The Cause+Effect Podcast

Trent leads a lively round table discussion with D+C Chief Creative Officer, Dan Sumpter and our Director of Marketing, Anna Ponton. They lay out struggles organizations face when it comes to marketing and solutions to those challenges. You’ll get insight into the importance of the energy around your brand, tools you can develop, and how to bring symmetry to your content. Marketing is more than just information. It’s connecting your mission to the felt need of your audience. It’s a statement: “We’re going somewhere. We’re charging up that hill. Come go with us.”

The myth of the summer slump in fundraising is often used as an excuse to justify dips in revenue during June, July and August. But instead of making this assumption and dialing back on your efforts and communication, Trent shares a better way. In this episode, he charges churches and nonprofits to combat this mythical summer slump with some practical tips on communication, summer campaigns and clear goals. Don’t make your so-called ‘summer slump’ a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, turn it upside down!

How can you motivate your donors to be as generous as possible? Rick and Trent dive into some practical ways to effectively engage your supporters and move them toward supporting Kingdom purposes. They explore what you can control and what you cannot control. Be careful not to “get in the way” of the things that motivate your donors to give. With donor retention at an all time low, it’s more important than ever to take responsibility for the donor relationship.

The podcast world is exploding. Nils Smith and Chris Lawson are here to talk through all things podcasting and some shifts happening with big companies like Apple and Facebook. They explain why staying diversified in your distribution and flexible when it comes to technology is crucial. Chris unpacks the biggest barrier to a successful podcast (Hint: it’s all about content) and why doing the same thing you’ve been doing is no longer going to cut it. There’s a greater opportunity than ever before to attract people to your vision and, beyond that, engage them in your mission. Don’t miss it!

iDonate is a digital giving system and fundraising software provider that exists to help nonprofits grow. Founder and CEO Ray Gary shares his vision of bringing excellence to the nonprofit world by building a unified donor account across all channels. He emphasizes the importance of giving the donor the ability to dictate how and when they want to transact and ways to ensure your organization is raising the maximum amount of funds. He shares the importance of connecting people by moving them from transactions to relationships and maximizing the technology you invest in. The bottom line? It’s all about today’s donor.

Trent tackles the last four points of our 10-part series, Top Ten things to look out for in 2021. He talks of the critical need for nonprofits to emphasize new donor acquisition, prioritize data, invest the surplus wisely and bring back the QR code. Finally, he explains why you need to focus on these things today in order to set yourself up for growth tomorrow.

What kind of leader are you? Kevin is the lead pastor of The Fellowship Church, a vibrant, diverse congregation in Texas City, Texas. Kevin unpacks what it means to be ‘aggressively obedient’, how your self-worth related to Christ affects those around you more than you realize, and how his new podcast is equipping leaders to lead the hard way – from the heart. Whether you’re leading a massive organization or toddlers at home, this message is for you.

With now over four billion active users on social media, the potential for expanded reach is greater than ever. But with that opportunity comes some challenges. If your social accounts were shut down tomorrow, what would happen to your organization? Are you too dependent? Nils Smith dives deep into this social dilemma, unpacking ways to avoid pitfalls that accompany social media in 2021, and the overwhelming need to move people to your deepest level of engagement through an omni-channel approach.

If anything has taken off in the last decade, certainly it’s audio consumption. In part six of Trent’s 10-part series on things to look out for in 2021, Cory Verner, President and CEO of ONE Audiobooks takes the mic to unpack how to maximize your audiobook strategy. Cory has a gift for helping ministries and publishers leverage this format… a format with the highest engagement in publishing. He gives specifics on production, distribution and shares a few landmines to look out for along the way. When it comes to demographics, the data doesn’t lie: Everyone is listening.

In part 5 of our 10-part series, Erik Rogers, D+C Chief Strategist for Major Gifts, dives into the importance of a defined strategy to invest in your mid-level donors and why it’s crucial to the growth of your organization in 2021. Erik and Trent explore how to identify a mid-level donor, specific ways to cultivate that relationship and keep them engaged, and intentional strategies to see year-over-year growth as a result of their giving. Listen today! One takeaway: It goes beyond simply the next gift… it’s all about seeing donors become truly invested in the ministry.