before.There is more work, more services, more wealth. And yes, more people.Increasingly, the hard part is coordinating all of this!Donors and other external stakeholders (and their information bubbles). Complicated processes using dozens of external services. Employees who don’t share syste