Donor Growth

If you’ve ever dreamed of starting a business that serves the nonprofit sector, but you’re not sure what business to start…well, we don’t either.

But on today’s podcast, we discuss a few ideas.

From print-on-demand services and no-code CRM tools, to fundraising venture capital and a marketplace for fundraising-specific tasks, Louis and Mike share some businesses they wish existed.

And, who knows? Maybe it’ll inspire you to start one.


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. 

What is "funnel hacking" in the context of fundraising?

In business, funnel hacking is the process of reverse-engineering the marketing and sales strategies of other organizations to understand what works and what doesn't.

But in the context of fundraising, it simply means to study the fundraising activities of other nonprofits, often as a donor, to gain insights into their strategies—and learn from them.

We get into analyzing ads, direct mail, emails, funders, partnerships, financials, job postings and a whole lot more.

But to be clear, this is NOT about simply copying tactics. It’s about trying to to get a clearer picture about WHY organizations are choosing those tactics in the first place—and trying to understand if that strategy is working for them.

Hint: want to know the best funnel hacking method of all time? Call the fundraiser at the org whose fundraising efforts you’re studying, and just ask them. Chances are, they’ll be thrilled to know somebody took notice.


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 donors really hate overhead? Or does it mean more to us than to the general public?

Today, we’re sharing some information that changed the way we think about overhead.

We think you’ll find it compelling.

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. 

1. Thank donors quickly—and thank them well.
2. Pick up the phone.
3. Ask for advice and feedback.
4. Report back on their specific gift.
5. Create an onboarding journey that provides something emotionally valuable, focuses on making donors feel seen and heard, and leads to a 2nd gift conversion
6. Upgrade donors to monthly giving.
7. Make monthly giving the default


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. 

Like any powerful fundraising tool, surveys can be both your best and your worst idea.
They are a fantastic way to make people feel seen and valued…

… unless you ignore the results, ask transactional questions that put people in the wrong frame of mind for philanthropy, and confuse everyone in your organization by taking the results too literally.

In today’s episode, Louis goes over a framework to help you design and follow up on surveys to maximize your fundraising results.

(We’ll try to avoid mentioning ChatGPT, procurement, and the Czech Republic but can’t make promises!)

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. 

Many nonprofits chase the elusive pursuit of “scale.”

More donors. More revenue. More budget. More growth.

We’re all for growth. After all, this is the Donor GROWTH podcast.
 
But the truth is, often times acquiring more donors is mostly an exercise in optics. Big numbers look good; but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily meaningful.
 
In fact, you can do a lot with just 1,000 donors.
 
On today’s episode, Mike and Louis take the “1,000 true fans” theory developed by Kevin Kelly and apply it to growing your fundraising.

They get into:
Why retained donors > new donors How 1,000 donors can support a $5m budget How to build a donor base of 1,000 donors


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’re still feeding ChatGPT generic and simple prompts, chances are you’re getting generic results. Commodity content.
There’s a better way.
But you’ve got to trick ChatGPT a little bit.
On today’s episode, Louis and Mike walk through a few hacks to get better results when playing with ChatGPT.

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. 

It’s about time we introduced ourselves.
 
On today’s show, we’re telling you the dark business secrets of how Mike is building his fundraising agency.
 
We get into: 

• Why build a direct response agency—and the pitfalls of direct response.
• The difference between having a “practice” and having a “business”.
• When it makes sense to hire a fundraising agency, and when it makes to do it all in-house.
• Creating a coaching program to help small shops

…and a lot more.

Come along for the ride!

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. 

It’s about time we introduced ourselves. 

On today’s show, we’re telling you the dark business secrets of how Louis is building the Donor Participation Project and DPP Consulting.

From how he started a booking service for Jazz musicians, to creating a series of experiments in network building—you’ll see how everything Louis tried and failed prepared him to successfully grow DPP to over 3,500 members. 

We get into: 

• How DPP got started
• How to attract your first 1,000 true believers
• The difference between building an audience and building a community
• The problems Louis is now solving for growth-minded nonprofits

Come along for the ride!

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. 

How can we reward fundraisers for their performance—without paying a commission on funds raised?
 
How about everyone else working in fundraising operations, from database managers to other crucial admin roles?
 
Is there an ethical way to provide incentives for our team?
There are no easy answers, but this is a conversation we need to start having more and more.

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.