Category: Repeat

A Strong Foundation

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Foundation.

Gall’s Law states that “a complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.”

The same is true for individual donor fundraising: a complex fundraising system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple fundraising system that worked.

And here are the key elements to “a simple system that works”…

  • Ask like help is needed
  • Thank like the donor’s generosity meant something
  • Report, using “before & after” stories, to show positive change

There are additional things you can do, of course.  For instance, you can manage your major donors with a proven system.   You can optimize your online giving experience.  You can engage people in your community.

But if your fundraising system doesn’t have these three elements at its heart, you’re unlikely to last long or grow large.

‘By November, your year-end cake is already baked’

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Bake a cake.

At last year’s Storytelling Conference, Chris Davenport shared storytelling advice from successful movie directors.  Here’s one of my favorite things he highlighted:

“What an audience feels at the end of the movie is entirely dependent on what they felt earlier in the movie.”

Here’s the parallel to that in fundraising:

How much you raise at the end of the year is dependent on the fundraising you sent your donors earlier in the year.

Here are some examples:

  • If a nonprofit has shown up often in donors’ lives throughout the year, with relevant content, its year-end campaign will raise more.  The organization has earned its place to be one of the organizations a donor thinks of at year-end.
  • If a nonprofit has not done any fundraising for several months, its year-end campaign will raise less.  Because it disappeared for months, the organization is less top-of-mind for donors and won’t receive as many gifts.
  • If a nonprofit has made it clear through the year that its work is needed, its year-end campaign will raise more.  The organization has made it clear that it’s working on something important, and donors tend to support causes and organizations that they feel are important.
  • If a nonprofit has spent the year only talking about how well things are going, it will raise less at year-end.  The organization has shared only success stories, so it sounds like things are going great and help isn’t really needed, thank you very much.

A friend of mine put this memorably.  He used to run the annual fund for a national nonprofit you’ve heard of.  Over beers one night he said,

“Look, by November, your year-end cake is already baked.  All that’s left to do is see how it turns out.”

What he meant was the fundraising you do throughout the year has a large effect on how well your year-end campaign performs.  (You can, of course, have a strong year-end campaign without communicating much during the year.  But a strong year-end campaign after a strong annual campaign will raise even more.)

I share this here in January so that, as you’re creating your fundraising this year, you set yourself up during the year for the best year-end campaign you’ve ever had.

Specialized

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Specialized.

Another helpful idea to start your year with:

As a nonprofit moves forward on its fundraising journey, each piece of communication tends to become more specialized.

Specialization happens because, as you grow and start to measure the performance of everything, you find that the more specialized pieces of fundraising tend to perform better.

But this is hard for smaller nonprofits at the beginning of their fundraising journey.  When you don’t communicate to donors very often, each piece of communication tends to “say all the things.”  An appeal letter will thank donors for their previous gift, and ask for a gift, and share a story to report back, and update people on the recent programmatic change. 

All of those different messages tend to make it hard for individual donors moving fast to know what you want them to do.  (This is why Better Fundraising help nonprofits specialize their comms into three main buckets: Asks, Thanks, and Reports.)

And here’s the thing for today: don’t wait to specialize until you’re one of those big, sophisticated organizations – specialize now so that you become one of those big, sophisticated organizations.

Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Authenticity

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Guaranteed authentic.

In general, “be authentic” is good advice to nonprofits.

However, to be successful in fundraising long term you will absolutely need to do some things don’t feel authentic to you at first…

For instance, it doesn’t feel authentic for anyone to send 12 pieces of direct mail a year.  Yet tens of thousands of nonprofits are joyfully do it each year because it raises so much money, is so good at identifying new major donors, and keeps the relationship going with people you can’t meet in person.

It’s doesn’t feel authentic for anyone to send out 50 fundraising emails a year.  Yet that’s happening thousands of times a year from successful fundraising organizations.

For a relationship-driven MGO it doesn’t always feel authentic to keep a spreadsheet with an annual communication plan and giving goal for each major donor.  Yet that’s happening hundreds of thousands of times a year by MGOs who know that “having a plan and working the plan” is the key to maximizing revenue from major donors.

My point is just to say that the idea of “authenticity” is often taken too far.  It becomes a binary when it should be a guiding principle.

Stay authentic to who you are and what you believe in.  But don’t miss out on successful strategies and tactics because you wouldn’t naturally do them.

Progress, Not Perfection

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Progress.

It’s January, and it’s good to admit that your fundraising in 2026 will not be perfect. 

Everyone will make mistakes and miss opportunities.

But our job is to make progress, not to be perfect.  And progress can look pretty simple:

  • The plan for your top major donors is a little more specific this year
  • You send one more piece of fundraising than you sent last year
  • You spend a little time getting better at subject lines and teasers so that your open rates are higher this year (and next year)

“Raising more money” can feel hard.  Making progress and getting a little bit better at fundraising isn’t.

Pie and Sisyphus

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Downhill walk.

To repeat one of the best lines I’ve ever heard about fundraising:

Fundraising is like a pie-eating contest where the prize for eating the most pie is that you’re asked to eat more pie.

“You raised 4% above projections this year,” the Board says, “let’s aim for 6% over projections in 2026!”

It’s kind of like Sisyphus, doomed to push a boulder up to the top of a hill but always having it slip from his grasp before reaching the top.

But there’s an unsaid part of the Sisyphus myth that was pointed out to me a few years ago: each time the rock rolls back to the bottom of the hill, Sisyphus has a restful, unencumbered downhill walk before he starts again.

So today – when the appeals have been sent, the calls have been made, the emails for today and tomorrow already programmed and ready to go – I hope you are enjoying your “restful, unencumbered downhill walk” as all the money comes in.

Enjoy your walk, and happy new year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Happy Holidays

This Christmas, we’re thankful for three things about you:

  • Thanks for the work you do as a Fundraiser.  You’re part of the solution, and you’re “bending the arc” towards justice.
  • Thanks for being vulnerable and courageous enough to ask for help.
  • Thanks for giving donors the gift of your fundraising – without you, they can’t do the good they want to do.

Thanks also for your time and attention this year.  We love being a part of your fundraising journey.

Tonight, we’ll raise a glass to you.  And to generosity.  (And, if you had matching funds as part of your year-end campaign, to the Angel’s Share!)

With gratitude for you and what you do,

Jim, Steven and all of the Better Fundraising team

Every Gift is a Sign of Connection

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Gift connection.

It’s a week until the end of the year.

Let’s take just a moment to breathe in the generosity of the season.

Gifts are happening online.  Checks are arriving in the mail.  Gift notices keep coming in.  Excited texts are being sent.

And at the moment each of those gifts was made, there was joy, or inspiration, or relationship, or belief.  Maybe even some sacrifice, and some duty, too.

Every single gift is a sign of a connection to your work and your mission.

Each donor now feels little bit better about themselves and the world, and they helped advance your mission.

I hope you love what you get to be a part of as a Fundraiser.  Here at Better Fundraising, we sure do.

How Things Work

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Owner manual.

I’ve always liked to understand how things work.

Engines, supply & demand, how plywood is made, you name it.

Early in my fundraising career, when looking at detailed fundraising results, I noticed the following three things that go a long way to explaining how mass donor fundraising works:

  1. Appeals raise more than stewardship pieces.  OK, great.  An appeal is the best thing an organization can do increase revenue.  And if an organization wants to raise more money, its annual plan should prioritize sending appeals.  Appeals are also great at getting donors to give again, which is the definition of “retaining” a donor.
  2. Stewardship pieces increase donor retention.  Great.  We need to make sure that every annual plan has some stewardship pieces – but need to remember that they raise less than appeals.

The immediate next question is, “What’s the right mix of appeals to stewardship pieces?”  Back to the fundraising results I went.  I looked at the nonprofits who were out-raising similar organizations while also retaining a high percentage of their donors.  And that’s when I noticed:

  1. The organizations that had the healthiest mix of Revenue and Donor Retention sent roughly 2 appeals for every 1 stewardship piece.  The 2:1 ratio maximized their revenue & impact today, while also retaining donors so that next year went great.

I’ve used that rough ratio successfully for hundreds, probably over a thousand nonprofits since then.  It keeps on working.

(It is, of course, a little different in a major donor context where you are in relationship with the donor.  The 2:1 ratio does not apply.)

Here’s one of the things all this makes you realize: you can over-steward your mass donors, and there are real negative consequences to doing so.  If a nonprofit over-stewards its mass donors, it raises less money in the short term and retains fewer donors in the long-term. 

Think of stewardship as “planting seeds” and appeals as “picking the fruit.”  If you plant a lot of seeds, but don’t pick the fruit very often, you have less of a harvest than you earned.  Fruit doesn’t pick itself.

Interestingly, the biggest hurdle to smaller nonprofits sending out more appeals is emotional resistance.  People cannot believe the 2:1 ratio is correct.  They don’t enjoy sending appeals.  They can’t believe that donors enjoy giving in response to appeals.

That’s why much of Better Fundraising’s work is sitting with nonprofit leadership, talking to stakeholders, sharing examples & stories, and helping them be comfortable trying one or two steps of a different approach.

If you’d like to have that conversation, let’s chat.  It’s what we do.  You do the dreaming about the impact you could have if you raised a great deal more in 2026, and we’ll help you have the conversation and start raising more money and retaining more donors!