Purpose & Profit Club® – The Nonprofit Fundraising & Marketing Podcast

Last week, I told you to ignore one piece of year-end advice: making monthly giving your year-end strategy. This episode is the why.

I love monthly giving; our clients have built programs with 100, 200, even 400 active monthly donors. But making it the centerpiece of your November and December campaign is the wrong move for most nonprofits. In this episode, I do the math on what that choice can cost you. I share the question a client brought to coaching after a road trip deep dive into monthly giving. I also walk through the latest data from Bloomerang, M+R, and Fundraise Up on what donors actually do in December. Plus, I answer the “yeah, but” I hear from boards, EDs, and CFOs, and explain when monthly giving should be your big ask.

Topics:

• Why I love monthly giving and still wouldn’t make it the centerpiece of your year-end campaign
• The simple math question that changes how you think about recurring revenue in December
• How a monthly ask can quietly downgrade the gift a donor was ready to make
• Why you can’t brand your way out of a fundraising problem
• What millions of transactions reveal about how donors want to give in December
• How to answer your board, ED, or CFO when they push for more recurring revenue
• When to launch a monthly giving campaign so it actually works

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Between now and December 31, you’ll get more fundraising advice than at any other time of year: from your board, your inbox, LinkedIn, and that one org that raised $50K and wants to tell you how. Most of it sounds smart, but some of it will quietly cost you momentum, money, and time.

In this episode, I walk through six pieces of year-end fundraising advice I’d ignore. One sounds like the most responsible thing you could do. Another is something I love, and I’d still tell most of you to skip it this year. I explain why adding a new tactic can hurt a campaign that’s already working. I also explain why “quality over quantity” is a false choice for your year-end emails (one executive director sent 33 emails and raised 80% more in two weeks). Plus: why you shouldn’t stop asking donors who already gave, and why neither Giving Tuesday nor monthly giving should carry your whole year-end. I also share the one question to ask before you add any new idea: Is this solving a revenue problem or soothing our anxiety?

Topics:

• Why the biggest threat to your year-end campaign might be a good idea
• The year-end advice that sounds the most responsible, and what it can quietly cost you
• What 33 emails and 80% more raised in two weeks reveal about donor fatigue
• The “kind” fundraising habit that may be costing you major gifts
• Where Giving Tuesday really fits in your year-end strategy
• The strategy I love that I’d still tell most nonprofits to skip this year
• The one question to ask before adding anything new to your year-end plan

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Somewhere in your donor file, there’s a group of people that’s been labeled “mail-only.” Nobody tested it, so it just became the rule.

In this episode, I explain why that assumption costs you revenue, especially going into year-end. I share what happened when one of my club clients added email to an established direct mail program. Donors weren’t annoyed, and more gifts came in than mail alone could have produced. I also walk through the latest data from the 2026 M+R Benchmarks, Bloomerang’s Giving Signals report, and NextAfter. Email grew 16%, 69% of donors say email is their preferred channel, and nonprofits raise 30–40% of their online revenue in December alone. If your mail list and your email list barely talk to each other, this one is for you.

Topics:

• Why mail and email get siloed by accident, and how that accident starts to feel like a rule nobody questioned
• The real math: for every $1 nonprofits raise online, they raise $0.66 through direct mail. Both channels drive real revenue, and both are growing
• Why "our audience doesn't respond to email" is almost never a channel problem; it's a content and cadence problem

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

No one works in this sector because they feel lukewarm about the mission. So where does all that belief go when it's time to ask for money?

In this episode, I'm talking about the fight, the nerve, the conviction, the inner fire that brought you into this work, and what happens to it over time. For newer fundraisers, fear sounds like "I don't know what to say." For established leaders, it sounds like donor-centric stewardship, more data, more awareness, not the right time. It speaks fluent nonprofit, and it's just as expensive. I share what it looks like when an organization has an espresso mission and decaf fundraising, why revenue is always a lagging indicator, and what it actually means to fight for your donors' yes before they've had the chance to give it. 

I also share what we do inside The Purpose & Profit Club® to reconnect leaders with that fight, and point it somewhere productive.

Topics:

• Why the fight that got you into the sector goes lukewarm, and what it costs when it does
• How fear gets a very good nonprofit vocabulary in established organizations, and how to recognize it
• Why revenue is a lagging indicator, and what it means to act before you have proof it will work
• The difference between rejecting yourself on the donor's behalf and giving them the chance to say yes
• Why fundraising and communications working in silos is killing donations, and what integration actually looks like
• What The Purpose & Profit Club® does differently, and who it's built for

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Mars Sailors joined my coaching program, The Purpose & Profit Club®, as a graphic designer and marketing manager, not a fundraiser. The work already included telling the story of The Source LGBT+ Center across communications, social media, and email. What changed was learning how to connect those dots to donors.

In this conversation, Mars shares how that mindset shift turned into a first full SPRINT™ campaign: a Give Out Day fundraiser that raised $16,000, exceeded a $15K goal, included a $5,000 match, and brought in 100+ donors.

Mars also shares the story behind the Build to Belong capital campaign, which has raised nearly $700,000 toward a $1 million Phase One goal to secure a permanent home for LGBTQ+ people in California’s Central Valley.

This one is for every communicator, designer, or marketing manager who’s been handed fundraising responsibilities and isn’t sure they belong there. You do.

Topics:

• How Mars reframed fundraising as a communications discipline, and why the stories he was already telling were halfway to a donor ask
• The Give Out Day campaign: a $5K match, 100+ donors, and exceeding a $15K goal with a campaign built around "Pride doesn't end in June"
• What it felt like to send that last email and have two donors independently close the $1,000 gap at the same time
• The Build to Belong capital campaign: $700K raised, a campus purchased, and belonging framed as infrastructure
• Fundraising in a politically turbulent climate, and why The Source doubles down instead of going dark
• Being named a PR Daily finalist alongside Make-A-Wish, Guide Dogs for the Blind, and MD Anderson

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Most established nonprofits aren't stuck because they're not working hard enough. They're stuck because they run fundraising like separate projects, not one connected operation.

In this episode, I walk through seven signs your fundraising isn't compounding, why that disconnection is the slowest path to millions, and why it's also the fastest path to burnout. I also share what one client did differently that led to $50,000 more across their digital campaigns (no new channels, no additional budget). The only change was connecting their communications strategy to their fundraising. If you have the pieces and they're still not working together the way they should, this one is for you.

Topics:

• Why fundraising runs like separate projects (not one connected operation) creates a revenue ceiling even for established organizations
• How adding more channels, events, and campaigns without optimizing what already exists keeps organizations stuck at the same level
• Why isolated wins don't compound, and what a repeatable, buildable result actually looks like
• The hidden cost of hiring execution before shared strategy is in place
• What the compounding path actually looks like, and how one client raised $50K more simply by connecting their communications to their fundraising
• Why the slowest path to millions is also the fastest path to burnout, and how to break the cycle

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

What happens when a former midnight-shift postal worker with zero nonprofit background builds a health organization by ignoring every rule she never bothered to read?

In this episode, I sit down with Kathy Ruiz-Carter, co-founder and Executive Director of the Lichen Sclerosus Support Network, for one of the most energizing client spotlight conversations I've recorded. Kathy sent 33 emails for her sixth annual summit, kept unsubscribes under 1%, and nearly doubled revenue to $29K with the exact same audience as the year before. Her organization has grown 30-50% year over year. She raised $1,000 in seven minutes from a single emergency email. And she built all of it while working solo, serving a community that deals with a deeply personal and stigmatized health condition. We dig into how she thinks about email as a daily conversation rather than a campaign tool, why she stopped feeling guilty about asking her patients to donate, how AI collapsed her timeline and dramatically changed her results, and why leaving the nonprofit marketing rulebook behind was the best thing she never did.

P.S. If you're ready to grow the way Kathy has, The Purpose & Profit Club® is where we do this work together. Go to splendidatl.com/start to learn more.

Topics:

• From monthly newsletter to daily emails: why more frequency means more revenue, not more unsubscribes
• Asking patients and service recipients to be donors, and why the guilt around this is costing organizations real money
• How AI collapsed her summit timeline and helped her go from $16K to $29K with the same audience
• Why radical financial transparency builds more donor trust than any campaign strategy
• The e-commerce and customer service mindset that outperformed the nonprofit playbook every time
• The emergency email that raised $1,000 in seven minutes, and what it proves about community trust

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Most nonprofit founders and leaders think DIYing their fundraising is the responsible choice. It feels like smart budgeting and being resourceful, but it quietly costs the organization more than any support ever would.

In this episode, I share why free fundraising advice, AI-generated campaigns, and trial-and-error in front of donors aren't savings; they're expenses that never appear on a budget line. I walk through what DIY fundraising actually costs in time, momentum, donor relationships, and delayed campaigns, and share stories from clients like Mary who went from raising just $3,000 in her year-end to multi-five-figures with one change. You’ll hear about Sophia and Jamie who canceled a gala and raised $20,000 in one simple online campaign, and why investing in a proven system is the fastest path to your first $250K, $500K, and beyond in unrestricted individual donations.

Topics:

• Why DIY fundraising costs more than it saves: in time, donor relationships, and revenue never raised
• The "we can't afford support" loop and why it keeps organizations stuck at the same funding level year after year
• Why AI is making it easier to produce more mediocre fundraising, not better fundraising
• Mary's story: from a $3K year-end campaign to $12K after joining The SPRINT Method™
• Why my clients canceled a gala, raised $20K in weeks, with less work, less overhead, and a lot more fun
• What investing in a fundraising system actually gives you: accountability, community, expert feedback, and a repeatable process

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Dina Besic started Maxwell's Toy Box because her two-year-old son Max wanted a train table in his oncology playroom. Three years later, while working a demanding full-time corporate job, raising two kids, and navigating Max's cancer treatment, she built an organization that has supported over 5,000 children, donated $9,100 directly to families, delivered 8,500 toys, and created 4,064 joy packages for children receiving chemotherapy… and she doubled her fundraising year over year with the support of The SPRINT Method™.

In this episode, Dina shares how she got out of her own way, moved from begging friends and family to running peer-to-peer campaigns and securing corporate sponsorships, and shifted her donors from giving physical toys to unrestricted cash donations. We also talk about the identity shift that changed everything, and what she would tell the version of herself who was terrified to ask.

Topics:

• How 108 donated toys grew into an organization serving thousands of children and families 
• Moving supporters from donating physical toys to giving dollars the organization can put to work 
• How peer-to-peer fundraising opened the door to corporate sponsorships and new donor acquisition
• Getting out of draft mode when you’re the founder, fundraiser, marketer, and decision-maker
• What doubling fundraising looks like when you have a full-time job, two kids, and a nonprofit to run

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Most nonprofit leaders don't have a strategy problem. They have a complexity problem.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the 5 signs your fundraising campaign has gotten too complicated to actually launch, and what to do instead. From planning that never ends, to waiting for the perfect story, to campaigns so exhausting that nobody wants to do them again, these are the patterns I see most often in small and solo-led organizations (and every single one of them is fixable!). If your campaigns feel like a production, if your board needs to approve every subject line, or if the last fundraiser left your team too tired to run another one, this episode will show you exactly what's getting in the way and how to get out of your own way before year-end arrives.

Topics:

• Why planning can quietly replace actual fundraising
• What happens when you build the graphics before the message is clear
• How too many opinions weaken the campaign
• Why waiting for the perfect story keeps you stuck
• The sign that your campaign is too exhausting to repeat

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here. 

Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?

Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.

Submit yours at splendidatl.com/ask

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator   
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers 
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter  
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links