← We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
676. Shift 6 — The Modern Donor Journey: Modernize Individual Giving for Today’s Donor - Mike Duerksen & Dana Snyder
00:37:10
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- [00:01]
Becky
Hey friends, we have exciting news. If you are looking to build capacity, clarity and momentum in the new year, we hope you'll join this community at our first ever We Are For Good Summit on February 12th.
- [00:12]
Host
It's a free one day virtual gathering for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, marketers and the everyday change maker who's looking to elevate. Good.
- [00:21]
Mike Dirksen
Yeah.
- [00:21]
Becky
You can expect more than 20 speakers across three tracks, plus live workshops and working sessions and roundtable conversations on building trust, partnerships, people power and what leadership really requires in 2026.
- [00:35]
Host
Save your free spot at weareforgood.com summit and let's learn together. Then turn that learning into action.
- [00:43]
Becky
After the summit, we're returning to local by activating in local impactup meetups so the ideas shared during the day turn into action together. If you want to host a meetup too, all the details are over@weareforgood.com summit. Let's kickstart the year in Community.
- [01:06]
Mike Dirksen
The way you welcome somebody into your community is all you need to know about an organization, about their intentions. Everybody wants recurring giving to happen. Everybody wants recurring value from donors. Very few people want to actually provide recurring value.
- [01:23]
Host
Welcome back friends to the 12 Shift series. We are diving deeply into the trends that we are seeing in the and today. If you are like where is my fundraising episode? Where is my how do I get started right now? Our guests today are two of the most trusted voices in modern fundraising. They're longtime friends of the show. They are going to lead you to those answers. We are delighted to have Dana Snyder and Mike Dirksen back on the podcast. They are both multi alums of the We Are for Good podcast and if you're new to them, knowing them we one, you have to immediately go friend them on LinkedIn because their thought leadership is incredible. But listen to these backgrounds. Dana is the founder of Positive Equation. She is also the author of the monthly Giving Mastermind which is a fabulous book. Her mission is simple and powerful. Equip nonprofits with the knowledge and tools to create sustainable giving models by building monthly giving programs so everyone can become a philanthropist. And then you got Mike over here, the founder of BuildGood. If you don't know BuildGood, run immediately and go at all their incredible tools. He is helping organizations design fundraising systems that are clear, human and built for how donors actually behave today, not how we wish they would behave. So together, these two powerhouses have really spent years helping nonprofits navigate a rapidly changing donor landscape. We're seeing more innovation in how people give this growing comfort with the subscription Economy and recurring support that I know Dana's going to talk about, and more tools than ever to create giving experiences that are simple, personal, and meaningful. We're going to talk about how to remove friction, how to build trust faster, strengthen our stewardship, and design an individual giving strategy that actually fits the way donors live and decide in 2026. Dana, Mike, welcome to the podcast.
- [03:24]
Dana Snyder
Hey, what an intro. I mean, always just crushes it.
- [03:29]
Becky
We got a big thesis today to unpack with.
- [03:33]
Host
I feel like I just laid some serious groundwork there.
- [03:36]
Dana Snyder
Yeah, Mike, we gotta come with some good stuff.
- [03:39]
Host
Well, I, I like wanna get into it. I wanna quit talking because I, I. There are people who are just on the front line of this work who are watching not just the way it's always been done, but how do we really meet the moment and meet it with humanity. And so, Dana, I think I'm gonna start with you. What are the biggest shifts you, you've seen in donor behavior over the last five years? And how do those shifts change how we fundraise in 2026?
- [04:07]
Dana Snyder
This is all like such perfect timing because I did a lot of research at the end of the year following Giving Tuesday, how that day performed alongside doing a lot of research into the subscription economy that you mentioned looking at Recurley, which is one of the largest data processing platforms in the subscription space. They release a report every year. They had 35 million subscriber data insights and like how that compares to then what we're seeing. And so all of this is like very top of mind. And so I pulled some like monthly giving predictions and trends from it. And I think to your point, like, the opportunity's there. I know there's been this conversation around generosity crisis for a while. Right. But I think it's honestly more of a stability and systems crisis, predominantly with the majority of nonprofits that fall in budgets under $500,000 or under a million, which is like 93%. And I think we forget that. And I don't think that there's lack of desire to support organizations at all. I think even I think specifically in the United States, Mike, you can talk about Canada, but I think there's a lot of people wanting to do a lot right now in figuring out where and how to do it is what they are researching. I think one of the biggest shifts in marketing, which is where I've sat a lot, is like there's not a linear path. This donor journey that we've always kind of known. Enter the world of ChatGPT. It's like, I, Dana, might watch a reel. And then I'm going to talk to Becky about it, and then I'm going to go to ChatGPT and then I read a LinkedIn thought leadership post from that CEO and oh, by the way, now I'm going to decide to commit and be a monthly donor. Like, that's not typically what we've always thought about as this traditional marketing funnel. So I would say, like, major shift is one that just like linear donor's journey and how that's evolving. And I think too, a big shift is just around risk mitigation. So there was this really compelling stat from the independent sector's health report. 32% of nonprofits have less than three months cash on hand. That being true, any friction anywhere in your systems is expensive. And how can that not create a sense of burnout or scarcity or fear? So I think this shift needs to happen of, like, how do we not just have three months of cash on hand? And so obviously, my big switch is that monthly giving is not just a nice to have. It's not just a revenue channel. Like, it is literally a risk mitigation strategy for sustainable funding.
- [07:01]
Host
I mean, Mike, what. What do you want to add to that?
- [07:04]
Mike Dirksen
Yeah, I'll. I'll pick up where Dana left off in terms of there's a lot of people who want to still be involved and do good things and be generous. And so we just had the largest study on generosity ever in Canada come out. And basically the findings are that most Canadians have enough prompts to give. It's not a prompting issue. It's not that charities aren't asking enough. Most Canadians are saying no. I actually get a decent amount of asks. And I also know that if I want to give, I know where I can give. It's not that I don't know to be generous. And most Canadians also say generosity matters. Over 80% of Canadians said generosity matters. And I understand how generosity is actually like a core component of society. So that's all that's understood. Generosity is a good thing, and it matters. Now, 50% said I could afford to give more to charity, which is 50%. It's half. So the economic pressures are certainly real for half of people. It is an economic issue, which is I can't afford to give more. And so ultimately it came down to, like, they even said they trusted the charities that they knew of. Right. So that's the key, the ones that they knew of. But it came down to this lack of generosity not being the social norm anymore. Canadians who actually thought that their neighbors and their friends were giving to charity are a lot more likely to give, not only to give to charity, but to give more to charity than the average Canadian. Because in their minds, being generous is the social norm. But that's kind of gone away. And some of it has gone away because we had good intentions. And I don't mean to hear me out here. My kids, after reading that report, I made changes at home because my kids don't see me be generous. Most of my giving, Dana, you'll be pleased to hear, is monthly. It gets taken off my credit card with nobody ever seeing it. My kids don't see it. I grew up with my parents writing checks on the kitchen table. I happen to grow up in church. I saw the plate being passed around and the community being generous. And a lot of that, the younger generation, a lot of them just didn't grow up with that anymore. Because generosity, We've got new pipes to deliver generosity, and those pipes are largely invisible. So maybe that's part of it. Maybe we, as a sector haven't done a good enough job celebrating generosity and making it the social norm and actually, like, deliberately talking about, how can we make generosity the social norm? How can we celebrate generosity because it's a good thing. It's a good thing because it helps people. It's also a good thing from a selfish perspective. It literally makes your body healthier. It releases hormones that are good for you. So we should be celebrating that as a good thing. So I'll say I'll add one thing that that's like, how can we make generosity a social norm? Because it seems to not be the social norm as much anymore.
- [09:58]
Dana Snyder
I love that you said that. Something I've had conversations about is we talk about, like, the compounding generosity effects of being a monthly donor. However, it's very rare that you can actually see or be in community with those hundreds or thousands of other monthly donors that are giving alongside you. And how can that be created in either micro or macro ways, either IRL or digitally? So that to your point, it's like, whoa, like, there's hundreds of people on this call. Or, wow, like, I'm getting together with coffee and there's 20 of us in my local town, you know, so brilliant.
- [10:38]
Becky
Yeah. I mean, this is beautiful way to, like, kick off this conversation. I love Mike. You just lifting the personal agency. We have to be part of the change. Our kids. I can speak to this too. Like, the kids are watching us. How can we embed that into our life? Because I do think generosity shows up in different ways, but doing it invisibly is not necessarily helping. We said that nonprofits have a visibility problem, and then we also have a visibility problem of how we give. So I think that that is a really profound thing to think about. Y' all both work with some of the coolest orgs around. If you're mapping a modern donor journey today, what are the key moments that matter most? And Mike, I can think the first time I ever met you on the podcast, it was like, from first time donor to legacy leaver. With your Canadian accent, you get it that it's like such a. From the first gift to the ultimate gift. What can we not miss? What are the moments that really matter? Dana, we'll start with you, then we'll hop to Mike.
- [11:35]
Dana Snyder
So I. One of the trends that I talked about at end of year was the fact that retention starts actually before the gift. It's all of the feelings, all the things we see. By the time we are donating, I'm in. Especially if I'm giving as a recurring first donor. I have researched. I have had the impressions I've seen from leaders. I have read enough marketing. I feel compelled personally to make that decision. So I. I really believe a lot of retention happens in the atmosphere that's happening all around a donor. But I do think there are still some core, fundamental things that are really important. I think clarity is so important. I have done a ton, Mike. I'm sure you have too. A ton of audits, a ton of webinars where people drop in their websites. And John, I'm sure from a branding standpoint, we've all seen them, right? And what is the first impression? Can I tell specifically what you focus on? I can tell you Tide, and we know what Tide does as a brand. Like, we always go back to charity water. It's clean water in a very short, simple phrase that's not gonna take two minutes to explain. First impression, clarity, relevance, the donation moment. Is it simple? I think there's this first seven days post gift in the donor's journey that's important, where it's this critical window of, like, are they gonna have buyer's remorse? I just read this great email article that it's happening across sectors. The first email isn't a thank you anymore for buying a purchase. It's called you're feeling part of something. And it's like, how are we channeling that in our work? It's not receipt heavy. It's not transactional heavy. You are a part of this thing that we're moving and then once that passes, when's that first point of impact happening? Like this just happened, this story just got released. We can't wait to tell you about it. And so I think those pinnacle moments at the beginning, I think are really crucial. Just setting up a really strong good feeling of, yeah, yeah, I'm in the right place.
- [13:45]
Mike Dirksen
So good.
- [13:46]
Becky
Mike, what, what's jumping out to you that you'd add?
- [13:48]
Mike Dirksen
Yeah, I think the way you welcome somebody into your community is all you need to know about an organization, about their intentions. Everybody wants recurring giving to happen. Everybody wants recurring value from donors. Very few people want to actually provide recurring value. Right. And so we just made a gift to 120 organizations and we scored the entire giving experience from the homepage to the donation page, to the checkout flow. And then we kept every single piece of mail, every email, every phone call, every text message for a full year. So we've got this huge data set to analyze. And I can tell you that about 50% of organizations, after we completed the gift online, the confirmation page, about 50%, these are 120 of Canada's largest charities. 50% said thank you on that page. 50% did not. 50% didn't even say thank you. It was an order confirmation kind of a thing. And we call it, jokingly we call it forgotten copy, which exists everywhere. It's all the auto confirmation things, you have, some of the automations you've set up and it's some of the most important copy you're ever going to write. When somebody joins with a first time gift, we all know the email open rates at first for those folks are going to be a lot higher and then they're going to trail off. And you really should think that through. As you know, how would I treat somebody if they're joining my team? How would I treat somebody if they're joining my family? It's beyond a thank you. So we talk about the fundraising flywheel. Like after somebody made a gift, your job is to celebrate their generosity and then your job is to report back, to listen to what they have to say, and to engage in as many meaningful personal ways as possible. That's how you earn the right to ask again. Everybody will tell you you should ask again right aways. I can tell you that we're optimizing for a small set of people who give again right aways. That's it. We don't know what we're doing to the other 95% of people. We might be irritating them at worst. And maybe just it's just so vanilla. It's just nothing. Right? But we have this duty of care that when somebody joins our organization, if we're thinking about this, they're joining as an important part of the team. We have this duty of care to properly welcome them. And it's not even a thank you email. It's like, dear Joan, wow, I heard the ping. I dropped everything. I told my staff, another one just made a gift. We all stood up, we rang a bell. I don't know what John's doing over there. He's running around in circles.
- [16:22]
Becky
Hey, friend. Taking a quick pause to share about some of our amazing partners. Meet GiveButter, RKD Group, Whiteboard and so on. These aren't just amazing partners for we are for good. They're value aligned allies who are fueling and growing the impact uprising. And so of course we want you to know them. So if you are looking for a new CRM or a fundraising or marketing partner, maybe an impact strategist or a creative team, we'd love to make a warm introduction for you to one of our trusted partners. They happen to be powered by amazing humans too. You can check them out@weareforgood.com Rex that's weareforgood.com recs.
- [17:06]
Dana Snyder
You know what I love about that? When I worked with Movember, it doesn't have to be complicated. So at Movember, if people aren't familiar, it's like the men's largest health charity globally. And they had a ton during the campaign of Facebook fundraisers. A ton. And when I was, I worked with them for three years on their North America digital campaign. And I was like, whoa, I'm seeing a ton of revenue from Facebook. How are we talking to these people? And they're like, we're not. And with Facebook fundraisers, you can go in and you can message them individually back throughout their campaign process. Like if it's, you can know if they just started, it's like they're halfway through and if they completed their fundraising goal. Because as a Facebook fundraiser, you set a goal and I just created a video. It's so funny that you said a gong of Movember at the time had a great office in Santa Monica and I had the team, they would beat this huge gong when they reached the fundraising goal and it was like a huge celebration. Everybody in the office cheered. I was like, hey, I want to film you doing that for the next one. And I'm going to send this to people celebrating when they've reached Even halfway. And at the end. So even like they're halfway there. So we filmed this video and I sent at the time, I don't think you could mass do it. So I individually sent a message into that video.
- [18:24]
Mike Dirksen
Yes.
- [18:24]
Dana Snyder
And people were floored.
- [18:28]
Host
I bet they were floored.
- [18:29]
Dana Snyder
And it took 20 seconds. It was like a 20 second video. It doesn't take a lot. It just like you just got to audit it to look at it. Yeah.
- [18:39]
Host
I just think tone matters, words matter. How you show up matters. The time between the gift and when you show up really matters. And I want to get really practical for people because I think there's probably a lot of individuals out there saying, okay, what am I going to do? How can I make this individual giving experience? How can I start to turn the tide? So, Mike, I'm going to start with you with this question. When you audit in organizations, individual giving, what are like the first two to three places that you're going to look to find some of the easiest wins and opportunities with individual giving? I'll start with you, Mike, and then we'll go to you, Dana.
- [19:21]
Mike Dirksen
Yeah, a couple of places. Number one, we look at the first 90 days and we just make sure that retention begins at acquisition. It doesn't begin when you're going to start asking for the second gift. Dana just talked about retention beginning before acquisition. The first 90 days really, really important. Not because we're looking at how can you get a second gift in those first 90 days. Those first 90 days build memory structure in your brain about your organization. And we look at, are you thinking really well, are you celebrating really well? And then are you boosting a donor sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. That sounds complicated. Every, every human being has three core needs. It's a theory called self determination theory. All of our work is based around that theory. It's very well, very well studied. But basically, autonomy is we want to feel like the choice to give was ours and ours alone. Competence is we want to feel like we were effective in our giving. And relatedness is we want to feel like we are somehow connected to other people. And, and this applies even to the most independent. They still want a few other people who are just like them. Because it's, I'm like you, you're like me, and we're different than other people, but together. Yeah. Yeah. And so we know we can measure those things after a gift. We can measure that. I wouldn't start there, though. That's a little bit. It's a little bit more advanced, but we Know that when you measure it that the people who actually score higher are way more likely to make a second and third and fourth gift because there's actually a positive association in their brain and their recall or in their heart about the organization. So we just look at like, yeah, are you very much saying things like, thank you for having made the choice to be generous, reminding them this was a choice you made. You're super autonomous in your giving. We focus a lot on impact in the first 90 days. It doesn't have to be you ended the water crisis. That would be disingenuous. But it would be like, is progress being made, little victories, small victories, so people feel like, oh, my giving was effective, I made a smart choice. And relatedness. We share stories of other supporters and we share a lot of before and after stories of people who were helped. So a redemptive arc before and after. Very much like, this is what the world looked like before and because of generosity of people like you, this is what the world looks like now for them. So that's the first 90 days. The second thing we look at is donors talk to us in two ways. Number one is their behavior, so data. And number two is conversations, the things they tell us. But we start with the data and we look at pattern givers. There are many people who love to give monthly gifts, and Dana has already gotten into a lot of that. Then there's some people who don't want to make monthly gifts, but who given a pattern. The pattern can be every Christmas, it can be every spring, it can be on Mother's Day, sometimes it's two or three times per year. But there are pattern givers. Up to 30% of your file might be pattern givers from what we see. And so if they don't want to do the recurring giving thing, can we do the reoccurring giving thing? Can we get reoccurring revenue? Can we say, hey, I've noticed you give every spring. Can we automate that? And we'll remind you ahead of time. Like, we'll remind you ahead of time and we'll thank you when the gift is made. And you can always change your mind. But would you be willing to just like, make this commitment? And many people actually do. Now you don't have to worry about having to just hoping and praying that these people keep making those gifts because they're automated, just like monthly giving is. And systems around that aren't as complicated. They're not any more complicated than monthly giving, which isn't all that complicated to begin With I'll leave it. I'll leave it there for Dana to pick up.
- [23:18]
Dana Snyder
So. Good. Okay, I'll take it on. Because you went very, like, process specific. I'm going to say if I was auditing an org's individual giving, I would look at their team. Who are the people that you are bringing into your organization? Are you making individual giving a priority or not? And that speaks volumes. By looking at how your team is structured, what resources are you giving said team in order to grow recurring giving? So I think that's an interesting aspect that we don't talk about as much that's also very much in line with sustainers. Like, if you're saying recurring giving is like your priority, who's in charge of it? Like, you cannot. You cannot grow. I've. I've been fascinated by two books, the Science of Scaling, by Dr. Benjamin Hardy. And then he also co authored a book, 10x is easier than 2x. And it's this whole premise about, like, having an impossible goal and, like, focusing on that and everything else goes away. So if you're auditing your individual giving, like, do you actually have an audacious goal that sets you up where you can only focus on, like, two things to get you there? And everything else is crap. Like, you just let it go because it's just noise. And if it's noise for that team member, then they're burnt out and that's the cycle we're in. So I would audit, like, what's your actual goal for individual giving? Do you have the person or the people to get you there? And can you get rid of the crap that's not going to get you there? So that would be, like, for sure, one thing that everyone could go back home and look at and identify. And then the second question is, like, individual giving is a visibility game. It's marketing. Do you have a line item on your budget for marketing? And if so, what is it? I just had a consulting call on this today, so it's really top of mind. Where are you invisible, where you shouldn't be? Where should you be leading the conversation? But you're right now invisible. And that should hopefully create, like, a whole brainstorm conversation about where time, effort, energy, funds should play into. So those would be my two, like, very different from echoing everything that Mike had said.
- [25:40]
Becky
I want to give y' all a chance to, like, brag on some awesome orgs. Y' all both work with really amazing organizations. I know. It's why we all do this work, too. Just getting to work adjacent could you share an org that's embodied this kind of shift that's leaning into not just using the dusty playbook, but. But new mindsets which equals new results? Mike, I'll kick it to you first.
- [26:02]
Mike Dirksen
Yeah, I'll give a shout out to the store in Nashville, Tennessee. So really, really cool model. It's not a food bank, it's a grocery store. And people go and shop at the grocery store like they would in any other store. But it is the food bank model in terms of this is food assistance. And. And you get vetted, you're on the list. And if you qualify, then you can come to the store every two weeks. And they just got a gift from Taylor Swift, which is exciting. In the last two years, they really revamped individual giving completely. They basically didn't start as an individual giving shop like a lot of shops, and very much realized that that was going to be a big part of their future. And Colin, their CEO over there, is incredibly entrepreneurial. He's willing to try anything. He's not afraid to fail. And one of the things that they've done really, really well is for acquisition, they were doing lunch and learns largely to just, like, get people in and like, for volunteer. But they realized, oh, this is a lot of, like, corporate people coming, and it's leading to corporate engagements and a lot of donors, and it's leading to some of our best donors. And so in terms of like, what can you do to grow? You can do paid, you can do all sorts of things. You can do the direct mail acquisition, but, like, what's working already? Well, it's lunch and learns. So what if we just take all the marketing and use it to drive lunch and learns? Because that is the best acquisition vehicle that you have at the moment. And it wouldn't be the kind of acquisition vehicle that we would suggest, but that's what's working for you. Why don't you point all the arrows in that direction? Yeah, they've done a really great job of, like, what's working? Let's do a lot more of that. Let's do a lot better at that. And then we add new stuff. So cool.
- [27:51]
Becky
Such a great example. And now I have tab number 24 open on my computer. Thank you for that.
- [27:58]
Host
I'm looking at the store too.
- [27:59]
Dana Snyder
On the tab, I have two. So I'll give a monthly giving example and then like a different one. So I held my first monthly giving retreat last summer, and there was an organization called SAFE that attended. They do a lot of different work, but I think food pantries is, like, their main focus locally. And never met them before. They had never focused on monthly giving ever before. Like, in their treat, like, we changed all their tech. They decided on a name. They did like, they did it. They, like, put it into practice. They weren't waiting. I love that when people do that. Yeah. So the retreat was in August. They had about 34 monthly donors in September. I actually have a recent quote from her. They grew by December to 105 monthly donors in just a few short months because they decided to go all in. This is a smaller organization, but 105 monthly donors is a big deal. They did it. They, like, they changed the donation forms. They put in a name. They. They put. Sent the emails. They weren't waiting on it anymore. Another organization I think we're all probably pretty familiar with is Homeboy Industries. And I love their social enterprise concept. And I think it's something that's so underutilized for. For supporting fundraising initiatives. I know it's not technically, like individual giving, but having the concept of, like your organization having for profit, running through it to support the work of your organization, I think is really creative and deserves a lot more.
- [29:25]
Host
That is creative. I just think there's so many people out there who are doing really cool things, and I think part of that is just really listening. Well, I have to say this is probably our first, fifth, or sixth interview on the shifts and the word clarity. This is the third time it has come up. It's come up in capacity. It's come up with recruiting volunteers. It's come up in an individual giving. And I think that what you all are saying here has such resonance. Whether you're a big shop or a little shop. We want to give everybody a one good thing to take away, maybe a little bit of homework. So to close out, like. And Dana, I'll start with you. What's the playbook you give nonprofit leaders right now? Like, two to three moves they can make coming out of this episode to get activated today? What would you say?
- [30:15]
Dana Snyder
Okay, so number one, set your impossible goal. All focus goes there. Everything else goes away. What's possible if you do that? So that's number one. Set an impossible goal. There's a path there. There's a very straight path there. It just doesn't seem possible in the moment. It changes what you do in the present if that's what you decide is your future. And I love that mind frame shift.
- [30:40]
Becky
Because I think identity is such a thread of it. Like, you have to actually show up as the person who would have a thousand monthly donors.
- [30:48]
Dana Snyder
That's right.
- [30:48]
Becky
We don't talk about that enough. Like you have to become and embody that person.
- [30:52]
Dana Snyder
Yep.
- [30:53]
Becky
And you're going to attract that. Yeah.
- [30:54]
Host
Yep.
- [30:55]
Dana Snyder
Number two, make monthly giving core focus. It's not a side option. I think stability matters so much right now. Even when Mike was saying if pattern giving, if you are not able right now in your budget to forecast in a way that feels sustainable, if you're in that three month cash, actually less than three month cash flow, something needs to change. Like something big needs to change. Because like our missions deserve the stability to be able to do the work that's so important and needed right now. And then number three is kind of what we've all kind of identified at the beginning. But just audit any friction. Audit that donor onboarding experience. One more. Sorry.
- [31:37]
Host
Yes.
- [31:37]
Dana Snyder
Close to retention in the subscription research from recurley when consumers so which is all of us also donors were given the opportunity to pause their gift instead of canceling. Over 50% chose to pause. What Pausing is the norm. Not ruining on somebody's parade because something is happening and making them feel awful for having to cancel. But if you can give the opportunity to pause the data is there that they will. And then how will that change our retention rates?
- [32:15]
Host
Obsessed.
- [32:16]
Becky
Dang. Yeah. Mic drop. And now to Mike with the mic drop.
- [32:20]
Dana Snyder
Great.
- [32:22]
Mike Dirksen
So you've set your impossible goal. You've worked on some churn reduction strategies. People can pause, maybe they can down, maybe they can think they can downsell. Right. If it's not a cancellation, maybe it's a little bit less. Those are all great things. So I'll go a little bit tactical then to add to what Dana's saying. Number one is I think as part of your audit you should just have five of your friends make a gift to your organization. Make one of those friends your mom or your dad or like your aunt or somebody like that. Give them the money to make the gift if you want to, whatever. But like have them go and make a gift. Make a gift yourself and ask them to pay close attention to the first two weeks and to pay close attention during. During them making a gift and just get a bit of feedback that way. I think you might be surprised even if you go through the process yourself, you might be surprised at the donor journey that is currently in place. Number two is go through the forgotten copy. Just make a quick inventory. Where do we have forgotten copy? It's everywhere. It's after somebody makes a gift, it's after somebody, if the gift doesn't go through, sometimes you get to this page that tells you the gift didn't go through. It's the automated receipt that your giving form is going to generate that very likely you can customize. And maybe you've just kept a stock one that the software came with. It's any of the welcome email series that you have in place. People always get confused. There's a new subscriber welcome series, and then there's a new donor welcome series. And sometimes those are one and the same and they shouldn't be. Just go, like, do a quick audit of where you have forgotten copy. And that's, that's a day. That's a day very well spent. That's a good day spent. But then I want to end on what we started with, which is making generosity the social norm again. And this is like personal homework. It's not related to your organization. But if you have kids or if you have friends that you live with or you have people in your household, I would say you should have a giving day every month. So for us, it's the last Friday of the month, where it's now giving day in our family, where we all get around the table. We make online gifts. We don't write checks. We still make the online gifts, but we all talk about, like, we look at the websites and our kids are part of it and we talk about who are we going to make our monthly gifts to this month. So if generosity, if that starts at home, then start at home. That's. That's your homework. And you might be a super generous person, but your kids don't know that about you. They don't. They don't see it. So make it visible again. Make it the social norm again in your own house.
- [35:01]
Host
I adore you too, so much. You, you two are so brilliant at this work and you just also happen to be such kind, compassionate people. We are so lucky to have you in this community. I people to know how to connect with you. Connect to your podcast and your communities. Dana, you have an event coming up. Like, we want you to drop all of the places that you hang out and where people can learn more information. Mike, I'll start with you.
- [35:28]
Mike Dirksen
Yeah. If you listen to podcast, you can listen to the Build Good fundraising podcast. Wherever you get your podcast, you can find me on LinkedIn. Mike Dirksen. And you can also check us out@buildgood.com amazing.
- [35:42]
Dana Snyder
Also, he has great LinkedIn posts as a fellow follower. Dana Snyder on LinkedIn. The monthly giving summit is right around the corner. Coming up at the end of February. Very exciting. The largest virtual global summit all focused on recurring giving. So monthlygivingsummit.com and then there might be a very special announcement released at the summit that I might have shared a teaser video with Becky earlier.
- [36:14]
Host
It's so good. You should totally come because it's going to be so worth it.
- [36:18]
Dana Snyder
Like this is a teaser. But Vibe AI is, I think the power is going to be in nonprofits to be able to create and build the tools they want without having to rely on any third party platforms to get them where they want to go. So I will just share like I am a novice I think at AI still, but what I built I think is pretty darn cool. So it's going to be really, it's an incredible tool. A monthly giving builder coming soon.
- [36:47]
Host
Holy heck.
- [36:48]
Dana Snyder
But I think Vibe AI is like just to wrap on also homeworks. I think there's so much potential for what we're going to be able to do for our organizations ourselves.
- [36:57]
Becky
Friends, heart is full. Ideas are spinning. My notebook is like out. Pen is ready to go. Thank y'.
- [37:04]
Mike Dirksen
All.
- [37:04]
Becky
Thanks for the way you show up and thanks for your friendship in this life. Appreciate y'.
- [37:08]
Mike Dirksen
All.
- [37:09]
Host
Thank you both for you in all things.