Planned giving does not have to be complicated OR expensive, and you don’t need an estate attorney to get started. What if your nonprofit already has planned giving prospects sitting inside your donor database, but you just haven’t asked them yet?

Tony Martignetti worked with a historical society who mailed just 250 people about planned giving. SIX donors responded that they had already included the organization in their wills!

We talk about how Tony built St. John’s University’s planned giving program to $20 million, why your best prospects are often your most loyal long-term donors, and why he recommends starting with donors around age 55-60+ and older. And yes, monthly donors absolutely belong in this conversation. Someone who has supported your organization month after month for years can make an incredible planned giving prospect.

Resources & Links

Connect with Tony on LinkedIn, tune in to his podcast Nonprofit Radio, and learn more Planned Giving Accelerated.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

If you've ever wondered what's possible with zero full-time paid staff and zero development budget, this episode is for you. Magical Creatures Sanctuary is a 100% volunteer-run farmed animal rescue on Hawaii Island that cares for more than 100 rescued animals, and today, 48% of their individual donor revenue comes from recurring gifts, with an 83% donor retention rate.

Executive Director Jill Vanderhoef joins me to break down their Adopt a Magical Creature sponsorship program and how even a $5 monthly gift can create meaningful stability.

Plus, Jill shares EXACTLY what’s working for them on Instagram and TikTok and why emotional connection, before-and-after storytelling, and paying attention to the questions your audience is already asking can help create content that brings supporters closer to your mission.

Resources & Links

Learn more about Magical Creatures Sanctuary and follow them on Instagram and TikTok.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

How do you walk into the end of the year with your monthly giving program finally built? More than HALF of the nonprofit professionals who joined my recent monthly giving webinars either had no recurring giving program or had started one and stalled. 

And after analyzing feedback and behavior from more than 1,000 nonprofit leaders, I found that there are three primary barriers keeping organizations from making recurring giving the front door to fundraising.

I also take you behind the scenes of how I use Claude and MCP connectors to analyze webinar registrations, purchasing behavior, and participant feedback in a single afternoon. Plus, why another webinar, workbook, or framework won’t solve the problem unless it helps your team produce the actual program name, landing page copy, email sequence, and board-ready plan.

Resources & Links

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

August is Black Philanthropy Month, so consider today’s episode the kickoff! Kaci Patterson has helped raise and leverage more than $86 million for Black-led organizations. 

As the founder of Social Good Solutions and the Black Equity Collective, she joins me to get into their incredible study. 220 Black-led nonprofits across California created more than 4,000 jobs and generated over $335 MILLION in salaries. These organizations are powerhouse economic engines, truly driving critical work in health, safety, and racial justice.

Kaci also shares how legacy can be a filter for which opportunities to say yes to, why funders must model the collaboration they ask nonprofits to practice, and how both sides can become values-based partners in community co-design.

Resources & Links

Connect with Kaci on LinkedIn and learn more about Social Good Solutions and Black Equity Collective.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

Shilpa Alva is on a mission to fix one of the world’s most fundamental problems: the fact that hundreds of millions of people don’t have access to safe, clean water.

Surge for Water is a women-led nonprofit that went from a nights-and-weekends passion project into a global organization delivering clean water, sanitation, hygiene, and women’s health solutions. And after operating across 12 countries and reaching hundreds of thousands of people, Shilpa shares why the organization has shifted its focus from chasing the biggest numbers to demonstrating deeper, community-owned impact.

We talk about the business principles Shilpa carried from chemical engineering and corporate leadership into the nonprofit sector, why her board encouraged her to become a more visible speaker and advocate, how media appearances build credibility even when the ROI is difficult to isolate, and why nonprofit leaders should begin telling their stories long before they feel fully ready.

Resources & Links

Connect with Shilpa on LinkedIn and learn more about Surge for Water on their website.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

Most nonprofits start with the tools. The better question is, what’s the scalable opportunity technology can solve so your team can stay focused on the human interactions that matter most?

With 1 in 2 people impacted by cancer in their lifetime, Mike Osborne and his team at Cancer Council Victoria are applying that thinking to one of their biggest pressure points: freeing up counselors from digging through systems so they can stay present and support more people in less time.

Mike also reveals research-backed hot takes on AI-generated search summaries, and why teens are more likely to open up to a chatbot than talk to an adult.

Resources & Links

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn and learn more about Cancer Council Victoria on their website.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

Way too much of our human capacity is spent on tasks that DON’T require human empathy. That’s how Tim Bachta from Children International is thinking about growth as his team works to expand from 220,000 to 275,000 children served.

Tim shares how his team is using Microsoft Copilot to eliminate the manual work that’s been slowing them down (like letter translation processes that once took months, to systems running in DAYS!) so their staff can focus on building relationships and supporting families.

This episode is a powerful look at what happens when you stop asking, “how can we use AI?!” and start asking where your team’s time is being wasted and who your champions are to help drive change.

Resources & Links

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn and learn more about Children International on their website.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

What does the latest recurring giving data actually tell us? In this special State of Recurring Giving episode, three leaders from CharityEngine, GivingTuesday Data Commons, and World Central Kitchen are joining me to unpack the latest recurring giving benchmarks AND one of the most compelling monthly giving case studies of the year.

Together, we're exploring the trends shaping recurring giving today, why monthly donors generate nearly 3x the annual value of one-time donors, and how World Central Kitchen turned 2,800 new monthly donors into an estimated $6 million in lifetime value with their Kitchen Core monthly giving program.

Resources & Links

A special thank you to CharityEngine for making this quarter's State of Recurring Giving webinar possible.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

Did you know 92% of donors say giving is part of who they are? And that 94% say they're MORE motivated to give when they know exactly where their money will go?

Today I'm doing one of my favorite things – diving into the data and research from Bloomerang's 2026 Giving Signals Report, and sharing the major opportunity gaps every nonprofit should be paying attention to. Generosity isn't disappearing, but it's becoming much more intentional!

This episode is packed with several high-impact changes that can help you remove friction, strengthen donor relationships, and increase giving.

Resources & Links

Check out Bloomerang’s latest research in their 2026 Giving Signals Report.

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

With AI adoption exploding, what does that actually mean for how you grow your team, your donors, and your impact?

Naria Santa Lucia brought SO much energy and joy to her MC role at the Microsoft Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit, that I had to sit down with her to hear how nonprofit leaders can build practical pathways for using AI in their day-to-day work and cut through the hype.

Naria also brings a perspective every nonprofit needs to hear: take the big swing, stay true to your mission, and don’t pivot just to chase funding. When you focus on real impact (and communicate it clearly!) you’ll draw the right supporters in.

Resources & Links

Connect with Naria Santa Lucia on LinkedIn and learn more about Microsoft Elevate here.

Not sure where to start in building your program? Start with this $5 audit to know where your gap is. Takes 5-10 minutes max, and you'll know where to start --> Monthly Giving Interactive Audit 

This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.

With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!

Let's Connect!

• Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
• My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
• Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!