The Build Good Fundraising Podcast

Send us a textYou already know that growing your monthly giving program, mid-level donor program, and legacy giving program are among the most lucrative fundraising activities your nonprofit can pursue. And chances are, you're already working on building all of them—but you're wondering if could be doing better. So if you already have a monthly giving program in place, today's show is going to be especially valuable for you.  We're talking to Erica Waasdorp, author of Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant and a brand new book called Monthly Giving Made Easy.  Erica is fellow direct response fundraising nerd, and in today's podcast she is going to share 5 tactics to level-up your existing monthly giving program.Today we’ll cover:[4:05] - Monthly Donor Monday        [5:47] - #1 Putting someone in charge of the program    [12:36] - #2 Growing your monthly donor file    [23:55] - #3 Cultivation and stewardship    [33:15] - #4 Create a Donor Retention Day        [38:10] - #5 Asking monthly donors to upgrade[46:02] - Erica's encouragement for nonprofits leaders and fundraisersGet connected:Erica would love to connect with you. You can find her book Monthly Giving Made Easy and follow her blog at her website: adirectsolution.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 textFor many donors, the largest gift they will ever make to charity is the one they leave in their will. Carrying on their legacy and keeping alive the values that were important to your donors in their lifetime is a tremendous responsibility. It's also a tremendous opportunity for you to increase your organization's impact in the world. Most donors only include charities in their will that have done a great job of communicating shared values, stewarding them, and building the kinds of relationships that are mutually uplifting and significant.That's why the state of your legacy giving program is also a great indicator of the overall health of your fundraising operations—because valuable donor relationships don't happen overnight.If you are ready to launch, build, or improve your legacy giving program, today's show is for you.We are talking to Hala Al-Madi from Amnesty International. Hala has been the Legacy Giving Marketing Officer at Amnesty International in Ottawa Canada since 2013. She has helped lead the program's growth from $600,000 to just over 1.4 million, and she's also grown the number of expectancies by 75%. And over the last few years, she's doubled the number of self identifying prospects. Hala introduced a range of marketing approaches to achieve this growth, including trickle email marketing, direct mail marketing, sharing testimonials of supporters, launching donor surveys, and creating high-touch supporter outreach points.Today on the podcast, Hala is going to share how Amnesty grew their program specifically by doing things that charities of all sizes and budgets can do. Today we’ll cover:[5:40] - Unpacking the Legacy Giving mindset    [10:17] - Donor stories, donor response, and donor love    [16:43] - How to market your legacy program    [23:20] - Using communications from other departments    [24:41] - Using donor surveys          [31:50] - Responding to the donor you survey    [34:36] - Legacy giving during a pandemic    [37:51] - Stewarding legacy donors     [39:44] - Hala's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketers    Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

Send us a textOne of the biggest challenges in growing a nonprofit is donor acquisition and donor retention. Acquiring new donors  is hard work. And it can be expensive in the short term, especially if you consider that the first-time gift most donors make won't cover the cost of acquisition. What that means for your fundraising is that you have to have a donor retention strategy in place—because donors grow more valuable every year they're with you.Today on the podcast, Claire Axelrad is going to walk us through seven action tips you can easily implement to improve your donor retention. Most of these tactics are evergreen, and you'll find that most of them are really simple. It's just that not many nonprofits are using them. Some take more of a commitment, but the return on investment makes it well worth the effort and the initiative.Claire has over three decades of frontline fundraising experience, helping organizations raise millions in support. She writes an award-winning blog called Clairification, and she also runs the Clairification School online. Today we’ll cover:[3:14] - Action Tip #1: Including a handwritten note with your direct mail appeal.    [9:23] - Action Tip #2: Add a handwritten signature to your thank you cards    [13:06] - Action Tip #3: Add a Handwritten note to your Thank You letter    [17:36] - Action Tip #4: Enclose tribute giving envelopes in your newsletters    [24:33] - Action Tip #5: Include tribute gift envelope in Thank You letters  [29:17] - Action Tip #6: Include an invitation to a free event in the Thank You letter    [34:34] - What nonprofits can do if they don't have facilities they can invite donors to    [36:34] - Action Tip #7: Send at least one dedicated monthly giving appeal    {39:07] - Your best prospects to become monthly donors    [43:58] - Claire's encouragement for nonprofit leaders    Get connected:Claire would love to connect with you. You can find her at clairification.com or on twitter @charityclarityPlease consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good 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 textHow would you like to have over 25% of your revenue come in automatically, on repeat, month after month, in a stable and predictable manner?Today's guest is going to show you how to do it.Harvey McKinnon is the master of monthly giving. He's helped thousands of organizations raise billions of dollars in monthly gifts by starting and growing lucrative monthly giving programs. His latest book, How to Create Lifelong Donors Through Monthly Giving, teaches nonprofits how to build a low cost revenue stream you can count on year in and year out. On today's show, Harvey is going to walk through how you can grow a lucrative monthly giving program or improve the existing program you have in place. Today we’ll cover:[3:54] - The benefits of a monthly giving program    [8:43] - How to tell if an organization is ready for a monthly donor program    [10:28] - How to find the right offer and ask amount    [16:49] - Asking for donations with direct mail    [21:26] - Is the phone an effective way to convert monthly donors    [27:32] - Specialized email campaigns for monthly giving    [32:00] - Strategies for upgrades      [34:20] - Should you include your monthly donors in your ongoing direct mail campaigns     [37:56] - The common problems monthly giving programs face    [41:36] - Harvey's encouragement for nonprofit leadersTo take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textWhat compels donors to say yes? That’s the question most nonprofit fundraisers and marketers are trying to find answers for. Because understanding how people make decisions is a key part in making our fundraising more effective. We've talked about how behavioural economics can help your fundraising on this podcast before, but many of you said this was a topic you wanted to know more about. So, today's guest is Nate Andorsky, the CEO of Creative Science — a digital agency that applies behavioural economics and technology to help mission-driven organizations grow their impact in the world.Nate uses donor psychology and big data to get a better understanding of how donors behave. He wrote Decoding the Why, which has a wealth of nonprofit examples of his research. Today, Nate is going to walk us through five essential theories you can apply in your fundraising today. Listen along to hear five tested and proven principles that come out of the field of behavioural economics and have the power to compel more people to say yes.  Today we’ll cover:[4:43] - The difference between system 1 and system 2 thinking[7:35] - Shortcut #1: The Affect Heuristic[9:23] - What a sludge is                    [9:57] - How to present data without taking away its emotional power         [14:07] - Shortcut #2: The Ambiguity Aversion          [18:44] - Shortcut #3: The Certainty Effect    [23:28] - Shortcut #4: The Closeness Effect  [33:24] - Being careful with stereotypes         [36:10] - Shortcut #5: Framing           [41:34] - Nate’s encouragement for nonprofit marketers, leaders, and fundraisers              Get connected:Nate would love to connect with you. You can find him on Linkedin or email him at nate@creativescience.co. You can find out more about the work he does at creativescience.co and get his book Decoding the Why on Amazon.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 textWe  all struggle with productivity.There are so many distractions and interruptions that kill our productivity — emails, Slack messages, calendar notifications, text and social media alerts. And it seems like the more successful our nonprofit and career becomes, the harder it is to get things done. Today on the podcast, we're talking to Rachel Bearbower who thinks about productivity a lot.Rachel works specifically with small-shop CEOs and fundraisers. These are people who wear multiple hats at all times, whose work is not always focused, and who get pulled in a thousand different directions every day. Maybe you can relate.Rachel is the founder of Small Shops Strategies, where she helps fundraisers deal with the overwhelm by creating repeatable systems and processes. Today, Rachel is going to share 7 productivity hacks that can help all of us become more productive at work, feel less anxiety, get more done and have more peace of mind. Today we’ll cover:[4:35] - Why Rachel prefers working with small shops  [7:48] - Productivity Hack #1 - Turn off all notifications[13:30] - Productivity Hack #2 - Start your day with a clean workspace [16:00] - Productivity Hack #3 - Brain Dump all your To-Do’s[17:50] - Productivity Hack #4 Determine the order you want to get things done[24:10] - Productivity Hack #5 - Do the hardest thing first    [25:42] - Productivity Hack #6 - Set a timer               [28:30] - Productivity Hack #7 - Create clear goals and write them down    [33:00] - The Power of Consistency     [37:04] - Rachel's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers Get connected:Rachel would love to connect with you on Instagram. You can also find more information about her membership program, Productive Executive Director, at smallshopstrategies.com/beproductivePlease consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good 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 textDo you know how many of the people that visit the donation page on your website actually end up making a gift? If you're like most nonprofits, the answer may shock you. The industry average conversion rate on donation pages is as low 4%. That means we are failing 96% of potential donors who visit our donation page.It also means we're losing valuable donors who might otherwise be willing to give to our cause, but for some reason are driven away or don't take action. Today's guest is on a mission to change that. Tim Kachuriak is the founder and chief innovation and optimization officer at NextAfter — a fundraising research lab and consulting firm that works with nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their digital fundraising.In our chat, Tim walk through what an ideal donation page looks like top to bottom — based on extensive research, testing, and optimizing with some of the biggest nonprofits out there. So pull up your donation page and take notes, because Tim is going to share tested tactics to reduce friction for your donors and increase conversions from people who come to your donation page. Chances are, your donation page can use some improvement. And if you don't optimize it, you are leaving money on the table. Today we’ll cover:[3:32] - Good Friction vs. Bad Friction[5:30] - The #1 mistake made on most donation pages[8:37] - What you should see at the top of your donation page[13:18] - How to craft the copy before the giving form[18:27] - How video performs vs. copy on these pages[20:25] - Making the giving form conversational[25:40] - How to effectively offer a monthly donation [28:45] - What information we should be asking for from the donor[31:00] - Communicating trustworthiness during the payment process[39:02] - Should you include a verification page? [41:17] - Tim’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers  Get connected:If you’re looking for more information and resources to optimize your fundraising efforts, you can find them at nextafter.com. You can also find their free donation page template here.Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the Build Good 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 textToday's guest was fundamental in shifting my thinking about fundraising after I read his book, Emotionraising, a few years ago. The book used evidence and research from neuroscience, behavioural economics, marketing and fundraising to understand how people go from simply being aware of a cause to actually taking action by donating or volunteering.It validated much of what smart fundraisers had been saying for a long time: We need to embrace the emotional part of the brain. We need to embrace the fact that human beings are highly emotional creatures — including in their giving. The author of that book, and today’s guest, is Francesco Ambrogetti. Francesco is a senior leader in fundraising and marketing at UNICEF. He has over 20 years of international fundraising experience with UNICEF and with other UN bodies in Geneva, Bangkok, and Panama. He has advised organizations like The World Bank, WWF, Doctors Without Borders, and The Red Cross. His new book — Hooked on a Feeling: How Passion and Devotion For Good Causes Become Memory and Identity — is all about keeping that emotional flame alive after someone makes their first and second donation to your cause. It’s about cultivating loyalty and commitment — and helping first-time givers become ongoing supporters.  Today we’ll cover:[4:12] - What role our emotions play in life and decision-making [8:10] - The 6 emotions that drive our decision making[15:00] - If we take advantage of people when we try to create an emotional experience[18:57] - How avoiding emotions betrays our donors[21:00] - If first-time donors remember the organizations they’ve given to [23:15] - Mike's experience with an organization after a mystery shopping donation[26:30] - How emotions become a part of someone’s memory and identity[32:56] - A surprising thing that creates customer loyalty [34:28] - What you can do to implement these concepts in your organization [41:21] - Francesco’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketersYou can connect with Francesco on Linkedin. You can also learn more about what he’s doing by finding his new book, Hooked on a Feeling, and his video series The Good Suspended.Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. Sign up for the FREE 5-Minute Fundraising Fix video series and become a smarter fundraiser today: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

Send us a textBuilding a successful nonprofit is about relationships. The people we hire on our team, and the volunteers we work with, are not cogs in a wheel. They are human beings who bring their humanity to work: their dreams,  passions, insecurities, fears, and concerns. If we want to build a fundraising engine to sustain our mission, we need to start by building a healthy team, including a healthy us. We need to understand ourselves, and those around us.Because building better relationships with our team has a direct impact on the bottom line. One tool we can use to understand ourselves and our team is the Enneagram — a personality framework that helps us understand how different people cope with the world, and how they manage their own fears.On today's show, Marc Pitman is going to walk us through each of the nine types of theEnneagram. Mark also gets into how understanding the Enneagram can actually help youbecome a stronger, more empathetic leader. And yes, raise more money. Mark is a renowned author, an international leadership and fundraising coach. As founder of the Concord Leadership Group, he just released a book called The Surprising Gift of Doubt - How To Use Uncertainty To Become The Exceptional Leader You're Meant To Be.Today we’ll cover:[3:47] - What the Enneagram is and how it is different from other personality assessments[6:40] - Why the Enneagram matters for your organization[10:45] - Enneagram Type 1 - The Reformer[14:15] - Enneagram Type 2 - The Caregiver or The Pleaser[18:00] - Enneagram Type 3 - The Achiever[22:02] - Enneagram Type 4 - The Artist or Individualist[25:56] - Enneagram Type 5 - The investigator[32:51] - Enneagram Type 6 - The Loyalist[38:05] - Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast[46:18] - Enneagram Type 8 - The Challenger[52:02] - Enneagram Type 9 - The Peacemaker[56:20] - Marc’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketersMarc would love to connect with you. You can find him on social media or by visiting theConcord Leadership Group’s website, as well as fundraisingcoach.com or The NonprofitAcademy.Become a smarter fundraiser with a FREE video mini-course at fiveminutefundraisingfix.com.

Send us a textEmail fundraising is one of the easiest ways you can build a deep and lasting relationship with your donors. And it remains one of the most cost-effective tools you can use to increase donor loyalty and revenue.But most organizations struggle to acquire email addresses from donors or potential donors. And many don't have a clear strategy on how to turn leads into donors. One of the simplest ways to increase new donor engagement is to create an automated email welcome series that runs in the background.And today on the podcast, John J. Walsh is going to show us how he and his team have created two very successful email welcome series we can all learn from.John is the email marketing manager at a large Christian organization, where he's in charge of sending out millions of emails every single month.Listen along today as we hear how John tests, tweaks and optimizes his email campaigns with confidence.Today we’ll cover:[3:16] - What it looks like to looks like to be the Email Marketing Manager at a large organization[5:01] - How John’s organization acquires new email addresses[8:00] - John’s 5-email Welcome series: Email #1[11:55] - What the rest of their welcome series looks like[16:10] - How they craft their first offer[20:20] - The conversion rates on their first ask[22:56] - What happens to the people who don’t give after the series is over[26:02] - John talks about the New Donor email series[32:00] - Moving donors from first time givers to monthly donors[37:23] - Why an email series is such a powerful tool for your nonprofit[38:39] - John’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketersResources mentioned:Ask Method by Ryan LevesquePlease consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferredplatform. To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit www.fiveminutefundraisingfix.com.