Donor Growth

We're all told to remove as much friction as possible from the giving experience to make it easy for donors to be generous. 

But what if not all friction is bad friction? 

What if the right kind of friction actually creates affection, and develops a deeper relationship?

On today's episode, Louis talks about the difference between bad friction and good friction—including some specific cases like friction in direct mail to friction in major giving.

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. 

Here's a familiar story.  

A charity looks for a “rainmaker” —a fundraiser who is so charming, so outgoing, and so cunning that they will bring in millions.

Or a nonprofit seeks out a star marketer who will take their message to the next level, and bring a flash of inspiration to the team for a viral digital campaign. 

But what if transformational fundraising isn’t about the one-in-a-million person? 

Or idea? 

Or advertising campaign? 

What if transformational and sustainable fundraising growth is a function of process. 

On today's podcast, Mike and Louis get into developing a process to fund the entire pipeline from first time giver to legacy leaver, and committing to that process so that revenue growth comes out the other side. 

Because maybe revenue growth—for the most part—isn’t feats of genius, works of magic, or flashes of inspiration. But a product of process.

And a consistent process = consistent progress. 

And consistent progress compounds over time.

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. 

On today's show, Louis and Mike answer some questions posted on The Ask—the new Q&A platform launched by the Donor Participation Project. 

We get into:

• The ideal format for donor surveys
• How to ensure fundraising campaigns are accessible 
• Ideas for post-campaign kickoff outreach for non-attendees 

...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. 

Have you ever played The Game of Constraints? 

On today's episode, Mike walks through a fun exercise to play with your team where you imagine a scenario that might seem impossible or unlikely.

Then you brainstorm as many ways as possible to overcome the problem.

You’ll be surprised how quickly you can free your mind from thinking:

• “We can’t do that!” to
• “This is tough, but maybe not impossible” to
• “Here’s one way we could respond that would solve the problem”

It’s a great way for your organization to uncover (quickly, in our experience) actions you can take with your existing budget to help you raise more money and keep more of your donors.

You can have a lot of fun playing these games and stretching your imagination. But you’ll also feel energized about the opportunities ahead.

You’ll also be more confident in your ability to solve potential problems. And you’ll identify where you are weak today, so you can become more resilient for tomorrow.

Think of the exercise as making your fundraising healthier & more robust and increasing your organization’s immunity to difficulties.

Ready to play some games?

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. 

You've heard the saying: ask the right people, for the right thing, at the right time. 

But what does that look like in practice? 

On today's podcast, Louis gets into a framework he created to ask donors for the right things.

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. 

"Donor relations is the new fundraising."

Agree or disagree?

On today's podcast, we invite you to consider the following: every enduring business and organizations grows through word of mouth.

And how do you generate positive word of mouth?

By treating your donors well, making them feel valued, and showing impact.

Other than starting a solicitation program that didn't exist before, investing in donor relations is—often times—the greatest growth opportunity for nonprofits.

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. 

Here’s a common pain point for many fundraising leaders: we’re spending too much time on the operations of the shop, and not enough time connecting with donors. 

But there is a way to reclaim some time. 

It’s not sexy. It’s not glamorous. It’s kind of a pain to implement at first. It’s for sure never a priority.

But it will—in the long term—make your life and your work so much more effective.  

And that’s standardizing our operations with a series of SOPs, trainings, FAQs, templates and systems. 

Think of it as building an operating system for your fundraising operations.

Here’s what each element of the operating system looks like:

1. SOPs are standardized operating procedures. They show you what to do. Usually a step by step instruction, or a checklist. Most nonprofits probably have a basic 30-50 SOPs they could create today that are the core of their revenue ops.
   
   
2. Trainings show you how to think. They are usually a slide decks, videos, PDFs, courses or even books. 
   
   
3. An FAQ knowledge base helps you avoid wasting time and answering the same questions over and over. A good FAQ base empowers your team to find answers quickly without getting bottle-necked by the leader.
   
   
4. Templates show you how to work. A good template library is a giant shortcut so you don’t start from scratch every time.
   
   
5. A project management  system houses everything in one spot. Usually some sort of took like Airtable,  Asana, ClickUp, Monday.com or even Google Sheets.

Combined, this operating system will become the brain of your operations.

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

What do successful fundraisers have in common?

Louis and Mike share some traits they observed in their mentors over the years.

Successful fundraisers:

1. Obsess about being as clear, simple, straightforward and plain-spoken as possible. They know that’s a service to their team mates and their donors. 
   
   
2. Obsess about what their community of donors and supporters cares about.
   
   
3. Take full responsibility if people didn’t react to the message or approach, and then work better at understanding the audience/donors to frame the offer in a more relevant and meaningful way 
   
   
4. Lead donors toward greater generosity by using emotional information and creating personal meaning 
   
   
5. Cross “the knowledge gap” by meeting donors exactly where they’re at, using words and phrases and stories donors can easily and quickly understand 
   
   
6. Make some assumptions about human nature and psychology, but are innately curious about what their donors specifically care about 
   
   
7. Spend a lot of time hanging out in places where they can get insights about their donors (front desk, donor care department, making an effort to talk with donors at events, reading the reply coupons, etc.) 

What would you add to the list? 

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

Two thirds of people in the US play video games.

And if that isn't surprising enough, games and streamers raise millions of dollars for nonprofits every year.

Could your organization benefit from this highly participatory, grass-roots, community-building type of fundraising?

On today's show, Louis gives a primer on the world of gaming, esports, streaming—and how it all ties back to philanthropy.

And you'll hear about the National Videogaming Giving Day, a way to showcase your nonprofit, engage your community, and attract diverse groups to your org.

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

Ever look back on your career and evaluate how you might do things differently knowing what you know now? 

On this week's episode, Louis and Mike reflect on over a decade of being fundraisers and what each of them would do differently if they were starting over today.

Things like...

• Focusing more on the strength of the relationship with donors rather than getting all the technical details just right
• Focusing more on gathering insights directly from donors in a systematic way to shape fundraising messaging and strategy
• Realizing you are the CEO of you
• Being in the room when budgeting happens 
• Seeking out mentors who are a few steps ahead in their career

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