Demystifying Peer Fundraising: Unleashing Community to Help Your Org Grow - Madeleine St. John

11:08PM Jun 7, 2022

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Madeleine St. John

Keywords:

donor

fundraising

people

fundraisers

peer fundraising

nonprofits

organization

peer

pure

community

volunteer

madeline

gift

acknowledgement

giving

engagement

engage

campaign

strategy

becky

Today's episode is sponsored by feather feather provides digital marketing tools and strategies for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, including the Humane Society of North Central Florida. Stick around for the break to hear how feather power their $300 digital ad campaign that raised nearly $6,000 In just one day. Hey, I'm John.

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, 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. Are you Becky, what's happening?

John, I'm so excited. I mean, we're about to talk about pure fundraising. And we had brought someone in and I just have to emote over her for five seconds. Because we have a lot of teachers on this podcast that come in, and they give such great instruction. But Madeline St. John is so kind. She is so calm and peaceful. And I'm just feeling like we're about to get our minds blown with some very progressive, pure fundraising, modern fundraising techniques. But we're gonna have somebody who's taking our hand in such a kind way and like leading us through it. So have no fear, guys, we brought an expert in who's gonna love on you today. Because we really want to talk about how do you galvanize your giving community? And how can you use that to keep growing your mission and your movement. And so it's just our joy to introduce Madeline St. John, she's the founder and principal of St. John consulting. And y'all, she has got such an interesting story. I mean, we're gonna weave that narrative into here. But, you know, I want to give a little bit of background because after moving to Calcutta, India to volunteer and study with this local organization that provides dance movement therapy to survivors of gender based violence, I mean, that in itself is a story. She established this great consultancy, because she really wanted to pour into engagement strategy. And I love that she is still internationally based. She is a citizen of the world. And she takes St. John consulting with her wherever she goes. So she's really leading nonprofit leaders, through their giving strategy, their creative community building services. And at the very heart of it is donor engagement. And I just have to say this kind of strategy, friends, is so baked in the moment, it's so relevant right now. And so know that you are visiting with an expert who has a long career in major gifts, prospect development, donor data management and community engagement. She's going to fuse all that together. And her mission is to help nonprofits achieve their so one little anecdote that I love about her. She's about to go get her master's, and expressive art therapy in Switzerland this summer. So we have brought somebody interesting on to be our teacher, Madeline, thanks for coming in today.

What a generous introduction. Thank you so much, Becky, it is my pleasure to be here. I have so looked forward to existing in this space as a contributor because I have been on the other side as a listener for so long. And so it is truly my pleasure to be on the pod.

What did I say generous, peaceful in nurturing. So okay, we gotta back this up. And I want to know about this connection you have with dance. And I want to know about how you decided to just drop everything and just become an international citizen. Tell us kind of your background story of where you grew up. And what led you to today?

Sure, absolutely. I grew up as a dancer, I also grew up as a do gooder. And for a long time, I had a sneaking suspicion that all of this was going to come together in some way. But I didn't know how I also grew up really loving to do international service work. And part of the reason that I went into nonprofit was because as I did international service work, I noticed that a lot of the ways in which I was contributing to local communities was more culturally harmful than it was helpful. And for that reason, after I graduated from college, I decided to stay stateside stay local, and I worked for an arts education organization in Los Angeles. And after having a really meaningful time building my career there, it was still itching to move abroad. And one thing that you'll learn about me is that I really love volunteerism, I really really like engaging with an organization from multiple angles, which is part of why I teach that and my consultancy, and I was seeking for a way to be able to contribute in an international context that felt really culturally sensitive, but also specific to my gifts and skill sets. And I'll tell you what, I didn't even know dance movement therapy existed before stumbling upon this beautiful organization called Kolkata shun bade that does dance movement therapy with marginalized populations in Calcutta. And so I decided to move abroad to go volunteer and study with them since then I've got my diploma in dance movement therapy. And it's really just kind of my way of taking volunteerism super seriously. And I had a really beautiful experience supporting them lived in Calcutta for just about two years. And I still consider it one of my home bases.

Oh, my gosh, what a beautiful story. And I just, I love it when we start syncing up these things, when passions come to the surface, and it gets met with just your heart and coming this from the volunteer angle just takes it to a different level to me as well. But I love that it's just kind of all falling in alignment. And I think if you listen back to this podcast, these things start to happen as people really start to serve their purpose, those steps align their relationships build, and you get clarity of how to show up in a really meaningful way. And I just, I see that and I feel to in your story and just kind of hanging in your presence today. So I mean, let's get into this idea of pure fundraising. You know, there's, it's a big talk, there's lots of discussion around it. But you are coming at this from a different angle that you feel like we really need to demystify some of the common myths that are out there. We you kind of, you know, share some with us that are on your brain and kind of help us break these down to.

Yeah, absolutely, John, I'm really grateful that we're starting here, because pure fundraising isn't necessarily a new strategy with a nonprofit. And with that, I also think that there can be some misconceptions about what it means or accomplishes. But first, before we dive into those myths, I do just want to take a moment to offer a general definition of pure fundraising. For those of you who might not be familiar, I know that we have a lot of seasoned professionals in the audience. But I know at one point when I was young in my career, this was a novel approach to me. And my definition of pure fundraising is a fundraising strategy typically deployed during a digital campaign or in advance of an event that allows given community members to raise money on behalf of your organization, through personalized fundraising appeals to their unique communities. So essentially, you have the opportunity to call on your current donors, board members or volunteers, who will then call on their communities, leveraging your existing giving in order to reach new donors. And I think that within pure fundraising, one of the myths is that pure fundraising is an inappropriate ask that it blurs the lines between internal and external, or between who is giving and who is asking. And within this myth is embedded the assumption that asking people to participate in peer to peer fundraising will cannibalize giving or by asking your returning donors, your returning volunteers to participate as fundraisers on behalf of your organization means that you can't count on a gift from them in the same way that you have been able to in the past. And for those with whom this resonates, I would actually challenge you to reframe peer to peer fundraising, as a redefinition of those boundaries in order to create a more expansive and inclusive giving community. What I have witnessed, yes, yes, what I have witnessed in my personal life and in the clients that I work with, is that the contemporary donor wants to have a very robust and meaningful experience of your organization's work. And what I mean by this is that they want to engage from multiple angles, they want to have an insider's experience. Gone are the days when folks want to pick a lane and give that way only forever. And I don't know about you, but I personally give to the organizations that I have had an insider's experience of I have been a volunteer, I have made phone calls on their behalf, I've attended a lunch and learn an event, a webinar, I'm coming at it from the idea or the notion that I'm part of this organizations, family, and inviting people in to be peer to peer fundraisers accomplishes that sense. I think that ultimately, when people are given the opportunity to do the work, they're more likely to help also through financial generosity to get the work done. So the other piece of this is that I think that by inviting people to be pure fundraisers, you're not cannibalizing the giving from these people, if things get themselves if investment begets investment, when people have been on the side of being a fundraiser, they're that much more likely to also give or give to their own campaigns. So I think that in addition to seeing an increase of giving from the people that these pure fundraisers bring in, or the donations that these pure fundraisers bring in, you'll also be able to see increased giving and retention from the pure fundraisers themselves.

Okay, you know what, I love this. Can I just interject here real quick, go for asking a baseball bat and smashing small thinking, because let's be clear, like, in What world do you know? But this is so true from being inside a nonprofit? We make decisions on behalf of donors, you know, like assumption, make assumptions and it's like holding us back In this moment that you're speaking to, that you're describing so beautifully, is that people are moving into spaces that they care about is when we talk about behavior matters more than giving them out, because the way you show up holistically is so much more important than the dollar amount and what's possible with that donor. And it's tracking, it's trending. And it needs to stop like in this sector, like we need to stop this small thinking. So thank you for this tone setting in this first myth that you're breaking down, I'm feeling it.

And I have to like riff with you too, because as you're talking, I can think of all the arguments online arguments I've had with people on either social media or listservs, that are in the development space, about this exact topic where typically it's been around employee giving, where we just make assumptions about what, when and how and where employees will give, or and I apply that to every donor. And I love that you're bringing up like cannibalizing, giving, and I hope everybody understands what Madeline means by that, you know, this is like a, if you take from Peter, we cannot pay Paul in giving is not exclusive. People don't just give one time they give because they're inspired in different ways, because something speaks to them, because their friend in this instance, is asking them to connect on something that is meaningful to them. So I guess my takeaway here is so I can stop yelling, in Facebook group chats or something. So make assumptions for your donors. Because a lot of that whether you know it or not, is really tied to the scarcity mindset of fear of we think we're going to overstep, are we and then all of a sudden you're making a decision and taking that gift away from your donor and taking the engagement opportunity away. So okay, take your bat back, keep smashing, we're loving it.

I am, I'm so grateful that you jumped in because that perfectly poises me to talk about the second myth. If myth one is about your discomfort as a nonprofit leader with peer to peer fundraising that's to is indeed about the assumption of donor discomfort with peer to peer fundraising, this myth being that donors or volunteers will be overtaxed by a peer fundraising request. And in this instance, my challenge is that we reframe request or ask to invitation. Peer fundraising is an opportunity, like you said, Becky, for donors to engage more deeply in your work and inviting them to support in this capacity, it communicates that you see them as trusted and valuable members of your nonprofits community. And more importantly, that you value them for more than they're giving behavior or capacity that you value them as a whole human who wants to be part of your work. And this is part of why I love pure fundraising as a strategy because it embeds a really meaningful donor engagement touchpoint, like you were saying, into the fundraising process itself. So you can essentially be working toward two goals and strategies at the same time. I also think that this is why it's so smart when organizations include pure fundraising in their donor development pipeline, because it helps people see themselves as philanthropists or do gooders in the way that an annual gift just might not. And then once people have had the experience of fundraising, I think there'll be that much more empathetic to future calls of action. I know that for me personally, becoming a better fundraiser has made me such a better donor, because I appreciate so much more fully. All that goes into giving invitation.

This is just it's just truth to because you know, one of our favorite local organizations that has a global footprints, waterfalls, they have this wonderful walk every year that our families have participated in. And it's like, if you look at the dollar, because we could get on here and riff and it's like, this cost to value ratio could be off. But what I see there is people that they may have raised $10, but they're having this experience, and they become an advocate, and they're getting equipped and they had a feeling and a believer, yeah, we're talking about being believers. And you just think of like what's at stake when you engage somebody correctly in that process. And it really is just opening up to so many more possibilities and hooks to come back to and ways to just understand and I don't know learn things about your donor and as they learn about you, too. So this is just a beautiful challenge. I think you're thrown out here.

And you know, what else I love about it is we're not just talking about the fundraising portion, you may have come for the fundraising, but we're gonna give you the engagement because I do think what you're saying about engagement and even stewardship and recognizing the action, when you help, I mean, this is a we're for good secret sauce. I'm just gonna let everybody in on which is not a secret at all. When you see every single person, you acknowledge what they're giving, whether it's $10, whether it's showing up in a certain way, whether it's cascading this in their network, we accept however, someone wants to be generous with us and we value it equally, we don't we don't take the top donor to our pure campaign and put them up, you know, on a pedestal, we say across the board to everyone, we see your gift, we thank you for your gift. And this is the impact of your gift. And hey, stick around, because we're probably going to have some cool stuff that's going on beyond this campaign or this event. And so this is very much a journey. And I think what you're saying about baking it inequity is just like the secret sauce to take it to the next level. So I can't believe we've only gotten through the first question, but we're geeking out this is great. I would love to kind of talk about you know, what you're seeing right now as opportunities that nonprofits could pour into in the peer fundraising space? Like, give us a couple of examples? Or if you have a story or two, we'd love to hear about who's doing it well. And what are some low hanging fruit we could grab onto?

Yeah, absolutely. Um, even though pure fundraising has existed for a while, I do think, Becky, that there are so many new ways to leverage this strategy. And we've just been talking about pure fundraising as a donor engagement touch point. And I think that this is really at the heart of what can make pure fundraising exponentially effective. As we're planning for a campaign or event. I think it's so easily internally to get wrapped up in the details of those parent campaign appeals, that we forget to equip pure fundraisers for success, we recruit at the last minute, we don't have time for training and onboarding, and the experience can feel a little bit uncharitable to participants and then chaotic to you as the facilitator, I think it's this easy pattern that creates and reinforces the myths we just talked about. But if we're intentional about creating a donor engagement experience through peer to peer fundraising, I think that we have a really significant opportunity to glean new supporters, while security and the loyalty of our pre existing given community. And when I say make this experience, I'm talking about doing things that engender a sense of belonging and support your peer fundraisers success. So these can be things like hosting a team wide welcome call and training to make sure that they understand how the fundraiser is going to roll out and what success for them looks like. Distributing a fundraising kit that's complete with outreach templates, pairing people within your peer fundraising team as accountability buddies. So they're developing relationships with one another as well as the organization and, and then consistently communicating with people during the peer fundraising. During the pure fundraising campaign and publicly celebrating everyone's wins. This is something that you guys do so well at, we are for good, really championing people and making them feel like they're having an impact, showcasing the success that they're having. And certainly, these things require quite a bit more intention. But I also think that they help people feel like they're part of something greater than themselves, which is to say, we help them feel connected to your cause. And I also want to mention that I think peer fundraising is especially relevant for millennial and Gen Z donors who may not have the capacity to give financially or give large levels financially, but have a real heart for social impact. This engages them in the interim, before they can maybe give more robustly financially in a way that helps them feel even still, like a meaningful part of the mission, even if they can't make themselves give themselves in a financial way. I also think that pure fundraising feels especially relevant right now as we continue to navigate what connection and engagement look like in a hybrid world. And I think that by doing something as simple as even framing peer fundraising as virtual volunteerism, or remote volunteerism, nonprofits have a significant opportunity to just really need the moment. And the good news is that doing so is easier now than ever. We know that tech solutions in our sector are booming right now with several companies offering really fantastic peer fundraising tools. And this means that peer fundraising is no longer cost or technology prohibitive. My favorite personal favorite technology for pure fundraising is give butter is a totally free suite of online fundraising tools, with a really beautiful user interface which guarantees and easeful and frictionless experience for your peer fundraisers.

Okay, there's a lot of things that you should, there's a lot to talk about. But one I just don't want to miss is that you called out specifically the power of belonging, and like how that can be baked into all this onboarding sequence and some of the great ideas that you shared, but I just think about our life personally, and like, what does it mean to you no spaces where you truly felt like you belonged. Like, it's not just a one and done thing like that sticks with you forever. You know, you always remember the people that decided to pull up a chair next to you and you felt like the outsider, or the people that introduced you, you know, and no one was doing that. And I just think like you talk about, we're planting the seeds for these long term relationships. Creating this incredible belonging experience is where it's at because people don't forget that when you do that really well, and that's why it really matters how you show up and engage with people at all levels of the organization. So I've got the warm fuzzies. I'm here. I know Becky wants to jump into,

I think John waxes philosophical so beautifully. And then I come in here and just talk tactics. So but I'm just sitting here geeking out, thinking about how this would even play out, because I'm going into the recesses of my mind. In the hundreds of times, I was asked when I worked in nonprofit, I love your mission, how can I help? That's such an easy entry point to me into pure fundraising. And I think that if you had something and this is just me going into my marketing brain right now, if you had something on your website that literally just said, you know, help us or via What did you call it a virtual volunteer mode volunteer? I think just clicking on a link like that in setting up somebody in a way through give better through fundraiser, what there's so many great tools that you can employ. I'm glad you mentioned good butter, you know, that could walk someone through it, but don't just throw him to the wolves. Like there's got to be a hands on component there where we're actually interacting with them. How are you doing giving them tools coming back to that millennial that did a heck of a job or that Gen Z are and saying, I would love to share your story. Tell me why you love our mission? And what did it mean for you to galvanize your supporters to be a part of this, that right there would be an incredible piece of content, and talk about the cultivation strategy that you could build with that individual who would probably want to do it again, on their birthday, or annually. I just think that these are sort of new age, fundraising strategies that I can assure you I never thought about five years ago, but today, this is how you build global community. This is how you build human based fundraising. And this is how you work smarter, not harder, because you have so many hands that are in the work that are out there. And just being another voice and another set of hands for you. I'm really geeked out about this. Clearly, I'm having a lot of fun. Conversation. You're bringing so much good content in here, Madeline.

I love that, Becky because you're right. We often think of peer fundraisers as relevant to campaigns or events. And that's when I typically deploy them. But we don't need to limit ourselves there. It can absolutely be an evergreen offering if you create the right tools and have systems in place to steward people who want to support in that capacity for sure.

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So friends, if you're looking at this from the dollar line item of how much your crowdfunding campaign is bringing in, you're missing the point of this, this entire discussion. So I mean, let's keep going on this idea of community. I mean, we believe in the power of it. It's really the heart of why we want to show up day after day in this capacity to but how have you seen galvanizing your giving community can really help you grow and scale? The pure fundraising aspect?

Yeah, absolutely. Let's get nitty gritty. You guys know now that it's important to leverage pure fundraising. But let's talk a little bit more specifically about how we can do that, in order to recruit people to support us peer fundraisers, we need to begin by thoughtfully considering who from within our given community, and I'm including here, donors, volunteers, board members, or any other segments of engagement you might have in your organization might be a candidate. And my main qualifier for peer to peer fundraising is repetitive behavior in one or more areas of giving. Our friend and colleague Lynn Westar always talks about looking to donor behavior, to make choices about donor relationships and advancement. And instead of giving levels, and I think that this is a perfect example of where we can apply that principle. But in addition to creating our list of prospects and thinking about who might be a really strong candidate, in order to solicit these people individually, I also encourage nonprofits to cast your nets in a couple of locations, advertised pure fundraising to your donor and volunteer basis at large. Because A, we don't want to when we talked earlier about assumptions, we don't want to disqualify someone from peer to peer fundraising just because they didn't make our prospect list and be when we advertise peer fundraising at a large scale, this can actually double as priming for the fundraiser itself, when people see a call to support as a pure fundraiser in October for your campaign in December, that's going to set off a little light bulb that tells them that a campaign is indeed coming, and that they can expect outreach in some capacity. Once we have invited these people in, I think that the next thing to do is to position your fundraising as the opportunity we've already talked about this, position it as an opportunity to contribute to your community in order to help people live into the new role that you're inviting them into. And I I love what you said earlier, Becky about making it an evergreen offering and framing it as a volunteer of a virtual volunteer experience. Because I think that this makes pure fundraising a little bit more accessible to folks. We have a lot of thoughts and feelings around the word fundraising, and people might have preconceived notions about what it means to ask for money. But when we frame it as an opportunity to contribute to community, I think it makes it a lot more enticing of an invitation. And then lastly, we'll revisit what we were just talking about, which is creating an engagement experience. I think that or I think that nonprofits can be challenged to or should be challenged to create an engaging experience that is so strong, it develops a reputation. So think about among the things that I listed earlier, what you can do so that people walk away saying, Wow, this was so special and meaningful to be a part of, and I want to come back next year. And not only that, I'm bringing a friend. And I think that that's where you really begin to grow and scale. When you create a reputation reputation of a culture and community of belonging have a meaningful experience. That's when people are not only going to invite folks in to donate, but they'll invite people in to participate as pure fundraisers alongside them.

I think we've just thought to one dimensionally like we just put things in their buckets, like it's volunteers, this over here is donor relations. This over here is marketing. This is major gifts, no friends, it's like all together. And it's all about engagement. It's all about having a meaningful human connection, the way we communicate the way we engage. And yes, there's gonna be big donors and little donors along the way. But it's like how are we making that experience something that is so magnetic, that people want to come work for us that people want to give to us that they want to volunteer for us that they want to share our message or our video, in their social networking spaces, we have got to get out of this financial mindset, which is just the the thing that just feels like it's the only thing in fundraising because this new era of just social and digital community is is going to want something much more robust because everybody wants to pour into something in with their own unique gifts and offerings. So I want to know about a case study, Madeline like who is doing this? Well, and I want to know just whose Have you seen like someone knocked this out of the park with their peer to peer program?

Yeah, totally. My favorite example of a successful peer fundraiser is actually the first one that I ever participated in. This was when I was a fresh hire as a community engagement manager at an arts education organization in Los Angeles. This was about mid February, I was probably like one or two weeks on the job and my new boss walked into my office which I shared with two other colleagues and she she came in and she said, You guys, there's another like community peer fundraising competition happening and I want to do it. And she made this really, really cute face like she was like planning or scheming something naughty and the reason is because the organization had actually done a peer fundraise. They're for the year end campaign. And there was a little piece of her that was worried that she might overextend our gaming community by asking people to participate a second time. But she was I love this story, because this is one of those moments that just really wooed me into fundraising and into community engagement, because she was so innovative about the way that she thought about engaging people, either re engaging them or finding new folks to contribute. And one of the unique ways that she did this was by pouring into her people so that we could pour into our people, she sat down and had really beautiful strategic meetings with myself, with our development manager, and even with some folks on our program staff, because in this context, we did invite employees to participate in the peer to peer fundraiser, I will add a caveat that I don't know that that's always appropriate to do. But given our organizational culture, it was appropriate to do. And she equipped us so that we had the skills and tools to reach out to other people and invite them in as peer to peer fundraisers so that they could reach out to their giving community. I picture it kind of like this, like champagne tower of leadership. And she did it so beautifully, she made sure that we were really really diversified in our recruiting process, and that people had what they needed to invite folks into the fold. But she also really centralized fun and excitement. Rebecca, my boss hosted multiple pizza parties for both participating employees and participating volunteers, during which she explained how pure fundraising was going to work and on the spot, got people's fundraising pages set up. So they walked away from what was a party, an exciting social gathering, with most of the work for their fundraiser done. And so that they walked away feeling like this was something special and fun that they got to be part of, rather than additional chore and an extra to do. And I think that this is a really beautiful example of the way in which we can bring people in in a way that's energizing rather than taxing. The final part of that story is that because this was a, this was a fundraising challenge, and our organization, one she successfully galvanized people to give. We met our goal, and we received the extra $100,000 That went to the winning organization. So for me, this was a really, really beautiful example of how we can be both scrappy and intentional at the same time to reach our goals.

I mean, that really gets my mind thinking of like where I'd love to kind of round this out, because it's one aspect of getting people in the door. And I think it's easy to think small about this, but those that really begin with the end in mind, and have a plan of how to engage after are those that have this longer term success. Can you kind of lead us into that mindset about this? And what tips do you have to really steward well and build believers out of these donors that come through the peer fundraising?

Yes, John, this is such a good question. And I actually first want to begin by addressing the fact that I think it's okay that with pure fundraising, we're going to experience a bit of attrition, because inevitably, people are going to get to our cause, because someone that they know personally asked them and that person is their connection to the cause maybe more than the cause itself. And so I think it's okay to expectations that and understand that this is part of the landscape, but in the same breath, I don't think that this motivation disqualify someone from a future gift. And following a peer to peer campaign, we shouldn't treat these donors with the assumption that they won't give again. Obviously, the first step to engaging more deeply with a peer to peer campaign donor is a memorable acknowledgement. And yes, the automated email the the automated thank you email needs to go out right after their gift is given. But I also think that people deserve a more human acknowledgement of their contribution, especially if they're new to the cause, especially if they came in through a pure fundraiser. My favorite way to acknowledgement stack as I call it is through either a phone call or a video email. Our friend Steven Shattuck talked about the incredible impression of a phone call when he was on the podcast. I think that this is Steven loves Steven. And I think it's just such a beautiful way to humanize the fundraising experience. We don't receive phone calls and voicemails very often unless people are soliciting us so coming through with an acknowledgement and a thank you of their gift demonstrates that they have been seen there's a human on the other side of the gift receiving it. We also know that right now a video is especially powerful and there is technology available for us to be able to send video thank you, thank view also. Well, we're just now combined with ever true and loom I think are really really great ways to deploy that strategy. And as you're thinking about these ways to create a memorable acknowledgement, I would just like to remind all of the nonprofit leaders or development directors listening who are feeling overwhelmed by the idea of individually reaching Hang out to every peer campaign donor with an individual acknowledgement that I actually think that this is an opportunity where we can kind of gold stack again and use volunteers or interns and other people that are connected to our cause to support with our acknowledgement strategy and acknowledgement rollout. Obviously, as long as we protect all of our donor data in the process, beyond acknowledgement donors are going to need stewardship. And I don't think that enough nonprofits take advantage of a welcome series or email automations in the same way that we see businesses doing this. So if you haven't upgraded your email tool yet, do so today, and invest some time in creating an email drip of about five to seven installments that will be deployed the two months following a peer campaign gift. And these emails can accomplish several goals. But I think that they should do the work of expectation setting on what sort of future communication these donors can expect. Educating these donors on your organization. Because as new donors, they might not be as familiar with your cause and your mission, you can demonstrate impact through a story or a case study. Provide value by considering what you uniquely can educate people on and then my favorite, offer a second opportunity for engagement, volunteerism monthly giving a lunch and learn a webinar, an event, etc. While these folks are still warm in order to keep them engaged in between your asks. My final tip for stewardship is something that can actually be embedded into your phone, email, and video follow up strategies, which is learn about your new donors and specifically learn why they chose to give your or to your organization at this time and what motivates them. What motivates their generosity, generally, people that came in through pure fundraising might not be connected to your cause in the same way that the pure fundraisers themselves are. But they have given a gift, which shows us that they're generous people, and they're probably being generous other places. And so I think it's really just as simple as in your phone conversation, or as part of your video. Thank you, or in the form of a brief donor survey and your series of welcome emails, asking people, why did you choose to give to us what inspired your generosity and what makes you excited to give in general?

Okay, Madeline's like dropping a goldmine of tactics, strategies, ideas, and I think just ending with the Why do you love us? Why are you why are you here? What made you do this is always such a powerful tool. And if you don't even shove that in somebody's face, you just gently offer it, someone who is going to feel convicted to share their story will jump on it. And you will be so grateful that you were able to glean that that is amazing.

And I just hear you asking better questions. And this is kind of one of the soap boxes we get on because, of course an acknowledgement has to go out. When you say no, it needs an acknowledgement stack. It's like thinking of the extra layer that you can add to every touchpoint that does humanize that allows you to get to know somebody better, that allows them to feel more belonging. Like I see all this just like thread together. And you're not saying add more work, you're saying work smarter, like building some of the automations that are available really cheaply or economically to all of us. So this is just so great.

I have to share something because it's just too ironic that this happened to me today. But I launched a peer fundraising campaign today. So the first time like an hour and a half ago. And I did it for my daughter. And I there's something to be learned here in and I'm about to tattle on myself. I have an 11 year old who just big Empath, and she's very upset about what's going on in Ukraine. And she's been diving into it. And she came to me and said, my teacher has a family. And I really want to help them. Can we start a fundraiser for it? You know how to do that mom? And I'm like, Sure, we're gonna hook you up honey. And so anyway, she, we she wrote the words, she wrote the whole script herself. And I allowed her to take over my social media accounts today for the first time ever and asked for it. And when we were talking about a goal, which was so fun for me to go through all of this with her. First of all, she said a million dollars, which made me love her so much. And I you know, I pulled her back down and I said, What do you think about $2,500? I mean, that's pretty steep. For an 11 year old John's already shot.

I've already like no, that's awesome. And

I'm like, You know what kid out? Like, I think that if you socialize that the dream because $2,500 We know exactly what it's going to do because we were sending food and we're sending clothing and we're paying for shipping, you know, to get over to this family who literally has nothing and their kids have come back from where they were staying outside of the warzone because they ran out of money, which is just a heartbreaking situation. And so we talked about it And before I hit the click my little scarcity mindset was coming up here about, oh, no, what if? What if she only gets $500? And how am I going to talk to her about that? In the first hour, she raised $1,020. I haven't looked at it since she's been on this podcast. But to this point, it is this, this is not me bragging on Sophia, this is me calling out my scarcity mindset of why not socialize your dream because that is what she needed to be ultimately successful to help the family in the way that she wanted to. And she put that into her words, and our little community, our tiny little community wherever it is on social media. And and our rose to that, because they were inspired by her because they felt connected to her story because they want to pour in to someone young, that wants to be a part of helping somebody else. And so I think my my tip here is one, don't underestimate your donors ever. That's something I did today I underestimated them, and to never make decisions about what you mean to somebody, and how that can inspire somebody to give. So there's my little that's my story, even though I know we're gonna go to Madeline story, but thank you for helping me see how limited my thinking was just in the last like two hours here. So you're awesome. Madeline.

I love that Becky, such a good example.

I mean, that's just so serendipitous. I love that that is happening and kind of playing to all those things that we talked about, you know, of what makes a really powerful, pure fundraising campaign. So okay, there's the point in this in the story that we want to kick it to you and hear one from you, you've been part of these amazing missions, what's a moment of philanthropy that has really impacted your life and maybe change the way you show up.

Because we have been talking about peer fundraising, I'm going to rewind to another peer fundraiser that I did with that, or that organization in LA. And one of the really special pleasures of my work and community engagement there was that we had a handful of former students who were once program participants come back to inner city or during college or beyond, to volunteer in the same studios that they had once been educated in. And one year, I was really surprised and delighted to have one of these former students sign up as a peer fundraiser for our campaign. And they weren't a candidate that I had put on my prospect list or that I personally invited they came through to the call to all volunteers, which is part of why I recommend to cast a wide net. And I can't remember off the top of my head, how much they raise. But more importantly, what I do remember, is how excited they were to support in this capacity and give back to an organization that had once given to them. And I love this story because it reminds me that sometimes oftentimes, our most loyal and generous givers can't be spotted through segmentation. And I love segmentation, teach segmentation, encourage it. But I think we need to extend a broader invitation so that people can self identify and tell us how they want to be engaged in our work. It also reminded me that the opportunity to give is truly a gift or calling Julie Ordonez always said says giving as a gift to the giver. And she's so true because this volunteer I had pegged as someone who only wanted to support in a programmatic context, because I thought that that their that was their place of connection, that they understood that in order for them to receive what they did as a child, it took funding from someone and supporting as a fundraiser was just as meaningful for them as it was for us as an organization and for us as fundraisers, bringing them in. Finally, I think that this story just really demonstrates how accommodating peer fundraising can be. This fundraiser was a young professional, and I don't think they had the capacity to donate financially at the time in addition to volunteerism. But pure fundraising provided a really accessible and inclusive way for them to step more deeply in our work, and stay engaged.

The thing that I love is when someone is telling their story, like Madeline just was the softness and the joy and the love on your face. I can tell how much you love this nonprofit I want to give you space to like name this nonprofit out loud so people can go check it out their inner

city arts. They do beautiful work off of Skid Row in Los Angeles providing arts education to promote social and emotional development for young students who might not otherwise receive arts ed in their regular school day.

MADELINE You know, we end all of our conversations with a one good thing what would be your one good thing that you would offer up to our audience today.

I love to say that doing good should feel good. In the nonprofit sector, we are so connected to the pain and suffering of the world. And because of that we're full of people. We attract people who are really good at using pain to incite change. And this is great. But I also think it's equally important that we look to what feels good to incite growth. And for me isn't relying on this marker and mantra, which I've had to do some personal work to rely on has really helped me overcome some of that scarcity mentality that we were talking about earlier that nonprofits can really be fraught with. And so for that reason, when I say doing good should feel good, I'm referring both to the donor experience, but also the experience of philanthropy for nonprofit leaders who are inviting people in to their missions. When we thoughtfully curate opportunities for exchange, I think it's going to feel more charitable, more mutually beneficial, and therefore more sustainable for everyone involved.

Gosh, okay, all of our organizations, Dean needs Madeline, just pouring into the strategy, the philosophy and all of this good stuff that you've brought us today. Tell us about how to connect with you online. Tell us about St. John consulting, where can we learn all the things and follow you on social?

Sure, thank you. Yeah. If you are interested in learning more about how donor engagement can support your fundraising goals, I'd love to have you visit my website. It St. John consulting.com. Earlier I talked about the importance of listening to your giving community and asking good questions. And on my site, I offer a free resource called dialogue with your donors. It's a donor survey template that includes swipe, copy for a dozen of my favorite questions to ask donors, so you can hop over there, pick that up and begin deepening your relationship with your current donors and identifying who your future peer to peer fundraisers might be. I'm also on LinkedIn look up Madeline St. John, plus Instagram and Facebook at the same time consulting.

Thanks for coming in here. Madeline. We love having you in our house like Let's hang out again. Thanks, guys.

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