The ENGAGE Podcast

Everyone knows about Giving Tuesday, but it’s not the only giving day out there. At this point, a lot of organizations are running their own giving days that have become a part of their regular giving and fundraising programs. Today’s guests, Kelly Cortes of St. Joseph’s College, New York, and Jeffrey Starrett, of Pine Crest School, join the podcast today to talk about how their organizations gave implemented these giving days and what lessons they’ve learned from their giving days.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• Why Kelly’s org decided to have a giving day
• Why Pine Crest School began doing giving days
• How Jeffrey dealt with resistance to the giving day plan
• Lessons that Kelly has learned from her first few giving days
• How the giving days are approached at Jeffrey’s school
• What was different about giving days in 2020
• Feedback about shifting to text and email from phone calls
• Feedback about the use of giving days

Resources:

Kelly Cortes

Jeffrey Starrett

5 Tips for Successful Online Giving Days

Giving Day Toolkit

Quotes: 

“We try to raise about a third of our money in one day now.” –Jeffrey Starrett

“This year, our office, and we’re an office of nine, we did all the texting.” –Jeffrey Starrett

“If we have 90-year-old donors that we have to stay in touch with, we do still do a direct mail campaign and we can keep that piece of it there for them so they can still give in a traditional envelope on giving day.” –Kelly Cortes

Sometimes, change is hard – especially when it seems that there isn’t enough money or other resources to accomplish your organization’s mission. However, by adopting the right mindset, social change leaders can begin to attract more support. That’s where today’s guest comes in.

Nell Edgington is the president of Social Velocity, a management consulting firm for nonprofit organizations, and the author of Reinventing Social Change: Embrace Abundance to Create a Healthier and More Equitable World. She joins the podcast today to discuss moving from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset and what that looks like for social good organizations. Listen in to hear what Nell has to say about why there’s a scarcity mindset in social good organizations, what to do to move to an abundance mindset, and how social change leaders can bring others along into their abundance mindset.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• Why the way we do social change is broken
• Why a scarcity mindset is happening
• How the way leaders are thinking contributes to the broken system
• The steps to adopt an abundance mindset
• How “yet” can help social change leaders think differently
• How leaders can get others to join them on the journey to an abundance mindset
• Examples of moving past scarcity thinking
• Advice for social change leaders looking for a better path

Resources:

Nell Edgington

Reinventing Social Change: Embrace Abundance to Create a Healthier and More Equitable World

Quotes: 

“A scarcity mindset is essentially believing that there’s not enough.”

“That scarcity mindset is itself that’s holding these nonprofit leaders back.”

“A broken system isn’t going to change itself.”

Over the past year, a lot of experts have joined the show to talk about the different ways that social good organizations can respond in the age of COVID-19 to continue their missions and impact. Now that we are almost a year in, what have we learned and how can we retain the new donors we’ve had give to our organizations?

Today, Melissa Bank Stepno, Director of Analytics & Business Consulting Services at Blackbaud, joins the podcast to talk about some lessons we’ve learned from organizations that have been successful with engaging new donors during the pandemic. Listen in to hear Melissa speak with Steve MacLaughlin about why retention matters so much right now, how to successfully leverage personas, what organizations are doing differently from a data and analytic standpoint, and how to cut through the noise and better communicate with donors.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• What Melissa has seen and learned about fundraising over the past few months
• Which sample sets are being looked at and compared
• Donor engagement factors
• What Melissa has seen organizations do from a data and analytic standpoint that’s different from before COVID-19
• How to take advantage of new analytics
• How applying the use of more analytics is a way of leveling up
• How organizations can cut through the noise and communicate with donors
• Choosing messages that resonate with particular groups

Resources:

Melissa Bank Stepno

Supporters in Sight Part 4: A Look at Direct Marketing Personas

The sgENGAGE Podcast Episode 144: Leveraging Personas for Fundraising During COVID-19

Turning Data Into Dollars

Quotes: 

“In some ways, 2020 gave us acquisition by happenstance.”

“Those of us who do appreciate the arts want to make sure that when the world returns to whatever our new normal looks like, those organizations that we supported in the past are still there.”

“I do think I’ve seen a lot of organizations who didn’t have good data and analytics practices realize how critical it is this past year.”

Interpersonal and communications skills are essential skills that are vitally important for achieving success in the workplace. But what are the most important interpersonal skills for the way that most of us are working now? And what are the best practices for communication, especially virtual communication? Today’s episode answers those questions.

Today, you’ll hear from Anne Converse Willkomm, Assistant Dean of the Graduate College at Drexel University, talks about interpersonal skills for today’s changing workplace. Listen in to learn about the five most important interpersonal skills, how they’re related to each other, and how you can build strong communication with colleagues and others.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• The five most essential interpersonal skills to focus on building: Adaptability, Empathy, Creativity, Collaboration, and Brainstorming
• What adaptability really means and how to be more adapatable
• How adaptability can be associated with negative changes
• What empathy is and why it’s needed in the workplace
• Using empathy to encourage others to speak
• Creativity as an offshoot of adaptability
• The relationship between collaboration and brainstorming
• Best practices for virtual brainstorming sessions
• Why you should avoid the word “no”
• Important elements of personal and professional communication
• Best practices for communicating virtually

Resources:

Anne Converse Willkomm

Drexel University Professional Services Blog

Working in a Changing World eBook

Rethinking Change webinar series

Quotes: 

“To be successful in today’s workplace, social professionals like yourselves really need to develop and enhance your interpersonal skills.”

“When we’re open-minded, we can see things more clearly from another perspective – which is really empathy – which often means we can turn something negative into an opportunity.”

“Without empathy, people’s voices are not heard. Resentment can build, dysfunction can set in, and then there’s a loss of productivity.”

There’s no question that online communities are more important than they’ve ever been in the past. These communities can offer real action and tangible support to all types of people who live anywhere in the world.

Today’s guests, Lesley Pinder, Head of Supporter Experience for the British Red Cross and Lucy Caldicott, Founder of ChangeOut, discuss their Facebook group, Fundraising Chat, as an example of community development, the sector supporting each other, and lessons learned. Listen in to learn how they set up the group, how they navigated the rules of the group, and how they’ve continued to grow the community.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• How the Fundraising Chat Facebook group began
• Setting up the ground rules for the group
• Policing the rules in the group
• The limits of an online community like Fundraising Chat
• Cultivating a more international feel in an online community
• The power of Fundraising Chat in connecting people and sharing learnings

Resources:

Lesley Pinder

Lucy Caldicott

Fundraising Chat

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Quotes: 

“The people that we seeded the group with, which wasn’t – in hindsight, we can pretend we were being really strategic – but were people that we knew were already really active on social media and already had really good networks.” – Lesley Pinder

“We’re accidental community managers – Lesley Pinder

“When you’ve got something like George Floyd’s murder and everyone’s talking about that in every other space, it felt completely negligent to not do something in Fundraising Chat.” –Lucy Caldicott

Employees are a business’s most valuable asset, which is why more companies are starting to implement employee relief programs to provide a crucial safety net in times of disaster and hardship.

Holly Welch Stubbing, CEO of E4E Relief, joins the podcast today to discuss the results of E4E Relief’s employee impact survey and why employee relief programs are good for business. Listen in to hear Holly discuss how employee relief funds differ from other charitable efforts, the possible negative consequences for companies that don’t consider the impacts of employee stress, and how companies can start an employee relief program.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• What E4E relief does
• E4E Relief’s Employee Impact Survey
• How employee relief funds are different from other charitable efforts
• Tips for companies that want to start an employee relief fund
• Negative consequences for companies that don’t consider employee stress
• The future of employee relief funds and employee wellness

Resources:

Holly Welch Stubbing

E4E Relief Impact Survey

Quotes: 

“It is not ideal to wait until a disaster strikes.”

“When you’re launching something short-term and long-term, you want to know what your financial implications of that are.”

“I think we’re still trying to get our arms around what the impact is going to be of COVID.”

While lapsed donors are inevitable, there are strategies you can use to both reacquire them and prevent attrition in the first place.

In today’s episode, Stu Manewith, Director of Thought Leadership and Advocacy for Omatic Software and Bailey Benzlé, Director Of Pre-Sales & Sales Enablement for Omatic Software, discuss leveraging data quality and strategic communication to increase the win-back rate. Listen in to hear them talk about how to identify those donors most likely to re-engage and the steps to take to create a successful win-back strategy.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• Lapsed donor definitions and industry standards
• The donors who are prized candidates for giving again
• How to calculate donor attrition
• Information that you need to pull about donors
• How to leverage the data you already have
• Affinity scoring
• Choosing a sample population that reflects the outcome you’re looking for
• Wealth rating scores
• Preventing lapsed donors
• Looking at more than just a donor’s giving history
• Creating a deeper profile understanding that allows a more meaningful relationship
• Data centralization
• Putting individual data point knowledge together to tell a story

Resources:

• Stu Manewith
• Bailey Benzlé
• Whitepaper: Re-engaging Lapsed Donors
• Cloud Integration Solutions - What's the Deal?
• Understanding the Reasons for Nonprofit Donor Churn
• 6 Tactics for Increasing Donor Retention

Quotes:

“I guess we have to understand that lapsed donors are going to happen. They come and they go.” –Stu Manewith

“Look internally and ask yourselves which bucket here you fit in.” –Bailey Benzle

“When resources are limited - time, money, etc. - make sure that you are first targeting the donors that are most likely to re-engage.” –Stu Manewith

Do you know how to not only interpret your organization’s financials, but also how to present them to others as a compelling story that offers transparency and increases donations and impact.

In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Stephanie Skryzowski, founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting, about how to use and communicate your organization’s financials. Listen in to hear what Stephanie has to say about why sharing numbers is important, who needs to know your numbers, and what the best ways are to present your numbers to different audiences.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• Stephanie’s role as a CFO
• Why it’s important to use and share numbers
• Benefits of financial transparency
• How sharing numbers improves relationships with donors
• How to share financials with your board
• How to share numbers with your staff
• Sharing with donors and the public
• Ensuring that you have a strong financial foundation
• Checklist for budgeting best practices
• What reports tell your organization’s story on a monthly basis
• Five financial reports to review every single month
• How your data can be visualized
• Checking performance vs. plan

Resources:

Stephanie Skryzowski

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5 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Financials to Increase Transparency

The Buyer's Guide to Fund Accounting Software

Quotes: 

“As these organizations are sharing more information about themselves and about their financials, they got more money, which leads to greater impact.”

“Before we start telling our financial story, we need to have the foundation of financial management really solid at our foundation.”

“You want to make sure that we are coding all of our revenue, all of our expenses to admin, fundraising, or programs along the way, so that we can really easily pull this report.”

Feedback is a gift, but the thought of giving feedback can be scary. However, whether you are giving the gift of feedback to an employee, a manager, a teammate, a donor, a supporter, an advocate or a peer there is a process you can use to ensure your gift is better accepted.

In today’s episode, Monica Mutter, Director of Leadership and Culture at Blackbaud, focuses on the steps you can take to give effective feedback. Listen in to hear why Monica calls feedback a gift and what steps you need to use to give feedback in a way that helps the person receiving it become better for the next similar situation that arises.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• Why Monica says feedback is a gift
• The cost of feedback
• The selection process for feedback
• The neuroscience of feedback
• Where people are left at the end of a feedback conversation
• Checking to see that the timing is right
• The steps for preparing to provide feedback
• The steps for delivering feedback
• Resetting expectations
• Having the person identify behavior changes they can make to incorporate the feedback

Resources:

Monica Mutter

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7 Steps for Giving Effective Feedback

Quotes: 

“Feedback is a gift on so many levels.”

“Because there is a cost to giving feedback, as we mentioned earlier, we want to make sure the gift is received.”

“What’s most important is where we leave the person at the end of our conversation.”

Content is at the heart of how your constituents engage online. It’s how you inspire supporters to action and nurture their passion for your mission. But getting top-notch quality and performance from content isn’t always easy. 

Nyleva Corley, principal user experience designer at Blackbaud, talks all about how to get the most from your content on today’s episode. Listen in to hear Nyleva speak about how content attracts viewers and drives traffic, the link between content and constituent opinion of your organization, and why a content strategy is critical for social good organizations.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• What content attracts viewers and drives traffic
• How much content is being processed daily
• The definition of content strategy
• Why working on a content strategy is critical
• The link between your content and how your constituents feel about you
• How to take inventory of all your content
• Performing a content audit
• The message hierarchy
• Performing a gap analysis
• Page description diagrams
• Storytelling techniques
• Tailoring your content to specific audiences
• Creating an editorial calendar
• Developing your content style guide

Resources:

Nyleva Corley

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Guide to the Nonprofit Web Design Process

What Is Content Governance and Why Does It Matter?

How to Write Effective Web Copy (Part 1): Make It Readable

How to Write Effective Web Copy (Part 2): Make It Stick

Quotes: 

“If you could focus on the content that was most critical to your organization and expire or archive all of the other content, just think of the great content you could be producing.”

“You want to start relationships with your constituents on your website.”

“Content strategy is not something that you do one time, in a silo, all by yourself.”