The Build Good Fundraising Podcast

Send us a textFew nonprofits are using the phone to talk to their donors and raise funds. It might seem old school. It takes time, and it can feel awkward to call somebody up on the phone and ask for their support. But phone fundraising can be a very effective tool to not only raise funds, but also deepen your connection with your donors. And get to know them for who they are.Today is a masterclass on how to structure a call and how to write a phone script that you can use to guide a donor toward making a gift. To help us do that, we're welcoming back to the podcast T. Clay Buck from TCB fundraising. Clay is a fundraiser’s fundraiser, who has written hundreds of effective phone scripts and has deep expertise in using the phone to connect with donors.Today we’ll cover:[03:03] - The business case for using the phone as a fundraising channel     [12:40] - Introducing yourself and your organization to the donor    [16:56] - Building relationships over the phone    [23:39] - Making the case for support    [28:27] - Being transparent and respecting donors' time    [30:00] - Handling objections from the donor    [36:05] - How to end the call after a refusal    [37:55] - Ending the call with a pledge    [45:12] - Adopting the attitude that you and the donor are working together    [48:05] - Clay's encouragement for nonprofits leaders and fundraisers    Get connected:Clay would love to connect with you. You can find him at tcbfundraising.com or LinkedIn.Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textGood fundraisers know that stories work better than statistics, that characters work better than calculations and that whoever tells the best story wins. Still, we sometimes neglect the donor's personal story...the story they are writing with their life. And if we start to understand that story, and those characters, it might lead to transformation gifts. But how do you advance your donor's hero story? What messages will resonate? Today, we are talking to Dr. Russell James, about how to do that. Dr. James is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Charitable Financial Planning at Texas Tech University. In our chat, he gets into his research and insight on how a donor’s story affects their giving. You will leave our conversation with clarity on how to best serve donors through their story and encourage donor generosity.Today we’ll cover:[03:41] - Why Dr. James wants to study the brain as it does estate planning and charitable giving    [06:26] - Enhanced Identity: The value fundraising brings the donor    [12:04] - Identity, Challenge, Victory, and the donor’s story[18:17] - Why the donor's hero story should be the dominant story of fundraising    [23:08] - Not all types of gifts tap into the hero story in the same way [29:50] - Delivering the victory to your donor    [37:50]- The gift is not the victory in your donor's hero story    [39:22] - Understanding the value of different assets from the donor's perspective    [46:11] - Russell's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    Get connected:Dr. Russell would love to connect with you. You can find him on LinkedIn, where he would love to provide all his research and resources for free. Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textLinkedIn is a powerful tool for staying up to date on career opportunities, but it can also make you more valuable as a fundraiser and nonprofit leader by building your personal brand. If you're on LinkedIn and you're not very active, you don't know what to post, or you're not sure it's even worth your time, this episode is for you.Today, we are talking to Anthony Jones about how to create a personal brand on LinkedIn. Anthony is the outgoing Director of Digital Media and Marketing for Ducks Unlimited. For the last 19 years, he has led the organization's digital growth and online fundraising team—haivng raised over $40 million in online donations since 2010. Anthony is also a prominent face on LinkedIn. He's built a large following and his new company provides consulting and coaching services to help nonprofit leaders transform their profile pages into powerful brands for themselves and their organizations. Today we’ll cover:[03:45] - Isn't LinkedIn just an online resume?    [07:41] - Why everyone needs to consider their personal brand    [14:15] - Step 1: Optimizing your profile    [18:27] - Step: 2 How and why you should make posts    [23:08] - Finding your 4 pillars of posting    [27:30] - Step 3: Engaging with other users[30:41] - How to find content you can engage    [31:48] - Step 4: Making new connections and expanding your network    [35:32] - Should you concentrate your energy on your business’ page or your own?    [36:54] - How to encourage your team to build their brands on LinkedIn    [40:53] - Anthony's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, marketers, and fundraisersGet connected:Anthony would love to connect with you. You can find him on LinkedIn, sign up for his online course at buildyourbrandonlinkedin.com, or reach out to him about consulting at JohnAnthonyJones.com Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textGift catalogues can be a great way to meaningfully engage your donors in the work you do—and they can raise a lot of money. But how do you create one? How do you optimize it? How do you develop the offers and the price points? How do you choose which gifts to feature more heavily than others? How do you put it all together? There's an art and a science to it all, and today we get into it all with Brian Tucker from True Sense.  Brian led the development of the World Vision gift catalogue in 2006, and he saw it grow over 300% in a five-year period. Since then he's helped lots of other organizations create effective and successful multichannel gift catalogue programs. On today's podcast, Brian gets into all the tactics and the strategies that go into creating a winning catalogue. Today we’ll cover:[03:01] - Why Nonprofits should consider having a gift catalogue    [07:27] - Print Catalogues and Year End Giving    [10:08] - How large the commitment to a catalogue is    [14:40] - Why you shouldn't treat your gift catalogues like a direct mail campaign    [21:39] - How to conduct a detailed product analysis    [29:54] - Bundling gifts and add-ons    [35:38] - Optimizing your digital catalogue    [43:15] - Fulfillment of a thank you card    [45:44] - Brian's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, marketers, and fundraisers    Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textOn this podcast, we often focus on improving the craft of fundraising. But we rarely talk about the mindset is takes to be a fundraiser—and be proud of it.The truth is, most of us likely started out as reluctant fundraisers. We  "fell into" the job, and learned to love it along the way. And while there is plenty of training out there to learn best practice fundraising, there is little support to help fundraisers change their thought patterns and beliefs around fundraising.Enter today's guest, Cindy Wagman. She's the founder of The Good Partnership and author of Raise It: the reluctant fundraiser's guide to raising money without selling your soul. If you've ever felt like you're selling your soul when you're fundraising; if you've ever felt fear, panic or even guilt when asking donors for money, then this conversation with Cindy will be like healing balm for your soul.Today we’ll cover:[03:26] - What is a Small Nonprofit?    [06:18] - False beliefs about fundraising    [13:27] - Helping your program staff adopt the right mindset[16:54] - How practice changes the story around fundraising    [24:57] - The false belief that a donor will give when they are ready to give not when we ask    [27:53] - Giving the donor the freedom to make a choice    [31:04] - Why it might be arrogant not to ask for money    [36:49] - How to overcome fear of rejection    [41:07] - Scarcity Mindset           [42:19] - Cindy's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisersGet connected:Cindy would love to connect with you. Our listeners can get her book for 10% off at www.raiseitbook.com using the code BUILD. You can also find her at thegoodpartnership.comPlease consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textIf you are struggling to use social media—particularly Facebook—to drive revenue and contribute to your fundraising, today's episode is for you.We are talking to Julia Campbell, the author of Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits. Julia runs a digital marketing consulting business, where she helps nonprofits stop spinning their wheels on social media and start getting real results.You'll learn how to give donors and supporters what they want. You'll hear why you shouldn't use social media as a megaphone to just promote your agenda. And you'll find out why you should be running Facebook ads all year round.Today we’ll cover:[02:11] - The Catch 22 of Digital Marketing    [08:07] - The business case for why social media matters in 2021    [12:19] - The number 1 thing nonprofits get wrong about social media    [20:00] - The power of targeted social ads    [23:02] - Why you should run ads all year long    [30:23] - Asking followers to start fundraisers for you    [37:14] - Julia's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    Get connected:Julia would love to connect with you. You can find her on her podcast, Nonprofit Nation, and at jcsocialmarketing.comPlease consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textDid you know monthly donors are six times more likely to become legacy donors?They are the most committed and loyal to your organization. They're in the habit of giving to you every single month. And many have been with you for years.Yet, most nonprofits don't really consider monthly donors in their legacy marketing.That's why today's guest is going to show you a powerful way to create long term revenue for your organization by focusing on both monthly giving and legacy marketing together. Ligia Peña is an international legacy consultant with over 20 years of experience, working for large organizations like Greenpeace and small to mid-sized shops.So grab a notepad, pen and a cup of coffee...because Ligia brings so much value in this episode. Today we’ll cover:[03:57] - Common Legacy Giving Myths that need to be debunked    [13:05] - Examples of surprising and meaningful legacy gifts    [17:04] - If asking monthly donors for legacy gifts will hurt your monthly giving program    [23:07] - How to identify which monthly donors we should be reaching out to for legacy gifts    [31:48] - Understanding your donors when you don't have the right information[39:44] - How to start talking to your monthly donors about legacy gifts    [43:01] - Expectations and evaluating your legacy giving program    [50:50] - Ligia's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    Get connected:Ligia would love to connect with you. You can find out more about her and get access to free resources at globetrottingfundraiser.com/Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textHave you ever wished you could read your donors’ minds?  Today's podcast is going to give you a three-step framework you can use to gain some insight into your donors' preference and giving behaviour. We're talking to Cherian Koshy, Director of Development for the De Moines Performing Arts. Cherian is the world's only certified mind genomics advisor in the nonprofit sector. He spends a lot of time trying to figure out how donors think, how they make decisions, and how to use tools and research to actually lead our donors toward greater generosity.The approach he's going to share with you today has been used by some of the world's largest brands to create products that people actually want to buy. You can start using some of these principles too —even if you don't have a huge marketing and fundraising budget.  Today we’ll cover:[2:34] - The problem with getting donor feedback[6:20] - Getting specific about what you want your donor to do[12:08] - Planning the steps to your key behaviour[18:34] - Listing barriers and biases that may get in the way[30:02] - Knowing when to test and how to validate your work [37:21]- Getting into preference analysis[43:20] - Cherian’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisersGet connected:Cherian would love to connect with you. If you want to learn more, you can find him on Linkedin and Twitter, as well as, cheriankoshy.orgPlease consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textAcquiring new donors is hard—and expensive. It's also necessary. But are you missing out on your best source of donor acquisition? It's lapsed donors. It’s easy to forget about them, but that would be a tragic thing to do. Because you’ll be ignoring people who have proven that they care about the issue your nonprofit is trying to solve in the world. And because you'll be leaving money on the table. If you've never tried to re-activate donors who haven't given to you in a long time—or if your past efforts to win back lapsed donors have failed—it might be time to rethink your strategy. On today's podcast, we'll share The Win Back Formula—a simple 3-step framework that will give you your best shot at winning back lapsed donors.

Send us a textYou've heard it on this podcast. You've heard it at conferences, in books, and from consultants and other fundraisers: You should be using your data to make better decisions about your fundraising. And you've likely tracked the data like retention rates, average gift, and lifetime value. But now you're looking at some numbers asking, “What do they mean and what are the next steps?”Well, we've got some answers for you on today's podcast. Our guest this week is both a mathematician and a fundraiser. Kirk Schmidt is the outgoing director of operations for STARS, a helicopter EMS nonprofit in Canada, where he oversees the fundraising and revenue team. Kirk is going to go over some of the key metrics you're likely already measuring and then go further into how you can use those metrics in a more meaningful way. This is a very valuable episode if you're just getting started with data or if you've been measuring some of these numbers for a while. Today we’ll cover:[4:12] - Getting in the right mindset    [7:42] - Understanding retention rates    [9:34] - 3 Important retention rates    [12:20] - Understanding second gift conversion rate    [21:06] - Understanding reactivation rate and who is considered as lapsed    [28:50] - Understanding donor lifetime value    [35:54] - Avoiding lifetime value pitfalls    [40:35] - Understanding average gift numbers    [44:02] - Kirk's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    Get connected:Kirk would love to connect with you. You can find him on Linkedin where he’s always sharing new things he’s learning about understanding data and nonprofit organizations.Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here.