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, where Nonprofit Professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Becky, what's happening,
we got fundraising royalty in the house, we're here to learn today.
So true. We have like this, like Legend. I mean, Barbara has been moving and shaking in this industry. She is a speaker at so many other conferences and events. And you probably have seen her post on LinkedIn, because she is just really poured into this space. And at the start of the year, we really just wanted to pour in to just have in some of the conversations that get us oriented, to finding our fundraising roadmap to feel good about the strategy that's ahead and just have a real talk about what it's looking like at the same time right now that we're all kind of facing and talking about in our own circles. So it is my huge honor to have Barbara O'Reilly in the house. She's a fellow C F R E, and she has spent 30 years in annual fund major gifts campaign fundraising experience at just some incredible organizations, including Harvard University, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and you know, just casually Oxford University in England, and so many others as well. But so she has channeled that expertise into this incredible consulting firm windmill Hill consulting, where she helps nonprofits peel back the layers, developing a profitable fundraising strategy to build more effective donor relationships, and catapult I love that word, catapult their revenue. And so that's what we want this conversation to be about today. She's hyper involved in all the supporting organizations. But you know, she was the past president for AFP there in the DC metro chapter, which is where she finds her home. And so it is just an honor. We have been, you know, swarming Barbara for a long time. And she's finally in our house. Barbara, welcome to the We Are For Good podcast. So glad you're here.
Oh, my gosh, John, and Becky, thank you so much. I have been huge fans. And watching from afar. As you were launching all of the We Are For Good network and ecosystem. And I'm just thrilled to be here with you both today
was a huge honor. And I get to give our friend Noah Barnett a shout out he officially introduced us but we were watching Barbara, long before he made that introduction. But, you know, catch us up, like, tell us your story we want to hear and bring our community along with what got you into this work. I mean, some of your experiences are really unbelievable to look back on, but kind of catch us up to growing up and what led you here today.
Yeah, so um, you know, I'm I am, this has been my career. I'm one of those rare folks who who started off as a baby fundraiser back in the day. And when I was when I got into this field, like most, most fundraisers, who just I just sort of fell into this. I was looking for a summer job after junior year of college. And I called up the Alumni Affairs Office and development office where I was going to school and said, Hey, do you have something, I'm just looking for a summer job. And it turned out it was to be supporting the director of development. So I spent that summer I spent the, you know, part time work this senior year of college, just writing his correspondence, helping to edit some, you know, documents, assisting at alumni events. And when it came time to graduate, it was a recession. And I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do, I had all these sort of great pie in the sky ideas of all different kinds of career paths. But I hadn't really landed on anything. So I ended up getting a job at Harvard, in their central development office as an assistant and just figure all to hang here until I figure out exactly what I want to do. And at some point, you know, as I kept growing in my career, taking on different responsibilities and different roles within Harvard outside of Harvard, at some point, I had to really kind of come to grips with the fact that this was where I was going to be that I could no longer say, I'm going to keep doing this until I figure it out. Because really, the thing that gets me so excited and so passionate about this field is that it is truly about changing, changing communities changing, changing the world solving problems. And I know that sounds really pollyannish but you know, every donor is coming to their organizations with the same shared alignment of wanting to do something with their contributions, wanting to make the world a better place in some some way, shape or form. And honestly, that's the thing that has driven me throughout all of my in house roles and now as a consultant working with incredible nonprofits. It's that that greater good of how we are collectively uniting our fundraising expertise, our nonprofit leadership, our donors passions, for a bit bigger purpose and, and so I have really had the great honor to work in house at some pretty incredible places, big shops, but now especially over the last 13 years working with organizations of all sizes, really figure out what are the tools and the tips and the strategies and the resources that they need to have in place to be able to do more good.
Well, you can't be too Pollyanna up in this house, because we're ridiculous idealist here in this studio. But I really love your your winding journey of your story. I find everyone's story just so fascinating and different. And I don't think you've lived until you've tried to get a job and nonprofit after recession. So I graduated college right after 911. So I feel you very, very much. And I think it's a great segue because I think there you know, the R word is looming, you know, in shops, and all around the world, right now we're starting to see this economic downturn really, you know, affect how we're moving forward with our relationships in the new year. And I think what you're gonna break down today is going to be so helpful. And so I want to talk about creating a fundraising roadmap and really getting around your strategy for the new year. And the best place for us to start is not necessarily with the tactics, but we always want to start like with mindsets and goals. So talk to us about the mindsets that you want a nonprofit professional, someone in that social impact space to embrace moving into the new year, what would you suggest Barbara?
So there are two things that I would, I would say, are really important to be setting up the new year for success. The first is to remember that retention is probably one of the most important metrics to be keeping front and center in all of our strategies. So for example, you know, so often we get, especially now at the end of year, you know, we've been nose down with our clients helping with all of their Indivior appeals and E solicitations and all of those strategies. But we're also thinking about with them, what are our metrics? Like, how many donors are we keeping? Are we keeping careful track of who hasn't yet given who who has been inactive and who's reactivating? And especially as we start a new year, really looking back at what are our metrics, our donor retention metrics, both for existing donors and those new donors? Are we setting ourselves up to keep the donors close to our organizations? And especially those new donors? Are we keeping them interested and engaged enough that they will want to make a second gift and a third gift and so forth. So often, we get lost in the focus of the hitting our revenue goals, which is, of course, not insignificant, but if we are, if we're not paying attention to what's going on under the under the surface, you know, we went might be hitting those goals year over year with lots and lots of churn. So we know from tons of research that has been done that those donors who are giving year over year are going to be more likely to increase their giving. And so there's so it that's such a better ROI in our limited fundraiser and bandwidth to be focusing on, where can we raise more money? In what ways? So that's number one. I think the second mindset is, once we get through the frenzy of the end of year is to really take the moment to pause, reflect and then plan. And we, my firm and Bloomerang and donor search have co sponsored some research that Dr. Adrian Sargeant did back in 2020. We wanted to answer the question, Does having a fundraising plan raise more money? And we have a lot of anecdotal evidence. But we didn't, there was really no, no study that was looking at this more empirically. So what was really interesting was we launched this, we had been talking about this for a while, and it was we were about to launch and then the pandemic happen. So we paused and thought, do we still launch this? And we felt like we should. And we included a couple of questions about the about the pandemic about about what was happening with COVID. And what was so interesting was that the organizations that had a plan, were more likely to feel more confident during to weather in turbulent times, right, which is certainly what 2020 was, or the beginning of many turbulent times that we've now have now experienced, but it was they were also in a better mindset for taking risks or testing or, you know, experimenting and not just sticking with what they've always done. There were a bunch of other factors that that having a plan actually also helped to encourage and sort of, we're sort of tied to, but those two right there, thinking about having a plan and and really knowing that that's going to be your roadmap, regardless of what's coming at you. And that it's going to give you that opportunity to forecast where you can test where you can maybe set, you know, try something and fail. But it allows you to constantly think about your fundraising with fresh sets of eyes. So I think that combined with the retention are, what I would say, are the best use of that, that donor that fundraisers and nonprofit leaders attention as we begin a new year. I mean,
what I love about what you've said here is that it can feel overwhelming in January to be like, Oh, my gosh, there's so much room that we need to grow, or there's so much that we need to connect the dots. But as you start to break it down, you realize you do have assets, you've got people that already have been connected to your mission or have given before and those are the people you're turning out with retention, and then having a plan makes it doable, it makes it feel doable, you know. And so that is a wonderful way to start. I wonder if we double click on that roadmap and really look at like, what goes into it? What are some of the key steps that someone should take to really build this fundraising roadmap?
So first of all, having a good sense of what has happened to that point? So doing some, a little bit of analysis, running your reports, now you can you hopefully your CRM is able to run some, some more recent reports to understand your Trend Lines. You can also do some analytics on your file. Sometimes that's built into your CRM, sometimes you might just need to do that externally. But really getting a handle on how much have we raised in the past? Have we hit our goals? If we didn't, what was what do we think were the factors around that? If we did great, what again, what were those factors? What do we need to continue on? What are our donor metrics around retention around average gift around new donors? And are they sticking around? Is our donor files growing, shrinking, staying the same, all of those, those core numbers are important to get a handle on and then looking at, you know, very objectively, and yet, critically, what have we done in the past year or two with our fundraising strategies? And what has worked and what hasn't worked? What is no longer serving us? You know, where there was, in 2020, there were a lot of organizations that were doing galahs that couldn't do Gallas. And so that was a perfect opportunity to say, is this still serving us? Is this the best use of our time and resources? And so now I think it's, it's still an important question to always be thinking about it, do we? Are we doing all the things that make the most sense that are going to raise us the most money? Or are we getting caught in that sort of shiny object syndrome of we're going to do this event over here or that gala or that you know, that II appeal, but it's not tied to anything that we think is actually going to raise more money, it's more just noise and distraction. So I think getting a handle on all of that will give you the ingredients that you need to then start to plan? How are we going to do our Annual Giving Program in terms of touchpoints. And it can't all be solicitations it has to be? are we engaging with our donors enough to tell them how their gifts are being used? What Wow, are we how we're putting them to work? How they are continuing to inspire the programs that are going on? And then you can go back and ask them occasionally throughout the year, but not without having told them that their gifts were making a difference. And so I think there's that there's the annual giving strategy of creating that regular cadence that's really value add that's really filled with gratitude and impact updates. And then also looking at where can we always upgrade our donors? Where can we encourage the donors to be thinking about an increase gift? For all of the reasons, our donors aren't always going to think about it on their own? They need a little bit of guidance, they need to know where can they be most helpful. And as fundraisers and I can say this certainly having been in the frontlines, we often sort of in our own mind, say, oh, yeah, but of course, they they've been giving it that level, of course, they should be giving more or they could be giving more or why why aren't they giving more. But if we don't ask them, they're not necessarily going to remember the what they gave last year, or that they can give a little bit more. So it's kind of all of those factors go into them, putting what your goals are going to be, where you're going to spend your time. Maybe you don't have a monthly giving program or a society that you want to roll out to encourage recurring gifts. Or maybe you want to create a Giving Society for those 500 or $1,000 or $2,500 annual gifts that you really want to celebrate with some sort of brand and identity, those sorts of things. Playing giving is also something that we have been with often overlooked. But we know that there are many donors who are thinking about their, their chair, their estate plans, and are including not, you know, nonprofits in the giving us a report that came out this year. Interestingly, the amount of the quest was like, I think it was like 46 million, and it was double what corporations gave. So we know that people are thinking about nonprofits whether or not they're actually asked by those nonprofits. So let's make sure we put into our own mindsets and our own sort of fundraising muscles, the opportunities to remote to engage our donors within those ways. So those are lots of different components that really will go into what that plan will be for the year, and it thinks about it CCO. So we're comprehensively in all the aspects of fundraising so that those fundraisers and nonprofit leaders don't feel like they're starting every month, afresh with okay, what are we going to do this month like they've got they know where they have to go, they know where they have to grow, and how they have to get there.
Those are great insights. And at no point did I hear you say, we should not be fundraising during a recession. I cannot believe how many times I've seen this come up even in post COVID. You know, I think we take what we learn from COVID. And lean into it because those organizations who were ready, and had a plan in place, and those who didn't even have a plan in place, but leaned into the moment and had conversations and had more engagement and less acts. Those were the ones that were winning. And so I think this plan that you're talking about, not only does it give a little bit of an exhale, because it shows that we have a roadmap and a level of preparedness. But it also gives us some intentionality. And I would say friends be fluid with your plans, like look at it, you know, from a six month basis, I don't think in a post COVID world, we could ever look at a 12 month calendar again and think we know what's going on in the world. And I think that nimbleness that you're talking about and upping the communication and upping the way that we talk to people and ask for feedback is going to be absolutely key in the new year. And I want to ask this question, because I think it's antithetical to recession thinking is I want to talk about growth. And that's something that I don't think people think about enough when we're going into an economic downturn. And I'm curious what your thoughts are on what are the conditions for growth within our organizations, particularly in this moment?
Yeah. So I completely agree with you that fundraising can't ever stop. And it certainly can't stop in a recession. So we know that the organizations that pause, or slow down their fundraising, whether it was in early 2020, when the pandemic started, or in previous recessions that we've seen, they just have a harder time recovering. It's a slower, upward trendline for them, because fundraising isn't something that can be, you know, it's not it can't be flipped on and off with a switch. So it has to keep going and are we can always assume that our we know what our donors are going to be doing? Or how are they feeling or how they're affected by the economic factors that are happening. One of the mindsets that we have to embrace as we go into these economic uncertainties, is not assuming. And just keeping with what we had planned, and letting our donors make those decisions, and not assume not make them make them for the donors. The other piece, though, around growth, I I have long felt that there's sometimes a fear of growth, or a fear of how we get to growth, because it requires investing in our organizations in different ways. And it's interesting, because this is a tension that often exists between sort of when when do we build in our capacity as an organization and how much of that goes into programs. We saw this so often with the overhead math, right? That sometimes keeps popping up. We see this with nonprofit leaders who are especially now as we're facing high inflation possible, you know, or likely recession because we are overdue for one there. They're starting to tighten belts even more. They're starting to kind of think about what's the absolute must have staff which don't always include fundraisers. But the irony is that if you don't have your fundraising staff in place, there's no way that philanthropy is going to grow in your organist sation and so I am always brutally honest with clients, when they are thinking about growing, but they are not they are resistant to putting in place the financial resources that they need to hire more staff or even a staff person, it is just that correlation, you've got it, it's you've got to have that person in place to be able to then keep those donor relationships going on a regular basis, so that they keep they keep supporting the organization. And so I feel like we, we, there's a there's a misunderstanding of what growth means, because we it's always equated with programmatic growth. But we lose sight of the fact that the organization itself has to be healthy has to be vibrant, and thriving, and running efficiently and effectively. And without all of that the programs can't happen. So, and, frankly, that's what donors want to know, you know, they're there, they don't in a lot of ways, they actually don't care how much is going to internal, you know, in the indirect and direct costs, they want to know, are you solving the problem that I'm investing in, you have to solve. And I think that's where we as fundraisers as nonprofit leaders have to accept that growth means a growing our own resources and internal capacities, which allow us then to be able to do more programmatic results and impact. And sometimes it means putting more funding into the organization as a whole. And then sometimes it means directing more to the programs. But if it's all going out to programs, then you're leaving very little left for the health of the organization as a whole. And then that we just know from lots of studies and lots of research about how the biggest organizations grew to the sizes they were because they all started off in very small organizations. It was that balance of investing in themselves, investing in their programs and kind of doing it piecemeal, so that they always had enough of those other resources and funding to be able to continue to scale in lots of different ways.
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Oh, you're poking the bear. Because we love talking about growth here. And especially and within ourselves, you know, that's why we wanted to create a podcast because that's part of growth, you know, it's part of growing is feeding yourself and your team and all of those things. So I want to talk a little bit about the team dynamic, because I know you're an advocate of that everybody's a co owner of these donor experiences at organizations. And we're not talking about just the donor relations team member over here. We're talking about the staff, and the board and the other overall organization. We talk about that how do we set that up for success?
Yeah, so I have sometimes said to two CEOs of clients that they're, they're the chief fundraisers and it's interesting to watch their reactions. Because sometimes they bristle and or they try not to press sometimes their injury or they're kind of caught off guard. And it it is it they are I mean, as the sort of the senior most champion of the organization, they're setting the direction and they are the ones who you know, who's steering the proverbial ship. So they are the ones who are going to be integral to those with donor relationships. But the board also has to play a role. And so often I see boards, also getting a little bit fidgety and nervous about fundraising, right? Because it depends where they recruited with that as part of their job sometimes sometimes not. What do they think fundraising actually is so often, they have a bad experience with thinking, I've got to come with my rolodex, I've got to ask all these people. And when I've done trainings, you know, I hear that they say what, okay, I'm in a conflict because I'm working. I'm on the board of a different organization, and I can't keep asking those people and then we have to sort of discuss All right, let's Talk about who the ideal donor is. And it's not everybody you possibly know. And so it's really finding the right. Comfort space for donor relationship building. So where who, where can that CEO, really best serve the donor relationships in a way that's going to help with retention and increase giving? We are can the board's play a role? How collectively can program staff be partners with the fundraising team, on delivering those powerful impact updates, whether they're in person or on webinars or in reports, everybody has a role to play and even, you know, the people who are the behind the scenes, champions who are entering stuff into the database or doing all of the admin and admin, behind the scenes, work operational work, everybody has a role to create the right culture of gratitude and giving that so the donor feels that they've made the right choice in investing in that organization. And they feel like they're valued and appreciated. So it sometimes it takes baby steps and create in telling everyone that there's a role that everyone can play, sometimes you've got to just figure out where the biggest friction is, and then address that head on and, and understand that there are probably some tools or training or other resources, other expectation, resetting, that has to happen in order to to get them on board boards or CEO, sometimes you just may bring the fundraisers may want to bring them on a thank you call or a donor, an easy donor visit, for to get them understanding that this isn't just we're not going to ask a donor every single time we meet them for a gift, right? It's it's a give and take. It's a just sometimes it's a cultivation and stewardship. Sometimes it's an ask, but it's not. It's not to ask every time. And so that's, that's where I think really getting at those pain points and discomfort addressing them and and figuring out how to how to solve for that.
Yes, like, Please, let's just lay it all out there. Let's communicate expectations at the very, very front. And I and I want to say that feels better to everybody across the board. It serves so many purposes and not only humanizing the work because we we've all run into this every fundraiser ever has had a donor who is beloved to them, and they have fallen in love with the fundraiser more than they fallen in love with the mission. But if there are many hands and many voices going into this process, the collective feels better the humanity is expressed in more than one person. And I just think you're right. It's it's a team sport. And it's something that we can all celebrate. And it's doesn't become Barbara's KPI because she closed the gift, it becomes, you know about John, who was the prospect researcher, and Becky, who was over here, you know, doing the donor relations on the event. And I think if we can get out of those silos, our donors feel that they feel when we're when our cultures are vibrant, and when we're all firing on the same cylinders. So I think that's such a great reminder. And I want to ask you about capacity building, Barbara, because we get this question all the time in our organizations. So our community's been wondering like, how, what is it? Define it for us one? And then two? How do we build it into our strategy? So much so that it's going to create some sustainability for our organization? Can you tackle that one? Yeah, that sometimes
it feels for many organizations like the chicken and egg. Right? And it feels like a luxury that, and it goes back to sort of my earlier comment about how do we, how do we set ourselves up for true growth by investing in our organizations and our capacity, and our resources so that we can deliver more results and impact. And there are so many organizations who feel like they just don't have a spare dollar or $10 or any, any amount to be pulling aside to invest in something that feels luxurious, like an additional staff member or a bigger budget for fundraising, you know, to do mailings, or whatever. And sometimes it comes down to just those hard decisions and how you define your budget. And I know that this will sound over simplistic, but we know that sometimes organizations will have the ones that pause or scale back something else in order to invest it redirect that budget into what's going to have that that ROI. So for example, you if you can't if the organization can afford a fundraiser, but they've got other funds in place for programs, they might redirect some of the program money for a short period of time to bring on a part time fundraiser, get that piece going up and running, maybe that will raise enough money to then hire in full time fundraiser and an additional, right. And so it becomes like this or self fulfilling prophecy. There is so often though, and I know it will sound sacrilegious in a way to to suggest that money should be redirected from programs to internal but, you know, I saw I heard a great quote, I'm not going to be able to quote it. But Billy shore who was who founded Share Our Strength, talked about their experience as an organization that was growing and how to redirect because, you know, they were set up to solve, solve for chilled childhood hunger. And they realized that they were barely scratching the surface, and they redirected puppet temporarily for a year or two, some of their money, their program money to read it to reinvest in their marketing and their fundraising, and other internal capacities. And now, everybody knows No Kid Hungry, that brand and they are raising, like, you know, 100 No, 300%. I mean, it's like the the, the delta between what they started with and what they're at now, is astronomical, right. But they had to make that difficult decision to pause and redirect internally. And so I think that capacity piece sometimes sometimes be achieved by that little bit of reallocation. Sometimes it's also looking at who are our closest donor champions and our boards can we incur ask for small capacity grant of whatever it is, and you got to know what your numbers are going to be, that you're going to need. And so that could be an opportunity to ask for a board, gift of a certain amount and a donor amount that will be matched, for example, to help you get whatever it is that you need internally for whatever you've identified as that gap and your capacity. It could also be looking at foundations that you might be funding you already, sometimes Foundation, very often foundations will, will look at capacity building grants for current grantees, they don't always consider that for a first time grant. Some of them do but not all. So it is, again, if you've got a strong foundation partner base, talking to any of them to say, this is where we need to grow. And this is what we have forecast, as, you know, additional staff additional, you know, resources, financial resources, or material resources or whatever. This is what we have forecast, we anticipate that we'll be able to grow our revenue by X amount or whatever it is, would you would you consider a capacity building grant and I have definitely seen that for some because, you know, listen, the foundations, there, they want those organizations to succeed and grow too. So the thing is, those those are ways to those are easier ways to try to get some unrestricted money that will allow for that growth. But it really takes that hard work of knowing what numbers you are forecasting for that for those that that quote was scaling and the hard acceptance that it made feel like you're going against your, your mission by redirecting, but in fact, if anything, you're just setting yourself up for greater strength, so that you can do more. And and that's that is probably, in my experience, the hardest mindset to overcome is that is feeling like it's a betrayal to the programs. But in fact, it's quite the opposite.
I just wanted to add to that if you go back and check with your foundations on capacity building, because we've seen a lot of foundations reevaluate their guide their gifting guidelines after COVID. Because sometimes that's where the organization needed funding to advance the mission. And and we've noticed that the loosening of the restrictions is something that a lot of foundations are looking at right now. So don't write those those off, if that's what you truly need, be bold in your vision, forecast what you need, and create that unique story about what you're going to do. So that was great insight. Barbara, I love that.
Yeah, I mean, I keep feeling the thread of like, you know, you probably came here looking for the fundraising plan. And there's so much about looking within and your team and all those things are going to strengthen you for whatever the plan you know, is laid before you so, you know, we create space to celebrate philanthropy to reflect on philanthropy love stories, and I just want to kick the floor to you. I mean, you've spent your career in this field, but it's often not the big stories that stick with this. It's like the moments when we just really feel philanthropy and I want to ask you, Barbara, what's one that has Oh, We stuck with you that you'd share with us today.
I think probably in line with a lot of things we've been talking about today. One of my very first clients as a consultant, when I, when I went out on my own, was an organization that was teeny tiny, and they were looking to put in place a campaign, they had really done a little bit of annual fundraising, but not a ton. And they had some pretty big decisions that they had to make, to really secure the future for the organization. And so over the work that we did together was really helping to put in place a lot of those found those fundamentals to get them on the cube to get the campaign going. And we came in sort of doing our building the pipeline and building the the potential volunteer base, we went back to one of the original founders, co founders of the organization, who had been long disengaged with the organization just for No, no reason other than she just moved on to other things. And I remember the first lunch we had with her and just shared this was we know, this is why it what the organization had been doing. These were the plans. These were this was the way that the the, you know, the potential future could look. And she remember her being really interested and starting to think about who else to involve. And over time, I eventually sort of stepped away and they took the organization kept going. But it was really interesting, because over time, she started becoming a little bit more engaged, and a little bit more interested. And two, three years ago, so right, so 2019, I think it was they had their first groundbreaking on some new, new new facility, they a new property and some groundbreaking on a new building some space that they were going to do. And it was named for this woman. And, and because she had made this incredible six or seven figure gift. And I went up to her reintroduce myself. And I said, I'm curious, you know, it's been such a long journey. What what, how do you feel about all this, and she said, we never dreamed this big. And so it still gives me goosebumps, because for her. This was the power of seeing something that she had started from a tiny organization, to now something that was so much bigger beyond what she ever could have imagined. And she got so excited by that over the journey of learning and seeing the organization put in place the plans that they have, she made that you know, the largest gift, one of the largest gifts to their campaign. And so that right there, the donors want that vision they want, they don't know how big to dream unless we're sharing it with them. Right. And so that's what's going to inspire those transformational gifts. And, you know, I still think about that moment, because we often as fundraisers lose sight of what our donors are thinking or how they're reacting because we are so in our mode. But hearing stories like that, and actually hearing her say that, to me, made me think about that first lunch, when she was when we were first we were just presenting that idea to her and to where she was and watching, you know, something that was in her name being being unveiled and just hearing that vision. That's what has to drive all of our fundraising. So when we get really mired down in the day to day stuff, and when we get frustrated internally, we've got to pause and reflect on how are we continuing to tell our story in a big way that's going to get our donors really excited to share that vision with us.
Those stories never get old. Never. I mean, I used to say the greatest time I've ever had was like Scholastic Book five day like the Joy of that high. But when a donor comes to you, and makes a transformational gift, and thanks you and says this is bigger than I ever dreamed it could be like as a fundraiser. That was a Hi, I just wanted to chase over and over again. fabulous story. Absolutely love it. I mean, we end all of our conversations, Barbara with a one good thing could be a piece of advice or a life hack. I wonder what you would offer as a one good thing to our community today.
I would say we have to build time. It's easy as fundraisers and as nonprofit leaders to get mired down in everything right and ever all the competing demands the time all right, but we have to pause and build in time each and every We need to do something that connects with our donors. So whether it's writing a note, or sending an email or sharing some informational piece that might be of interest or making a phone call, if we don't build it in at least just do one thing a day, we are we're gonna lose sight of why we're there. Because yeah, I mean, I, I remember being in house and being like, oh my gosh, all list of what whatever the week was list of all the frustrations that were I was facing or the internal battles or the whatever it might be that was bringing me down. But as soon as I got out to meet with donors totally changed, right. And it was a different, different view of the organization, it was a different set of inspiration. And so we have to remember that, that it is part of our, it's in everybody's best interest to keep connecting with our donors, so that they feel inspired and will and then we might even reinspire ourselves if if things are really tough and frustrating, and exhausting.
Yep. I agree. Like that's such a centering thing. And it is really easy to get stuck in the cycle of not doing that too, if you're kind of behind the scenes type part of the work. So I love that. Thank you so much for all the advice you've given today. I mean, there's so many people listening that are like, how can I get more Barbara in my life? And we want to give you the floor to just say, how do you connect? How can you connect with windmill, your consulting group, and just all the ways you show up online point us to those channels?
Yeah, so w Hill consulting.com is the easiest way to find me. And as you both know, I'm really active on LinkedIn, as well. And so that's a great place to find me.
Thank you for the frameworks, thank you for bringing so many years of wisdom. And I just think these are these are tools and strategies we need to arm ourselves with, they're gonna give us confidence in the new year. And they're gonna give us a sense of intentional purpose as we move forward and get ready for whatever's coming next. So get empowered. Thank you for these frameworks. Barbara, just really appreciate your insight.
Oh, Becky and John, thank you. This is I'm just continuing to cheer you on from afar with as you continue to build this ecosystem. And thank you for having me today and being a small part of that. Amen.
So much. Good to see you.
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