The Build Good Fundraising Podcast

Kim Bersin, experienced strategist in strategic planning for fundraising, discusses the power of strategic planning in nonprofit organizations. They cover the benefits of having a strategic plan in place, maintaining focus, aligning teams, and addressing challenges. The podcast also explores the concept of effort versus impact in strategic planning and the use of military language in fundraising. Kim Bersin highlights the significance of pre-planning and creating a plan to obtain buy-in and alignment from all parties involved.

Mike Johnston, a prominent Canadian fundraiser and former NATO analyst, shares insights from his international fundraising journey. He discusses innovative European strategies like face-to-face and SMS fundraising, revealing how cultural differences shape practices, particularly around legacy giving. Johnston also highlights the growing significance of mid-level giving and challenges that come with it. He wraps up with actionable tips for nonprofits looking to adapt and thrive in the evolving global fundraising landscape.

Cameron Bartlett, a digital fundraising expert who has impacted over 125 million people for social good, shares powerful insights on effective content creation. He emphasizes authentic storytelling over polished production, showcasing how relatable content can engage donors more deeply. Cameron discusses growth hacking techniques that smaller organizations can adopt to increase their reach, and highlights the importance of personalized communication to build lasting relationships with supporters. Discover how to craft compelling content that drives action and connects with audiences!

Send us a textMore 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 nonprofitHow does SEO for nonprofits even workHow you can begin optimizing your online content so more people find youHow you can identify relevant keywords for your charity How long does it take to see results from your nonprofit’s SEO effortsWhat tools can a nonprofit use for SEOHow 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 textWe 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 textCan 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 textYou’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:The storytelling triadThe phases of fundraising that led to donor-centric fundraising What do people mean when they say the donor is the hero Why can that philosophy—if misunderstood and misapplied—become harmful The difference between donor-led and donor-centric fundraisingWhat’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 textIf 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! ---- #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 textEmail 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 textHow 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 nonprofitorganizations 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 emailsThe anatomy of an email that raises more money Words to include (and avoid) in subject linesBenchmarks for open rates, unsubscribe rates and fundraising performanceWhether 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