Donor Growth

Hasta luego. Tot ziens. À bientôt.The podcast got too big, too quick for these two social sector entrepreneurs and we need some time to regroup.What's NOT changing?The concept of Donor Growth - more AND deeper relationships with more of your donors. We want to be here to support you–intellectually, emotionally, professionally–and will figure out more and better ways to do it. That's our promise to you.Why are you stopping the podcast?You'll have to listen to find out! As usual, we share with full transparency.Wait a sec, does this mean you guys are out of a job now?If only. Fortunately, we'll continue to steward our thriving businesses. Check out BuildGood and the Annual Fund Toolkit!What's next?You tell us. How could we best serve you? Would you host us for a Donor Growth meetup in your area? Thanks so much for being a part of this adventure! We look forward to catching up with you soon.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Everyone wants new donors.But few organizations are ready to invest in donor acquisition—and more importantly, the work it takes to invest in the relationship with new donors. Or are they?Today we talk about a few different ways organizations are acquiring—and keeping—new donors. We get into what's working, what isn't, and what we wished worked.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Acquisition… the final frontier.Everyone thinks they know what acquisition is and seem to be either firmly for or against.How did some nonprofits get really big through direct mail acquisition?Now that many nonprofits are losing donors, how should they think about it?On Part 1, we dive into acquisition tactics—from faith-based organizations to higher education.If you feel like you need clarity around this topic, this is the right episode for you.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

Are we in a recession? Who knows. But it's no secret: a lot of nonprofits are seeing a decline in revenue after the covid bump we experienced for a few years. On today's podcast, we get into 7 principles of fundraising that will help you keep the main thing the main thing—even when cash flow changes.These aren't just principles to whether a recession. They're timeless first principles that apply to your fundraising in good years and in lean years. Consistency compounds Money flows where attention goesAction yields information Trust is worth more than a bigger return  Growth is a choiceCharity is not a zero sum gameYour calendar and your budget = valuesYour turn. What would you add?GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Jump in, we're going for a ride.On today's podcast, Louis and Mike have a chat about some of the things they've been thinking about.From why focusing on the fundamentals in fundraising is so hard, to building a cheap CRM using no-code tools, to wondering if an ask string really matters in fundraising. No frameworks. No deep insights.Just two fundraisers in cars, getting coffee.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Should you focus on donors, dollars, or something else?Some shops have over 25 metrics that they use to measure gift officer performance!Others, don't have any… (or maybe just this one: the is-the-board-happy metric)What should a fundraising shop measure to make sure it is accountable and progressing toward the nonprofit's goals?The answer, according to our conversation today: it depends on:Your nonprofit's growth stageThe type of nonprofit you work inWhat you're able to measureWhat we firmly advocate for: having one or at most two key metrics that we call North Star metrics.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

Can a simple checklist reduce the complexity of your fundraising operations? It sounds too simple. Maybe even too systematized and rigid and robotic.But what if the complexity of our lives requires the simplest of solutions to give us back the time to do more human stuff…like having coffees and lunches? Or calling someone on the phone? Or making a meaningful connection?And what if a series of simple checklists can help us spend less time worrying about rote and repetitive tasks of fundraising, and more time engaging donors?In today's short episode, we talk about why now might be a good time to create some simple checklists with your team—and how it might help you increase your fundraising performance.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

You've likely heard this before: “your nonprofit is competing for market share—so you need a clear value proposition to win.”But is that really true? Here are some assumptions we're making if we think that way:That giving to charity is like buying a product or serviceThat our competition is other nonprofits (vs. inaction, building up more savings to pass down to kids, or countless other ways people spend money every single day)That we are competing in the first place That there's a fixed pie of generosity What if instead we thought about it this way?People's ability to grow their generosity isn't fixed It's not a function of: are we nicer, prettier, more impactful, more efficient than other charities.It is a function of how engaged people are with us… …and how well we align with their values and passions and worldview (those are things you largely cannot change, by the way)So rather than thinking: how can we stand out from other nonprofits? What if we think: how can we “stand in” more in the lives of our donors?What if we focus on donors, not competition?Because there's no competition in the first place.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

For decades, the common way of talking about donor-centric fundraising was defined as “the donor is the hero.” The sentiment was harmless in its intent. Noble, even.It was meant to help charity administrators realize that people play the main character in their own lives. They care about their kids and family; and their values and legacy. Few wake up in the morning thinking about your charity.And certainly most aren't used to thinking about choosing—or being loyal to—a certain kind of nonprofit “brand” simply because of how amazing the organization says they are in their marketing.But donor-centric fundraising has the power to become harmful when misinterpreted or misapplied.It can lead to organizations being donor-led; where donors get to influence how the money is spent or administered Organizations may centre the role of the donor in an outsized way at the expense of staff, volunteers of beneficiaries  Donors who write larger cheques may have outsized influence and power It might contribute to the “white saviour complex” problem facing the charitable sectorOn today's podcast, Louis and Mike talk about designing fundraising for the human behind the donor (who they are), and inviting them to be an important part of the team (the community they can join) to help achieve our mission (what they can do).Getting away from “the donor as hero”, good fundraising is simply focused on relationships; not conversions and transactions. And it can still take into account that people often play the main character in their own story—and that holds true for donors, charity leaders and beneficiaries. GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

It may not feel like it, but large parts of the world live in greater abundance than ever before.There is more work, more services, more wealth. And yes, more people.Increasingly, the hard part is coordinating all of this!Donors and other external stakeholders (and their information bubbles). Complicated processes using dozens of external services. Employees who don't share systems or sometimes even a common language!In this podcast episode, we review the thesis that the role of the CEO is to “create future value.”In addition to that, Louis argues that coordination should rise to be a CEO priority.Here are some ways to do it:Improved CommunicationCommon LanguageTechnology IntegrationReal-Time Information SharingMarketing and Feedback ChannelsProfessional CoordinatorsDigital PlatformsStandardized Behavior and RolesGET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors

Welcome to the Shark Tank…or, more like the Turtle Tank (to avoid any trademark violations).On this week's episode, Mike pitches Louis some ideas for businesses that would help nonprofits improve their fundraising operations—and Louis gets to invest. But will he?From a platform that helps nonprofits listen to donor feedback, to recruiting offshore talent for fundraising admin tasks, there's a little bit of everything in here.And, of course, this is all theoretical. If we had lawyers, they'd tell us to say “no offer is being made to, or solicited from, the listening audience.” They'd also tell us not to say “Welcome to the Shark Tank” in the opening line of these show notes. Share this podcast with a friend, follow wherever you listen to podcasts, and write a review—and maybe one day we'll actually have lawyers.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

There are several mental models we use to organize and understand our fundraising work. The funnel is one of the most well-known.In today's episode, we explore the funnel model with you:What it's good at explaining. What it misses.How it could help you come up with the right solutions to your fundraising problems.We also tease a couple of alternatives…Tune in and let us know how you see things on LinkedIn or by reaching out directly to Mike and Louis!GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

What keeps organizations from growing once they've hit a certain maturity? On this week's podcast, we discuss 3 challenges we've seen that hinder fundraising growth.Arrogance: Thinking your org is “too important” to fail—or too big, or too well known, or too loved, etc. Money will keep coming in because, clearly, you're awesome.Bureaucracy: Excessive processes and a lack of nimbleness in decision-making. When decision-making processes become overly bureaucratic, the outcome stops being progress—and it starts being “following process.”Complacency: Being complacent can lead to a lack of focus on continuous improvement. This is a dangerous place to be, because the house isn't on fire. Things are running smoothly. All is well. But underneath it all, entropy might be setting in.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

If you were a fundraiser in higher education 20-30 years ago, the playbook for the annual fund was clear: a couple of letters to your alumni, a reunion effort, and lots of volunteer solicitation.Now… not so much.Most alumni are non-responsive to email and mail solicitations.It is harder and harder to get people to volunteer.Today, we share an alternative playbook that focuses on:Making sure you're deepening your relationships with existing donors, no matter how much they gave to youProactively identifying potential major gift prospects through prospecting campaignsRenewing the interest of your disenfranchised donorsContact Mike or Louis on LinkedIn if you'd like to join us for a Live Consulting episode!GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

We're diving into the captivating story of the Fyre Festival and exploring how it serves as both a shining example and cautionary tale for special events in fundraising.At it's best, special events can:Brings corporate partners on board Be a physical manifestation of your mission Gather people in community, and build affinity Acquire new donorsBuild richer context around your content Create excitement because of the date-driven eventCreate all sorts of content and other engagement opportunities Involve volunteers in co-building a meaningful experience But as always, the real money is in the follow-up and the relationships built.But there's downsides to consider. A myriad of hidden costs No true accounting or attribution In many cases, terrible donor retention Gifts that aren't meaningful; rather obligatory Can cause internal strife and stress  Can distract from building actual relationships Can get you stuck on the donor acquisition hamster wheel Without a follow-up strategy, loses a lot of value We'd love to hear your thoughts! Have you had experiences with special events in fundraising? Share your stories and insights with us. GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Do you struggle with keeping your donors engaged and your pipeline filled? You're not alone.Over the last 6 months, Louis has delved deep into the challenges of consultant relationships and the complex nature of one-to-many work. The good news? He's on to something that's working.Meet the Annual Fund Toolkit (AFT) - designed with you, the practicing fundraiser, in mind.Leveraging insights from the Donor Participation Project—a research initiative and fundraiser community dedicated to understanding donor behavior—we've developed a system to help you boost donor retention and supercharge your major gifts pipeline.How does it work? Glad you asked.The AFT is a multi-faceted resource that includes:A comprehensive library of research-based recommendations and templates to guide your campaign planning.Weekly 1:1 check-ins offering campaign support and efficient project management.Automations designed to make your donors feel seen and valued.And the best part? It's not just theoretical. We've already seen the results, with advancement teams reporting success in growing dollars and donors.Ready to learn about tackling donor retention head-on? Let's make a difference, together.Check it out here: annualfundtoolkit.comGET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

We're back from the first-ever Build Good Summit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights—and we're doing a bit of a recap.-What did we learn?-What made the BG Summit different from other conferences?-What were some of the key challenges fundraisers in the room brought to the table?-Which sessions did we find the most valuable and innovative?-Did the conference make any money? If you're tired of stuffy conferences, full of suits and bowties, in big convention centres, with recycled AC air and stale coffee, and case studies from scaled up consultancies that don't actually take you behind the scenes…you might find today's pod interesting.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

In this special episode of Donor Growth, we chat with Georgia Morrison from Australia about how to grow her organization's monthly giving program.  Free To Shine raises about $400,000 per year to protect girls in Cambodia from being sex trafficked. They're effective. They're doing work that matters a great deal. They're innovative.But they're struggling to raise the needed funds year after year. Should they invest more in grants? Should they try something new? Or should they go all in on building a robust monthly giving program? On this live consulting call, Louis and Mike brainstorm with Georgia about the best next step.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Are you tired of hearing about ChatGPT? If you are, this episode might be for you.Because chances are, most use cases you've seen are about using AI to help you write thank you notes, emails, appeals, gift agreements, and more. But that's only scratching the surface of what ChatGPT can do—and honestly, it's the most boring part. On today's podcast, Louis and Mike get into uses cases specifically for fundraising that aren't about content creation. Things like:Summarizing Meetings: ChatGPT can be used to quickly summarize meeting notes and action items, allowing fundraisers to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time engaging with donors.Qualitative Sentiment Analysis: By analyzing donor feedback and identifying common themes and trends, ChatGPT can help fundraisers understand donor preferences and improve the donor experience.Data Analysis: With its ability to analyze large volumes of data, ChatGPT can help fundraisers identify patterns and insights that can inform business decisions and optimize fundraising strategies.Scheduling and Planning: ChatGPT can assist with scheduling meetings, planning fundraising campaigns, and creating donor visitation schedules, helping fundraisers save time and increase productivity.But what about you? How are you using ChatGPT?GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Would you recommend fundraising as a career to your kids?Why or why not?Like so many areas of nonprofit life, we find that there is not enough awareness and data.Join this episode to hear how Mike and Louis are trying to figure this one out.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

If you've ever dreamed of starting a business that serves the nonprofit sector, but you're not sure what business to start…well, we don't either.But on today's podcast, we discuss a few ideas. From print-on-demand services and no-code CRM tools, to fundraising venture capital and a marketplace for fundraising-specific tasks, Louis and Mike share some businesses they wish existed.And, who knows? Maybe it'll inspire you to start one.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

What is "funnel hacking" in the context of fundraising?In business, funnel hacking is the process of reverse-engineering the marketing and sales strategies of other organizations to understand what works and what doesn't. But in the context of fundraising, it simply means to study the fundraising activities of other nonprofits, often as a donor, to gain insights into their strategies—and learn from them.We get into analyzing ads, direct mail, emails, funders, partnerships, financials, job postings and a whole lot more.But to be clear, this is NOT about simply copying tactics. It's about trying to to get a clearer picture about WHY organizations are choosing those tactics in the first place—and trying to understand if that strategy is working for them.Hint: want to know the best funnel hacking method of all time? Call the fundraiser at the org whose fundraising efforts you're studying, and just ask them. Chances are, they'll be thrilled to know somebody took notice.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Do donors really hate overhead? Or does it mean more to us than to the general public?Today, we're sharing some information that changed the way we think about overhead.We think you'll find it compelling.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

1. Thank donors quickly—and thank them well.2. Pick up the phone.3. Ask for advice and feedback.4. Report back on their specific gift.5. Create an onboarding journey that provides something emotionally valuable, focuses on making donors feel seen and heard, and leads to a 2nd gift conversion6. Upgrade donors to monthly giving.7. Make monthly giving the defaultGET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Like any powerful fundraising tool, surveys can be both your best and your worst idea.They are a fantastic way to make people feel seen and valued…… unless you ignore the results, ask transactional questions that put people in the wrong frame of mind for philanthropy, and confuse everyone in your organization by taking the results too literally.In today's episode, Louis goes over a framework to help you design and follow up on surveys to maximize your fundraising results.(We'll try to avoid mentioning ChatGPT, procurement, and the Czech Republic but can't make promises!)GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Many nonprofits chase the elusive pursuit of “scale.”More donors. More revenue. More budget. More growth.We're all for growth. After all, this is the Donor GROWTH podcast. But the truth is, often times acquiring more donors is mostly an exercise in optics. Big numbers look good; but that doesn't mean they're necessarily meaningful. In fact, you can do a lot with just 1,000 donors. On today's episode, Mike and Louis take the “1,000 true fans” theory developed by Kevin Kelly and apply it to growing your fundraising.They get into: Why retained donors > new donors How 1,000 donors can support a $5m budget How to build a donor base of 1,000 donorsGET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

If you're still feeding ChatGPT generic and simple prompts, chances are you're getting generic results. Commodity content. There's a better way. But you've got to trick ChatGPT a little bit.On today's episode, Louis and Mike walk through a few hacks to get better results when playing with ChatGPT.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

It's about time we introduced ourselves. On today's show, we're telling you the dark business secrets of how Mike is building his fundraising agency. We get into: Why build a direct response agency—and the pitfalls of direct response.The difference between having a “practice” and having a “business”.When it makes sense to hire a fundraising agency, and when it makes to do it all in-house.Creating a coaching program to help small shops…and a lot more.Come along for the ride!GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

It's about time we introduced ourselves. On today's show, we're telling you the dark business secrets of how Louis is building the Donor Participation Project and DPP Consulting.From how he started a booking service for Jazz musicians, to creating a series of experiments in network building—you'll see how everything Louis tried and failed prepared him to successfully grow DPP to over 3,500 members. We get into: How DPP got startedHow to attract your first 1,000 true believersThe difference between building an audience and building a communityThe problems Louis is now solving for growth-minded nonprofitsCome along for the ride!GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

How can we reward fundraisers for their performance—without paying a commission on funds raised? How about everyone else working in fundraising operations, from database managers to other crucial admin roles? Is there an ethical way to provide incentives for our team? There are no easy answers, but this is a conversation we need to start having more and more.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

A few months ago, we started a company. We tried to solve a pain point for nonprofit leaders who want to build trust at scale using content—specifically, short form video that is authentic, responsive and not boring.We spoke to many of our ideal clients.  Leaders at large NGOs and Universities. They gave us great feedback. The loudest, clearest feedback of all?No sales. So on today's podcast, we're taking you along for a post mortem where we go through: The story of how LeaderVoice came to beWhy we were betting on content creation as a service How we quickly spun up a sales page, aka a Google DocWhy you don't need high tech to validate an idea: just an idea, a good message and a good offerHow we tried validating the concept—and failedHow we booked calls with busy leaders at large institutions What we learned in the process Why we still believe in the idea for ourselves, even if the market didn't value it the same way we did GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Will the financial outlook in 2023 mean less donors will give? Will crypto donations actually become a thing? Will trust in the nonprofit sector continue to decline? Will mega donors be more—or less public—about their philanthropy?We have no idea.Still, we forge ahead and make wild predictions for 2023 we have no business making. GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Today we're joined by special guest Dan "Indie" Long from the St. Baldricks Foundation to explore the topic of the creator as a fundraiser.How are creators like nonprofits? How can they use tools of individual fundraising to grow their revenue? How can nonprofits learn from the content creator mindset? We get into that—and more—with somebody who used to make a living being a full-time creator, and now works with creators to raise funds for childhood cancer research.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Last week we talked about how AI might change the way we create fundraising communications—and our fears around nonprofits creating commodity content.This week, we talk about 7 other use cases of AI that we're really excited about.From creating smarter asks, to standardizing gift entry, we get into how the biggest promise of AI might just be to give you back your time to do the things only humans can do: build messy, unpredictable, 1:1 relationships with donors. GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Will the rise of AI replace the job of some fundraisers? Will robots be able to write donor communications that stir the heart and lead donors toward greater generosity? What is the real value fundraisers will bring to the table as more and more tasks will be done by marketing automation and AI tools?On today's episode, we test out some AI tools and talk about the increasing value of building trust with our supporter communities. GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Louis has collected all best practices when it comes to creating appeals—and on today's podcast, he's sharing his Fundraising Appeal Checklist. It's the same checklist that has helped many organizations consistently achieve strong results. But...does a checklist work for fundraising? Think about it this way. There are two types of checklists. The first is like a list of instructions (think of McDonald's), specific steps that you need to follow. The second is like a reminder of important areas (think of an emergency room). This is the second type. Workflow-wise, you can require every appeal to be accompanied by a checklist before publication, or you can review as a group to make sure every appeal is the best it can be. Not every box has to be checked, but at least you should have thought about it.Download the checklist hereGET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

Fundraisers in small nonprofits often envy their counterparts in larger institutions. Sometimes for good reason:they have more budgetthey have more supportthey have nice officesthey go to a lot of conferencesthey have name recognition and people return their calls BUT…there is a downside to being big. And an upside to being small. On today's episode, Mike and Louis encourage smaller nonprofits to lean into their small-ness and use it to their advantage. Because if you're small, you don't have to worry about large approval committees, procurement departments and tight brand standards.You can build deep community by getting closer to your donors (and you can forget about having the 'right' pantone colour logo on everything you do). GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

How do you change paradigms? In today's show, we get into the growing importance of creating engaging online content to grow and nurture a community of supporters. From the old paradigm:Command and control mindsetLow context, “I know better than you” approachScarce contentTo the new paradigm:Building influence and trustHigh context: building in public, I value your thoughtsRich contentSo how do you change paradigms? "Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the seminal book about the great paradigm shifts of science, has a lot to say about that. In a nutshell, you keep pointing at the anomalies and failures in the old paradigm, you keep coming yourself, and loudly and with assurance from the new one, you insert people with the new paradigm in places of public visibility and power. You don't waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with active change agents and with the vast middle ground of people who are open-minded." -Donella Meadows -Thinking in SystemsGET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Low donor retention. It's the issue plaguing the entire sector, or at least that's what we say. We all beat ourselves up about it. We say “if only nonprofits care more about their donors, we wouldn't lose so many of them every year."If it really is such a big problem, then in the words of Peter Drucker: "The most effective way to manage change successfully is to create it. This requires the organized abandonment of things that have been shown to be unsuccessful, and the organized and continuous improvement of every product, service, and process within the enterprise."And that begs the question: who owns donor retention?  Some common answers: Major donor officers own retention for their portfolioMiddle donor reps own retention for middle donor fileAnnual giving owns retention for the annual fundThe Director of DevelopmentBut is that too short sighted? On this week's episode, Mike and Louis get into why so many fundraising problems—including donor retention—might not be fundraising problems at all. They might just be business decision problems.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

In this special episode of Donor Growth, we do a live consulting session with podcast listener Ranger Kielak. He's the president of the Northern California Herpetological Society—a membership driven nonprofit org that provides reptile and amphibian education, as well as aiding in rescue and rehabilitation of captive species. In fact, they once put a rescued snake on a plane and sent it to the Denver Zoo.Ranger's got questions about growing membership and monthly giving, and Louis and Mike provide some different ways to think about growth.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

We're all told to remove as much friction as possible from the giving experience to make it easy for donors to be generous. But what if not all friction is bad friction? What if the right kind of friction actually creates affection, and develops a deeper relationship?On today's episode, Louis talks about the difference between bad friction and good friction—including some specific cases like friction in direct mail to friction in major giving.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Here's a familiar story.  A charity looks for a “rainmaker” —a fundraiser who is so charming, so outgoing, and so cunning that they will bring in millions.Or a nonprofit seeks out a star marketer who will take their message to the next level, and bring a flash of inspiration to the team for a viral digital campaign. But what if transformational fundraising isn't about the one-in-a-million person? Or idea? Or advertising campaign? What if transformational and sustainable fundraising growth is a function of process. On today's podcast, Mike and Louis get into developing a process to fund the entire pipeline from first time giver to legacy leaver, and committing to that process so that revenue growth comes out the other side. Because maybe revenue growth—for the most part—isn't feats of genius, works of magic, or flashes of inspiration. But a product of process.And a consistent process = consistent progress. And consistent progress compounds over time.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

On today's show, Louis and Mike answer some questions posted on The Ask—the new Q&A platform launched by the Donor Participation Project. We get into:The ideal format for donor surveysHow to ensure fundraising campaigns are accessible Ideas for post-campaign kickoff outreach for non-attendees ...and more! GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Have you ever played The Game of Constraints? On today's episode, Mike walks through a fun exercise to play with your team where you imagine a scenario that might seem impossible or unlikely.Then you brainstorm as many ways as possible to overcome the problem.You'll be surprised how quickly you can free your mind from thinking:“We can't do that!” to“This is tough, but maybe not impossible” to“Here's one way we could respond that would solve the problem”It's a great way for your organization to uncover (quickly, in our experience) actions you can take with your existing budget to help you raise more money and keep more of your donors.You can have a lot of fun playing these games and stretching your imagination. But you'll also feel energized about the opportunities ahead.You'll also be more confident in your ability to solve potential problems. And you'll identify where you are weak today, so you can become more resilient for tomorrow.Think of the exercise as making your fundraising healthier & more robust and increasing your organization's immunity to difficulties.Ready to play some games?GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

You've heard the saying: ask the right people, for the right thing, at the right time. But what does that look like in practice? On today's podcast, Louis gets into a framework he created to ask donors for the right things.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

"Donor relations is the new fundraising."Agree or disagree?On today's podcast, we invite you to consider the following: every enduring business and organizations grows through word of mouth. And how do you generate positive word of mouth?By treating your donors well, making them feel valued, and showing impact.Other than starting a solicitation program that didn't exist before, investing in donor relations is—often times—the greatest growth opportunity for nonprofits.ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He's the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. 

Here's a common pain point for many fundraising leaders: we're spending too much time on the operations of the shop, and not enough time connecting with donors. But there is a way to reclaim some time. It's not sexy. It's not glamorous. It's kind of a pain to implement at first. It's for sure never a priority.But it will—in the long term—make your life and your work so much more effective.  And that's standardizing our operations with a series of SOPs, trainings, FAQs, templates and systems. Think of it as building an operating system for your fundraising operations.Here's what each element of the operating system looks like:SOPs are standardized operating procedures. They show you what to do. Usually a step by step instruction, or a checklist. Most nonprofits probably have a basic 30-50 SOPs they could create today that are the core of their revenue ops.Trainings show you how to think. They are usually a slide decks, videos, PDFs, courses or even books. An FAQ knowledge base helps you avoid wasting time and answering the same questions over and over. A good FAQ base empowers your team to find answers quickly without getting bottle-necked by the leader. Templates show you how to work. A good template library is a giant shortcut so you don't start from scratch every time.A project management  system houses everything in one spot. Usually some sort of took like Airtable,  Asana, ClickUp, Monday.com or even Google Sheets.Combined, this operating system will become the brain of your operations.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen is the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. He also hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast.

What do successful fundraisers have in common?Louis and Mike share some traits they observed in their mentors over the years.Successful fundraisers:Obsess about being as clear, simple, straightforward and plain-spoken as possible. They know that's a service to their team mates and their donors. Obsess about what their community of donors and supporters cares about.Take full responsibility if people didn't react to the message or approach, and then work better at understanding the audience/donors to frame the offer in a more relevant and meaningful way Lead donors toward greater generosity by using emotional information and creating personal meaning Cross “the knowledge gap” by meeting donors exactly where they're at, using words and phrases and stories donors can easily and quickly understand Make some assumptions about human nature and psychology, but are innately curious about what their donors specifically care about Spend a lot of time hanging out in places where they can get insights about their donors (front desk, donor care department, making an effort to talk with donors at events, reading the reply coupons, etc.) What would you add to the list? GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen is the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. He also hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast.

Two thirds of people in the US play video games. And if that isn't surprising enough, games and streamers raise millions of dollars for nonprofits every year.Could your organization benefit from this highly participatory, grass-roots, community-building type of fundraising? On today's show, Louis gives a primer on the world of gaming, esports, streaming—and how it all ties back to philanthropy. And you'll hear about the National Videogaming Giving Day, a way to showcase your nonprofit, engage your community, and attract diverse groups to your org.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen is the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. He also hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast.

Ever look back on your career and evaluate how you might do things differently knowing what you know now? On this week's episode, Louis and Mike reflect on over a decade of being fundraisers and what each of them would do differently if they were starting over today.Things like...Focusing more on the strength of the relationship with donors rather than getting all the technical details just rightFocusing more on gathering insights directly from donors in a systematic way to shape fundraising messaging and strategyRealizing you are the CEO of youBeing in the room when budgeting happens Seeking out mentors who are a few steps ahead in their career..and more. GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen is the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. He also hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast.

Does your nonprofit have a community advantage? Almost all organizations talk about their community of supporters. But few have a true participatory community. Most simply have an audience; a list of people they blast communications to.Then again, some nonprofits have a competitive advantage in that they naturally have engagement opportunities that tend to create community.What types of nonprofits have these opportunities?Performing artsAthleticsReligious organizationsProfessional associations...just to name a few. On today's podcast, Louis and Mike talk about how organizations can leverage their community advantage—and how they can screw it up.GET CONNECTEDFollow Louis Diez on LinkedIn Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation.Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response. ABOUT THE HOSTSLouis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the founder and host of the Donor Participation Project and VP, Community at Almabase.Mike Duerksen is the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. He also hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast.