536. How It's Built: Tim Tebow Foundation's 19,000+ Monthly Giving Community - Kyle Roosen

9:01PM May 12, 2024

Speakers:

Jonathan McCoy

Becky Endicott

Kyle Roosen

Keywords:

nonprofits

donor

giving

community

share

people

night

storytelling

kyle

recurring

good

feel

foundation

build

storytellers

mission

create

started

work

number

Hey, I'm Jon.

And I'm Becky.

And this is the We Are For Good podcast.

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an Impact Uprising.

So welcome to the good community, we're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. Becky, I feel like you've been talking about this convo for a long time. Like I

Like, literally months, I think so. And I, I am so excited. Today we are in the middle of the how it's built series. And I hope you're coming here, not just to hear about recurring donor programs and how to build those, because that is so singular. And we've brought on a guest who's expanded our view on this. And he's like, how do you create community? How do you create digital first fundraising strategy that creates this massive community where people can really get into the lane that you know works best for them? And that is really about the evolution of recurring giving. So it is a complete joy to introduce you all to Kyle Roosen. He is the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at the Tim Tebow Foundation. You know, the Tim Tebow Foundation. It is such a prolific organization and they're doing extraordinary things. And can I drop this little stat Jon? Kyle has built this from the ground up and this recurring donor community encompasses more than 19,300 monthly givers across all of their different monthly giving programs. Is that not unbelievable? And how good is this program, y'all? The Tim Tebow Foundation, Kyle, the team, they have built this recurring donor community that encompasses more than 19,300 monthly givers across five different monthly giving programs. And it's an extraordinary story. We're going to break it down for you. And I want to give a special shout out to Michelle Boggs, our friend over at Classy who's in the community who recommended this conversation. And Kyle's just one of our people he is this passionate, growth minded and mission driven marketing leader who's just felt this call to provide the fuel needed to reach the world's most vulnerable people. And so he's really implementing this digital first marketing strategy focused on donor experience, and storytelling. And so as he was sort of on this journey of building this recurring giving program, he realized it couldn't be singular. It couldn't be just one giving program. So we're going to unpack that for you. But we got to get to the humanity because Kyle is such a good dude. He is hailing from New Hampshire, but living in Jacksonville, Florida, with his wife, Lauren, and we got to give a shout out to their two dogs, Ellie, and Clemson. Kyle, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited. You're here.

Thank you, guys. Thank you for having me. And yeah, just grateful for this conversation humbled for the opportunity. And so glad you started saying it by Kyle and the team because it's just such a team effort.

Well, we're gonna dive into this, we're gonna unpack it step by step for you, listeners. But first, you know, we've got to just get to know Kyle like, take us back. Kyle, I want to hear about growing up and what led you to this work?

Well, that is a much longer story than we're probably going to have time for. But

Cliff Notes.

Yeah, it's an encouraging one. Because I didn't have any, like classical training in marketing or fundraising. I didn't grow up in the nonprofit world. I didn't grow up dreaming of being a marketer. I went to Clemson University, that's my dog's name is Clemson for Golf Management.

Go Tigers.

My dream was to become a teaching professional and to run the business side of a golf course. Long story short, God just led me to the Tim Tebow Foundation. And I've been here for almost nine and a half years, Which is

Employee number six. Right?

I think so. I think so I say that. It's either like six or seven. You know, early on early on, I was able to join the team and really just see how blessed this ministry has been and how much it's been favored.

I mean, my goodness, I mean, you there's like an audible pause when Becky even said the number in your bio, these 19,300 monthly givers. So we got to talk about that. But I mean, as you you know, come into this conversation today give his context, because we're going to have you share the playbook of like how to get there because a lot of people listening, that number just seems impossible. You know, it's bigger than the town I grew up in 19,000 people so like I'm just wrapping my head around this. But you know, give us an overview of what it looks like today and what the impact has been and then we're going to have you reverse engineer it.

Yeah, yeah. I'd love to um, you know what, why I shared why I think that my story is a little bit encouraging is because I'm, again, I didn't have any classical training in marketing, or fundraising. And so I think what I share today, I hope that every viewer or listener understands that they too can do it. When I started out the foundation, really, I would say, for the first 60 days, the executive director and my boss were just like, just help us learn what we're not doing and what we can do. And I swear, I sat and just googled, and watched YouTube videos. All day long, I was an avid reader of the Classy blog. And so the foundation at that time was so young, we were four years. And we hadn't really had like a real big marketing strategy yet at that point. And it was kind of my initial role to help craft that. And because we weren't an older organization, and we're really just trying to understand how we're going to reach donors and what our messaging is, I was able to learn all of these digital strategies, and I had no idea what I was trying to implement. It just so happened to be this was all of the things that I was reading, and I was studying. So we launched our first recurring giving program in October 2016. But I really would say that it was in the spring of 2016, that the conversation started, we were just like many other organizations where you would go to our donate page, and it would give you the option of giving one time or giving monthly and my boss at the time, Jen, we were just brainstorming what could be. And she asked me a simple question that I think really changed the trajectory of the entire organization that changed my trajectory, and really opened my eyes to nonprofits can do this differently. And she asked, what is our product? And it's not a, you know, it's not a complex question. But I think so many nonprofits don't approach their marketing, with the idea that they're also entering into a relationship, just like any other business with their donor. And so when she asked me what our product was, like, what do we sell? Well, immediately, I thought, and we thought, well, we sell impact, we get to be a part of people's purpose, we get to help people feel that what they do on a day to day basis is meaningful, because they get to be a part of our mission. And when you thought about the idea of a product, we created the movement, because we wanted, we wanted something tangible, around giving monthly. We wanted to build trust with our audience, we wanted to build transparency. And we wanted to give them something immediately that they could have in hand, we built it to be a vehicle of transparency, and a vehicle to be able to communicate impact to donors, not a transactional community, but a community based in relationship and in shared mission. And so we launched it in October 2016. And I think that the first email we sent, I want to say that we we got about 250 recurring donors, and a lot of work had gone into it. Yeah, it was, it was amazing. It was blew away my expectations, I was like, please just get us 10 because honestly, for so long, like 19,300 is amazing. I feel like we've been super blessed, the team has been amazing, the whole organization has bought into the idea of recurring giving. So we would not be here without, you know, just that whole team really, really coming behind this idea. But I remember my first days at the foundation of first hooking up Google Analytics and coming into work and hoping and praying and trying to do as much as I can to bring in one more donor, one more, and one more, and one more. And I would go home and be like today was an awesome day, we got four donations. We got one more recurring donors, this is a great month we got 25 recurring donors. And so it's cool to share that with the audience. Because like 19,300 is, you know, it sounds like a big number. But it started with the one person signing up and then the next day getting one more and hopefully, you know one more after that and, and that's just what I one of the pieces that I love with this story.

There's so many things I want to emote and talk about and what you just said. But first and foremost, I gotta bring up Trend number two of 2024 this year, which is to grow the movement, you have to activate the one and I love that you are such a long play example of when we start to celebrate one person joining, four person joining that little crumb starts to get or the ripple I would say really starts to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think the mindset you're sharing is exactly the right one, which is having this humility and joy in the fact that we have someone who believes in us that wants to come over. And I think you've done a couple of things here that I want to highlight for the audience that are brilliant one, I love that you don't really talk about it as a recurring giving program, because the ones who are evolving, call it a movement, and they call it a community. And it's so much more than just sort of these, these little buckets that we put people in because they're part of something much bigger. It's not just monthly giving, it's the mission. And when you can raise someone out of that the belief gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And I also just want to commend you and the team for proving that it is doable, it is learnable. You started with this beginner's mindset at the very beginning and very hungrily just sort of ingested all this content. And I just think what you've built is beautiful. So let's get into it. I'm ready. I know our listeners are ready. They've got their pins in hand, we want to talk about how to build the scalable giving program. So give us the playbook. Kyle, walk us through some of the tactical steps of how you and the team built this program. We're ready with number one?

Yeah, absolutely. So before we get into number one, there's two things I want to mention. I think when we talk about a recurring donor community, there's two statistics that I've read recently that I think really highlight why a recurring giving program is so important, and also the problem that it can solve in what we're seeing in society. I read a stat, I think you can look at it a couple different ways. But it was only 20% of our population has a high trust in nonprofits. And I think it was like 46% distrust nonprofits. And then on the other end, 60% of people, on average, according to this one stat that I read, question, if they have, or how can they find more meaning and purpose in their life, at least on a monthly basis. So you have people who you have a majority of people who distrust nonprofits, and you have a majority of people who are wanting to find more meaning. And I think that as marketers or fundraisers or, honestly, there's really not a name for us anymore us like digital fundraisers, because like, we're not either one, we're kind of we're both. It's hard to explain. We're also storytellers, we have the opportunity to build a recurring giving program that establishes trust and transparency with donors so that we can break through that gap. And we also have the opportunity with a recurring donor program to add meaning into people's lives. You know, I think the vision that I always like to share with our team is that if we can create an experience for our, our giving community that when they see in their bank account, that this amount went to the Tim Tebow Foundation, I want them to experience joy. And I want them to know exactly what their giving is doing. And as storytellers, that's our responsibility to them, I want the Tim Tebow Foundation and what they give to us, I want them to feel that that is a part of the meaning in their lives. Now, we're never gonna be able to answer their full purpose. But we can be a part of that we can be that encouragement, inspiration to them that, you know, they might not feel like they're on the front lines, but they know that they're the fuel and the backbone to other people doing that. And I think that all of us are responsible for that you're either in the mission field, or you're helping people go to the mission field. And so that's kind of the spirit that we take with a lot of our our donors. So

Hold on, hold on.

I know

You can't just can't go into the playbook because we have to emote about that. Go ahead, Jon.

I'm like if this is step zero, this is gonna be so good. I love that. We talk about the issue of trust, like it's probably the hottest topic of just like, how do we change the trajectory of that. And it's so disruptive to say we can do this at the smallest common denominator, and that's how change happens. I mean, the one to one so I love that you're putting those two pieces together. Like this is incredible. Like I'm so I'm so excited for the next steps.

Yes, and thank you for breaking down the ethos, because it's not just 1,2,3,4,5 and these programs you have to do, you know, ask the bigger question. And I think the product question is a really good one because we want that experience to infuse joy and to infuse trust and to infuse all you know, confidence and and all the things people are looking for. So I thank you for stopping us and tone setting, because that is exactly the shift that we're trying to make. Okay, we're handing the mic back to you for playbook. Let's do this.

Yeah, I think it's so important for the playbook to have the heart right. Have to have the heart right. You have to know why you're doing it you have to know and communicate to your audience that there's power when we come together, that it's not about the amount that anyone gives, it's that they give that they're a part of the mission. And so if you have the heart, right, I think everything else falls into place after that. So but what falls into place, right? So I, I really had a good time, kind of preparing for this, because I, you know, get to lead a team of 10 different people on the TTF side. And then TTFN has 25 nonprofits, and I worked with a few of them to help them also build their recurring giving community. And we're actually actively building two new ones right now. So I kind of break it down into two into how you build it, I kind of break it down into two different different ways, I think it's important to understand that you always have to be acquiring. But while you're focused on acquisition, you can't not focus on experience. And so to build a successful recurring giving community, you have to be reaching new people. But you also have to be loving the people that are a part of your community equally. Because if you just love the people that are part of it, you're not going to really grow it other than maybe by word of mouth, and just by happenstance, but if you're only focused on acquisition, which maybe is a little bit my fault, I definitely love inspiring people to join us more than I think I'd love that consistency. The other end, if you're not focused on acquisition, or if you're only focused on acquisition, you lose the experience and what you got into it in the first place, which is helping break or helping build trust and helping add meaning into their lives. And so I'll start with acquisition. I think that I would say, I'm sure that there's a lot of more experienced marketers and fundraisers than me listening to this podcast. But just in case, there's one person who this could help. Stop listening right now, and learn how to or add your data layer, it's so critical to build a recurring giving program. That means taking the pixel from Facebook or TikTok, putting it into your website, putting it into Classy, developing Google Analytics. And understanding your data I think is so important before we even get into it. And I actually am not really a data based marketer. I'm more intuitive and more creative. But I like to look at the data to draw some intuitive conclusions. And so early on, I was just eyeing Google Analytics all the time. If I did this, what happened? If I did this social post? Did we see a spike in traffic? If I did this email did we see an abnormal amount of giving that day? And I started to learn that there's so many different tactics that you can have. And as nonprofits, we don't have all of the resources or time to be able to go after all of them. And so developing that data layer allows you to understand which tactic is best for your organization. For us, it was social media and email marketing. Those were the two biggest needle movers in the beginning. And we went hard after those marketing tactics coupled with incredible storytelling. But some other nonprofits have a really strong influencer network, some have a really strong public relations strategy. So it's just about implementing that data layer, and then measuring what actions produce what results so that when you launch your recurring donor community, you know where you should place your focus in order to do the acquisition piece of this. And so after you implement the data layer, or step number two, and I title it that create your branded product, or your branded community, I think that this is really important to not just have on your website, give monthly or give one time, but to build a name, something that people can identify with. So the two that we have right now are the movement and defenders, and our defenders. They're giving those specifically towards our anti human trafficking and child exploitation ministry. And I want them to see themselves as defenders because they are they are defending some of the most vulnerable children and people on planet Earth. And I think when you can help people identify with your program, they get much more excited to be a part of it than just like, oh, I give monthly No, I am a defender. I am a part of the movement. And so I think finding that brand that resonates with your mission and your organization, and then also your your community I think is really important. And then building some, let's just say we want to tap into the consumerism of America. So for the foundation, we did a couple of things when we launched the movement to build trust and break down the walls of transparency. We did a yearly vision casting conference call with our leadership, we invited every single person that was a part of the movement. We invited them to ask questions we shared what we've done, where we're going, what they're giving specifically goes to we put faces on camera, so that, you know, people can interact with us, they saw that, you know, this was a, this was a real organization. And honestly, with this data of 20% of people, highly trusted nonprofits, that means 80% of people are going to have some level of just distrust for you immediately, when you come across, you might think that you're the most trustworthy, honest mission out there. But our culture in our society, 80% of people are going to be a little bit critical when your brand first comes across them. So how can you build transparency? And then how can you build exclusivity, so we created just a simple t shirt that every person got when they signed up for a minimum donation, nothing revolutionary, but it helps someone tangibly have something in hand, and then also wear and share with other people to inspire more conversations. And then we committed, we shared and we committed the monthly storytelling about what their impact was going to. And I think every person in this call can understand that that's a priority, but doing it doing it is harder, it's doing it working with your programs team, and you know them believing in this. And our team has been so amazing in helping us source the stories of impact. So that we can consistently month after month, for years now bring that meaning to the lives of our community members through effective storytelling. And also I think what's important is putting yourselves in the shoes of the person, when they sign up for your current donor community. What do they think that they're giving to one, if they think they're giving to something it's not what they're giving to the messaging is probably off. But also as nonprofits, we do a lot of work. And some of our work is more in line with what the, what the giving community thinks that we're doing. And so telling those stories so that when they see it, there's not confusion, there's immediate clarity, this is what my giving is going to, and that's what I thought it was going to, if that makes sense.

I mean, Kyle, doesn't just yeah, this doesn't make sense. Like i i can validate this in our own experience. And this is kind of how the We Are For Good values are statements that are on our website came to be that we say it's not about giving, it's about belief, because that's how you actually fundamentally build a movement when you have people that believe in what you're doing. But I want to call some that out. Because when you're talking about the branded product, some people are probably gonna like tune out and think that we're trying to be to businesses in the nonprofit space. But what y'all have done, and I think that this is applicable to everybody is this idea of allowing people to embrace it as part of their identity. And exactly even naming it in a way that they can feel ownership of that like it connects to that purpose piece that you're talking about. And it's just also your storytelling, they're part of that story into like, they're part of the collective. And so I just think it's so smart. And that's something that this is why we don't want you to have the benefactor society as the name of your club, like make it something that people want to feel ownership of, and that they would be proud, proud to have that as part of their identity. And that's why they're giving so, so good.

I just think the identity piece is so strong. And the other thing I just want to add to what Kyle is saying is when you bake in these stories, and you push them out from the organization, pull them back in, by asking the community to submit their stories, how are they seeing it play out? How is it impacting their life, and all of a sudden, when you start to see yourself in the story, it becomes that connective tissue to the organization is just strengthened. And I've seen you do this Kyle on the back end when I watch your socials. And I just think you all do this beautifully.

Thank you. It's actually we say that we have two major goals as a department. And number one is storytelling, and we make most of our decisions around does this help us tell more stories, or better stories, and we've really, I mean, this could be a whole nother conversation, honestly, but we really see ourselves as a media team. Not just storytellers, but a media team and that, at any given moment, we can rally and produce a huge amount of content with quality. Or we can take a really long time to produce an amazing quality story. We can do both of them and there are seasons for both. But you know what? Step number three, doesn't matter how good your storytelling is. Doesn't matter that you have a data layer. It doesn't matter that you have the really nice logo and branded community for your recurring giving program if no one knows about it. I think that this is this is one of the hardest things to do and it's the most important is that you always have to be building your audience, always it is a nonstop constant effort to build your audience and audience to me is, you know, if you have the best, most impactful mission in the world, if no one knows about it, then they can't be a part of it. And so part of our role is we always have to be building our email list, our text list, our website traffic, our social and each of those requires a different strategy, whether it's for, you know, creating a lead generator, and running that lead generator on Meta ads, or if it's implementing a website pop up, even though none of us like them, none of us like them. But the stats are clear three to 4% of all visitors that visit your website will enter their information into your pop up. And I'm not just talking about join our newsletter, like, I really don't like that word newsletter, it bugs me. So make it make it more exciting. I actually really like what charity:water calls, there's is this add impact to your inbox, there's a lot of different things that you can do with it. We're actually in the middle of building a branded email list called mission moment. And that every week, we will share a moment from our ministry with you from around the world that we hope inspires and encourages you for the week. So it could be that it could just be adding impact your inbox but or join our community just making it more enticing them, like, subscribe to our newsletter, like no one no one wants to do that.

Well said I mean, I don't know that I've ever been passionate about joining anybody's newsletter. But I think I think this is solid. So I mean, we've gotten past the storytelling is that a step? Kyle is number four, like the piece of meeting people where they are.

Yeah, number four for acquisition is, is storytelling. So have to become elite storytellers. Because everyone, people aren't just gonna automatically respond to the launch of your recurring donor community, it's gonna be a lot of people that don't join it, there's gonna be a lot of people that follow you on social media, especially as you continue to build your audience creating valuable content, have to become a lead storytellers. And, and the ratio that we set at TTF is that 80% of all content that we produce, should add value to our audiences life. And I think that that's the key to building audience is that as a nonprofit, you have to find a way to be valuable to them, before they've given when they've given, you know, you are valuable to them, because they're giving you a part of their earnings. But before they give to you, why? Why should they care about you, they might care about your mission, and then that brings value to them. But for the most part, people aren't always looking to give. And they're always looking to join your email list or to follow your social. And so we set a ratio to 80% of the content, that when we produce it, we ask ourselves, is this going to add value to someone's life? Is it going to inspire them, encourage them, entertain them, educate them, and then 20% of the content that we produce, has the call to action, or the invitation to come alongside us as a defender or the member of the movement. And I think, really becoming good content creators and storytellers it, it starts to build that relationship with someone I like to say that you can't withdraw from a bank account that doesn't have anything in it. And so the content that we produce, is we're going out ahead of our audience and saying, We care about you. We want to be a valuable part of your life. And we're going to make deposits and deposits and deposits into this relationship account. And, and maybe when you, you know, when you're ready, we'll invite you to be a part of it in a really meaningful way. And then the relationship changes and we go more into producing the experience for them. So yeah, becoming elite storytellers is is step number four, continuously sharing stories in an intriguing way through, you know, whether that's social media, email, and then within social media, through really good creative, you know, really good video production, really good graphic design. It's hard to do. But, you know, I think that nonprofits have such an important message to share. We should be the innovators in how content is created. We have the best stories of of any business to share. We should be the best content creators. So our last step, you know, we've launched we have our data layer, we have our our community, it's starting to grow. This is where every day the focus has to be, how do we bring one more person in and I'll quickly share that I think one of the most impactful ways that we've done it is that we've created unique campaigns throughout the year that really target recurring donors. that really target that invitation to bring people on. And we've we've started to learn that project based recurring giving is really impactful. And people have the opportunity to give towards what they're passionate about, not just the greatest area need on a monthly basis, but they can do that. But they also can choose to give towards a specific project that's ongoing for your mission for us, let's say it's to care for children, when we build a safe home, those 24 children in that safe home, they need a community of love, support and care from our recurring givers that they can step into that story. And now we have really, really personalized storytelling to do for a lot of our giving community. So I think that that's been really important to us. So yeah, step number five is just creating unique campaigns throughout the year, continuously testing what is working, what is working in, whether that's, you know, meta ads, whether that's Instagram, whether it's email marketing, text, SEO, if you're getting a lot of people just from Google, organically, it's testing those things, analyzing why it's working, and then just trying to get better and better and better based on those things that are working and just continuing to scale. So that's that's step number five is just relentlessly pursue one more recurring donor, day after day, creating specific invitations for them to come alongside the organization specific campaigns where you're not calling for $1 number, but you're asking for a number of people who will step up and join this campaign, we need 1000 defenders to join us. And this is what it will do. So that's been really, really impactful for us. And I think how we really scaled from like, maybe 6000 recurring donors to the number that we're at now.

I feel like this playbook is something that anybody can implement. But I want to give you a second to just I'm riffing on something I'm thinking over here is that y'all are based on a foundation with a person that's larger than life that that I think someone listening could be like, well, it's easy when you have a celebrity, you know, at the helm that everyone knows. But as I hear your story, I hear your steps, the movement that you're building is so separate from that, like, how could you kind of like share how important that is to develop this messaging that's more about their own personal transformation, what that matters, and it's less about maybe how they found you in the first place.

Yeah, no, I think it was a good call. Because a lot of people do. I mean, Tim is an amazing communicator. TTF is his heart. It's his the greatest calling that he has in life. And we're so blessed to have him be able to share the story of TTF and invite people in, but also we have to be good stewards of the momentum that he creates. And I think, I think that's the answer to this is that every nonprofit has an amazing team of warriors that are creating a wave of impact and momentum. We just have to steward that, package it and put it in front of people who are inspired to be a part of that. And like, yes, does Tim break down the barrier of trust for us? 100%. He's an amazing storyteller. But the practices work for everyone else, too. And I've seen that with a lot of our partners in who we've helped. And so, you know, just acting as that steward and finding those things that work for us. We chose social media, because we had, we were blessed to have a really great platform to start with. We don't do a lot of other things. We've never done direct mail. We don't do any PR. There's a lot of things that we don't do. We as a team, we just brought on our first kind of engagement person for higher level giving. And so all of these practices are really how, you know, we've, we've built such an incredible engine of ministry over the last 10 years.

I'm so proud of you, and thank you for doing it organically, humanely, authentically, I celebrate the fact that you call this trust building a practice, because I don't think you need a celebrity or a public figure on your foundation, necessarily to get that that trust if you can show up consistently and build it in the the the the mission and the person and the the impact deliver that you say you are so I want to get into some pro tips. Kyle.

Can, I add one thing here, Becky?

Oh, yeah, go for it.

One thing that that the Tim Tebow Foundation is amazing at and I've learned so much from the different members on my team, and how we we truly labor over the words that we use in the words that we share. Because every sentence that we write should be Invitational. It should be relational. And I think that that's really the key to the trust that we've been able to build with a lot of our giving community over the years is that we've consistently been true and authentic to ourselves. And we're a faith based organization. And we see it as our responsibility to just bring our best to the table. And then everything else after that is up to up to the Lord and up to people making the generous decision to join us, we don't feel like we can control that. And I think that that comes down in our messaging is that we just want to do our best job to invite you into this incredible story. And we're going to focus on every sentence we write every word that we write, so that always matches the heart of who we are, so that you can identify with us. And if you've watched us for five years, we're no different today than we were five years ago, honestly, we probably might even be a little bit more authentic today than we were five years ago, just because we've kind of learned how to communicate and express our heart. And so I think to be able to build that trust long term, every word really does matter. You know, when you use community every time, when you use your impact, and there's power when we come together and this mission is also yours. And we hope this story encourages you, that you're giving has meaning, when you consistently message that people start to believe it. And that's how we really feel. And so we always want to make sure that everything that we share publicly is in line with that heart posture.

I value so much the fact that you just wanted to create pause on that. Talk to us a little bit about the pro tips that you have for our listeners, like you've done so much research on this, Kyle. And we just want to know like, what have you learned throughout this process? What would you go back and tell yourself? Maybe don't do that? And do this, like bring all the goods to us?

Yes. I mean, I think you know, the initial five steps were important. You know, I really believe that the biggest pro tip is always be building your audience. And never stop. Never forget it. But the ones that I wrote down for this is something that I'm learning right now, for any any marketer out there any fundraiser being really good, the data attribution is great. But with all of the privacy laws, it's not perfect. And so being able to kind of look at all of your systems and all of your tracking and start to understand consistencies, and observe consistencies over time of what moves the needle for specifically recurring giving, it's going to help you make the next decision and help you build strategy for how to do it. So number one pro tip is don't overlook data attribution and effective tracking, set up the tracking for specifically recurring giving. And if you use Classy, it's super easy to do, I can track it in all of our different systems. And it's game changing. The second one, I would say that I think fundraisers either fall into people who are focused on acquisition or people who are focused on experience, I didn't get to share some of the steps and experience but this is one of my pro tips, I am definitely more of an acquisition type mind, I want to build it I want to get people in. And I've learned that it's harder for me to be consistent, and sustain something. And so having that self awareness of my weaknesses, I'm able to bring on different team members who can balance the acquisition. And so my pro tip is don't forget the immediate touch points, we like to say that there's four immediate touch points for our new recurring giver. And number one is the thank you page, right when they sign up, it's meaningful, it's meaningful, and so is the receipt that they give. And so we don't go overboard and you know, storytelling and stuff right there. But we're very like, we share how to access their account, how to manage their own giving, you know, trying to understand what questions they're going to have. And then the second immediate touch point after they get the receipt. And the thank you page is an automatic email from us that sets expectation sets expectations for what it means to be a part of our community as a defender, or a member of the movement. And then what to expect from us going forward monthly storytelling, how we see them as a family member, that there's power when we come together. The third touch point is when we send out the kind of the welcome gift that we create for everyone. So that's their T shirt and a little welcome card. And so we try to make that immediate touch point as best as it can be. And then the last one of the immediate touch points and this is all within I think, you know, 15 to 30 days, is the first story that they get really, really important. And so it's so fun to acquire. It's so fun to think long term. What's their experience It's going to be, but don't forget the immediate experience that they have with you. Because that's where a lot of that initial trust is going to be built.

I love that you're closing the loop on that. It's like, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them and then tell them you told them kind of. Like, just it's how you build the trust how you deliver on the promise that they came in the door with such good protests, I mean, how this has been such a defining conversation for anyone looking to grow this part of their work. But you know, we're storytellers around here too. And we'd love to create space to just ask you about a moment of philanthropy that's moved you that stuck with you in this journey of your work. I'm excited to hear.

There's been so many, when I was first thinking about sending my resume to the Tim Tebow Foundation was actually to be an event coordinator. And thank God, they didn't hire me as that, because I would have lasted about six days.

I mean, you literally just cold call you cold pitched them, right?

I cold emailed them, yeah.

That's a cool, I think that's a cool story.

Awesome.

One thing I learned in college was like, make yourself so valuable to them on the initial thing that they can't help but think about their future with you. But when I was going through the application, one thing that terrified me was that we were just starting Night to Shine. It's our worldwide prom for people with special needs. It started as like a five year celebration for the foundation. And now it's turned into something we could, way more than we could have ever imagined. It's in I think, 46 countries around the world. It was hosted in 725 churches this past February. We just celebrated 10 years of it. But when I saw that, I was like, oh gosh, I can't plan that event. But you know what, thankfully, I didn't get that role. That's not the role God had for me. But I got to be a part of the storytelling, you're meant to shine. I've been able to watch it grow over the last 10 years. And there's so many amazing moments at at TTF that have inspired me but if you don't mind, I'd like to just read this one poem from a mom of an honored guest. So her daughter went to night to shine and she wrote this poem for her daughter Hayden, and shared it with us, and it's called for one night. For one night she watched an excitement as her makeup was put on. The pink was dusted on her pale cheeks. The shadow was brushed onto her eyelids, the gloss was pressed over her lips. For one night, her short purple hair was partially pulled back into a braid, while her fresh curls fell onto her shoulder showing off her perfect smile, taught by her big brown eyes. For one night she slipped into a dress fit for a princess. It was long flowy blue and topped with glitter. And as she spun around, you could hear her giggles echo in the halls. For one night she climbed into the backseat and rode to church staring out the window as the world passed by. Butterflies filled her stomach as the excitement of the evening filled her thoughts. She sang along to her favorite tunes as she made her way closer and closer. For one night she stepped out of the car to be greeted by strangers smiling and waving so eager to see her. Black White and blue balloons encompass the door she entered. She looked in awe. For one night she picked a beautiful pink rose corsage to wear and smiled as her mommy slid it onto her wrist. She leaned in close her eyes and inhaled the aromatic floral scent for one night she walked the red carpet while they cheered. They shouted her name and the cameras flashed. Pom Poms waved in the air and signed suede reading you are amazing. This was all for her. For one night, the music played loud and she danced to songs she had never heard before she waved the flashing light above her head and giggled as she watched the other guests breakdance in front of her. For one night she had a crown placed on her head and she was a queen. For one night. My sweet girl twirled the dance floor without a care in the world. She had no insecurities, no fears. She felt as beautiful as she was carefree, perfect. For one night there was not a diagnosis, her IEP didn't matter. There are no thoughts of math strategies or coping skills. There are no worries about tomorrow speech therapy session. She is God's perfect creation. I know it, you know it and for one night, she could see it too. And that's from the poem written for her sweet Hayden. And I think why it's so impactful to me and to us is that people with special needs are so often overlooked and forgotten within our society and Night to Shine for some reason has been this opportunity for them to be celebrated and cheered and for them to know that they're loved and to know that they're special and that they're worthy. And so many of them maybe that time that they walked down the red carpet that every Night to Shine has. They're experiencing that worth and value for the very first time. And so when I hear Nicole's words about Hayden, that that night she knew that she was loved, that's what I want all of our giving community to experience that they're a part of, and, and as a marketer and a fundraiser, I think what a blessing it is that not only do we get to help fuel ministry, but we get to help add meaning to people's lives, because they get to be a part of that through our mission. And what an opportunity, that is what a calling that is to be able to sit on both sides, and release our ministry team to just focus on loving and reaching people, and also helping donors in our given community feel that they have meaning, and that this is a part of their meaning.

I'm literally trying to recover. Thank you for sharing that. I just think when we bring story back, it's about Hayden, like I felt like I could see her. I felt like I could see her spinning. And as a mom, I just know what her mother's feeling. In that moment, when there is no judgment, there is only joy. And I just think about this juxtaposition of mindset of what if we weren't selling and grinding and pushing? What if we took that energy, and we put it into this authentic engagement of loving and connecting, and inspiring and reminding people why this is so important. And I love that you've built that in your culture, I just want to manifest that that could go into everyone's culture. And I just think you're a really good dude, Kyle, and I'm glad you got to where you are. I want to talk about a one good thing? How are we going to round this out? Kyle, like, give us some one good thing, about maybe it's a piece of advice about recurring giving, maybe it's just something that's on your heart that you're feeling right now, we'd love to hear it.

You know, as people who who work for nonprofits who are mission driven, they've given up so much, you know, we sacrifice so much and we have so many jobs to do and building a recurring giving community is one of those critical jobs that is the backbone for ministry, it allows us to be able to grow as a recurring giving community grows, it's sustainable. But you know, it's a grind. And so what I want to leave with people is the grind is worth it. And I want to share an encouragement. Something that we say a lot here at the Tim Tebow Foundation is that we do feel called to this and the best definition that I've ever heard for calling is an urgent and define urgent and divine invitation to accept responsibility for a particular task. And every word in that matters, because it is urgent, because if you don't accept the responsibility for the task of helping provide fuel for your ministry, you can't get to people who are in desperation and chaos and crisis. You can't you can't accept responsibility for it later on. So as marketers and fundraisers we get the opportunity to say yes to that invitation to accept the responsibility for taking the burden of providing the fuel for the ministry, and what a joy is, when our programs team, our frontline warriors don't have to focus on dollars, every single thing is worth it for them to be able to focus fully on doing the work that they're called to, which is bringing for us bring faith, hope and love. And the people that we get to serve, experiencing their life being changed. And so I just want to encourage people that it is a grind, but it's also a really, really high calling. And it's a burden, but there's also so much, there's so much joy and in being able to take that off of the shoulders of our team. And that's what we get the opportunity to do we get the blessing of that to be that fuel to help make the mission possible. So anyone listening who might feel tired or discouraged, I just want to share that definition again, and is that we get the opportunity to accept the urgent invitation to accept responsibility for the task of fundraising. And so just hope that's encouraging everyone. Keep going, keep fighting. Because there's there's people around the world who are desperate in need of what you're doing.

Kyle, just love the way you rounded out this conversation. I mean, I think it's a reminder for all of this of the sacred space we get to sit in, in this work. And just the beauty of it even on the hard days and why we need each other in this journey. We need community. So thank you for everything you shared today. Thank you for your open handedness and no ego in this. It's just a beautiful thing. And so I want the people listening today are our community around this podcast. How can people connect with you? How can they find TTF? Where do you hang out online? How can they reach out to you?

It's a good question. Because I'm in the foxhole, just like they are we're getting ready, we're building two new recurring donor communities right now. And so, um, everything that I'm sharing today, I'm also learning and so I don't have like a huge public profile I have, you know, LinkedIn and I definitely connect with people on there. And, and then also just email, Kyle at TimTebowfoundation.org. Happy to, if I can ever help answer any questions, bounce ideas back and forth, I'd be happy to and maybe I can come back on later and and share how the launch of these two new ones went. There's one, Becky, I told you that I'm really excited to do really excited about.

Want to tease it?

Yeah, I'll tease it. We're going deep on inviting people into into their own mission. I think so many nonprofits have widened the gap in between the donor and who they serve. And so what we hope to build as a community that breaks that down in brings the donor and their impact closer than, than it's ever been. And so that is the goal of it. And I'm really excited to hopefully launch it in the fall.

Nice.

You're a pioneer. And I we can't wait to hear how it all unfolds. And we may be coming back in five years. And the Tim Tebow Foundation has 20, you know, monthly giving programs and you don't have any gray hair. So I feel like you know that it's going well, and it's manageable. So thank you for just breaking it down for us, my friend. I think there's just so many questions. And there's so much noise right now about diversifying your pipeline with recurring giving and these monthly models. And I think this is the human way to do it. So appreciate you so much and rooting for the Tim Tebow Foundation and absolutely everything that you do.

Yeah, thank you guys. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm super grateful and humbled to be a part of it.

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