Powerful Strategies for Organic Donor Engagement

Rethinking Fundraising Galas: Exploring Alternative Donor Engagement Strategies

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A captivating logline for this podcast episode could be: Renowned nonprofit expert Erin Anderson challenges traditional fundraising norms and ignites controversy with her unexpected gala hot take, as she strives to revolutionize donor engagement in Christian nonprofits.

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People give to people, not to organizations. - Erin Anderson

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Presenting Erin Anderson, a maven in the exciting realm of nonprofit marketing! With a solid base in international and community development complemented by a minor in nonprofit business, Erin has always been focused on the welfare of others. Launching her career with volunteer work, her journey has been fueled by her enthusiasm for helping organizations succeed. Now, bringing her expertise to the forefront as Senior Marketing Manager at Childcare Worldwide, her skill to adapt and implement effective donor engagement strategies, is commendable. She is known for her unique methods that challenge traditional norms, leading to innovative results. From starting at grassroots levels to experiencing the breadth of large organizations, Erin's diverse background will leave you intrigued.

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This is Erin Anderson's story:

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Erin Anderson's journey towards the non-profit world was ignited by a teenage experience. She assisted a local organization in South Carolina, helping people with household repairs they couldn't afford. This ignited a flame inside her, kindling a desire to serve her community. As she matured, she developed an affinity for the business side of things, becoming fascinated by marketing, finance, and analytics. Armed with a degree in International and Community Development, she paired her passion for service with a knack for business. She journeyed from volunteering to holding a senior marketing position at Care Worldwide, a child evangelism organization. Erin leverages her expertise to broaden the brand's awareness and cultivate a new generation of donors.

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In the bustling world of nonprofit work, effectively engaging your donors is a task that cannot be understated. Personalized communication not only keeps them connected but also makes them feel appreciated and valued. It's an important aspect that can significantly impact your cause and your work life. This is where the power of repurposing content comes into play, allowing you to reach a wider audience without reinventing the wheel. Taking advantage of the available resources and tools can make a world of difference, leading to maximum impact on your mission. Moreover, the influence of technology in today's world can't be overlooked. Embracing artificial intelligence in your marketing strategies can streamline your efforts and lead to more rewarding results.

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• Engage Donors with Personalized Communications
• Repurpose Content for Wider Reach
• Embrace Artificial Intelligence in Marketing
• Rethink Traditional Fundraising Galas
• Use Resources and Tools for Maximum Impact

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1. Engage Donors with Personalized Communications

Engaging donors with personalized communications is one significant strategy nonprofits can implement for better outcomes. Personalization goes beyond just adding a donor's name to an email or letter. It's about demonstrating an understanding of their needs, wants, and preferences, and creating a communication plan that feels more like a conversation than a one-way broadcast. Instead of relying heavily on HTML and visually-striking newsletters, organizations can use a more personal and conversational tone in their communication pieces. Such an approach fosters a stronger connection that feels genuine and authentic, thereby encouraging more active and engaged donors. Unpacking this key step from Aaron Anderson's perspective during his conversation with Matt Lombardi, it becomes clear that personalization is actually simpler than it sounds. Aaron swapped HTML emails with visually striking newsletters for a more authentic and engaging conversation with donors. The response was both unexpected and significant. He explains that making communications more personal allowed for a deeper connection with his prospective donors. By showing that these donors were not just another number but valued individuals, he managed to strike a chord that spurred them into action. The radio show's transformation into a five-minute video email series that he referenced is an excellent example of content repurposing, another strategy he advocates for, which we can explore in another post. The importance of personalized communication when it comes to donor engagement cannot be understated. Envision receiving impersonal, cookie-cutter material from an organization you are connected with versus receiving something personalized to your likes, interests, and past actions. The latter is guaranteed to foster a stronger connection and make the donor feel valued. This is crucial for nonprofits as fostering these connections can lead to more meaningful donor involvement. Engaging donors on a personal level helps them see how their contributions are making a difference. It goes a long way to encourage recurring donations and creating long-lasting relationships. With the right tools, data, and strategies, nonprofits can streamline their communications efforts to better serve and engage their donors. With an authentic, person-to-person perspective, nonprofits have the opportunity to make their donors feel seen, valued, and inspired to continue supporting their cause. In the world of nonprofit fundraising, personalizing communications could indeed be a game-changer to attract and engage donors.

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2. Repurpose Content for Wider Reach

The concept of repurposing content comes on the heels of maximizing the marketing value that each piece of developed content can provide. The idea is simple but profoundly impactful: create a piece of content once and then adapt it across different platforms and mediums. This approach not only broadens your organization's reach but also ensures your core message penetrates various segments of your target audience. Additionally, it adds variety to your content, making it more engaging and interesting for your audience across all mediums it is presented. Therefore, before jumping into creating new content, consider how existing material can be repurposed and reimagined to optimize the utility of every piece of marketing content developed. Pivoting to the guest's perspective, Aaron Anderson shared an example where a radio show was leveraged into a five-minute video email series. This seemingly small act of repurposing content created an expansive effect - reaching out to new audiences and re-engaging existing ones -resulting in an astounding $1 million in donations within just its initial year. Repurposing doesn't mean copy-pasting the same content across different platforms; it means reformatting the same content to suit the platform it's being released on. The beauty of the principle that Aaron shared exemplified how you can get creative with existing material to generate new, appealing content for your audience, ensuring your message is not lost or diluted. Understanding the importance of repurposing content is crucial for organizations seeking to diversify their communication strategy and amplify the reach of their message. At its core, repurposing addresses one of the key challenges most organizations face — the constant need to churn out fresh content to stay relevant and engaging. With limited resources, this can be a daunting task. However, by repurposing, you can extend the life of your existing content, getting more value out of the time, effort, and resources you've already invested. Additionally, by using different formats and platforms, you can effectively connect with and cater to a diverse audience that consumes information differently — broadening the potential reach your message can have.

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3. Embrace Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

The era of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing is upon us, shaking up traditional marketing strategies, and introducing innovative ways to communicate, engage, and connect with audiences. Embracing AI not only allows organizations to streamline their marketing processes but also provides insights into consumer behavior, leading to personalized, impactful interactions. From chatbots and predictive analysis to content creation and optimization, AI opens a world of possibilities for marketers. Consider Aaron Anderson's insightful perspective, shared during a conversation with Matt Lombardi on the Holy Donuts podcast. His enthusiasm for AI's transformative potential is palpable. He sees AI as an invaluable tool for brainstorming, generating fresh ideas, and even editing content. Anderson cites the example of the Chat GPT, an AI tool that can be instrumental in the content development across various digital channels. The way he views AI technology imbues an optimism for a future where nonprofits can leverage it to bridge the divide between their domain and the fast-paced world of for-profit industries. So why is recognizing and integrating AI into marketing crucial, even for nonprofits? Well, in an increasingly digital world, AI has the potential to add extraordinary value. It allows organizations to handle repetitive tasks efficiently, freeing up human resources to focus on more strategic thinking and creativity. Furthermore, it aids in predicting donor behavior, fine-tuning campaigns to cater to individual preferences, and even determining the optimal time to interact with donors. In essence, harnessing AI is akin to gaining a super-powered assistant, one that can yield better results, improve donor engagement, and ultimately foster stronger relationships. The caveat? While AI can help to achieve these goals, it requires a nuanced approach, grounded in understanding the technology, its capabilities, and limitations. So, while it behooves us to ride the AI wave, it’s equally important to tread wisely.

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4. Rethink Traditional Fundraising Galas

Nonprofit organizations have long relied on traditional methods of fundraising, with grand galas and events being most popular. However, shifting times and changing dynamics have necessitated a rethink on this approach. Instead of focusing on large, resource-intensive events, nonprofits are learning the importance of nurturing individual, personal relationships with their donors. Known as donor advancement, this approach emphasizes on the creation of a human and emotional connection, focusing on the impact of each donation. This allows donors to understand and appreciate the value they’re adding and fosters a bond of trust and personal investment. One fine example of this approach is set by Erin Anderson, an experienced nonprofit professional. During her conversation with Matt Lombardi on Holy Donuts: A Marketing and Donor Engagement Podcast for Christian non-profits, Erin stresses on the need to personally engage with donors. She advocates for smaller, more personal interactions, like coffee meetings over extravagant galas. Pointing out that tremendous resources spent on planning and executing these grand events could be redirected towards more productive initiatives, dollars could be effectively channeled into the actual cause. Erin's unique perspective on the age-old gala tradition was an unexpected but intriguing aspect of their conversation. This rethink of traditional fundraising galas is not just a novel idea but a necessity for nonprofits in the current context. In a world that is increasingly digital, old school events and galas are often seen as wasteful and extravagant. On the other hand, personal, one-on-one interactions give donors a sense of immense gratification and more inclusive participation. It's about making them an integral part of the change they wish to see. Hence, for organizations that genuinely wish to maximize their impact, this personalized approach to donor-centric interaction seems like the way forward. The real value comes from personal relationships, genuine appreciation, and a shared vision - all of which can't be quantified in a gala's grandeur, but only through a humble 'thank you' note over a warm cup of coffee.

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5. Use Resources and Tools for Maximum Impact

When it comes to making the most impact as a nonprofit organization, one crucial step is leveraging available resources and tools. The nonprofit landscape is rich with resources tailored to help organizations maximize their outreach, fundraising and overall influence. These resources are often easily accessible and can provide invaluable insights into trends, strategies, and innovative practices in donor engagement. They could take various forms, such as informative books like Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller, insightful websites like Next After or various other knowledge-sharing platforms. Employing these resources can provide fresh perspectives and aid in creating more dynamic, effective strategies for success. In the Holy Donuts podcast, guest Aaron Anderson highly recommends nonprofits to roll up their sleeves and tap into these resources. His suggestion to check out the book Building a Story Brand aligns with this key step. This book presents a novel way of communication, encouraging nonprofits to reframe their narrative and place their donors as heroes of their storytelling which promotes stronger engagement. He also mentions Next After, an organization that provides a wealth of tools especially for nonprofit marketing. From Aaron's perspective, the successful use of these resources could mean a vast difference between struggling for donations and establishing a sustainable steady flow of support for your cause. Taking advantage of these resources and tools is not only beneficial but essential. For nonprofit organizations, the ultimate goal is to make an impact and improve lives. To do this effectively, organizations must stay current, innovative and adaptive. This is where resources and tools come in; they equip nonprofits with essential knowledge and insight to navigate their path and stay ahead. They provide a wealth of ideas that can be implemented to foster effective donor relations and enhance fundraising efforts. It also fosters a continuous learning culture within the organization, which promotes growth and sustainability. By understanding and applying this key step, nonprofits are set up to not just survive in this challenging sector but also thrive.

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The success of your nonprofit depends heavily on the relationship you forge with your donors. Achieving optimal donor engagement requires a personal touch in your communications, a broad reach of your content, a willingness to embrace innovative tech, a reevaluation of traditional fundraising methods, and the effective use of resources and tools. When you send out communications, make them personal, make them matter. Widen the net of your content distribution to reach diverse donor demographics. Embrace artificial intelligence as an ally in your marketing strategy. It might be worth reconsidering the return on investment for traditional gala events and exploring more personal interactions.

00:00:00 - Matt Lombardi

You well, hey, welcome, everyone, back to the latest episode of the Holy Donuts podcast. Thanks for joining us today. I am super excited, joined by Erin Anderson from Childcare Worldwide, going to talk some some marketing, donor advancement, all that kind of stuff. Anderson, how you doing today?

00:00:16 - Erin Anderson

Doing great, thanks.

00:00:18 - Matt Lombardi

Yeah, well, thanks for being here. I really appreciate it. Why don't we start out give us the 30,000 foot high level overview. Tell us about you, your role, kind of your experience in the space.

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00:00:28 - Erin Anderson

Yeah, so I've been in the nonprofit space since college, so probably almost 15 years ago. My degree is in international and community development with a minor in nonprofit business. So I kind of always knew that I wanted to go into nonprofit business. I wanted to help organizations succeed in the long run with their mission. And so really, I started out in the volunteer space. I did get my degree in that space, but just started out volunteering with different organizations, have some background in the church world, and have worked everywhere from small nonprofit startups all the way to those with revenue of like, 100 million.

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00:01:14 - Matt Lombardi

Yeah, very cool. It's kind of across the board, seen everything. So what was your first role? How'd you get started completely? You said volunteering. Who were you volunteering with? Give us the details. I love that.

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00:01:26 - Erin Anderson

Kind of know. Probably what put the bug in me was, when I was a teenager, I worked for a local organization through my church called Salkahatchee Summer Service. And it's something here in South Carolina, and teenagers and local church people go and help people with repairs to their house that they couldn't otherwise make. And that really put the bug in me for helping my local community. And then as I got older, I really enjoyed the business side of things. I really started to enjoy things like marketing and finance and analytics and so started to kind of marry those two on my journey.

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00:02:10 - Matt Lombardi

That's so cool. Okay, so give a little bit of shine to your current organization. Tell us a little bit about what Care Worldwide does and what your technical title is there we can be very official about.

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00:02:19 - Erin Anderson

Yeah, yeah, sure. So I'm the senior marketing manager at Care Worldwide. We are a child evangelism organization that uses child sponsorship as a way to get the gospel to kids, along with supporting their educational needs, their emotional needs, their physical needs, and all of that is done with partnership through the local church. And so we were a founder led organization for about 40 years. Been around and had a change of leadership around 2019, and they had never had a focused marketing staff person. And so, yeah, I've been able to come on board and help grow our brand awareness and grow the brand for a new batch of donors coming in.

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00:03:05 - Matt Lombardi

That's so cool. And the ability to kind of build it from the ground up is always such a it's a fun thing, but it's also a huge challenge, as you know. Right. So that's great. Okay, we're going to hop right into it. Tell the audience out there, other marketing directors, other marketing leaders out there, donor development folks who are listening to this, just give us a quick hit, like best marketing or donor development campaign you've been a part of in your career, right? You said you've been doing it for 15 years. What's the best doesn't have to be necessarily something that your most recent role has done, but what's been the thing you're like, oh my gosh, we did this. This is magical. I wish I could tell people about this.

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00:03:40 - Erin Anderson

Okay, so I've got two. I've got one for the really small nonprofit, because 92% of nonprofits have revenue under a million. And they're overworked, they're understaffed, they're stressed out. They're out there trying to get their mission done. And I'd love to be able to give them just one piece of advice that doesn't cost any money at all. And I would say if I had one piece of advice for that small nonprofit that's completely free, it would be take your emails and your communications and strip them down completely. Ditch your HTML, ditch your visual looking newsletter, and communicate with your donors from a person. So write the email with your name there non HTML, make it very personal. Speak to them as if you're speaking to one person and really bring them in on the journey with you. I would say when I was at the larger organization that I was at, we had an email series for new people where we also used that strategy, and it contributed to so much of a response rate that we had to hire more people, actually, because we were having such a huge donor response.

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00:05:04 - Matt Lombardi

That is honestly like, it's genius, right? Because it makes it so much more personal when someone sees an email. That is great illustrations, great design, there's nothing wrong with that stuff, but they know that it's a mass email. It automatically sends that alert bell off in their head, whereas they see something that comes across just like a normal email, they get in their inbox. It's like, oh, this feels a lot more I love that strategy. Very cool.

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00:05:29 - Erin Anderson

Yeah, people give to people, not to organizations. And so I think they love that personal touch, and it's less stress for you. Rather than trying to put together this really well worded, perfect email. The second thing I would say, if you're a larger organization that's creating content and things around on that side, I've seen a lot of success with repurposing content. So, for example, the organization I work at had a radio show, and it's easy to think, oh, well, this radio show went out to so many thousands or millions of people, and that's the one channel that it's in. And we need to create something different for lead generation or for email. But what we did was we repurposed that radio show into these five minute videos and created an email series with a landing page sign up and used that to acquire new names. And so they would just sign up for this series. They would get the radio show basically broken up into a few segments over the course of emails. And that strategy brought in, I think, over a million dollars in its first year. It was completely free content, but donors resonated with the content and then wanted to make a donation. And so that's something where I think if you've got content, don't be afraid to repurpose it and cut it and put it in different ways.

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00:07:03 - Matt Lombardi

Can I just dig deeper on that? Because I love getting in the weeds on that.

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00:07:06 - Erin Anderson

Go for it.

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00:07:06 - Matt Lombardi

When you guys did that campaign, were you seeing a different donor type or different kind of donor avatar with that content?

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00:07:14 - Erin Anderson

So the person who listens to a radio show is a different demographic than somebody who wants to watch quick video clips on their phone. And so another benefit of doing this is we were able to run ads about this email series on social media and things like that and acquire a different type of donor as well. That's so cool.

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00:07:35 - Matt Lombardi

I love that. That's absolutely genius. No great advice. I love these because I learned so much just by hearing people like you talk about this kind of stuff and say, oh, that's genius. Yeah, why did I think of that? Okay, so this is kind of a hard question. I'm going to ask for a hot take here a little bit. What's one trend in kind of nonprofit marketing that's got you really excited? So that's a good hot take, right? And then what's one trend in nonprofit marketing that you're like, oh man, I wish this would die already.

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00:08:02 - Erin Anderson

Yeah, I'm really excited about the potential of AI, and I bring that up because it's not specific to nonprofit or to marketing. But I know that nonprofit organizations can sometimes be really behind the ball when it comes to trends and adopting new technology. It can be really scary. Sometimes you feel like you don't have the bandwidth to explore it. But for nonprofits who have staff that are wearing multiple hats that are overworked using AI tools, even exploring something like Chat GPT could be really helpful for brainstorming, for generating ideas, for editing content. You do have to be careful about having it completely write things for you, but it can create a starting place for people who could use some help with that. So I'm excited about that possibility.

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00:09:01 - Matt Lombardi

Yeah, there's so many great tools coming out every day. I think that's for me, that's been I don't know about you, but the AI stuff is great. And it's like, I just feel like I'm swimming sometimes. It's like, okay, I feel like there are five or ten new tools coming out a day. I'm just struggling to keep up with what all they are. Anywhere that you're looking online, you're like, hey, these are the ones that you should really be looking at, instead of just like, oh, my gosh, I'm in overwhelm mode with all the options out there.

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00:09:26 - Erin Anderson

Yeah. I preferred chat GPT to start out because I think it's very intuitive. There's a lot of other AI tools out there that are going to do video and image and all that kind of stuff. But I think if you can just start out with something like that, where you just experiment with the prompts a little bit. Even within my own organization, I know that I've heard from some people, oh, this is scary. I don't know about using this tool, and so I definitely understand that piece, but I think that exploring and adopting new technology as a nonprofit is what can help us make up that gap between us and the for profit industry.

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00:10:04 - Matt Lombardi

Absolutely. Yeah. It's kind of a great equalizer, right? Because it gives you the advantage to do things punch above the weight class a little bit, especially if you are a smaller nonprofit, that can be really helpful. Okay, so what's one trend that you're frustrated with or you're concerned about or that you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm just over this. Can we move on from this?

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00:10:27 - Erin Anderson

This one might step on some toes a little bit. I think that we I'm not for fundraising galas. Okay.

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00:10:40 - Matt Lombardi

I love it.

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00:10:42 - Erin Anderson

Yes, it may be because of my age, because I'm a millennial, but I think that we need to rethink the way that we do fundraising events. I think that people who go to galas dread going to galas. I think there's a lot of emotional time and energy that's spent towards them. So galas and things like that that take up so much emotional time and space on the team of the fundraisers or the donor development team, I think that you could be more effective by being personal with a smaller group of people versus trying to throw an event like that. But again, your mileage may vary. Every organization is different. But that's just my yeah, I mean.

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00:11:28 - Matt Lombardi

If you're a local young life chapter out there and your gala is bringing in absolute annual revenue, by all means, please keep doing please keep on that. I tend to agree with you, though. I just think of it really practically. Okay, if we're going to spend between our entire staff, let's say we spend 150 hours across months and month planning this, right?

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00:11:51 - Erin Anderson

Yeah.

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00:11:52 - Matt Lombardi

Plus then all the costs associated with the event stuff. If you spent 150 hours on 150 1 hour coffee that's appointments 100% or the people that are prospective donors or people that you have a list that you say, hey, who are going to invite, just go out to coffee with every single one of those people and build a personal relationship, one at that gala. If you're a staff member, you're going to be running around like a chicken with your head cut off anyway, right. You're not going to have a lot of time for actual FaceTime with those folks. And if you take them all to coffee, I think you get a better ROI on that. Plus none of the stress. If you told me I have to have coffee five times a week for the next year. Okay, cool. That's great. Those are just conversations. I agree with your hot take, although people give to people, right? But do what's best for your organization. Disclaimer this is not legal or financial advice.

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00:12:42 - Erin Anderson

If your gala is working and everyone loves it, go ahead, by all means.

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00:12:47 - Matt Lombardi

Cool. Well, what's last question this afternoon that we'll talk through? What's a resource, a book, a podcast? Like, what's been one of your favorite things that's been helpful for your development that you would give to every other person who's working with a ministry nonprofit.

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00:13:01 - Erin Anderson

In give you I'll give you two. The book that I love that really helped me a lot is Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller, helping reframe your perspective to I see a lot of nonprofits make their organization the hero, make it the center. And you can really gain a lot by learning how to tell stories and make your donor the hero. The second is an organization called Next After, and I would recommend just giving them a quick Google search. They have lots of free resources. They have lots of experiments that they do specifically in the nonprofit space to help nonprofits succeed in their messaging, their website, things of that nature. So I've really enjoyed that resource.

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00:13:52 - Matt Lombardi

Great resources for this is I should get them to sponsor, but they're not sponsor. Next after is having a great conference. If they have tickets left, the Nymph conference in Dallas, I'll be there, actually, end of September, come hang out. It's going to be a blast. Are you going to that by chance, Anderson? 

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00:14:11 - Erin Anderson

If they do any virtual sessions, I'll try to catch those.

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00:14:14 - Matt Lombardi

Well, it's definitely a great one to attend, so if you haven't registered for that, go check it out. It's going to be a lot of fun and really a lot of great content. But next after, in general, absolutely wonderful. Those experiments are a lifesaver, that's for sure.

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00:14:26 - Erin Anderson

Yeah.

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00:14:27 - Matt Lombardi

Anderson, tell people if they wanted to connect with you, if they wanted to know, network within the industry and be able to say, hey, bounce ideas off each other. Where can they find you online? Are you a social media person? What would be the best way to connect?

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00:14:38 - Erin Anderson

Yeah, absolutely. You can probably find me on LinkedIn. That's the easiest. If there's multiple Erin Andersons that come up, I'm wearing a pair of black glasses in it.

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00:14:49 - Matt Lombardi

Well, thank you, Anderson. Seriously, so much. This has been so valuable and so much good insight. I really appreciate coming on today, and we look forward to speak with you again.

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00:14:58 - Erin Anderson

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for all you do.

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