Tracy Thomas is a rabblerouser. A change leader. A force.  She’s also a loving mom, a caring wife, and a committed believer.  Tracy and I sat down to have a frank and honest conversation about what it’s like to be a woman in executive leadership in the nonprofit sector.  As Senior Vice President of Advancement […]

Over my 25-year fundraising career I’ve often heard it said, “fundraising is like farming — you plant the seed, allow time to take hold, and then eventually reap the harvest.” But as Joel Eaton, Founder of Preface and I discussed, there are a multitude of other ways that fundraising and farming are similar. In this […]

“If we believe so much in our missions and what we’re trying to accomplish, we have a moral obligation to provide the time and space for our employees to get the continuing education necessary to be the best they can at their jobs.” I loved this quote from Andrew McIndoe, Vice President at The Heritage […]

If you’ve spent any time at all in the nonprofit sector, you know there are some subjects that are taboo. Some subjects that are difficult to discuss in public spaces, and others that are purely unpopular.  Our guests today refer to those topics collectively as “Nonprofit F-Words.”  No, not THAT F-Word. I promise.  In this […]

Gift planning and legacy giving conversations don’t just have to be about death and mortality. In fact, they can and should be beautiful conversations about how donors can care for the long-term needs of their families, AND, how they can make significant impact for the causes they care most about.  Kristi Brennan, Chartered Advisor in […]

Everyone pretty much everywhere is talking about change right now. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, change seems to be the word of the day. And if you’re not talking about change, you might be talking about transformation. That’s just bigger change, right?  What so many of us get wrong about change and transformation efforts […]

What’s the role of social media in today’s nonprofit landscape?  Why do you need to think about social media within the broader context of your overall marketing and fundraising strategy, instead of as a stand-alone effort?  Should social media replace your other marketing tactics, or should it augment your existing plan?  How should your nonprofit […]

Dr. Patton McDowell has spent his entire professional career leading organizations and developing high-performing leaders across the nonprofit sector.  You might have caught my conversation with Patton a few weeks ago on his show, Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership. If you didn’t, you should check it out. We had an in-depth conversation on the impact […]

Katie Lord is Vice President of Nonprofit Development at Proof Positioning, a market research company that uses emotional research to better understand donors and motivate them to act for nonprofits.  Katie and I talked recently about the disconnect between marketing and fundraising in nonprofits, as well as the impact of behavioral economics and emotional research […]

Jenny Soderholm has invested her entire career in healthcare philanthropy. As Chief Development Officer at Children’s Minnesota and President of Children’s Minnesota Foundation, Jenny is focused on fostering a broad and deep culture of philanthropy that advances her organization’s ability to serve more children and families across Minnesota.  As we talked recently, Jenny shared some […]

What does a Bay Area pastor know about nonprofits and charitable giving?  Turns out he knows quite a lot.  At least if that guy is Vance Roush.  Vance is Founder of Overflow.co, a platform created to help unlock generosity across the globe.  Overflow is a platform that helps generous individuals give to charities and ministry […]

Do you have a theology of fundraising?  This was a fascinating question that Michael Mitchell posited on the show recently, and it led to a great conversation about what’s really important in our craft.  Michael is Director of Development and Discipleship at Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO).  In our conversation, Michael talked a lot about […]

Rebecca Hendrix is Chief Development Officer at Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas. She joined us on the podcast recently to talk about food bank fundraising, engaging donors throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and how to deal with the various challenges facing the nonprofit sector today.

Some of the highlights from our conversation include:

• Understanding the complexity and challenges that arise with engaging donors in a purely virtual environment
• Navigating crises at your organization and caring well for your people in the process
• Helping fundraisers balance the desire to remain remote with the need to engage directly and deeply with donors
• Why fundraising is “the highest form of sales”
• The key traits for successful nonprofit leaders
• What your organization can do to meet donors where they are today and engage them well for the future

 

Your mission is critical. Your resources are finite. You need a partner that can deliver customized, scalable, and relevant donor communications that increase response and maximize net long-term revenue for your cause.  

...

Kevin Feldman is Director of Development at The Salvation Army, Lake County, Indiana. He also advises small and emerging nonprofits on all things fundraising-related. 

Kevin also runs a one-person development shop and has spent years fine-tuning his approach to donor engagement and fundraising. 

We sat down recently to discuss the state of fundraising amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and how that’s changing the nonprofit landscape. Kevin had some great insights about the work and how we ought to be thinking about it. Here are some of the key insights we discussed:

1. The number one factor in driving success for fundraising in an organization is the leader’s passion for the cause. Being “fearlessly sold out” for the mission is critical. This trait drives everything else, keeps you motivated in challenging times, and helps to define the culture for everyone else in the organization.
2. Managing internal expectations around fundraising, donor relationships, revenue and expenses is equally as critical as managing your external donor expectations. In fact, bringing the board and other leaders into your fundraising plan — essentially making it their plan — will help bring shared ownership and greater success than trying to go it alone. 
3. For the one-person shop, determining where to spend your time and energy is the most important decision-making challenge. Think about that decision from the perspective of, “will this activity help me retain more donors, grow the organization’s relationship with more donors, increase giving, or add more new supporters to our cause?” If yes, then do it. If no, pass on it. 
4. As COVID-19 and other social issues continue to impact our country, one key observation (and a warning) is that nonprofits (especially small orgs) need to understand how giving is changing in the foundations and corporations that support them, and what organizations need to do to offset potential changes in their funding mixes. 
5. The impact of social media on donor engagement and fundraising, and why LinkedIn might just be the best social platform for donor engagement, board recruitment, and developing potential major donor relationships. 
6. Why it’s important for fundraisers to understand the program side of their organizations and how the last few years have significantly changed the needs in your local community — and why that matters for fundraising. 

Anthony Jones is Founder of LinkedInOnePercentClub and formerly led all digital marketing, fundraising and social media strategy at Ducks Unlimited. He’s one of the most prolific digital marketers in our sector, and an all-around great guy. 

Recently, Anthony made a HUGE move, leaving a 15-year career at Ducks Unlimited and launching his own company to help people like you and me improve our personal brands on LinkedIn. 

In this conversation, Anthony and I talk about the importance of building your personal brand, why LinkedIn is the most important platform for personal branding, and how nonprofits can leverage LinkedIn for growth as well. 

Our conversation hit key topics including:

1. Why focusing on your personal brand on LinkedIn can put you in the top 1% of users on the platform.
2. What content is and isn’t “LinkedIn appropriate”.
3. How your nonprofit can gain attention and engagement on LinkedIn.
4. Why nonprofits shouldn’t be afraid of their employees building personal brands on LinkedIn.
5. Understanding how an employee’s personal brand can help build and grow your organization’s credibility. 
6. How best to engage donors, potential board members, and future employees on LinkedIn (and how not to). 

Don’t forget to check out Anthony’s FREE mini-course on personal branding on LinkedIn.

You can also join the Linked In One Percent Club today!

 

 In our first episode of 2022 we sat down with Andy Carr, Vice President of Development and Marketing at Feed My Starving Children. 

Feed My Starving Children is a Christian international hunger relief organization that will provide 370 million meals to people in need across the globe this year. That’s more than 1 million meals per day. 

In our conversation with Andy, we covered many topics, including:

1. The philanthropic power of an engaging volunteer experience.
2. Crafting easily shareable messages.
3. Why talking about the “big” problem actually keeps people from acting, and how you can boil the big problem down to a single key point.
4. How to use a low-cost, tangible entry point to introduce supporters to your organization in a meaningful way. 
5. The value of creating blended live/virtual fundraising events. 

Andy is a dynamic, engaging speaker who is leading monumental growth at Feed My Starving Children. Take a listen — we’re sure you’ll find value in this conversation!

 

Your mission is critical. Your resources are finite. You need a partner that can deliver customized, scalable, and relevant donor communications that increase response and maximize net long-term revenue for your cause. 

You need Altus Marketing. 

We recently sat down with Tom Kilgannon, President of Freedom Alliance. 

Freedom Alliance is a nonprofit organization founded to support our nation’s combat wounded and deployed troops and their families. One of their greatest contributions to the military community is their scholarship fund for the dependents of military personnel who have been severely wounded or killed in combat. To-date, Freedom Alliance has given out $20 Million in college scholarships to the dependents of America’s fallen and injured heroes. 

In our conversation with Tom about Freedom Alliance’s fundraising strategy and how they achieved this huge accomplishment of funding $20 Million in scholarships, here are some of the great insights Tom shared:

1. An integrated approach to fundraising allows them to speak to each donor in the way that donor needs to hear the message in order to inspire generosity in their hearts. 
2. Some fundraising offers / asks for support work better in-person, while others work better at major events, and even still, some messages resonate best when delivered via direct mail or email. You need to activate all viable channels to drive the greatest return for your organization. 
3. The more you listen to your donors — to truly understand — not just to respond, the more likely you are to secure major investments from your supporters and investors.
4. During the pandemic, they were able to activate significant support for the organization and those they support by regularly engaging donors, checking in on their supporters’ needs, and sharing stories of impact. 
5. Focus on your donors’ needs and desires, and let those items drive how you engage and approach giving opportunities. 
6. How you can use events strategically to make an initial donor contact, then build relationship over time via more personal engagement. 

Tom shares some great insights in this episode on how this organization is making a huge impact for America’s veterans and their families, alongside thousands of incredibly generous donors. 

Welcome to the 100th episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast!

I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to visit with Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP for this milestone episode. 

If you know Dr. James, you know this will be a great conversation. If you don’t know him yet, you’re in for a real treat!

Dr. James is Director of graduate studies in charitable planning in the Division of Personal Financial Planning in the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech University. His research into human behavior and charitable giving has shaped how institutions large and small engage major donors and maximize revenue all across the U.S.

Dr. James recently published a five-book series, the Fundraising Myth and Science Book Series. In our conversation, we talk extensively about one of those books, The Storytelling Fundraiser. 

This new book series is also the foundation of a great new training program that Dr. James and Greg Warner at MarketSmart have partnered to bring to market. 

We covered so much ground in this conversation. It’s an in-depth review of the book and the foundational thinking that went into it, including:

1. The One Big Thing in fundraising, and why it’s something you might not expect.
2. The difference between donor-centered and community-centered fundraising, and why organizations that want to secure transformational gifts should double down on donor-centered fundraising. 
3. The neuroscience behind high-impact philanthropic activity, and how your organization and your donors can benefit from it. 
4. Why talking to donors about giving from their wealth (assets) vs. their disposable income is critical to your organization’s long-term financial security and growth.
5. The exact phrase(s) you should adopt to help your supporters unlock transformational generosity. 
6. How philanthropy is both altruistic and self-serving at the same time, and what you need to understand to effectively navigate these differences. 
7. The key decision-making processes that people go through when deciding to give a charitable gift, and how focusing on asset-based giving can help your donors make better decisions (for them and you!). 
8. Why fundraisers have a difficult time talking with donors about legacy giving, and the exact language and tools to help overcome those difficulties (including his 65 video trainings available for FREE). 
9. Why wading into math conversations with your donors may not be the best idea, and how to use storytelling to make key financial points that will motivate your donors to act. 
10. The interconnected role of overhead and restricted giving in philanthropy, and how you can navigate these to unlock significant giving from your supporters. 

These are just the top 10 highlights from our conversation. You owe it to yourself to pop some popcorn, grab your favorite beverage, and settle in for this great conversation. You’ll learn a ton, and be able to apply it immediately to positively impact your fundraising efforts!

Dr. James is sharing his new book series for FREE with the world. You can download electronic copies below:

The Storytelling Fundraiser

The Epic Fundraiser: Myth, Psychology, and the Universal Hero Story

Diana Zhang left a lucrative career as a hedge fund executive in the midst of the pandemic to co-found NeighborShare, a new platform created to support front line heroes in the nonprofit sector, allowing them to match real community needs with donors interested in supporting them. 

Discovering that 40% of American families can’t afford even a $400 emergency, Diana and her partners launched an organization designed to help provide this kind of emergency bridge funding to individuals in need, through everyday community heroes like nonprofit case managers, social workers, nurses, etc.

She and her team of 25+ volunteers are on a mission to both disrupt and support the nonprofit sector by thinking differently about solving emerging needs in communities across the U.S. 

As a first-time founder of a nonprofit, and career for-profit executive, Diana and her team are applying start-up business principles to NeighborShare while diving deep into community-building, connectivity, and honing their values to deliver the greatest value possible for local nonprofits and the individuals and families they serve. 

 

Your mission is critical. Your resources are finite. You need a partner that can deliver customized, scalable, and relevant donor communications that increase response and maximize net long-term revenue for your cause. 

You need Altus Marketing.

Every industry has experienced disruption over the last few years. The nonprofit sector wasn’t immune. One area where our sector has seen significant change (not just because of Covid, but even before) is in the way nonprofits engage and are served by agencies. 

That’s why I was excited to sit down with Dan Sonners, Vice President at Conrad Direct, Board Member at DMAW, and host of the Dynamic Nonprofits podcast.

We covered a lot of ground in our conversation, including:

1. How consultants and agencies that serve nonprofits need to evolve to become more collaborative and supportive of nonprofits
2. Why industry collaborations and engagement across service firms could be smart for nonprofits, and how to do this well
3. Establishing shared goals and objectives and defining clear swim lanes in collaborative engagements
4. The value of multi-channel supporters, and the challenges in building and running multi-channel programs
5. Why attribution modeling is difficult, and how best to think about attribution
6. Why you need flexibility in your budgeting process
7. The role and responsibility of board and executive leaders in healthy nonprofits

 

If you’ve worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 10 minutes, you know just how incredibly difficult it is to find and keep great people. The staffing challenges in our sector aren’t new, but it seems like the challenges have become more pronounced over the last few years. At least that’s what I keep hearing from clients and friends in our sector. 

Recently, my friends at Dickerson Bakker & Associates commissioned a new study on this topic, HELP WANTED: A National Study of Staffing Challenges in Nonprofit Fundraising. We sat down with Derric Bakker, President/CEO to discuss the findings, which I think you’ll find fascinating and helpful in your work (and you just might take comfort in having some hard data that validates what you’ve been feeling too!). 

Here are some of the key learnings from this new study:

1. Our sector is indeed facing a severe shortage of qualified fundraisers in the marketplace (this most significantly impacts major gift fundraisers)

2. The idea of the 18-month turnover cycle is largely a myth (though there’s a small group of habitual job-hoppers that muddy the water on this topic)

3. Sadly (and of great concern), only 12% of survey respondents strongly affirmed their Board and executive leadership were actively involved in raising organizational support

4. Turnover is a big problem (mostly) for small(er) organizations

5. If we want to fix these problems, nonprofit hiring strategy and practices need to change significantly. After all, retaining your best talent starts with making the right hiring decision in the first place (and this is NOT just about the candidates)

6. Too few organizations are addressing the key issues that lead to the departure of fundraising staff, which serves only to perpetuate the problems for future hires

7. Organizations that were rated as “development friendly” had a greater likelihood of experiencing moderate or large increases in fundraising results in the last 2-3 years

8. CEO engagement in fundraising is critical to organizational success. In fact, the more a CEO enjoys and is involved in fundraising, the greater the likelihood that her or his organization’s fundraising income saw increases in recent years

These insights just scratch the surface. You can download the full report here to help guide your organization’s hiring strategy and decision-making for success in the future!

This conversation with Rev. Jeremy Montgomery, MBA-MA, President/CEO at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission in Philadelphia, PA, is a deep-dive into change leadership like you’ve never heard before! 

When he took the helm at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission in 2018, the organization was barely surviving. Philadelphia is the 5th largest city in the U.S., and also the poorest large city in the country. The Mission is the city of Philadelphia’s largest provider of men’s shelter services in the city. When he arrived, the Mission was engulfed in gang and drug activity — local gangs were actually dealing drugs right outside their doors. 

The challenges they faced at the Mission were significant. From the external environmental risks of gangs and drugs to an internal culture that lacked clear communication, team members who didn’t understand what the goals were, how to achieve success, or how to partner and collaborate together to effectively achieve their mission. 

In this podcast episode Jeremy walks us through what it was like to come into an organization like this, how he approached guiding and leading the organization through significant change, and the difficult decisions he had to make to help the organization go from surviving to thriving. 

You’ll learn a ton about leading and navigating change in this conversation with Jeremy. 

 

 

  https://www.altusmktg.com/

Glenn Cranfield is President and CEO at Nashville Rescue Mission, and Host of the Real Hope podcast. 

In this conversation, Glenn talks with me about four key values that guide his work and ministry at Nashville Rescue Mission, including:

1. Extravagant Faith – Sometimes we’re forced into situations where all we have is faith. Impossible situations where people think there’s no hope. 
2. Radical Hospitality – Understanding that the person who is with you in the moment is the most important person in the world, and treating them that way. Focusing on showing others love, dignity, and value. 
3. Excellence – We can’t ever be perfect, and we know that. But we can strive to be perfect, and in that, practice excellence in all we do. 
4. Culture of Honor – Imagine how amazing the world would be if we each individually would strive to put others above ourselves, and to show dignity, value, and worth to others. 

We also talked about conflict inside organizations. Unlike some leaders in our sector, Glenn’s perspective is that conflict is both good and necessary. In fact, he makes a key point by sharing that the popular scripture verse (Prov 27:17), “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the wits of another” requires conflict — because it’s only in coming into contact that two pieces of iron can sharpen each other. In the same way, it’s only in conflict that two people can sharpen one another. That’s not to say that every time we experience conflict we’ll come out agreeing. But healthy conflict means we’ll engage directly with one another, engage deeply to share and learn from one another, and come away with deeper understanding of the other’s perspective and a broader understanding of the situation in question. 

There’s a lot more to this episode and Glenn’s leadership insights. I hope you are as inspired by this discussion as I was!

  https://www.altusmktg.com/

The definition of culture is the distance between who you say you are and how you act. 

Ken Brissa became Chief Executive Officer at Phoenix Rescue Mission in February of 2020, just days before the country went into full crisis mode in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

In the months since Ken began his leadership journey at Phoenix Rescue Mission, much has changed at the mission, throughout Phoenix, and across our nation. But the principles of leadership that helped shape Ken’s career before COVID have remained consistent.

We sat down recently to talk about Ken’s leadership journey and experience in the nonprofit sector. In our conversation we covered critical topics like: 

1. Why you should empower your team to build culture from the bottom up in your organization instead of pushing culture change from the top down.
2. The importance of making communication (quantity AND quality) a key component of your leadership strategy.
3. Why collaboration is a critical value for leaders, and how collaboration is more than just “working together”. 
4. The value of “what if” scenario planning, and how it can help your organization respond more quickly and effectively to crisis situations.
5. Why directly addressing conflict in your organization is essential to a grace-based culture. 
6. The importance of identifying and cultivating a creative outlet, and how that can impact your emotional health. 

  https://www.altusmktg.com/

I’m continuing to explore a series of leadership conversations with nonprofit CEO’s, Executive Directors, and Chief Development Officers across our sector.

In today’s conversation, you’ll hear a discussion with Elaine Streno, Executive Director at Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee. 

With more than 20 years of leadership experience in East Tennessee, Elaine shares great wisdom and insights with us, including:

1. The importance of humility and how that trait can influence leadership success
2. Why working in the nonprofit sector shouldn’t mean personally sacrificing 
3. Understanding that as a leader, you’re always under the microscope, and why that requires deep integrity
4. How to have difficult conversations with employees without destroying relationships
5. The importance and value of having strong relationships with your board
6. Navigating the political and relational differences between front-line and administrative staff
7. The difficulty of parting ways with long-term employees, and how to have those difficult conversations with care and compassion

 

Your mission is critical. Your resources are finite. You need a partner that can deliver customized, scalable, and relevant donor communications that increase response and maximize net long-term revenue for your cause. 

You need 

From entrepreneur to volunteer Board Chair, to nonprofit CEO, Erinn Rowe’s path to leadership at Harvest Hope Food Bank isn’t necessarily common, but neither are the needs of the food bank today. 

I sat down with Harvest Hope’s new CEO, Erinn Rowe recently to talk about her journey from board chair to food bank CEO, what she’s learned along the way, and key leadership insights she’s gained throughout her career. 

In this conversation we covered topics like:

1. How values like empathy, integrity, and honesty are the critical building blocks of leadership and successful organizations
2. The challenges of developing and cultivating corporate culture in an environment where some team members have never met face-to-face, and other COVID-related challenges
3. How empathetic leadership creates emotional and psychological safety for teams
4. The importance of honoring each team member’s humanity, and how an employee’s personal experiences impact their work
5. Insights on how to live out your core values daily as a leader
6. Why you can train for skills, but not for character — and how to address issues of character in your organization
7. What it’s like to transition from volunteer board chair to full-time CEO, and what you can learn from that transition
8. The value of clarity, honesty, and direct communication in organizations

This is a great conversation that any nonprofit leader or future leader will gain value from — I hope you enjoy it!

  ...

The world of philanthropy is changing by the day right now. From the pandemic to artificial intelligence, to the dramatic increase in giving through Donor Advised Funds (DAF), and even the gamification of giving. So much is changing so quickly.

But one thing is clear…donors continue to dictate the terms.

With so much changing, I was thrilled to sit down with my friend, Paul D’Alessandro, Founder of High Impact Nonprofit Advisors, and author of the brand new book, The Future of Fundraising: How Philanthropy’s Future is Here with Donors Dictating the Terms.

Paul wrote this book after a lengthy and successful career in philanthropy where he’s met with more than 4,000 individual high net worth donors and raised more than $1 Billion for charitable causes! 

You’ll want to check out this conversation that covers so many important topics, including:

1. How Artificial Intelligence is impacting fundraising, and what that means for the future of the individual fundraiser
2. The positives and negatives of donor advised funds, and what this giving vehicle holds for the future of our industry
3. How platforms like Twitch and others impacting fundraising, and what that means for donor engagement and nonprofit revenue generation in the future
4. The emerging risks to donor privacy and how that could negatively impact giving in the future
5. The dirty secrets of fundraiser compensation

 

  <...

Sarah Lee is Chief Operating Officer at New Story, an innovative, growth-focused organization that behaves more like a Silicon Valley start-up than a traditional nonprofit. 

New Story is on a mission to solve the global homelessness crisis by creating solutions that are cheaper to develop, higher quality than traditional housing options, and able to get into market faster than typical solutions. 

In our conversation we talked about innovation and growth in the nonprofit sector, and how New Story is charging forward to change the way organizations address complex global challenges more effectively. 

Highlights from our conversation are: 

1.  Believing that nonprofit organizations should be held to higher (not lower) standards of effectiveness.
2. How a 100% donation model and key investment partners help them achieve greater impact.
3. The role that talent plays in their ability to deliver effective solutions and to grow and scale their impact.
4. The need to balance advances in technology and innovation with mission delivery, and how organizations should think about that balance. 
5. The value of long-term thinking and how that changes the strategic approach for an organization. 
6. The importance of hiring people who embrace a "founder" mindset, and how that changes the way an organization operates. 

If you want to be a successful major gift fundraiser, one of the most important traits you'll need is courage. Courage to overcome the fear of failure that so many of us face in asking donors to invest in our causes. Fear of not just hearing "no", but failing our organizations and letting down those we're committed to serving. 

Julie Ordoñez is the Founder of Courage Lab, a coaching and training program to help fundraisers and nonprofit leaders face their fears and build the skills and resilience necessary to raise significantly more money for mission impact. 

But Julie isn't just a coach or teacher of fundraising theory. She's a proven front-line fundraiser. She's done everything from running a one-person fundraising shop to achieving success as a top 1% major gift fundraiser for United Way of Los Angeles. 

We connected recently with Julie to learn more about the importance of courage in fundraising, and what holds people and organizations back from achieving success in their fundraising efforts. 

Some of the key takeaways you'll enjoy from our conversation are:

1. Fundraising problems are actually organizational leadership and culture problems that manifest in revenue challenges.
2. The risks of believing that only you and your employees care deeply about your cause (and that your donors don't care as much as you do).
3. The importance of empathy for fundraisers and donors alike.
4. Why the way we each view money in our personal lives impacts our ability to make significant asks. 
5. No, COVID-19 hasn't diminished the capacity of major donors (mostly), and why this line of thinking destroys your fundraising potential.
6. The importance of asking great questions and listening to donors.
7. Why you should stop looking outside your organization for major donors and instead invest in building relationships with your current supporters.
8. The value of prioritizing important tasks like actually calling and speaking to your donors, and why that's so difficult for many fundraisers.

This episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast is brought to you by my friends at Virtuous. 

If you want to create meaningful connection with donors instead of putting distance between your supporters and your cause, you need to know Virtuous. 

The responsive fundraising platform created by Virtuous unifies fundraising, marketing, and donor development activities to deliver dynamic campaigns that engage supporters in more meaningful ways. 

Download a copy of their Responsive Fundraising Playbook today!

Matt Hackler is Vice President of Strategic Capacity Building with Feeding America. Like many of us, Matt says he "fell into" fundraising before joining Feeding America. In his current role, Matt leads a team of experts across multiple disciplines to help local member food banks increase their capacity to serve children, families, seniors and individuals experiencing hunger across the U.S.

Matt and I connected recently to talk about COVID-19's impact on fundraising in general, on Feeding America nationally, and on individual member food banks. 

We covered a lot of ground, including:

• How food banks learned from the 2008 - 2010 financial crisis and changed their approach to crisis fundraising as a result.
• The spike in giving due to COVID-19, and whether donors who came on file as a result of COVID are "emergency response" donors, or "recession" donors (and what that means for your future fundraising efforts).
• When is the right time to stop talking to donors about COVID-19?
• The role of brand in fundraising, both nationally and in local communities across the U.S.
• How food banks have historically relied on volume-based tactical fundraising efforts instead of relationship-based philanthropy -- and why that needs to evolve for the future. 
• Feeding America is seeing that donors who gave in response to COVID-19 are giving more frequently, retaining at higher rates, giving higher average gifts, and converting to monthly ongoing support at higher levels than the average donor -- and what this means for the future of hunger relief funding.

Whether you're working in hunger relief or a completely different kind of nonprofit, you'll want to catch this episode with Matt. His insights are relevant no matter what your organization's focus!

This episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast is brought to you by my friends at Virtuous. 

If you want to create meaningful connection with donors instead of putting distance between your supporters and your cause, you need to know Virtuous. 

The responsive fundraising platform created by Virtuous unifies fundraising, marketing, and donor development activities to deliver dynamic campaigns that engage supporters in more meaningful ways. 

Download a copy of their Responsive Fundraising Playbook today!

Brent A. Hafele, M.A., is Senior Vice President of Talent Development at Dickerson Bakker & Associates. Early in his career, Brent held various leadership roles inside nonprofit organizations, including Development Director and Executive Director. 

Today, Brent leads talent development efforts for Dickerson Bakker & Associates, and provides executive coaching to fundraisers and nonprofit CEO's and Executive Directors.

Brent and I sat down to discuss how talent development impacts organizational success. In our conversation we hit some big topics, including:

1. How does talent impact an organization's capacity for growth? 
2. Breaking the myth that your nonprofit can't afford to hire top quality talent.
3. What it takes to effectively assess a candidate's abilities and qualities during the interview process.
4. Effective tools for candidate assessments.
5. Why you should hire more slowly, and what the benefits of a longer assessment period is to your nonprofit.
6. The value of using a strengths-based framework for talent assessment and coaching in your organization.
7. Building a collaborative culture across your team and organization. 
8. Giving realistic performance feedback to motivate and engage your staff.

If you lead a team or an organization, this conversation is sure to provide you with value!

This episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast was brought to you by our friends at Virtuous. We’re so excited to partner with them to promote the upcoming 2021 Responsive Fundraising Summit on April 14th and 15th. You can register for FREE today. 

You’ll be front-row with world-class nonprofit and thought leaders, participate in hands-on, discussion-driven workshops, and build lasting connections with like-minded peers. 

Sign up today for this FREE event!

https://youtu.be/56RwjgU-q9M

As President & CEO of Oxfam America, Abby Maxman is responsible for leading global social change to alleviate the injustice of poverty across 90 countries. 

This fight is not a new one for Maxman, who has made a career of giving a voice to the voiceless, fighting hunger, poverty, disease, and injustice across the globe at leading INGO's and within the U.S. Government. 

Abby and I sat down to discuss her leadership experience and what we can all learn from her time working to right the most devastating wrongs the world over. 

We tackled some big issues in our discussion, including:

• The importance of boldly charging toward your goals, even when they might feel overwhelming and unachievable.
• How the values of integrity and commitment provide the courage and resilience necessary to allow a leader to book the first flight into post-genocidal Rwanda, to tackle apartheid South Africa, and to take on the global HIV/AIDS crisis.
• The importance of showing up authentically and consistently as our whole selves to build and nurture a healthy culture. Ad the value of creating a safe place for people to try new things, to fail, and to learn from those failures without risk of retribution or career damage. 
• The role of leaders in addressing racial, gender, economic, and climate justice, and the challenging of maintaining focus on this important work in the midst of every other priority.
• Developing the 21st century skills of leading with care and compassion to help your people feel safe, engaged, and cared for by their leaders. 

This episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast was brought to you by our friends at Virtuous. We’re so excited to partner with them to promote the upcoming 2021 Responsive Fundraising Summit on April 14th and 15th. You can register for FREE today. 

You’ll be front-row with world-class nonprofit and thought leaders, participate in hands-on, discussion-driven workshops, and build lasting connections with like-minded peers. 

Sign up today for this FREE event!

https://youtu.be/56RwjgU-q9M

The fifth child in a family of six, Bill High grew up "dirt poor and on welfare." The son of an alcoholic, Bill describes his childhood as "pretty dysfunctional."

Around age eight or nine, Bill was introduced to the idea of a personal faith by a neighbor, and that began his life-long journey to live differently and to focus on making an eternal impact in our world.

Throughout his lifetime, Bill has had some amazing opportunities to impact the world, including practicing law for 12 years to co-founding iDonate, a leading digital giving software company that helps nonprofits build lasting relationships with their supporters.

In 2000, Bill felt a calling to do something more in our sector, leading him to create The Signatry, a global community and ministry dedicated to creating eternal impact through generosity across generations. They provide a unique approach to donor advised fund giving to empower donors, advisors, and ministries to maximize their impact.

Bill and I met through our mutual relationship with Forbes Business and Nonprofit Councils, and sat down recently to talk about philanthropy and leading generously.  

Some of the key insights from our conversation include:

1. The impact of the massive increase in Donor Advised Fund adoption over the last decade
2. Debunking the myth that Donor Advised Funds are simply a place for the wealthy to "park" money
3. How Donor Advised Funds (on average) distribute 10X more than private foundations annually
4. How leaders who invest heavily in the people in their care are maximizing impact
5. The value of leaders serving others, and how that releases creativity and increases engagement with employees
6. Lessons from a reluctant leader
7. Why setting vision and inspiring your people is essential to your ability to achieve greater impact
8. How the best leaders use storytelling to inspire others
9. What 2021 has in store for philanthropy and charitable giving
10. Quick tips for nonprofit boards and CEO's to begin effectively planning for leadership succession

This episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast was brought to you by our friends at Virtuous. We’re so excited to partner with them to promote the upcoming 2021 Responsive Fundraising Summit on April 14th and 15th. You can register for FREE today. 

You’ll be front-row with world-class nonprofit and thought leaders, participate in hands-on, discussion-driven workshops, and build lasting connections with like-minded peers. 

Sign up today for this FREE event!

https://youtu.be/56RwjgU-q9M

Our good friend Brady Josephson at NextAfter joined us for a third episode here on the podcast recently. You might remember Brady from our conversation about COVID fundraising observations, or fundraising Testing. 

This week we connected with him to learn about the recent project that NextAfter and Salesforce.org collaborated on, called the Global Online Fundraising Scorecard. 

This study explored the front-end user experience of donors and email subscribers across multiple countries. 

Here are some of the key findings we cover in this discussion:

1. Email sign-up was impossible in 27% of cases in the study, either because organizations didn't offer it, or because it took too many steps to discover where the email sign-up was located
2. Very little progress has been made in years around the area of using value proposition to either subscribe for emails or make a giving decision (you'll hear Brady outline what the keys are in a successful value proposition too)
3. The dangerous myth that online users don't or won't consume copy -- and address the (surprising) negative impact that video and images have on conversion
4. The half dozen (or more!) types of friction that negatively impact decision-making online, AND, the one positive type of friction that can actually help you raise more money online!
5. The importance of email cultivation to long-term retention and revenue, and the sad fact that too few organizations are investing in meaningful email relationship building.
6. The truth about email deliverability, and what you can do to improve deliverability for your organization.
7. What's working best globally in sustainer giving, where the U.S. is falling behind in this key giving area, and what YOU can do to improve your organization's sustainer numbers.
8. The trends on email welcome series use, and how one organization tested into a 900% increase in 2nd gift conversion by rethinking their approach to welcome series content.

It's always a blast to have Brady on the show, and I hope you'll learn as much as I did in this conversation!

Don't forget to download the Global Online Fundraising Scorecard today!

This episode of The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast was brought to you by our friends at Virtuous. We’re so excited to partner with them to promote the upcoming 2021 Responsive Fundraising Summit on April 14th and 15th. You can register for FREE today. 

You’ll be front-row with world-class nonprofit and thought leaders, participate in hands-on, discussion-driven workshops, and build lasting connections with like-minded peers. 

Sign up today for this FREE event!

https://youtu.be/56RwjgU-q9M