Nonprofit Answers: Nonprofit Fundraising, Marketing, Monthly Giving - Details, episodes & analysis

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Nonprofit Answers: Nonprofit Fundraising, Marketing, Monthly Giving

Jeremy Reis

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/30d. Total Eps: 107

Nonprofit Answers Podcast helps you raise more money to help more people by answering your nonprofit leadership, marketing, and fundraising questions. Learn how to reach more donors with answers to your philanthropy and advancement questions. For Development Directors, Chief Development Officers, CEOs, Nonprofit Leaders, Fundraisers, Marketing Managers, Major Donor Reps, and Nonprofit Board Members. Learn about monthly, annual fund, major, midlevel, grants, planned giving, direct mail, email fundraising, leadership, and more.

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Data updated on 07/11/2026

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https://nonprofitfundraising.com/retention/
42 shares
http://nonprofitanswers.org
23 shares
https://nonprofitfundraising.com/ai
21 shares

https://amzn.to/3RvXyoA
12 shares

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[A Plan You Can Defend] Episode 3: Make It Balance, Then Make It Official

Season 7 · Episode 3

Friday, November 6, 2026 • Duration 18:44

A fundraising plan has to balance on three things: dollars, hours, and dates. In the final episode of A Plan You Can Defend, we put one name on every line, build a budget that knows when the cash actually arrives, close Riverbend's hundred-and-fifty-hour gap with a stop-doing list, pressure-test the plan with AI, and take it to the board for a decision.

In this episode you'll learn:

Why every line in your plan needs one name, including the board's lines.
Cash timing: why a goal you reach in December still has to get you through June.
Why Serving Orphans Worldwide cut its budget to rebuild reserves but protected donor acquisition.
How to build a stop-doing list from return: stop it, shrink it, or hand it to someone else.
Three rules for using AI in planning: the AI asks, challenges, and drafts but doesn't do the math; no donor names leave your building; and you make every decision.
Five AI pressure tests, including the skeptical treasurer, the tired donor, and your most overloaded person, plus where AI gets it wrong.
How to present your plan to the board in ten minutes and ask for a decision, not feedback.
How to pace quarterly check-ins against last year's pattern, with a short monthly walk-through in between.
This episode's action item and homework: put your planning day on the calendar, and start your stop-doing list now.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry, Dana, Joanne, and all of Riverbend's numbers are fictional and illustrative.

Ready to build next year's plan? Your 12-Month Fundraising Plan in One Day walks you through it step by step: nine modules and about three hours of video, built for executive directors and development teams of one to three people. You get the Planning Day Kit (data checklist, request emails, one-day agenda, team exercise guides, and a printable wall calendar), the Planning Workbook spreadsheet in a blank version and as Riverbend's filled-in example, the One-Page Board Plan, and the Co-Strategist Prompt Library for using AI without sharing a single donor's name. Lifetime access to the videos and downloads.

When one part of your plan deserves more attention, go deeper with Finish Strong for your year-end campaign, The Gratitude System for thanking and keeping new donors, and the Monthly Giving Masterclass for your monthly giving push.

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[A Plan You Can Defend] Episode 2: The Plan Has to Fit the People

Season 7 · Episode 2

Thursday, November 5, 2026 • Duration 17:40

Riverbend's first draft plan looked great on paper. Then Dana counted the hours and put every ask on one calendar. The plan needed a hundred and fifty more hours than she had, and their most loyal donors would be asked six times in April. In the second episode of A Plan You Can Defend, we make sure your plan fits the people who have to run it, on both sides of the ask.

In this episode you'll learn:

Why a plan that ignores capacity is a wish list with a budget attached.
The Hours Honesty exercise: compare each person's estimate with a two-week time log.
How to turn real weekly hours into a year, and why you plan at eighty percent.
How to estimate what each campaign and strategy costs in hours.
How to choose three or four anchor campaigns with a simple scoring grid, and why a telemarketing campaign the staff didn't like stayed in the plan.
Why your always-on work goes into the plan first.
Calendar Collision: put every ask, touch, and thank-you on one wall, one row per donor segment, and find the month that asks too much.
How to set your own ask limit for each segment from your own evidence.
This episode's action item and homework: start counting your real hours, set your own ask limit for each segment, and leave your capacity gap open for now.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry, Dana, Joanne, and all of Riverbend's numbers are fictional and illustrative.

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[A Plan You Can Defend] Episode 1: Start With What Actually Happened

Season 7 · Episode 1

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 • Duration 20:42

Most fundraising plans are last year's calendar plus hope. In the first episode of A Plan You Can Defend, a three-part series on building next year's fundraising plan, we follow Dana and Joanne at Riverbend Community Food Pantry into their planning day. We start with the numbers: what to gather, how to read last year honestly, and how to set a goal you can explain in one sentence.

In this episode you'll learn:

Why a small team can build a full year's plan in one working day, but only if the numbers are on the table first.
The four things to request before your planning day (gift-level giving export, finance's revenue report, channel costs, and hours), and why gathering them usually takes one to two weeks.
Why you reconcile last year's total with finance before you plan anything.
The guessing exercise that shows the gap between what your team remembers and what actually happened.
Net per hour: why a gala and an email appeal can look very different once you count costs and staff hours.
How to read donors by lifecycle and gift level, and what one point of retention is worth to you.
Why the goal starts with your organization's strategy, and how to build it top-down and bottom-up.
How to set a floor, a target, and a stretch, and the one-sentence test every goal has to pass.
This week's action item and homework: send the data request, and do the guessing exercise before you look at the real numbers.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry, Dana, Joanne, and all of Riverbend's numbers are fictional and illustrative.

[Year-end] Episode 7: Keep the Donors You Just Found

Season 6 · Episode 7

Tuesday, November 3, 2026 • Duration 17:05

It's the first Monday in January. The pantry is quiet, and Dana is looking at a printout of about two hundred new donors with two feelings at once: gratitude that they showed up, and a little dread, because she knows how often first-time donors never give again. In this final episode of Finish Strong, we talk about the part of year-end that happens after December 31. Year-end brings new donors in. January decides whether they stay.

In this episode you'll learn how to:

See why a second gift matters more than a bigger first one, and why keeping a donor costs far less than finding one.
Thank every donor within 48 hours with a real thank-you, not just a receipt.
Run a board thank-a-thon in early January, a job every board member can do.
Build a 90-day welcome series: personal thanks, a story about what their gift did, an invitation to come closer, and then a first ask to become a monthly donor.
Report back to everyone who gave: the total, the promise kept, and one face.
Debrief with your team in January and record your real numbers, so next October's plan starts from facts, not guesses.
Use AI to draft your welcome series while you hand-write notes to your top new donors.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry, and Tanya's story, are fictional, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize them. Your new donors said yes in December. January is your chance to show them it mattered.

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[Year-end] Episode 6: The Last 72 Hours

Season 6 · Episode 6

Monday, November 2, 2026 • Duration 16:10

It's December 15, a little after four in the afternoon. Dana clicks schedule on the last of her final-week emails and heads out for the holidays. The biggest week of Riverbend's year is about to happen, and the person who planned it won't be in the building. That's exactly the plan. In episode six of Finish Strong, we prepare for the last 72 hours of the year, when a huge share of giving comes in.

In this episode you'll learn how to:

Understand who gives at the very end: tax-motivated donors, procrastinators, and people who meant to give in November.
Build a six-email final-week sequence, with four of those emails in the last 72 hours.
Write and schedule everything by December 15 (December 22 at the latest) so a small team can rest.
Audit your donation page on a phone: load speed, gift amounts, the monthly option, the receipt, and other ways to give, like donor-advised funds and stock.
Remember that in the US, a check with a December 31 postmark counts for this tax year.
Make personal thank-you calls to top donors who haven't given yet.
Run December 31 well: who's watching, updating the match total, and when to stop sending.
Use AI as a second set of eyes on your emails and donation page before you schedule.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry is a fictional organization, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize it. Your donors want to finish their year well, and a clear, easy last week helps them do it.

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[Year-end] Episode 5: Giving Tuesday Without the Noise

Season 6 · Episode 5

Friday, October 30, 2026 • Duration 14:28

It's the Monday before Thanksgiving, and Dana has eleven emails in her inbox with Giving Tuesday in the subject line. None of them are from donors. In episode five of Finish Strong, we take some pressure off: you don't have to win Giving Tuesday. You have to decide what it's for, and then do that one thing well.

In this episode you'll learn how to:

See Giving Tuesday honestly. Most of the people who give to you that day already know you.
Choose one of three ways to play it: go all in with a launch, focus on one narrow goal like new monthly donors, or skip the ask and send gratitude.
Run a four-touch plan if you're going all in: a preview the week before, a morning launch, an afternoon progress update, and an evening last call.
Let a few board members carry part of the day with personal texts to friends who trust them.
Win the day after: thank every donor within 48 hours, report the total honestly, and protect your December 31 giving.
Use AI to draft board messages that sound like each board member, not like your organization.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry is a fictional organization, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize it. On a day full of noise, the warmest message your donors get can be yours.

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[Year-end] Episode 4: Your Year-End Email Calendar

Season 6 · Episode 4

Thursday, October 29, 2026 • Duration 18:41

Last year, Dana was at her kitchen table at 9:30 on the night of December 18, writing an email that had to go out at eight the next morning. This year she's writing that email in the first week of November, when she's rested and has time to think. In episode four of Finish Strong, we build your email calendar from November 1 through midnight on December 31, so your donors hear from you when they're ready to give.

In this episode you'll learn how to:

Get past the fear of "too much email." Most organizations email too little, and donors who are ready to give need a reminder.
Plan four phases: echoing the letter in early November, the Giving Tuesday run-up, December 2 through Christmas, and the final week.
Write about twenty emails in a few batches instead of one at a time in December.
Mix five types of email (story, impact update, match countdown, thank-you, and last call) so twenty emails don't feel like twenty asks.
Stop asking once someone gives, and move them to a thank-you track.
Write versions for monthly donors and lapsed donors, and keep the real ask for top donors personal.
Get the mechanics right: send from a real person, keep it plain, use one clear link, and make sure your donation page works on a phone.
Use AI to draft from your letter and calendar, then edit every line by hand.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry is a fictional organization, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize it. Every email is a chance to show your donors what their generosity is already doing.

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[Year-end] Episode 3: One Person, One Problem, One Gift

Season 6 · Episode 3

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 • Duration 18:50

Dana's first draft of the year-end letter opened with "Riverbend Community Food Pantry is pleased to share" and a number about pounds of food. It was accurate, and it wasn't going to move anyone sitting at a kitchen table with a stack of mail. In episode three of Finish Strong, we rebuild the letter, the backbone of your whole campaign, around one simple idea: one person, one problem, one gift.

In this episode you'll learn how to:

Use the shape of a strong appeal: one person, the problem, the donor as the solution, the offer, the deadline, and a P.S. that restates the ask.
Choose whose story to tell, get written permission, and tell it with dignity instead of pity.
Write to one donor: more "you," short paragraphs, plain words, and a reply card that matches the letter.
Turn one letter into four versions for top donors, lapsed donors, monthly donors, and new donors.
Time it right: in mailboxes before Thanksgiving, then a shorter second letter in early December that announces the match.
Use AI as your editor, not your author.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry, and Tanya's story, are fictional, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize them. When your letter is about one person and what your donor can do for her, the donor gets to be the hero.

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[Year-end] Episode 2: Build an Offer Donors Can Finish

Season 6 · Episode 2

Monday, October 26, 2026 • Duration 17:33

Dana laid last year's year-end letter on Marcus's desk. Across the top it said, "Help us fight hunger in our community." She asked him one question: "If you got this in the mail, how much would you give?" He honestly didn't know. In episode two of Finish Strong, we turn a sincere slogan into a real offer, one your donors can picture, afford, and finish.

In this episode you'll learn how to:

Build an offer with four parts: a specific need, a price, an outcome, and a deadline. For Riverbend, that's "Keep the shelves full in January. Forty dollars gives a family a week of groceries."
Create an offer ladder where every gift level is tied to its own outcome, plus a monthly option.
Start each donor's ask near their last gift, even with a basic donor database.
Use a simple one-to-one match. Research by Karlan and List found that announcing a match raised giving, and bigger ratios did no better than one-to-one.
Find a match from your board, a top donor, or a local business, and hear what that ask meeting actually sounds like.
Run your match honestly: launch it on Giving Tuesday, be clear about the terms, and never fake one.
Use AI to brainstorm offer lines, then pick the one a donor could repeat to a friend.

Riverbend Community Food Pantry is a fictional organization, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize it. When you give donors a job they can finish, you let them be the hero of the story.

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[Year-end] Episode 1: Start with the Math

Season 6 · Episode 1

Friday, October 23, 2026 • Duration 16:44

It's the first week of October, and Dana at Riverbend Community Food Pantry has last year's $210,000 total on one side of her screen and a blank year-end calendar on the other. In this first episode of Finish Strong, a seven-part series on your year-end campaign, we help her answer the question every executive director asks: "What's our number this year?"

Your year-end goal is a math problem before it's a writing problem. In this episode you'll learn how to:

Break last year's October–December giving into donor segments and find three numbers for each: how many, what share gave, and how much.
Build a goal from the ground up (donors × response rate × average gift) so you can show your board where every dollar comes from.
Find the money already in your file: lapsed donors who said yes once, and monthly donors who are glad to be invited into something important.
Test your plan against your real capacity using three anchor dates: the letter in mailboxes by mid-November, Giving Tuesday on December 1, and the final days of December.
Use AI to do the segment math and stress-test your goal, with donor contact information removed first.

Riverbend is a fictional organization, but if you've worked at a small nonprofit, you'll recognize it. Your donors are ready to be generous this season. A clear plan helps you give them the chance.

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Nonprofit Answers: Nonprofit Fundraising, Marketing, Monthly Giving - Details, episodes & analysis

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Nonprofit Answers: Nonprofit Fundraising, Marketing, Monthly Giving - Details, episodes & analysis

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