#78: How email can support a magical generosity experience, with Tim Sarrantonio
How 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 […]
#77: How donors really feel about their relationship with you, with Justin McCord
As passionate fundraisers, we’re all pretty good at thinking about how to talk to donors. But sometimes, we’re not the best listeners. On this week’s BG Live, we’re joined by Just McCord from RKD about a brand new donor study that listened to donors across a variety of causes. Turns out, donors need us to listen more. In […]
#76: How to raise the largest gift your organization has ever received, with Gudrun Hofmeister
Do you have donors on your file who could be making larger gifts…but you’ve just never asked? Chances are, you do. And chances are also, you might not even know where to begin to identify them and lead them toward greater generosity (otherwise you would’ve asked them already!). The good news is, it could be […]
#75: How to use storytelling to engage donors and retain staff, with Olga Moshinsky Woltman
Humans are wired for stories, yet storytelling can be challenging. That’s why on this week’s BuildGood Live, we’re talking to master storyteller—and founder of LemonSkies—Olga Moshinsky Woltman about how to harness the power of stories. She’s worked with some of the most inspiring and transformative causes, including American Heart Association, the ALS Association, American Diabetes […]
#74: How I Built Good: The Adventure Project, with Becky Straw
In a new segment of the pod we’re calling How I Built Good, we interview nonprofit founders, entrepreneurs and leaders on how they’re building good in the world. Starting with Becky Straw. She never set out to become a founder. But when she was let go from her job at fast-growing water charity, she bought […]
#73: 5 steps to get started with donor surveys, with Louis Diez
Have you ever surveyed your donors? We talk a lot about listening to donors through conversations. Surveys can be a great tool to compliment donor conversations, because they’re interviews at scale. They’re a great way to: But how do you get started designing a survey? And what meaningful and practical steps can you take with […]
#72: Why community is the last great fundraising strategy, with Mark Schaefer
Helping your donors feel like they belong might be your ultimate fundraising achievement. Why? Years of stress, amplified by the pandemic, has created a “belonging crisis.” Record levels of mental health issues are putting an entire generation at risk. Many of us are more connected than ever before—and at the same time, lonelier than ever […]
#71: How to know your audience to grow your audience, with Emily Taylor
How often have you heard that you should “listen to your donors” and nodded along in agreement? But how often have you actually sat down to implement a system to continually listen to donors in a structured way and gain new insights? Make no mistake: getting to know your donors is a strategy with high […]
#70: How to craft irresistible fundraising offers that open hearts and wallets, with Steven Screen
The offer is one of the most foundational—yet most misunderstood—tools in fundraising. Get it wrong, and your fundraising can flop. Get it right, and watch the response rate go up. So what is an offer anyway? It’s the thing you’re asking donors to help make happen. The outcome. The ultra-specific and tangible difference their gift […]
#69: The 5 parts of the Fundraising Flywheel with Becky Longhurst
How do you achieve predictable fundraising success? Well, nobody can predict how much money you’re going to raise. But if you follow the 5 steps of the fundraising flywheel consistently—over time— your revenue will grow. And so will your career as a leader and fundraiser! So today we’ll walk through each of the 5 parts of the fundraising flywheel […]