Social Profit Stack

Hey Reader, A client of mine spent the past few months and a big hunk of her marketing budget boosting Instagram posts before she called me. "We have followers," she said. "But we’re not seeing any donations.” That's when we started over. This client runs a small, well-loved nonprofit that has tried everything the internet told her to do. She posts three times a week and runs a few boosted ads around year-end. Her team celebrated when a post reached 200 likes. But when she pulled her donation...

Hey Reader, Somewhere deep in your database, there’s a donor who gave once, intended to give again, and then… didn’t. It wasn’t because they stopped caring. It was because nobody noticed. 🧐 A few years ago, I worked with an organization that was heading into year-end; their development director pulled the numbers and felt good about what she saw. Total amount raised had increased 12% from the year before, and the year-end appeal had outperformed every projection. She was excited to see these...

Happy Sunday, Reader It's officially the long weekend here in Canada and I'm writing this newsletter from my tent in my rainy campground. Living the dream :P -- Here’s something I hear all the time from nonprofit leaders: “My board members care about our mission, but we can’t seem to convince them to help us fundraise.” When you press them a little, what they mean is that board members won’t go to the next level to ask. Honestly? Neither would most people if they thought that’s what...

Hey Reader, Somewhere in your CRM right now, I'll bet there's a donor listed under three different names. One is “Bob Smith,” one is “Robert Smith,” and another is “Smith, Bobby” with a trailing space. That latest donor report you pulled says you acquired two new donors this spring? Probably not. I chatted with a client recently who told me she was thrilled with their recent spring campaign numbers. Open rates were up. Gifts were coming in. Or so it seemed. She revealed that when she sat down...

Hey Reader, A development director I know came close to shutting down her newsletter last month. Her open rates kept slipping. Her will to write had gone with them. Even one of her board members kept asking why she spent so much time on emails when "people use ChatGPT now." She didn't have a good answer. Rachel runs the development shop at a family shelter south of the city. It's tough. She'd been experimenting with AI to write her donor emails partly because she was burned out, but mostly...