Episode 10: Building Great Major Gifts Programs

Budgets: love them, loathe them, fear them--they are an unavoidable part of fundraising.  And they don't have to be dreaded.  If done well, the annual budget process can help your organization align on priorities, set clear goals, and plan ahead for future years.Fundraising veterans Erica O'Brien and Courtney Lewis have helped clients budget better for decades.  Now, at Fuse Fundraising (formerly MindSet Direct), they continue to support everything from integrated direct response programs, to the optimization of high-value and monthly-giving programs. 

Welcome back to Season 2 of the Good Fundraising Podcast.  Today I am speaking with Kirsten Bunch--coach, speaker, bestselling author, and former fundraiser--about mental fitness and why it's so important.Kirsten is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach™ with hundreds of hours of coaching experience.  She incorporates neuroscience-based practices and adult developmental theory into her programs, and importantly for this audience she understands the challenges of this sector.  Before she was a coach, Kirsten worked for decades in global development.If you are interested in working on your own mental fitness, Kirsten is offering a discount to Good Fundraising Podcast listeners for her next workshop coming up in April.  Go to   https://www.kirstenbunch.com/fundraisers to learn more and enroll.  I have some great guests lined up for this season, and as always if you have an idea for a topic or interview, please email me at [email protected].

Welcome to Season 2 of the Good Fundraising Podcast!  Like a good fundraiser I have been off working on next year's budget, but I'm back with a great line up of smart and inspiring speakers who will share ways we can make nonprofits better.Kicking off this new season with me is Dorene Ocamb, Chief Development Officer at Armed Services YMCA National Headquarters.   Dorene and I talk about a sometimes overlooked area of diversity on our teams--neurodiversity--and why it's important to take it into account in our hiring, management, and culture-building processes. I have some great guests lined up for this season, and as always if you have an idea for a topic or interview, please email me at [email protected].

It's the end of a year and the end of the first season of the Good Fundraising Podcast.  I'm going to review some of the innovations and lessons from this year that are worth keeping for our sector--thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts to this episode!And thanks for YOU for listening. This year the Good Fundraising Podcast had contributors and  subscribers from all around the world--shout out to the new listeners in Africa and Australia!As I take a brief break and start working on content for season 2, I'd love your thoughts.  Please drop me an email at [email protected] if you have an idea for an episode this season or if you'd like to contribute your expertise to an episode.

Corporate partnerships are much sought-after but seldom well understood.  What do corporations want from their non-profit partners, and how can non-profits evaluate promising partnerships from the rest?Lauren Gray, Senior Director of Global Corporate Partnerships at the International Rescue Committee, joins me to talk about her extensive experience working with corporate partners across different verticals of the nonprofit space.  We discuss what makes a good partner, what nonprofits need to expect on their end, and how corporate giving priorities changed with the 2008 recession and what that moment can tell us about partnerships during and post covid.

Nonprofit fundraisers weather their share of storms in any given year, but an executive director has to contend with even more challenges.  In this week's episode, I speak with Rachel Herman, Founder and Executive Director of PAWS NY, about navigating growth and program changes for her now 10-year old organization.  Rachel shares her reflections on growing PAWS, making tough decisions during the spring of Covid, and how their programs have adapted to meet new needs for the people and pets of New York.To find out more about PAWS NY or make a donation, visit www.pawsny.org.And don't forget--we have only TWO more episodes before the end of 2020 and the first season of the Good Fundraising Podcast.  Since May, I've interviewed fundraisers from across North America, and now it's your turn!  Send me a voice memo (or an email, if you're shy) to [email protected] by December 11th with your thoughts about what our sector should keep from the lessons of this year.   Your insights will be featured on the season 1 finale!

"With everything that has happened in our world this year,  it feels like the stakes are even higher when it comes to our ability to really listen to each other and to find new ways to shift towards much needed collaborative ways of working."Kyla Shawyer, knows something about the need for new and improved ways of working together in the nonprofit sector.  Kyla has been leading transformational change in the global nonprofit sector for 15 years, having led programs at Operation Smile and later the Resource Alliance.  She is currently working at the intersection of systems innovation and leadership in the social good space, serving as both CEO & Co-Founder of Philanthropy & Fundraising North America (PFNA), a nonprofit executive leadership program that builds nonprofit capacity for fundraising growth and innovation, and as Creative Consultant for DSIL Global, a social innovation company.A few months ago I heard Kyla present on "Liberating Structures"--a set of tools that promises to revolutionize unproductive meeting culture and replace it with collaboration, problem-solving, and idea generation.  Every bad meeting I have ever been in over the last 20 years flashed before my eyes, and I quickly sent her an email to learn more. Resources:Liberating Structures WebsiteBook: The Surprising Power of Liberating StructuresLiberating Structures AppYou can find links to these resources and all our other episodes on the Good Fundraising website.

You know that monthly giving can change your fundraising program's bottom line, but it's impact doesn't stop there.  Today I'm speaking with Joanne Wilson, Vice President, Advancement Operations at HSUS about how monthly giving helped transform organizational culture.

For our tenth episode, I'm speaking with Jenny Belardi, Director of Development at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, about what makes a great major gifts program.Jenny shares what makes a great major gifts officer, building lasting donor relationships, and how her team is adapting donor cultivation to meet a socially distanced world.Resources:Jenny mentions hiring staff who share the qualities of a "curious chameleon."  You can find our more about this mysterious creature on the EAB website. 

We're back with part two of Ask the Fundraisers with Karin Kirchoff and Jenn Deerr!  This time we talk telemarketing, acquisition 101, and everyone's favorite topic: monthly giving.  If you like what you hear, please consider subscribing, sharing with a colleague, and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast platform of choice! And as always if you have an idea for a topic, drop me an email at [email protected].