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- [00:00]
Rhea Wong
Hey you, it's Rhea Wong. If you're listening to nonprofit Load on, I'm pretty sure that you'd love my weekly newsletter. Every Tuesday morning, you get updates on the newest podcast episodes. And then interspersed, we have fun special invitations for newsletter subscribers only and fundraising inspo because I know what it feels like to be in the trenches alone. On top of that, you get cute dog photos. Best of all, it is free. So what are you waiting for? Head over to riawong.com now to sign up.
- [00:27]
Jess Campbell
Foreign.
- [00:34]
Rhea Wong
Welcome to nonprofit Lowdown. I'm your host, Rhea Wong. Hey podcast listeners, it's Ria Wong with you once again with nonprofit Lowdown. Today we're doing one of the favorite episodes of the year. I am here in beautiful Montreal, Canada with my homies, my 10x chromosomes crew minus oh, Burke, Richie Babbage. I know, but we're here with the crew plus a new member of the crew, Kell Haney. And today we are going to pass the mic and talk about all things end of year AI and automation. So allow me first to introduce and welcome my guest, Kell Haney, Tanya Bhattacharya, Rachel Bar, Jess Campbell and Cindy Wagman. Ladies, welcome once again to the show. All right, let's get into it because at the time of airing, everyone is thinking about year end campaigns. We know that this is the time of year where all the money comes in, what, something like 30% of the income comes in the last week of the year, which is always a little bit stressful for folks. From cash flow perspective, we have some of the top folks in the field, including Jess Campbell and her year end email, Sprint. One of the questions I have is if I'm listening to this and I'm in a nonprofit, maybe I'm a small shop, maybe I'm one of two or three in a department. We know the minute September hits, it is a freaking whirlwind. So I am wondering what, what is the best advice right now for people to prepare for your end?
- [02:22]
Cindy Wagman
All right, it's Cindy. Hello, I'm stepping in because I am working on this actually right now with an organization I volunteer with because I don't do fundraising consulting anymore.
- [02:34]
Jess Campbell
I still volunteer.
- [02:35]
Cindy Wagman
So I we all know story based writing is what is effective for fundraising. So my little AI hack is I interview for stories on Zoom and I use Fathom to record and then I take that transcript from the recording and I plug that into usually like a custom GPT within Claude because I like Claude for writing better than ChatGPT and it gives me such a good first draft. But the way to make it even better is to really train that GPT. So what I would do is I would go back to past letters that have performed well and use that as the knowledge base. I hope I'm not using too much jargon, but use that as like the brain of your custom GPT so it knows what's worked well for your specific audience and the, the past. And then you just plug in that new transcript and it generates really high quality first drafts. So that's my little AI hack.
- [03:44]
Rachel Bar
Hey friends, this is Rachel. So agree with what Cindy just said. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go backwards before we do anything with year end. Get your tech stack in order. What is a tech stack? It's all the different pieces of tech that you are using within your campaign. This is your CRM. This is your email marketing. This is your fundraising, online fundraising platform. This is your QuickBooks, this is your chat GPT, your cloud. What are your calendly, your double the donation. What are all the different pieces of tech that you are using? Make a list and go through and just make sure that things are connected and things are integrated and that's make sure they're connected. But if that makes you feel really uncomfortable, Chachi BT is fantastic for figuring out how to do it. You can put something into the chat like I don't know why my CRM isn't connecting to my email marketing platform. Insert your CRM. Insert your email marketing platform. And oftentimes ChatGPT can be a really helpful thought partner to help you figure out how to do the things that are not working or you feel uncomfortable with.
- [05:03]
Rhea Wong
All right, before we get there because actually this reminds me, I want to ground us a little bit in fundraising in 2025 because I think folks are out here and it has been a crazy ass year, y'. All. So I want to think about what do we need to think about as we're planning campaigns. And I'll just say for myself in Major Gifts, we know and actually just brought this up the other day, that Major Gifts is the only segment of donors that's actually growing compared to across the board, all the others. I think when we have federal funding cuts, people are afraid of inflation, the stock market is going to do what it's going to do, tariffs are up, it's just a wacky time and I think simultaneously donor trust is at an all time low. So if it feels like it's been a little bit harder this year, you're right, it has been a little bit harder. And I think a big part of it is that donors are savvy. They want impact, they want transparency. They want to know that what they're funding has real impact in the world. And I think any nonprofit that is not demonstrating impact and transparency with actual metrics and numbers will have a harder time fundraising. Like stories. Absolutely. But the stories have to be paired with real numbers. And so I'm just curious from folks, different perspectives in the field, how has the landscape changed in 2025?
- [06:32]
Kel Haney
This is Kel. And what I focus on is guiding not for Profits to build their mid level donor base predominantly through 5 minute phone calls. Yes. In 2025, if we are new to each other, what I will say is that my clients are seeing phenomenal results and I do think it's connected Ria to everything you were just saying about the uncertainty in a larger sense and also the distrust and people's fear, frankly. Fear and the uncertainty. And what I'm really seeing is that micro connections over the phone between specific community members. Again, there's a really specific reason this works well for mid level donors, predominantly. A thousand dollars to right under 10,000 is what I'd say for most organizations it works great. Back to what you were. Oh, I want to stay with that actually. I think I'd love to hear, we'd all love to hear everybody else's perspective, but I really do think if you are figuring out how to actually connect with donors, you'll actually see even larger impacts. I'm seeing people getting involved with capital campaigns at the same time that they're doing their annual gifts. I'm seeing donors make who their donor history is a thousand dollars make a $15,000 commitment over the next five years because it includes being on a donor wall. I'm seeing some really amazing results. So I really. It does not have to be small for your mid level in particular.
- [07:57]
Tanya Bhattacharya
I'll just. This is Tanya Bhattacharya.
- [07:59]
Rhea Wong
Hello.
- [08:00]
Tanya Bhattacharya
I support nonprofit leaders with their thought leadership, especially on LinkedIn. And I just want to add to this thread around trust because Ria is correct, donor trust has been dropped. But I want to present another side of the coin around trust, like a little bit more of a positive spin on trust, which is that independent sector released their annual trust survey and non profits are the most trusted institution over a government, over corporations, over the news. And while trust, a donor trust may be dropping, we are still more trusted than any other institution. And so I think that nonprofits have a really strong ability but also responsibility to maintain and strengthen that trust. And of course, there's a lot of ways to do that. But my kind of side of the thing, side of the road is building trust through individual relationships and showing up and sharing your stories. And one number that just, like, sticks out in my mind like a big neon sign is that on LinkedIn, when individuals share, it has 561% greater reach than an organization's LinkedIn content ever will. And to me, that just points to the ways that people build trust, which is in other people. Humans want to build, be in relationship with other people. And so this is a really great opportunity right now, if you haven't already, to get the people behind your mission. And that could be your executive director, for sure. It could also be your board members, it could be your founder, it could be volunteers. Just the people behind your mission getting out there and sharing their deeper why of why they're involved.
- [09:31]
Cindy Wagman
Rachel and I are fighting for the mic. I just want to open up or add to this the idea of building trust and human connections layered with AI, because I think that's really where people are struggling in terms of how are we using technology on LinkedIn. The EM Dash was, like, destroyed post after post. Oh, no. It's like we're on a witch hunt for AI content. And I think that we're at this really funny period where organizations are not yet that great at using this particular technology to be more human. And it's. It's this sort of like, very fine line that I think organizations are walking on where it's. I want to use the technology, I want to embrace, I want to figure this out. And I don't want to sound like a robot because there's so much mistrust, because everything is under more scrutiny, because people are being more careful around their giving. And so I just want to open that up and hear what other people are thinking. And I don't know, Rachel may take it in a different direction.
- [10:44]
Rachel Bar
No, I was just going. I was going to add to the idea of trust and connection with our donors. We're also humans, and we're humans in an age where we have instant gratification. And so when somebody donates, they want to know that their gift was received. So making sure that you're. That they get their acknowledgement quickly, following up quickly, for better, for worse. I've been a small shop. I've been in those positions where you're like, oh, my gosh, a gift just came in. But I don't have. I'm trying to run a program I don't have the time to get something out quickly. But that human nature side of giving or the human nature side of everything, where we like and want that instant gratification, we want that consist or we need that consistency. It's figuring out your, like figuring out your systems and your processes. What are you able to do? What can you do to have consistency, to have your systems so that your donors don't feel like they're out in the boons with just what's going on? Did my gift get, get received? So there's the, you know, all the relationship building side of things, but you can think about it in a lot of different ways.
- [11:59]
Rhea Wong
I have a lot to say about AI because Cindy, I think is absolutely right. I think of AI as a tool to help free up the time for humans to be humans. Right. Like in AI, at least at this point in time, is not going to replicate a human experience. But it can help you with all of the mundane tasks that you need to do on the back end, like automating your stewardship or giving you good first drafts. And I think what I've seen in the non profit field is there's almost a binary. It's people who don't want to use AI at all or think everything has to be AI. And I think that there are lots of shades in between. And so I, I would, I would encourage people who are listening to this podcast to think about how to use AI strategically in your operations. So what I'm going to do in the show notes is I'm going to just put together my own tech stack and folks, if we want to add to your tech stack and I'm also going to provide for folks a template that you can use to train your AI in your brand voice.
- [13:10]
Jess Campbell
What?
- [13:10]
Rhea Wong
Why is that important? Because if it, if you haven't created the inputs and trained your AI, it's going to sound generic, it's going to sound like a robot. And your organization, your brand, your company has a specific and unique imprint, which is why people like you. That might mean there are certain words you don't use or certain tones of personality or certain phrases that you use. And so the more you can train AI to sound like you, the more you can delegate to it. Just think of it as a really smart intern who needs lots of direction. So check it out in the show notes, I'm going to put in the.
- [13:49]
Jess Campbell
Training your AI template just to combine.
- [13:53]
Cindy Wagman
Those thoughts because the thing like we're talking about AI and what Rachel didn't explicitly say, but really is. She's also talking about is automation. And they're so combined in the sense that we are using technology for previously human tasks and they're critical, they go really hand in hand. And we see that as the next sort of iteration of AI. People are talking about AI agents, which combines AI and automation. But these are tools to your point, Ria, they're just tools. And figuring out how to use them in a sort of trust building way I think is one of the most important tasks organizations can figure out now. Because it's almost going to get to a point where you're, I don't want to say not trustworthy if you're not using technology. But like we do see that. I think with automation, which has been around a longer period of time, if I donate to an organization and I don't get an immediate acknowledgement that my gift was made, they lose trust, right? So how do we use the technology to build trust and walk that fine line? And I do think we'll get to a period where if we're not using it well or if we're not using it at all, I don't want to say like at all, that's very finite. But donors want to support and invest in organizations that are forward thinking, right? And this technology is not going anywhere. I had this conversation with a friend where I said one of the reasons I want to learn AI is because my kids are going to be using it and guess what, I gotta guide them, right? There's no one right now in their life who's going to be like that's appropriate, that's not appropriate with AI. And let me tell you, that next generation, it's going to be so different for them. So I think organizations, I don't want to say, have an obligation that's like very, like a very sort of platitudinal statement. But it's coming and we have to understand how to make it less robotic.
- [16:10]
Rhea Wong
On that point though, I also think there's something so interesting about emerging technologies and zigging when everyone is zagging. So what I mean by that is everyone is getting an automation. Everyone is maybe using AI or maybe you're using it to produce social media content. So how you get noticed then is going analog. You do phone calls because no one's doing phone calls. You do the handwritten notes, you do the snail mail when everyone's going digital. And I think the important thing is that AI allows you to create content at scale and at volume. And I think what we see working in the Algorithms is for better or for worse, FAST is better than perfect, right? So people are really responding to like the messy video that looks human versus the super perfect, possibly AI generated one. People are really responding to authenticity in social media. I don't know if you guys have seen the threads of Beyond Me. It's genius. I don't know what rabid raccoon is on that keyboard, but keep it coming. Someone I'm working with is doing a snail mail magazine that they're sending to donors because it actually now gets noticed because all we get now is bills in the mail and junk mail. No one's getting real mail. So I want everyone to think about, especially in the CRM campaign, what would be the zig if everyone's zagging? Justin Campbell. Hi everyone.
- [17:40]
Jess Campbell
How are you? I'm sitting here listening to all these super smart people and I can imagine as a listener you might be feeling slightly overwhelmed. And I would recommend taking several steps back actually, because we started the conversation saying it's mid August when we're recording, this will be delivered in probably mid September. What do you need to do to execute a successful end of year campaign? And then we launched into all these ways you can use AI and if I was you, I would be immediately overwhelmed. And so what I think that organizations need to do if you're really listening to this in September is do a bit of an internal audit around when was the last time I communicated impact to my 2024 end of year donors? How many times have I radically said thank you? What is my communication execution been with a group of volunteers or my major gift donors, or my donors who give $500 versus $5,000? I think you really need to sit with and perhaps even map out what those touch points were because some of you are going to say, oh, we've been consistent every single week, all year long. And if that is you like, round of applause for the majority of you and a lot of the clients I see that come to me, the last time they communicated anything was the last ask they made during the 2024 giving season. And that is your very real reality. You have a very short window to change your perception of how the donor sees you. Because again, going back to trust, all you do, all you've done since then is nothing. You've asked them for money and then nothing. And so they have no idea of the great things you've done, the people you've hired, the impact you've made. And so I would really sit with the different channels of people that operate within your organization and the supporters and the community members and think about if you were in their seat, how would you want to hear from your organization? Because a volunteer might not need as many touch points as a thousand dollar donor. And so you need to communicate differently to the point of everyone here. Maybe a phone call is actually appropriate for someone who gave their first time gift last December versus a voice memo, DM or a piece of hard copy mail. And so I would just really try and see sit with that for one second and that should be your starting place before you're going through. Then AI is going to write this series and we're going to automate this and that like you need a plan first. You need a a map, so to speak. And there's a lot of ways to do this and there's no right or wrong way. But not communicating is a terrible reaction and recipe for setting yourself up for a strong choice.
- [20:46]
Kel Haney
2025 campaign season this is Kel and I'm hearing so much both from what you were just saying, Jess, and frankly what Rhea was saying as well that I was really resonating with in so many ways. In terms of this advice, I really think it's important. I'm coming from a background in theater so we would always have a production calendar. I know you have those all in terms of your internal communications and whatnot. But to really work backwards of what are the goals you want accomplished when you come back into the office on January 2nd, January 3rd, maybe you get.
- [21:23]
Tanya Bhattacharya
To wait until January 5th to come back.
- [21:25]
Kel Haney
Amazing. But to really look at where you want to end up. Because I will say most of the clients that I talk to, even if 1231 is their end of fiscal, they don't have goals set. They don't actually have active goals set specifically for individual giving. Which breaks my heart because what I recommend is when you have these conversations in person over the phone, the email sending, whatever you're sending in snail mail to be really specific about the specific numerical amount you're trying to raise and how you're going to get there and how far you are right now because it engages people's not just their warm and fuzzy oxytocin, but they're get it done dopamine. And that's important for all of us. So I was really resonating with what Rachel was saying about just even just getting clear about what is your current tech stack. I am willing to wager that a lot of organizations don't even have that listed anywhere to even know where to start. So it might not be that you're going to be implementing new automation or AI as much as you'd like by this last quarter, but that you're getting ready for next year as well so that you're ready in that way. What Rio was saying about Zig instead of zagging, I just can't stress enough how much I've seen that be really important of people actually doing something nobody else is doing. Again, what I do is phone calls. And to me that is so simple of taking an hour making 12 phone calls, a five minute fundraising ask in a week. But most of the clients don't have an hour to make those calls. And so that's where this automation, where the AI would make space for that. I think that is all super important. Oh, and I would also say matches are magic. Matches are magic. Matches are magic. So listen to what Rhea is saying in all of her other podcasts about how to connect with major donors. I think the idea of connecting major donors with everyone else who's donating both your mid level and your grassroots by right now, that gift that you're never sure is going to come in by 12:31 and you're always biting your nails is that $30,000 that Sarah has given you the past five, 10 years. Is it coming? What if you talk to Sarah in September you say I'd like for you to be part of a growth, a growth campaign instead and we're going to match that $30,000 and we're going to do a one to one match. And I also would say don't be afraid of giving Tuesday. We're all in the not for profit sector in order to fundraise crafting events. Guess what? This is an event that exists in our sector already and it's growing exponentially every year. Don't be afraid of it. This is not the moment that you're going to gather a whole bunch of new acquisition donors, but those people who are closest in your circle because come up with a specific match specifically for that day and whether you can make 10 calls or a hundred calls. Jess has lots of really great things in terms of what she's doing with her emails but that are also super helpful but really get in there even though just get strategic about it.
- [24:16]
Rhea Wong
And by the way, that also includes your board members. I think we forget that our board members are actually our biggest donors and something weird happens when they join the board all of a sudden we treat them differently. Like when they were major donors we were all about stewarding and making them feel good. The minute they get on our board, we start beating them up and like, why aren't you giving me your friend list? So remember, your board members need love too, but the most powerful way you can kick off a campaign is knowing that you've already secured those bigger gifts. Because every campaign is 80, 20 and 20% of the gifts will make up for 80% of the overall. And so if you go into a campaign having already secured your top donations, again, to Jess's point, look at your calendar, see what comes in. If we know Sarah likes to donate in November, like, we should plan for that, or we could even call Sarah and see if she would be willing to consider an earlier gift in order to kick off that. Everyone wants to feel important. And so if I can make Sarah and whoever feel really good about, actually I'm the foundation of this campaign, that would be wonderful. Like, we all just want to feel special and that we are seen and that we belong. So how do we tap into that human potential? That being said, and I just want to say this for major donors, even though folks like to give at the end of the year, and it's more for some people, it's about the tax write off. But largely I think it's psychological. Those rules don't really apply to major donors. The reason being that a lot of folks give out of dafts and family foundations, so they've already secured their tax benefit so they don't need to give for tax reasons. At the end of the year, when you're getting end of your gifts from those larger donors, it's largely an emotional instinct versus an actual tax benefit instinct. And then statistically speaking, major gifts take about 18 months from start to close. So I also don't want you to rush a situation if it's not ready yet. Especially with major donors, the worst thing you can do is jump in too quickly and damage the relationship. So it's a little bit of an art and science. There's no I can't give you a silver bullet. Like it will take this many months. It really depends. But because they're bringing in larger gifts, you can and should devote the time to really treat those in a very careful and curated way.
- [26:51]
Jess Campbell
One thing I was just going to add to what Rio was saying is for campaigns, if you need some math or you need some guidelines, one of the things that we do with our clients is really work hard in September, October and through through November to secure up to 50% of gifts behind the scenes so that come giving Tuesday, we can launch. No one likes to See a big goose egg on that thermometer, calculator, whatever you call it. And so we work really hard to secure those gifts. So if you need, just if you have a goal of raising, I don't know, a hundred thousand dollars, I would spend these next few months via your major gift donors, people who've given in the past or people you want to upgrade, upgrade and have these conversations, preferably on the phone, to work to secure 25 to 50% of that campaign total before you even launch. So if you just need some math, that's always like a high recommendation.
- [27:50]
Rhea Wong
Jess. I always get questions about year end campaigns and I also think people.
- [27:57]
Rachel Bar
They'Re.
- [27:57]
Rhea Wong
Sleeping on email, right? Or they worry that I'm going to send too many emails or what do I say in the email. So could you speak a little bit about your strategy for email year end campaigns? What's the right cadence, what is the right number of emails to send and what should I expect if I launch this campaign with a email? Let's say not email first but email forward.
- [28:25]
Jess Campbell
Great question. And everything good in life, it depends. Which is so annoying. I know. So I really believe you need to quote, unquote, earn your asks. And so for example, if you haven't spent your year communicating via email to your audience, you're sending like a quarter needs blues letter, which is just really not enough. It is going to be difficult for you to then see December 1st on the calendar and suddenly start sending between 12 and 16 emails in a 30 day period. Right? That is going to be annoying. I would be annoyed. That's a really great recipe for getting people to unsubscribe. And so if you're in that category, you're just sitting here listening and you're like, that is me, I am that person. Or I'm that organization that has spent no time emailing. I would start emailing now and I would make it with really valuable, high quality, entertaining, education, inspiring content, story based communication. Tell the story from the first person, preferably a leader within your organization. Make it very conversational, not a lot of graphics. And I would start doing that now. The goal is one per week. If you're doing something like once a month, maybe you try the next month, it's twice a month and you work your way up. But the I we talk a lot about facts, not feelings in this group and the data shows that the more you ask or the more you communicate, the more money you get and you need. I always tell my clients you are not your subscriber and just because you have an overflowing inbox and. And because you might be feeling overwhelmed in your inbox doesn't mean that is happening for your subscriber. And the actual truth is that people take action in their inbox over almost every channel. Definitely social media, even hard copy appeal. The numbers are really changing. And if you have a very small donor list, it's not apples to apples when we hear, like hard copy appeals are. The direct mail, for example, is just, just like the be all, end all, because they're comparing you to people that have 50,000 people on their mailing list. So I would say just as a baseline, and this is going to change for everyone. Important days to email are giving Tuesday. One email is not enough. I'm sorry to say it isn't. There's people emailing eight times a day. And so you have to decide for your organization what feels good. For some of you, that's going to be two. For some of you, that's going to be seven. You have to decide from there. I prefer to send between one and two emails asking for money through the weeks of December. And then we send probably five emails in the last three days of the year, with many emails on December 31st, because that is the most profitable giving day of the year, period. Hands down, underline, circle, bold, it doesn't matter. That's the truth. And so I wouldn't feel like, oh, I feel bad, or oh, no one's checking their inbox on December 31st. It's literally not true. And so that's where I go back to facts, not feelings. And I would say that if what I just said feels very overwhelming or feels way too much, dial it by half. Like, you get to decide what campaign you want to run and then maybe think about what you're sending. Because I always say, yeah, I don't want to get bad emails in my inbox either. So don't send bad emails, which is a tool like AI can really help you with in terms of that first draft if that's not your skill set. But when your emails are good and entertaining, people tell me all the time they look forward to my emails. And so I send a lot of emails. So just try that.
- [32:11]
Rhea Wong
I want to pop it over to Kel because I'm curious, Kel, what is the role of phone calls in a campaign? And particularly because I hear a lot from my clients that people are not picking up the phone, they don't want to hear from you. If they do pick up the phone, they want to get off the Phone as soon as possible. So I guess a two part question like what is the role of phone calls in a campaign? And to how can I actually have a good phone interaction such that people want to talk to me or at least won't automatically delete my voicemail.
- [32:47]
Kel Haney
Thanks Rhea. It's Kel.
- [32:48]
Tanya Bhattacharya
Yeah, just so much of what you.
- [32:50]
Kel Haney
Were saying was just really resonating with phone calls and it was just reminding me how much phone calls and emails go together like peanut butter and jelly. They really do. And picking up the phone and knowing what exactly is happening with your email. Email cadence is really important. I teach a five minute fundraising ask. If you hop on LinkedIn you can learn a lot about this very quickly. Listen to other times I've been on RIA to understand this methodology. But basically people say they don't like phone calls because they are not getting good phone calls. They are not having good conversations. I had a potential client that has plenty of people to be calling a performing arts organization that said they're going down to seasonal calling because they weren't making a positive ROI or all of my clients have at least a 2x the very minimum ROI no matter the size of their organization and it's because the phone calls are quality. So that's either getting appropriate professional development training for your internal team or that's deciding you're going to hire out for part time fundraisers. Making calls for me because I've got a background in the arts, I train and I coach and I work with artists making these calls and they're great conversations.
- [34:02]
Jess Campbell
It's.
- [34:02]
Kel Haney
You should feel like when you're on a call with a community member it is like a synchronistic moment where you are both. You both are passionate about this organization so it should include both of your whys potentially and just be an actual human to human conversation so can go ahead and have some lightness about what's happening. I'm giving you a call on Giving Tuesday. I wonder how many other phone calls or what's happening. And I've had. It's also the counter programming. I've had people give feedback like I just push delete, delete all day and then I you called me and I'm not going to delete you. That happens too. But they need to be connected. So you need to know what is going on in your emails. And yeah this definitely goes to Rachel. You need to know what's going out in the emails. You need to know what other correspondence they've gotten in that way. But don't Be afraid. And I will say, like my clients, especially when they're hiring people, artists to actually make these calls, they call through the end of the year. So the only days we take off are January 24th. Sorry, pardon me, December 24th and December 25th. They call through 1231. Because even during the day, on New Year's Day, there's some people. And that's their habit and that's like we want to play into habits people already have while we're also starting new habits. And yeah, we make calls and we do bring in, I would definitely say most of my clients, it's probably about 15% of their annual giving in the last two, two weeks through, through phone calls and such.
- [35:26]
Rhea Wong
I have the last question for you, Ms. Rachel Bar.
- [35:29]
Rachel Bar
Okay, I do need to say one thing. I'm getting a little bit sweaty because when I was a baby Ed, I called a donor because that felt like they gave a really big gift. They had never received a phone call. I had never made a phone call. I didn't have a plan when I got on the phone. And both of us were like, it was the most awkward call in like kind of the most wonderful way too. Like, we laughed. It was fine. Donated again. She was wonderful. Guys, make sure you know what you're gonna say when before you call a donor. Like, I'm, I'm so sweaty talking about this conversation. I'm just like getting flashbacks. This was probably 15 years ago and I still am like nervous about it.
- [36:10]
Rhea Wong
Oh, and can I just plug in? Because I get these phone calls all the time. And the mistake I here, and I think this happens when you're fundraising as well is they just talk at you. There's no conversation, there's no pause. There's no question to me about like, why did I donate? What's important to me? And so Kel and I actually had this conversation which is we're going to have jobs forever because we need to teach people how to have conversations. And by the way, conversations means that there's two people. And at a minimum, con being with Versation, it's not a, it's not a monologue.
- [36:50]
Kel Haney
But.
- [36:51]
Rhea Wong
Okay, last question. Barabelle. Two automated workflows. I know you're the queen of automation. I'd love for you to speak on one first time donor sequences because I think that's a missed opportunity that we don't treat first time donors with any kind of special care, which means that they don't come back. And the post donation sequence, because I tell my clients all the Time. The tax acknowledgement I got your donation email does not count as a gratitude touch point. It's just standard. So please speak, if you would, to these two big opportunities.
- [37:35]
Rachel Bar
Yeah. So I will step back and I will say that automation, like, you can automate the thank you notes, the sequences, things like that, or you can also automate like the reminders to be like, hey, new donor just came in. Make sure you make a phone call. Here's a link to the Google Doc of your script to just make things easier for you. So number one, my most favorite automation is setting up a draft thank you note that is sent to like from your CRM or sent from your fundraising platform that when somebody donates a draft email lands in your inbox, your draft inbox so that all you have to do is go in. Maybe you had a conversation with them earlier. You can say, loved our conversation, thank you so much for the gift. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just because it's automated doesn't mean it has to not be personal. So find a thank you note that you've written before. And donors aren't being like, hey, so what thank you note did you get from the executive? They're not doing that. They just want to be seen. So number one, for all donors, whether it's a new donor or it's a current donor, it's a recurring donor. The draft email just landing in your inbox. My favorite automation, I think that can just save you so much time automations in your CRM. So if you're on Bloomerang, for example, setting up, making sure that there's like, tasks and things like that that are being either added to your task list or to a board member, to a your development director. Like, you can do a lot of that stuff within the CRM so that it's not like, oh, a new donor just donated, I need to go in and write or add a task. No, you can do that with automation.
- [39:34]
Rhea Wong
So let me wrap up the points. And ladies, let me also say appreciate having you on the pod. So Kelhanie says, do not be afraid to pick up the phone, but have a plan and make sure that it's not.
- [39:46]
Rachel Bar
Rachel says, have a plan.
- [39:47]
Rhea Wong
Have a plan and make sure that it's not.
- [39:49]
I'm going to talk at people with a script.
- [39:52]
Jess Campbell
Yeah, scripts are for actor.
- [39:53]
Kel Haney
Scripts are for actors. They're not for fundraisers. More at another time.
- [39:57]
Rhea Wong
Tanya says, make sure that you are building that trust and leveraging your audience to help you show the humans. Rachel says, automate and make sure that you have some basic automations to make your life better. But don't go crazy. Just do an audit, see what you can do. Just says so much. Don't sleep on email but have a plan and use this window of opportunity right now to thank people before you go back to the well to ask them for money. And Cindy says, AI is your friend. Do not be afraid.
- [40:32]
Cindy Wagman
And Zig and Zag, Zig and Zag.
- [40:38]
Rhea Wong
And Rhea says take care of your major donors right now because they are going to make up the bulk of the money that you're bringing in through the end of the year. So ladies, appreciate y' all and if you're listening to this, we'll have lots of goodies in the show notes for you. But good luck, go forth and be friends with AI. Don't be scared. Bye bye.
- [41:01]
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