Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast

It was great to have Brady Josephson back on the podcast today for a second conversation. If you didn't catch our conversation last month on COVID fundraising trends, you should check it out. But today, Brady and I talk about all things testing. This is one of Brady's favorite things to chat about. That shouldn't be a surprise, given his role as Managing Director at NextAfter's Institute for Online Fundraising.As a direct response fundraiser, I'm a big fan of testing. We test all the time. Sometimes we test something that makes a dramatic impact on revenue or results for a client. Other times, a test doesn't go the way we think. It "fails", if you will. But in the end, we still learn from it. To be successful with testing, you have to think differently about the philosophy and execution of tests. That's where Brady and I focused in this conversation. He covered a ton of important ground, like:Why testing is important to fundraising successWhat type of tests deliver the most impact and value (and which tests aren't worth your time)Creating a testing strategy/planDesigning tests for successful learningThe value of iterative testingLow value vs. High value testsThe importance of tracking, and why this is the first step in your successful testing strategyI hope you learn a ton from this conversation, and that you take this opportunity to create or refine your own testing plan for the next year!Special Offer From Velocity Strategy Solutions, Our Episode Sponsor: 

Jaimie Trussell, CFRE, is Chief Development Officer and Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Adult & Teen Challenge USA. She recently sat down with me to talk candidly about nonprofit leadership. In this great conversation, Jaimie provided so much value!Check out the top 5 insights I took from our conversation:True leadership isn't glamorous. It's hard, but highly rewarding.Great leaders endeavor to find their tribe and thrive with them rather than being all things to all people. If you don't have credibility as a leader, you don't have anything.The best leaders focus on developing other leaders -- that's the true measure of leadership success.Leadership is a 24/7 game. Finding micro moments to refresh and recharge in the midst of packed work and home schedules is critical to your mental, physical, and emotional health.Check out the entire conversation for even more great insights! 

Trevor Bragdon is a behavioral scientist by training, and is Founder of 7-Figure Fundraising. He and his team have developed a proprietary training program that helps nonprofit CEO's, fundraisers, and board members hone their fundraising message (i.e., the pitch) to secure more 5, 6, and 7-figure gifts from individual donors, foundations, and corporate partners. This unique approach to crafting a compelling fundraising pitch has helped organizations raise millions of additional dollars. Yesterday, Trevor conducting an exclusive training for 70 Newport ONE clients and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. In our podcast conversation, Trevor distills some of those same key insights that you can start taking advantage of immediately.If you want to raise more 5, 6, and 7-figure gifts for your organization, check out this conversation. I promise you'll be glad you did!

Chances are your organization was NOT prepared for COVID-19. Even organizations that work in international relief and development or domestic emergency response weren't fully prepared for all of the impacts of COVID-19, and how it would impact operations, fundraising, internal processes, staff, etc.  That's why I was so excited to sit down with Amy McFeely and Laura Olean from Category One Consulting recently. Their firm helps organizations maximize their effectiveness through human resources support, strategic planning, program evaluation, and needs assessments.  When COVID hit, they jumped into action to create a Crisis Response Toolkit specifically designed to help nonprofits respond to the COVID crisis and succeed throughout the remainder of 2020. And even better, this Toolkit can easily be applied to help nonprofits navigate a crisis of any type and scope. I hope you enjoy this conversation about preparing for and responding to crises, and take a minute to check out their Crisis Response Toolkit to get your nonprofit ready to respond to a crisis of any kind. Special Offer From Velocity Strategy Solutions, Our Episode Sponsor: 

Brady Josephson, Managing Director of the Institute for Online Fundraising at NextAfter recently sat down with us to share what he's learning about the changing fundraising landscape during the COVID-19 crisis. This conversation and the learnings that Brady shares are based on observations from more than 157 nonprofits that were and are actively fundraising during the COVID crisis. Brady is learning and seeing some interesting trends that you'll no doubt want to be aware of:As COVID took hold in early March, a lot of fundraising slowed or stopped. There was a marked decrease in email volume, as some organizations slowed down and some went entirely dark.Starting early in April, organizations began to emerge from the initial shock of COVID, and fundraising (particularly online) saw growth both in April and May (in both email volume and total revenue). This was further supported by the Giving Tuesday NOW initiative. Through late May and into early June, we've now started to see a correction (downturn) in email volume again. There is absolutely value in achieving first mover status when it comes to responding and communicating in a crisis. The faster an organization can get into market and begin to communicate with constituents, the easier it is to navigate a crisis situation. Organizations responding fastest and raising the most money during the COVID situation are those that are NOT focused on perfection, but focused on speed to market. They are willing to move quickly, test, learn, and adapt. The more human you can make your digital fundraising and marketing efforts, the better you'll perform.The elevated sense of empathy across the globe has resulted in increased giving across many different types of organizations, even those that might not typically receive increased funding during a crisis (i.e., arts, etc.).High dollar sustainers may be more apt to opt out of their monthly commitment right now. They are seeing this emerging in the U.S., and we have seen it more significantly in Europe. Since people are at home more right now, a lot more of our online consumption is happening on desktop vs mobile. That's good news because desktop experience tends to increase conversion rates. However, this may mean that when the country reopens and people return to work (whenever that is...), online conversion rates my drop again to reflect the shift back to mobile consumption. Special Offer From Our Episode Sponsor, Velocity Strategy Solutions: 

We sat down last week for a leadership conversation with Kishshana Palmer, CFRE, CEO of Kishshana & Co., Founder of The Rooted Collaborative, and Author of Hey, I'm New Here. We scheduled this conversation months ago, and initially our plan was to talk broadly about leadership trends, insights & learnings across the nonprofit sector. But...then George Floyd was murdered here in Minneapolis. Cities across the state -- across the nation -- erupted in protest against police brutality and racism. As any good leaders would do, we assessed our situation and changed our objectives to address the critically important issues of equity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector.This conversation is a bit more off the cuff, and maybe not as polished as our other episodes. It's a bit raw. A bit more unvarnished. But such a necessary discussion. I hope you'll give us just a bit of grace if the conversation is a little more meandering than you might be used to. I encourage you to listen all the way through, as we cover a ton of important ground.I'm so grateful to Kishshana for walking through this conversation with us, shooting straight with us, and not holding back. Special Opportunity From Our Episode Sponsor, Velocity Strategy Solutions:

You are going to LOVE this conversation with Mark P. Fisher on Inspiring Growth as a leader!Mark is host of the Inspiring Growth Podcast, CEO, and Chief Encourager at Inspiring Growth, a firm he founded to help organizations increase revenue, organizational leadership, and overall joy in their work. Check out some of Mark's great offerings here.If you like The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast, you can thank Mark. He's the person who inspired me to launch this podcast!I first met Mark when he and his team led the national marketing effort for the Paramount Pictures movie, Same Kind of Different As Me, and we worked together to craft a Red Carpet Event strategy to market this film nationally in support of Gospel Rescue Missions through a partnership with City Gate Network.  In this episode, Mark and I covered a ton of ground in a very candid conversation about his personal leadership journey.Here are some of the key points we hit in this discussion:Mark's personal story of going 100+ miles per hour as a leader until he hit a wall...and it nearly killed him. He talks about how this experience helped him reset his priorities and focus, and create Inspiring Growth, his life's calling.The importance of caring for yourself as a leader in order to allow you to truly serve those you lead.The power of kindness, and how it helps you lead well.The importance of resilient thinking, and how that allows you to pick up  the pieces and move on after failure or setbacks. As a leader, why you should strive to believe the best about people, and how that can radically change the culture in your organization.How to use a post mortem or after action review to overcome failure and create learning that will move your organization forward in a healthy way, even when a major project or initiative doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped.

Dionne M. Rosser-Mims, Ph.D., is Dean of the College of Education at Troy University. She's an educator, author, and successful leader. She's also my longtime friend, and someone I'm incredibly proud of and inspired by.We recently sat down to discuss leadership, and to get Dr. Rosser-Mims' perspective on what it takes to be a great leader. Here are :Leaders don't sit on the sidelines and complain -- they jump in and focus on finding solutions to the problems of the day.The best leaders focus on collaborative engagement, not on being the smartest person in the room.Integrity is critical for leadership success.Great leaders are consistent communicators, making sure that everyone understands where the organization is headed, how they individually fit into the plan, and what is expected of them.Being an authentic leader means modeling what you expect of others. If you aren't willing to do something yourself, you can't expect others to step up and do it either.It's a great conversation, and I hope you enjoy it!Special Offer From Our Episode Sponsor, Velocity Strategy Solutions:

Leading well is critical -- especially during the challenging times in which we find ourselves these days. That's why I think my recent conversation with Bobby Lewis, Executive Vice President of Operations at Love Worth Finding is so important. According to Bobby, great leaders:Are lifelong learners who focus on adding knowledge and skills regularlyLead THROUGH others rather than trying to do everything themselvesInvest in mentoring others so that skill-building becomes an ingrained focus across organizationsDevelop deep, meaningful relationships with those they mentor, rather than trying to rush the processLead through collaboration and consensus-building instead of dictatingEmbrace the power of relationships rather than focusing on authority-based leadershipGet close to people -- staff, donors, and clients -- in times of crisis, rather than pulling awayBuild trust by investing in people and relationshipsThere's some real leadership gold in this episode. You don't want to miss it!Special Offer From Our Episode Sponsor, Velocity Strategy Solutions: 

Gabe Cooper is CEO at Virtuous Software, Founder of The Modern Nonprofit Fundraiser Podcast, and Author of Responsive Fundraising. We got together recently to talk about the concept of Responsive Fundraising, and what it means for the future of the nonprofit sector. What's exciting is that the concept of Responsive Fundraising doesn't require you to throw out everything you're doing and start over completely. You don't have to lose ground in order to improve donor relationships and increase revenue.  Responsive Fundraising is really about applying the hyper-personalization that Americans are accustomed to in their daily life to their charitable giving experience. It's about using data you have at hand (or that you can get your hands on) to develop highly personalized donor experiences that communicate to your donors that you value them, you know them, and you are committed to providing them with a meaningful experience every time they interact with your organization.  Here are Gabe's key points about Responsive Fundraising: It's less about tactics and technology and more about shifting your mindset.  The success of Responsive Fundraising requires that you Listen (i.e., collecting more and better data, and understanding how it influences donor behavior), Connect (i.e., how can you use simple marketing automation to deliver relevant messages to your constituents at the exact time they are most likely to want it and engage with it?), and Adjust (i.e., creating a feedback loop so that you are modifying your organizational engagement approach based on what you see and hear from your donors as you deliver  them this new experience).  Responsive Fundraising doesn't require to stop mass fundraising activities like direct mail, email, and telemarketing. Instead, it gives you a framework for making those interactions more meaningful (and more valuable) to the donor.  You don't have to burn your entire program down and start from scratch. You can start small, with just two or three key elements. Once you prove out the value in small ways, use that success to increase the scale of Responsive Fundraising in your charity. Embracing and deploying a Responsive Fundraising philosophy and strategy in your organization doesn't require you to upend everything you're doing and change staff. It does, however, require that everyone be aligned around the goal, and willing to learn and change the way they've worked in the past.  Change of any kind -- but especially change like this -- requires a willingness to take risk and embrace failure in the service of creating something better for those you serve.  As Gab

Visionary leaders don't succeed with just great ideas. They succeed because they've built a framework that inspires others and provides their teams with the necessary tools to perform."I was recently blessed to have a fascinating conversation with Dr. Kent Ingle. In this fast-paced conversation, Dr. Ingle delivered huge leadership wisdom and value -- and I think you'll get a lot from this conversation. Dr. Ingle is President of Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. He's also author of multiple books including Framework Leadership, 9 Disciplines of Enduring Leadership, This Adventure Called Life, and The Modern Guide to College. He also hosts The Framework Leadership Podcast.Here are just six of the key takeaways from our conversation:1. Focus on being self-aware and self-disciplined. Self-awareness allows you to understand who you are, your gifts, your passions, your abilities and experiences. And always knowing that helps you to understand the opportunities before you.2. If you want to succeed as a leader, you need to build habits of discipline. Whether they be physical, emotional, educational, spiritual, or other, your ability to be disciplined in your own life will greatly impact your ability to lead others. 3. People long for value and significance. As a leader, your responsibility is to help people understand their value and significance in the world. 4. Leadership is all about your relational connectivity and how you interact and influence and have impact. 5. One of the most difficult and challenging things for any organization is to be excellent at systems thinking where you see the big picture, understand how the individual parts really interconnect to each other to accomplish the big picture. Especially at times of change, if you aren't growing your systems at the same speed of your overall growth, you're probably going to hit some plateaus. 6. To be successful as a leader, when leadership requires you to build a map to a place you've never been before, you need a framework. A successful framework for leadership requires four key elements: Listening

Coral Dill is the Founder and Principal at Grant Writer Etc., and a contributing author to the 2019 #1 Best Seller, 101 Biggest Mistakes Nonprofits Make And How You Can Avoid Them. Coral is an expert grant writer and regularly helps nonprofits of all shapes and sizes become "grant ready", and has helped those organizations raise millions of dollars over the last decade. In this episode Coral talks with us about some of the biggest grant seeking mistakes and how to avoid them. According to Coral, the biggest mistakes she sees are:Starting with grants: So many organizations - especially start-up nonprofits - assume that the fastest way to significant funding is through grants. But the reality is that most funders want to see a track record of success and fiscal health outside of grants before they'd be willing to consider a funding request.  Sending unsolicited funding requests: Grant seeking my be functionally different from individual donor fundraising, but there's one major similarity. They're both deeply relationship-based. In the same way that you wouldn't think of calling an individual donor you'd never met before and making an ask on the spot, don't make that mistake with grant funders either. Assuming that everyone wants to fund you: Grant funders have specific focuses of their philanthropy. If your approach to grant seeking is to "spray and pray", you could end up sending a million grant requests and get the same result as if you'd sent none at all. Instead, invest the time to research, find funders that are aligned with your mission, and engage them deeply -- that's where you'll find success.Making poor revenue assumptions: This isn't unique to grant seeking, but it's critical to avoid. The mistake here is assuming that you're going to get funded by every funder or that they'll fund you at 100% of your request. It's rare that any organization gets funded at 100% by 100% of the funders they solicit. Make sure you're not executing spending plans based on poor assumptions like this.Not being prepared to manage the grant: Most organizations are prepared to accept the funds associated with a grant. But as Coral explains, often organizations are ill-prepared to handing the various stipulations, reporting requirements, and other aspects of actually fulfilling on the grant terms. If you're not prepared for those, you're not ready to solicit the grant yet.This conversation is full of great insights and context around the biggest grant seeking mistakes that organizations make, and what you can do to make sure your nonprofit doesn't make these same mistakes. You can download the full show notes here.

In this second installment of Leadership Field Notes, I was lucky enough to sit down with Tim Smith, Managing Partner at Nonprofit DNA. Tim has over 30 years of nonprofit and development experience, having served as Chief Development Officer at both Food for the Hungry and the Museum of the Bible. Tim shares his top leadership insights from over three decades of leading organizations and advising C-level leaders inside other nonprofits. Here's just a small sampling of the leadership wisdom Tim shares in this episode:Becoming a leader may require you to step into uncomfortable spaces that are beyond what you've ever done before. That's ok. That's part of growing.At some point in your leadership career, you'll probably think you're not qualified for the job. This is fear talking. Just keep moving forward -- this is what you're made for. Great leaders seek out mentors and invest in mentoring others in their growth. The most important values that a leader can display come down to the "Two L's"...listening and loyalty (and how you can truly display both).The importance of a leader "knowing himself" and the positive impact this has on organizational culture and team cohesion.To be a great leader you really have to love people and want to see them succeed more than you want to promote your own success. Tim's insights on leadership and personal growth are pure gold, and you won't want to miss them! You can download the full show notes here.  Special Offer From Our Episode Sponsor, Velocity Strategy Solutions: 

You're in for a real treat today!This episode is packed with leadership value for you. Doug Smith is Director of Development at Light of Life Rescue Mission, and Founder/President at L3 Leadership, and organization that exists to  build and develop a community of leaders.My conversation with Doug is the first in a series of in-depth leadership conversations we'll be having. Top 10 Leadership Insights from my conversation with Doug Smith1. Leadership is influence.2. Everyone is a leader and everyone has to grow to maximize leadership impact.3. Leadership is about people. If the people aren't better as a result of your presence, you're not leading well. 4. Leading is challenging. As John Maxwell says, "If you're a leader, there will never be two easy consecutive days in your live." 5. If you wouldn't follow yourself, why would you expect others to follow you? 6. The power of "just relaxing" in your leadership.7. Telling people what you think they want to hear isn't leadership. You have to care enough to be candid, even when the feedback might hurt a little. 8. In leadership, character trumps skill all day long.9. The most influential leaders love people, but they don't depend on being loved by people. 10. If you're going to grow as a leader, you're going to have to take risks. You'll fail sometimes, but that's ok. That's part of the process.There's so much more in this episode than what I've outlined here. I guarantee you'll get a ton of value out of this conversation today!You can download the full show notes here. FREE RESOURCE: In our conversation, Doug mentions that his team at Light of Life uses a resource called The Information Wheel from The Wellock Group. You can get more information about this tool by contacting Rick Wellock (rick@thewellockgroup.com) or Amy Staggs (amy@thewellockgroup.com) . Special Offer from Velocity Strategy Solutions:

What does it take to lead effectively through crisis?That's the question that I initially posed to  Dennis Van Kampen, President/CEO of Mel Trotter Ministries. This conversation is timely and valuable because Mel Trotter Ministries provides the community social safety net in Grand Rapids, Michigan for men, women, and children experiencing homelessness throughout the community.The team at Mel Trotter Ministries is literally on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis in Grand Rapids, and Dennis is responsible for leading, inspiring, and caring for the Mel Trotter staff who run their programs every day. In this conversation we talked about Dennis' personal philosophy and view of leadership, as well as what it takes to lead teams through a crisis situation. Dennis shares his insights and perspective with us, based on 25+ years of leadership experience, on topics including:How to continue leading, day-to-day, during times of crisis. In times of crisis, how can you as a leader balance the need to accomplish your organization's mission, with the reality that you must also care for your team and those who work throughout your organization.What it takes to care for and motivate your team to continue showing up and doing great work during a crisis situation. As a nonprofit leader, how can you lead and influence others in the community (i.e., other organizations, city and county leaders, etc.), without having any statutory authority. How you as a leader can recharge physically, mentally, and emotionally while leading through a crisis. What's the organizational leader's role in communicating with and engaging the broader community of volunteers, advocates, donors, and the general public during a crisis situation.  The insights Dennis shares are valuable for leaders everywhere, whether you're facing a crisis like we all are today, or not. DOWNLOAD the full show notes hereSpecial Offer from Velocity Strategy Solutions: