Social Profit Stack
Want a simpler digital fundraising strategy? Every other Sunday, I share practical tools, AI ideas, and proven tactics to help you raise more revenue and improve the online donor experience. Free gift inside!
The Missing Ingredient in Your AI Prompts 👩🏻🍳
Hi Reader, Crazy to think, but in the early days of AI, I nearly gave up. 😭 Maybe you’ve been there. I'd open a chat window, type something like "write a fundraising appeal for a nonprofit", and stare at whatever came back, feeling a little deflated. It was generic. No real ask, no sense of the client I worked with, no gratitude. My voice, lost in a sea of bleh. I remember thinking this was supposed to save me time, but instead I was rewriting it from scratch. For a while I chalked it up to...
Donors + Leaky Buckets Don't Mix Well 🪣
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...
Your website's missing first base ⚾️
Last October, I watched the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team win their way to Game 7 of the World Series. Seven games. Momentum swung back and forth almost every inning until it wasn't. In the space of a few outs, it was gone, and the crazy baseball nerd that I am still thinks about that loss. Baseball is a game of momentum and always reminds me of the work we do in fundraising. I saw that up close with a client I recently worked with. When we met, they'd just wrapped up a brand-awareness...
The Ask is 5% of Fundraising 💁🏻♀️
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...
Your donors WANT to give monthly. Take your shot ⚽︎
Hey Reader, Here’s a number that should stop you mid-scroll: 58.6% of recurring donors set up their gift without ever being asked. No appeal email. No dedicated campaign. No ask at all. They simply wanted the option and clicked yes. The animal rescue shelter I worked with recently ran on a shoestring for years. Grant cycles, event revenue, and the seasonal ups and downs of year-end donations kept them barely afloat. Planning more than a year in advance felt like a long shot. When their...
Clean data pays off across every future campaign 👩🏻💻
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...
You Don't Need All 8. Pick One to Begin ☝🏼
Hey Reader, If you've scrolled through your inbox lately, you've probably noticed: everyone is talking about AI. Including me ;) I recently attended a fundraising conference, and every second session focused on AI. If you're like the many fundraisers I talk to, your immediate reaction is somewhere between “I know I should figure this out” and “I don’t know when I’ll have time to figure this out.” My client, Maria, manages a two-person development team at a local animal rescue organization. In...
Donors aren't opening your email for information ℹ️
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...
You don’t need an AI strategy…yet 🤔
Hey Reader, Last month, I had coffee with a development director I recently worked with. I often check in to see how the team's fundraising is shaping up. She mentioned she’d attended at least two AI webinars that left her feeling more behind than when she started. She’s not alone. The conversation around AI is moving so fast that the question of what to do first has become a kind of a dread for many fundraising teams. I recently started working with a small nonprofit here in Calgary that had...
Your donors might be your BEST copywriters 📝
Hey Reader, Recently, my client Hazel stared at a number she couldn't explain. A significant chunk of first-time donors to her literacy organization hadn't come back. She mentioned to me that she didn't know if it was the economy, her emails, or something beyond her control. But what she did next is worth pursuing. A colleague of hers suggested a simple strategy for her to try: before launching the spring appeal, send your donors a short survey. Three questions. No more. Hazel nearly talked...
Want a simpler digital fundraising strategy? Every other Sunday, I share practical tools, AI ideas, and proven tactics to help you raise more revenue and improve the online donor experience. Free gift inside!