Fundraising

Making your events more accessible for blind & visually impaired people really isn’t as hard as you think. Here are my top tips. 1. Provide precise venue information. Include things like clear drop off and pick up point information, what the key features of the building are, a rough description of where the toilets are, describe where the reception desk is, and let us know in advance if you’ll need a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan completed. Bonus points for using a service like Euan's Guide or AccessAble to provide specialist access information. 2. Provide as much event information as possible. Share all key details in advance, ideally by email in an accessible format. Include timings, speaker names, attendee names, a brief agenda, and any known accessibility considerations. It helps us plan travel, support, and energy levels and it also helps us know who’s attending so when we’re surprised with a “Hey Robbie!” we can narrow it down to who it might be. 3. Food information is key. It sounds simple, but make sure menus are firstly available, then accessible - even for buffets. Relying on a fellow attendee to tell me something “looks chickeney” gives me the absolute fear. Include dietary details in an electronic format we can read with a screen reader, and avoid handwritten or printed-only menus. Tell us how food will be served so we can prepare (for example, buffet vs plated service). 4. Ask about adjustments - don’t assume you’ll know what someone needs. Just ask the question when people register. Keep it open and inclusive, such as “Do you have any access requirements you’d like us to be aware of?” 5. Provide complimentary +1 places as an adjustment - if someone needs a guide, PA, or support worker to attend with them, they shouldn’t be charged double. It’s an inclusion basic that makes a big difference. 6. Finally, provide training to your staff and event volunteers. Organisations like The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and RNIB can help you here with things like sighted guide training. And most importantly - don’t wait until someone asks before you do this. It won’t help just blind people, it’ll help everyone. Think about this list - is there anything on here that genuine would help you as a sighted person? Build accessibility in from the start and everyone benefits. #DisabilityInclusion #Disability #DisabilityEmployment #Adjustments #DiversityAndInclusion #Content

How to measure the impact of Internal Communications? A practical guide below 👇 If you’re still reporting on opens, clicks and event attendance, you’re measuring activity. That is ok. But the IMPACT sits deeper. Here’s a simple 4-level structure you can use: 1️⃣ Reach & Response Did people see it? (opens, clicks, attendance, views) 2️⃣ Perception & Understanding Did trust, clarity or alignment shift? (pulse checks, sentiment, quick polls) 3️⃣ Behavior Change Are people doing something differently? (define the behavior → measure baseline → measure again) 4️⃣ Strategic Impact Did this influence retention, eNPS, productivity or performance indicators? (track the correlation) Internal Comms becomes strategic when communication connects to behavior and behavior connects to business metrics. Save this framework for your next campaign. Share it with someone who’s building IC as a system, not a content stream. #InternalComms #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement #CommunicationStrategy #SageXP #Measurement #Communications

Here's how I would raise $5,000 a month, every month, if I were a small charity: No galas. No grants. No huge donor base required. Just a simple, repeatable system that actually works. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. 50 donors at $25/month = $1,250 in predictable revenue. That's your foundation. Name it something meaningful. Make joining feel like belonging to something bigger. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸. Yes, every week. Not a newsletter—an ask tied to a specific need or a story that connects them to your organization. Most small nonprofits under-ask and under communicate by a mile. Your donors WANT to help. Let them. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗧𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝟱𝟬 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵. A simple "thank you" or quick impact update. No ask. Just connection. These texts take 30 minutes and keep your best supporters feeling seen. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶-𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿. A 3-day push with a clear goal and deadline. "Help us raise $2,000 by Friday to fund summer camp scholarships." Urgency + specificity = action. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟱: 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆. Within 48 hours of their first gift. The conversion rate will surprise you. This isn't complicated. It's consistent. The charities hitting their goals month after month aren't doing anything fancy. They're just showing up in the inbox, telling great stories, and making it easy to give. What would you add to this list?

Your gala just ended. You raised $125K. Everyone's exhausted. So you send a thank you email with photos. Just like every other nonprofit. And just like every other nonprofit, you watch those attendees disappear until next year's event. Here's what actually works: Your guests don't need another generic thank you. They need to see what their money did. The nonprofits converting event attendees into year-round donors follow a 10-day impact workflow: Day 1: Text thank you (personal, brief, sets the tone) Day 2: Email with photos and a single impact metric ("Your $50K will provide 200 families with...") Day 5: Impact story (one beneficiary, real name, what changed because of Saturday night) Day 7: Second impact story (different angle, reinforces the mission) Day 10: The ask (specific, tied directly to the stories they just read) But here's the part most people miss: not everyone gets the same sequence. Who bid? Who bought raffle tickets? Who was a first time attendee? Use that data to trigger different follow-ups: Bidders get a call from your ED before the email sequence even starts. Raffle participants get SMS nudges on Day 8 ("You bought raffle tickets. Would you consider a monthly gift of $20?") First-time guests get a longer nurture sequence focused on education, not asks. The workflow isn't complicated. But it requires two things most nonprofits skip: reviewing your event data and planning the sequence before the event ends. Stop treating your gala like the finish line. It's lead gen. And the real fundraising starts the moment your guests leave.

In the past 6 weeks, 3 nonprofits asked me to be their "consultant". I said no because it didn't feel right to charge them when I knew I'd give them this same advice anyway: 1. Change your donation form default from one-time to recurring, today. One study across 600,000 potential donors found that optimizing default frequency increased recurring conversions by 27%. Other research suggests the effect is higher. Recurring donors stay 8 years on average vs 1.7 years for one-time donors. That's roughly 2x donor lifetime value and better cash flow predictability. 2. Corporations don't want to fund you. They want to protect their reputation. With rare exceptions (Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's), corporate foundations fund established nonprofits with track records and existing institutional backing. They're not looking for the best cause -- they're looking for the safest bet, which is why: 3) If you're not bragging, you're losing. Every big check from an institution has two benefits: a) cash and b) legitimacy If you're not posting on social media, "Thank you X corporation/foundation for this $Y dollars grant to do Z", you're capturing half the value of their gift. Our top users all do this because: a) the grantor loves the publicity and is more likely to give again b) it reduces perceived risk for new funders 4) The "untrackable" stuff has the highest ROI. Your 990. Your annual report and Instagram. Your website. Your ED's LinkedIn. Funders review all of it before they ever read your proposal. I met with the head of a corporate foundation last week and this exactly what she told me. You can't measure it in a CRM, but it's influencing every large funding decision behind the scenes. The best example of this is that: 5) DAFs are a $326B blind spot. Donor-advised funds now hold more than $326 billion -- and they're growing 28% each year. But I spoke with a DAF director -- they're opaque. No application. No clear contact. No public priorities. As active fundraising gets harder, your passive public presence matters more than ever. 6) Having 9 revenue streams isn't diversified. It's over-extended. For example, a community kitchen with catering, cooking classes, food pantry, delivered meals, banquets, school trips, merchandise, and grants. That's not a strategy, that's bad bookkeeping. You haven't calculated ROI on each stream, and you're subsidizing losers with winners, and burning out your team in the process. Real diversification = 2-3 streams you're excellent at. Not 9 you're barely holding together. Until next time, Ben

I tracked all fundraising activity for one year so you didn't have to. Here is what I found: - A substantive, in-person visit with a donor resulted in gifts 5x larger than donors who only corresponded via phone calls or emails. - It took roughly 12 touchpoints to secure a visit with a donor. That is a high number, but pretty characteristic of human services. - Each handwritten card sent produced 1,169x more value than it cost. - Response rate increased dramatically with a voicemail + email combination. - Gifts from DAFs, gifts of stock, and gifts from RMDs became more popular only as donors were informed that those were giving options. Here is what this means: - Meet in person with donors as much as humanly possible - Make as many attempts as possible to schedule visits with donors - Write handwritten cards. Like, right now. - Reach out to donors with a multi-channel approach (DM me if you'd like to see a call, email, +handwritten card cadence) - Donors don't always know how to maximize their generosity unless you tell them. Inform them of their options if they give you permission! Ultimately, provide value to your org's donors and watch as generosity unfolds for the benefit of the people your org serves!

If I'm in charge of revenue at a large nonprofit, I can't ignore these realities 👇 -Donors giving below $100 are down ~9% (and have been trending down) -Donors giving below $500 are down 4% (and have been trending down) -Slower income growth & less disposable income for most -Middle-class households under economic pressure -The rapid decline of religion (that has giving as a core tenet) -Decline in institutional trust -Not only is charitable giving largely stagnant as a % of the GDP, but we also haven't been able to grow share of wallet -Donors giving $5k-$50k are up 1% -Donors giving $50k+ are up ~3% And if I look around at what other nonprofits are doing, I might see 👇 -Marketing getting louder -Frequency cranked to 11 -Tired tactics with little differentiation And if strategy is about how an organization applies strength against the most promising opportunity or the most critical challenge, I need to address the problem head on. Three ideas... 1) Instead of getting louder, get closer to donors. -Jeffersonian dinners -"Jobs To Be Done" interviews -Measuring donor satisfaction -Rating the donor experience -Cross train across the org on how to listen to donors -More thoughtful prioritization and segmentation -Do things that don't scale; you will likely not "scale" anyways (but you'll very likely grow!) 2) Focus more energy on the people who *can* give more. That doesn't mean you should ignore the $100 donor. Two things can be true at the same time: most of your limited human hours are best spent on people who can give >$10,000, AND, you can treat the $100 donor like they're an important part of the team (because they are). -Create tiered caseloads (A, B, C, D donors) -Develop a donor engagement plan for each tier -Treat mid-major donors like true partners: frequent report backs, project proposals, town halls, feedback loops, in-the-moment updates -Focus your work in the 'mass' file to identify the best prospects for a mid-major treatment, and work to move as many OTGs to recurring (monthly) or re-occuring revenue (quarterly, yearly, etc.) 3) Promote giving from assets across the donor file—and make it easy to do so Russell James taught me this. When people give from their assets, the gift is likely to be larger. And they are more likely to give again. Giving from assets (like stocks and shares, tax-savings accounts, retirement accounts, DAFs, gifts of life insurance, etc.) is often the smartest way for donors to give—no matter the size of gift. But many donors simply don't know it's an option. -- We're partnering with growth-minded nonprofits to implement all of these ideas, and more. If you think it's time you create a solid midlevel giving strategy (not just a standard appeal with an open ask), give me a shout.

Your nonprofit's best major donor prospect isn't sitting out there waiting for your to find them. They're sitting in your database being treated like a $100 donor. As federal funding becomes increasingly uncertain, most organizations are frantically searching for new major donors. Meanwhile, their databases are filled with loyal supporters who could give significantly more. Your most promising major gift prospects share these patterns: Consistent giving over 5+ years Small but steady gifts signal deep commitment to your mission. These donors believe in your work enough to make it part of their annual giving, regardless of economic conditions. Multiple types of support Look for donors who give monthly AND respond to year-end appeals. Or those who make special gifts for specific projects. This variety shows they're paying attention and care about different aspects of your work. Engagement beyond money Volunteers who give. Event attendees who donate. Board committee members making small gifts. These combinations often indicate capacity hidden by habit rather than limited resources. Last year I dove deep into 25 nonprofit databases. Every single one had 50+ donors giving under $500 annually who could make 6-figure gifts. The opportunity isn't finding new donors (even thought right now you should still be trying to find new donors!). It's serving your current donors better. Pull your donor list today. Look for these patterns. You might discover your next major donor has been supporting you all along--and are actually waiting for your to support them in the right ways.

Love this campaign by Stella. "Worth it" ✨ Playing off a familiar scene we all know. That claustrophobic bar. Enter "Claustrobar" You're crammed shoulder to shoulder... Getting bumped left and right. Then you get your first sip. Makes it all worth it. 👀 Or does it...? We're seeing the OPPOSITE trend for B2B events. Marketers want smaller more niche events. Think dinners with 15 to 25 people. ONLY the exact ICP they want. We just did our Q1 retro at The Alliance 🧵 NEW Q1 EVENT DATA FOR YOU: Dinners under 25 people drove 3.4 times higher average pipeline per attendee than 200+ person field events Sponsor satisfaction scores were 27 points higher for private dinners vs traditional happy hours Events with personalized pre invite cadences had a 35 percent average acceptance rate among ICP targets Renewal rates on sponsor programs anchored around curated dinners hit 82 percent, compared to 58 percent for "open bar" events Thats why we're doubling down on niche events. Dinners and intimate VIP exeperiences. Why they worked so well: Step 1: ICP first targeting Every attendee list starts with sponsor aligned ICP firmographic filters: Company size, role seniority, industry fit, existing buying intent. Step 2: Personalized outreach Dedicated in house teams send direct invites framed around relevance. We track weekly acceptance rates and optimize touchpoints if we fall below 30 percent. Step 3: Pre event intel Sponsors get attendee insights two weeks before the dinner. They know which companies and titles are coming so they can plan the content PRECISELY for that audience to make it hyper relevant. Step 4: Structured conversations No loud music. No random crowds. Strategic seating charts and guided conversation topics aligned to the topics attendees and sponsors care about. This makes the experiences great for BOTH the company sponsoring and the attendees. Ends in a win win for everyone. Example for you: At our Austin dinner for a sponsor in Jan - 17 handpicked senior leaders attended - 76 percent of attendees booked follow up demos within 21 days - The sponsor sourced $3.2 million in net new pipeline which was 3.1 times their original goal TLDR Invest in more dinners ✌️ 

A Y Combinator founder in the current batch asked for my tips on raising a great seed round. For context, we raised over $4m in 14 days. Here’s my advice: Don’t take investor calls until you’re ready to fundraise: First impressions matter — you want to show them an incredible story, great traction and a working product. Before the fundraise, market your company: This may be on LinkedIn, X, newsletters etc. This will generate inbound (which is much better than outbound). Book all of your fundraising chats within a week or two: time-pressure matters and will allow you as a founder to be 100% locked into fundraising for a period Highlight either your team or traction: these are the two reasons seed investors invest so determine which one is more impressive for your situation. Focus on seed funds, not brand names: it’s tempting to go after big names, but seed funds are more likely to invest and will be able to help a lot at the early stages Have angel meetings first: angels are the fastest decisions and can help you build momentum. Aim to raise less: if you want to raise $3M, say you’re raising $1.5M. Then when you have $1M you’ll be “almost fully allocated” versus a third of the way there. This helps investors get off the fence and you can always extend to raise more if you’d like Be very stingy with customer intros: reserve these for investors who are looking for confirmation, not conviction. The last thing you want to do is burn your customer and still not have a term sheet in hand. One term sheet is all it takes: with 1 term sheet, you can force everyone else to move fast and make a decision. For us, the first term sheet took about 10 days and then we had 5 timesheets in the next 2 days because they all knew the round was closing soon. Biggest advice: have a good company. Nothing will substitute for growth, retention and customer love. Did i miss anything?