The Build Good Fundraising Podcast #64: The operating system you need to structure your fundraising shop
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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