The Build Good Fundraising Podcast

Send us a textHere’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. ---➡️  Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔  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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 textDo you shy away from building custom online experiences and automations because you think you need to hire a developer or know how to code?The good news is there are more and more completely no-code solutions available to nonprofits to actually build custom workflows and improve the donor experience. You don’t need to be a developer in order to build something that will improve your efficiency and make the giving experience more enjoyable for your donors.In fact, today you'll hear from a frontline fundraiser who’s been experimenting with no-code and sharing his complete setup and systems. Daniel Lombardi is the VP of Donor Success & Revenue for Grand River Hospital Foundation. He has over 10 years experience in the nonprofit sector, and currently focuses on using technology to improve traditional fundraising methods and processes.On today’s episode, Dan will share how he built custom no-code workflows forThank you emailsBulk emailing donorsTax ReceiptsListen closely for a very helpful tip from Dan on how they manage to send 1:1, personal emails to thousands of donors at a time. Follow Daniel Lombardi on LinkedInNo Code Nonprofit newsletter---➡️  Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔  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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 often heard us talk on this podcast about getting closer to your donors and leading them toward making their best gift for your organization—a gift that is meaningful to them and increases their own sense of wellbeing. But how do you move beyond fundraising communications to building personal, 1:1 relationships?On today’s show, we’re talking to Michael Dixon from Responsive Fundraising about a framework that will help you think about how to deepen the relationship with your donors beyond just fundraising communications. The framework is called The 3 Lanes, where each lane represents its own way of fundraising, and likely has a different meaning for your donors. So as you listen to our chat, see if you can categorize your own fundraising activities and strategies and see which lane they fall into. Responsive Fundraising website Michael Dixon on LinkedIn---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔 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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 textThere’s no way around it: our world is a mess.Giving has levelled off after a season of overwhelming generosity. We’re facing record inflation. The housing market is unpredictable. The stock market is a mess. Supply chains are broken. Society seems to be more polarized than ever before. And the ongoing war in Ukraine is ever-present in the public consciousness. Regardless of how serious you may think things are, make no mistake: most people are paying more at the cash register when they’re buying food and fueling up the family van. And chances are, most of your donors are feeling a little bit of insecurity—and a little bit of lack of control over what’s happening in the world. So what does that mean for your fundraising? On today's show, we're sharing part of a conversation Mike had with Dan Sonners on the Dynamic Nonprofits podcast about how to fundraise when the world's a mess.We look at the big picture, then go into some practical steps you can take today to make sure your organization is prepared for the worst.Make sure to check out the Dynamic Nonprofits podcast, and follow Dan Sonners on LinkedIn.---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔 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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 textFor many of us who grew up with the internet, email marketing seems like a fairly established medium. But compared to most other forms of marketing and fundraising, email is still a relatively new format. And it continues to change.So for today’s episode, we sat down with a fellow Canadian fundraising agency founder to look back at the last decade of sending emails for charities.Ben Johnson founded Frontier Marketing in 2010 when, before "remote work" existed, he moved his family from Vancouver to Victoria and left his job at Union Gospel Mission behind. He’s been sending email campaigns since Obama's first year in office. He continues to advocate for good strategy and efficient fundraising as the lead strategist of Frontier Marketing. Connect with Ben on LinkedIn.---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔 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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 textWhat does a person get when they make a gift to charity? Most of the time, they’re not buying a product or service. They’re buying a story about the kind of person they are.And what they get in return is the way you treat them…and communicate with them…and update them.  So, isn’t it our duty to put a lot of thought and care into our donor communications? Don’t we owe it to our community of supporters—and the people we serve—to draw people closer to the work and treat them like they’re an important part of the team?Today’s guest just released a book to help fundraisers create sharp and surprising donor communications that do a much better job of raising money and retaining supporters. John Lepp is a direct response, marketing and graphic design expert with 25 years of experience working with charities around the world to help them tell better stories and to inspire donors to give, both online and offline.His new book is called Creative Deviations. It’s an anecdotal and thoughtful full-colour how-to guide to help you become more creative. It’s part graphic design, part design thinking, part storytelling, part strategic thinking and part love note to you amazing humans who work so hard for your causes, your donors, your mission and your desire to contribute and make positive change in our world.You can buy the book right here.I learn something new every time I talk to John, so I think you’re going to love this episode. ---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔 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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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’re a regular listener of this podcast, you know intuitively that the donor experience is more important than just getting the gift. Because a great experience leads to greater commitment, and loyalty and satisfaction…and yes, money in the long term. But before you can improve the donor experience—and increase supporter satisfaction—you need to know how to measure it in the first place.  And we’re not talking about an annual donor survey. Today’s guest is going to share the methodology his team developed to measure psychological need satisfaction after every single interaction a donor has with your organization. We're talking to Kevin Schulman, the founder of DonorVoice, and DV Canvass. He’s also the managing editor of The Agitator Blog. Him and his team are focused on using behavioural science to improve fundraising outcomes.And on today's show, we get into: how to setup an ongoing business process to measure donor satisfactionhow to use those scores to improve the donor experiencethe effectiveness of "nudging" in fundraisingwhy the Net Promoter Score has no value for fundraising teamswhy the decision to give and the decision of how much to give are two separate—but related—decisions Connect with Kevin right here.---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 textHave you ever walked into a meeting with a prospective funder feeling nervous? Maybe you weren't sure how to lead the conversation. Maybe you felt a power imbalance. Or maybe you felt like you were there to beg for money, rather than being there as an equal partner or peer.If you've been there, today's episode is for you.Meet Mallory Erickson. Her mission is to help people like you fundraise more from the right donors WITHOUT hounding people for money. Without feeling like you’re begging. Without feeling like you’re pitching. Without feeling weird and awkward about having the money conversation.In today's chat, Mallory walks through an powerful 5-question framework you can use at your next meeting with a prospective funder.  Connect with Mallory and learn all about her Power Partners Formula right here.---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 textHave you heard of philanthropic psychology….or phil psych for short? It’s the science behind fundraising that first and foremost cares about stewarding the love that is at the core of philanthropy. So instead of being focused on growing revenue from your donors, it’s focused on growing your donors' human capacity to love others—as well as themselves. And when you help people grow their love for others and themselves, well...the money follows. And you end up raising a lot more. Today on the podcast, we get into how to thank your donors using the principles of phil psych with Professor Jen Shang—the world’s first PhD in Philanthropy, and the world’s only philanthropic psychologist. Jen goes through 5 different levels of thanking your donors. As you listen to this, see if you can rank yourself and find out what level you’re at. ---➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 🔔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.---- Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?BuildGood 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 important is your organization's brand when it comes to the success of your fundraising? How about your culture? Today’s guests have a strong point of view: they’re out to prove that how a nonprofit brand operates on the inside is more important than how it looks on the outside. Mark Miller and Ted Vaughn have led nearly 100 rebrands for purpose-driven organizations with their team at Historic Agency. Now they’ve written a book called "Culture Built My Brand: The Secret to Winning More Customers Through Company Culture."And on today’s podcast, Mark and Ted join us to talk about how your internal culture—how your employees  communicate and behave—defines your brand, and influences the success of your fundraising,  more than your logo  or website. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEGet the book Culture Built My Brand Historic Agency---➡️ 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 🔔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/channel/UCUAcZhCGk8PZeDfJtt3TRvA ---- 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