Donor Growth – Details, episodes & analysis

Hasta luego. Tot ziens. À bientôt.

The podcast got too big, too quick for these two social sector entrepreneurs and we need some time to regroup.

What’s NOT changing?

The concept of Donor Growth - more AND deeper relationships with more of your donors. We want to be here to support you–intellectually, emotionally, professionally–and will figure out more and better ways to do it. That’s our promise to you.

Why are you stopping the podcast?

You’ll have to listen to find out! As usual, we share with full transparency.

Wait a sec, does this mean you guys are out of a job now?

If only. Fortunately, we’ll continue to steward our thriving businesses. Check out BuildGood and the Annual Fund Toolkit!

What’s next?

You tell us. How could we best serve you? Would you host us for a Donor Growth meetup in your area? 

Thanks so much for being a part of this adventure! We look forward to catching up with you soon.

GET CONNECTED

Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn 

Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn 

Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. 

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Everyone wants new donors.

But few organizations are ready to invest in donor acquisition—and more importantly, the work it takes to invest in the relationship with new donors. 

Or are they?

Today we talk about a few different ways organizations are acquiring—and keeping—new donors. 

We get into what’s working, what isn’t, and what we wished worked.

GET CONNECTED

Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn 

Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn 

Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. 

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Welcome to the Shark Tank…or, more like the Turtle Tank (to avoid any trademark violations).

On this week’s episode, Mike pitches Louis some ideas for businesses that would help nonprofits improve their fundraising operations—and Louis gets to invest. But will he?

From a platform that helps nonprofits listen to donor feedback, to recruiting offshore talent for fundraising admin tasks, there’s a little bit of everything in here.

And, of course, this is all theoretical. If we had lawyers, they’d tell us to say “no offer is being made to, or solicited from, the listening audience.” 

They’d also tell us not to say “Welcome to the Shark Tank” in the opening line of these show notes. 

Share this podcast with a friend, follow wherever you listen to podcasts, and write a review—and maybe one day we’ll actually have lawyers.

GET CONNECTED

Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn 

Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn 

Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. 

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

There are several mental models we use to organize and understand our fundraising work. The funnel is one of the most well-known.

In today’s episode, we explore the funnel model with you:

What it’s good at explaining. 

What it misses.

How it could help you come up with the right solutions to your fundraising problems.

We also tease a couple of alternatives…

Tune in and let us know how you see things on LinkedIn or by reaching out directly to Mike and Louis!

GET CONNECTED

Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn 

Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn 

Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. 

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

What keeps organizations from growing once they’ve hit a certain maturity? 

On this week’s podcast, we discuss 3 challenges we’ve seen that hinder fundraising growth.

1. Arrogance: Thinking your org is “too important” to fail—or too big, or too well known, or too loved, etc. Money will keep coming in because, clearly, you’re awesome.
   
   
   
2. Bureaucracy: Excessive processes and a lack of nimbleness in decision-making. When decision-making processes become overly bureaucratic, the outcome stops being progress—and it starts being “following process.”
   
   
   
3. Complacency: Being complacent can lead to a lack of focus on continuous improvement. This is a dangerous place to be, because the house isn’t on fire. Things are running smoothly. All is well. But underneath it all, entropy might be setting in.

GET CONNECTED

Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn 

Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn 

Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. 

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

If you were a fundraiser in higher education 20-30 years ago, the playbook for the annual fund was clear: a couple of letters to your alumni, a reunion effort, and lots of volunteer solicitation.

Now… not so much.

Most alumni are non-responsive to email and mail solicitations.

It is harder and harder to get people to volunteer.

Today, we share an alternative playbook that focuses on:

• Making sure you’re deepening your relationships with existing donors, no matter how much they gave to you
• Proactively identifying potential major gift prospects through prospecting campaigns
• Renewing the interest of your disenfranchised donors

Contact Mike or Louis on LinkedIn if you’d like to join us for a Live Consulting episode!


GET CONNECTED
Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn
Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.

ABOUT THE HOSTS
Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

We're diving into the captivating story of the Fyre Festival and exploring how it serves as both a shining example and cautionary tale for special events in fundraising.

At it’s best, special events can:

1. Brings corporate partners on board 
2. Be a physical manifestation of your mission 
3. Gather people in community, and build affinity 
4. Acquire new donors
5. Build richer context around your content 
6. Create excitement because of the date-driven event
7. Create all sorts of content and other engagement opportunities 
8. Involve volunteers in co-building a meaningful experience 

But as always, the real money is in the follow-up and the relationships built.

But there’s downsides to consider. 

1. A myriad of hidden costs 
2. No true accounting or attribution 
3. In many cases, terrible donor retention 
4. Gifts that aren’t meaningful; rather obligatory 
5. Can cause internal strife and stress  
6. Can distract from building actual relationships 
7. Can get you stuck on the donor acquisition hamster wheel 
8. Without a follow-up strategy, loses a lot of value 

We'd love to hear your thoughts! 

Have you had experiences with special events in fundraising? Share your stories and insights with us. 

GET CONNECTED

Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn
Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn 

Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.

Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. 

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Do you struggle with keeping your donors engaged and your pipeline filled? You're not alone.

Over the last 6 months, Louis has delved deep into the challenges of consultant relationships and the complex nature of one-to-many work. The good news? He’s on to something that’s working.

Meet the Annual Fund Toolkit (AFT) - designed with you, the practicing fundraiser, in mind.

Leveraging insights from the Donor Participation Project—a research initiative and fundraiser community dedicated to understanding donor behavior—we've developed a system to help you boost donor retention and supercharge your major gifts pipeline.

How does it work? Glad you asked.

The AFT is a multi-faceted resource that includes:

• A comprehensive library of research-based recommendations and templates to guide your campaign planning.
• Weekly 1:1 check-ins offering campaign support and efficient project management.
• Automations designed to make your donors feel seen and valued.

And the best part? It's not just theoretical. We've already seen the results, with advancement teams reporting success in growing dollars and donors.

Ready to learn about tackling donor retention head-on? Let's make a difference, together.

Check it out here: annualfundtoolkit.com

GET CONNECTED
Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn
Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.
Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.

ABOUT THE HOSTS
Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

We’re back from the first-ever Build Good Summit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights—and we’re doing a bit of a recap.

-What did we learn?
-What made the BG Summit different from other conferences?
-What were some of the key challenges fundraisers in the room brought to the table?
-Which sessions did we find the most valuable and innovative?
-Did the conference make any money?
 
If you’re tired of stuffy conferences, full of suits and bowties, in big convention centres, with recycled AC air and stale coffee, and case studies from scaled up consultancies that don’t actually take you behind the scenes…you might find today’s pod interesting.



GET CONNECTED
Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn
Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.
Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.

ABOUT THE HOSTS
Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

In this special episode of Donor Growth, we chat with Georgia Morrison from Australia about how to grow her organization’s monthly giving program.
 
Free To Shine raises about $400,000 per year to protect girls in Cambodia from being sex trafficked.
 
They’re effective. They’re doing work that matters a great deal. They’re innovative.

But they’re struggling to raise the needed funds year after year.
 
Should they invest more in grants?
Should they try something new?
 
Or should they go all in on building a robust monthly giving program? On this live consulting call, Louis and Mike brainstorm with Georgia about the best next step.


GET CONNECTED
Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn
Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.
Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.

Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.