The Build Good Fundraising Podcast

Today we’re launching the Build Good Summit, and introducing the first speaker—Nathan Hill from NextAfter.

Nathan and the NextAfter team recently analyzed how the fundraising of 211 nonprofits impacts donor retention.

And in today’s chat, he’s sharing 3 key things you can do to retain more donors—backed by research and actual donor data.

If you want to get fresh ideas to grow your revenue—and get together with other fundraisers who are doing interesting and innovative things to draw donors closer in to the mission—join ust at the Build Good Summit on May 22-23, 2025 in Toronto.

You’ll hear from fundraising innovators who’ll focus on practical examples to grow your fundraising—stuff that’s actually working right now to help some of the most innovative nonprofits grow.

You can get your tickets now at www.buildgoodsummit.com 

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

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#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Today, BuildGood’s resident fundraising copywriter delivers a masterclass in how to craft fundraising copy that leads people toward greater generosity. 

Hannah Vermeer gets into simple, easy and effective ways you can change the words you use in your fundraising—and changing the words you use is free. It costs you nothing.  

Whether it’s making your donor feel like they have an important and meaningful role to play, or crafting copy that’s easy to read and emotionally resonant, you’ll walk away with actionable insights to improve your copy immediately.

If you want to create compelling, heartfelt, and effective fundraising copy, this episode is for you.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

If you’re tired of riding the revenue rollercoaster—where your nonprofit’s cash flow is always dependent on a few key fundraising campaigns during the year— your big opportunity is building a strong monthly giving program

Growing recurring giving not only smoothes out your cash flow year round, it also increases the lifetime giving of your donors. And it’s a direct pipeline to mid-level, major and legacy gifts.

But building a strong monthly giving program requires some thought and care. 

You can’t just build it and expect people to come.

That’s why we’re talking to Dave Raley from Imago Consulting on the podcast today. He’s been building monthly giving programs for almost two decades. And he’s writing the book on it. 

On today’s chat, Dave goes through 8 crucial steps to building a monthly giving program that will actually become a valuable asset for your organization.

In our chat, we get into:

• The 3 kinds of monthly giving programs
• The problem most nonprofits face when designing a monthly giving program
• Everything you need to take into consideration before launching a program
• How to name your program
• How to structure the offer and value proposition 
• How to recruit donors to join the monthly giving program 

To learn more about Dave and his work, you can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

“Always be testing”. That’s popular fundraising advice. 

After all, the only way to get new insights to grow your fundraising is to try new stuff, test, iterate and optimize.  

But how do you decide what to test? How do you set up a proper A/B test?  And how do you make sure you learn something meaningful from it? 

That’s what we get into in today's chat with Ronen Tal, the Director of Integrated Marketing and Fundraising at Nature Conservancy of Canada. He stewards a donor file of 40,000 donors contributing more than $10m in revenue each year. And he’s always testing new approaches to grow generosity. 

In our chat we get into:

• How to decide what to test 
• Why you need a testing hypothesis—and how to create one 
• The difference between trying new stuff and A/B testing
• How to run successful A/B tests
• How to interpret results to find actual insights 

To learn more about Ronen and his work, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.


—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Social media isn’t working for most nonprofits.

If you’re watching your engagement drop while spending hours on content creation, you're likely about ready to give up on social media for good.

And no one would blame you.

That’s why we’re continuing our series on new donor acquisition by talking about these challenges head-on.

We’re talking to Brynne Krispin from Cause Fokus about how to tap into the power of empathy to actually find supporters online through social media.

In our chat, we get into: 

• The challenges of using social media for fundraising
• Realistic (and unrealistic) expectations from organic content
• Incorporating empathy into your fundraising campaigns

Brynne is a social media strategist for nonprofits and purpose-driven executives. Working with NGOs, thought leaders, and policymakers in DC for the last decade, she specializes in getting people to care about complex issues that might otherwise get ignored. 

Her team at Cause Fokus uses empathy-based marketing to turn passive audiences into loyal advocates

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

In our ongoing series on new donor acquisition, we’re talking to one of Canada’s most sought after advertising specialists about how to use Google ads to boost your fundraising. 

Kevin Harwood manages more than $10m in ad spend for nonprofits across North America, and is at the forefront of what is working…and isn’t. 

On today’s show, we get into: 

• How to think about online advertising (hint: it’s not about an immediate return on your investment) 
• What options your nonprofit has when it comes to Google ads (search, display, video)
• How to choose which advertising format makes the most sense for you
• What you can do with a small budget

Kevin runs his own consultancy where he works with some of the biggest nonprofit brands to create advertising that builds trust and long-term donor value.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

We’re continuing our series on new donor acquisition—and today we’re getting into the basics of how you can use the Google Ad Grant to attract potential donors through digital content offers.

The truth is, most nonprofits aren’t taking full advantage of the Google Ad Grant because they don’t know it works, or because they don’t have a clear strategy on how to use it. 

In today’s chat, Chris Barlow gets into everything you need to know to get started with the grant—and he also shares a simple strategy to attract new donors using digital content.  

We get into the 3 key steps for a digital donor growth campaign:

1. Creating a valuable resource for a community that aligns with your mission
2. Getting the resource into donors’ hands using the Google Ad Grant
3. Converting these new relationships into lasting support

Chris is the founder and Customer Happiness Director at Beeeline, a consultancy that specializes in helping nonprofits grow their mission and donor base through digital marketing.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Have you ever used paid Facebook and Instagram ads to support your fundraising? 

Ads can supercharge your donor acquisition strategy, but they can also be a little scary if you’re just starting out—and if you’re new to digital marketing.

To continue our series on new donor acquisition, we’re chatting with Dana Snyder from Positive Equation, host of the Missions To Movements podcast and Creator of the Monthly Giving Mastermind. 

Her mission is to equip nonprofits with the knowledge of how to use social media ads to attract potential supporters to their cause and create sustainable giving models by building monthly giving programs for everyone to become a philanthropist.

In our chat, we get into:

• Myths vs. Facts when it comes to paid ads
• How to think about the lifetime value of a donor acquire through ads
• The right way to set up a lead generation campaign using Facebook Ads Manager
• A step-by-step breakdown of how to automate email list growth using an ad strategy

If you’ve never run ads before, or if you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll find useful and valuable advice here.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

So you want to find new donors online?

Then this is a foundational podcast episode for you to listen to.

We’re beginning our series on online new donor acquisition with a master of digital fundraising: Jeff Giddens from NextAfter.

In our chat, we get into: 

• Why sending prospective donors to a donation page might not be effective if you want to actually get a first gift from someone 
• Why trying to understand donors is a better strategy than trying to get them to understand your cause 
• How to think about your new donor acquisition strategy using content offers
• How to find, create and develop content offers prospective donors might actually want to download 
• How to build an effective acquisition funnel 
• How to drive traffic to your funnel using paid ads
• The key metrics you should keep an eye on to begin testing and optimizing your acquisition funnel

Along the way, we also get into how direct mail—and even door to door fundraising!—can influence the way you think about new donor acquisition online.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

You need to retain donors if you want to grow sustainably—but you also need to find new donors. 

It seems simple enough, but we all want to skip to the “growing revenue” part without investing in both acquisition and retention. It doesn’t work. I’ve tried. You need to work on both, consistently and reliably. 

If you’re a listener of this show, you already know that listening to donors, engaging them, asking, celebrating and reporting is the best way to keep more of your donors connected, and giving. 

But how do you acquire those donors in the first place? 

On today’s podcast, we get into the core 4 ways you can use to find new donors. They are 

1. cold outreach
2. warm outreach
3. content and media
4. advertising

None of them are a magic solution that will grow your donor file. Each of them takes work, time, focus, and yes—money. And all of them work together to make your organization known, and to help you earn the trust of prospective donors. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com