Ep. 186: 6 Indicators Your Fundraising Strategy Needs to Change
EPISODE 186
6 Indicators Your Fundraising Strategy Needs to Change
About the Episode:
What if your fundraising challenges aren’t about effort, but about design?
In this episode, I break down six indicators that your fundraising strategy may be quietly underperforming. If your team feels tired, campaigns feel heavier every time, or growth has plateaued despite working harder, this conversation will give you clarity. I unpack the hidden signs I see in nonprofit teams: overreliance on a few people, waiting instead of inviting, campaign cold starts, stalled monthly giving, and measuring success by campaign rather than by donor. This episode is about momentum, alignment, and designing a fundraising engine that compounds instead of resets. If you’ve ever said “we’ve tried everything,” this one is for you.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Why “we’ve tried everything” is often a strategy design issue
The difference between momentum problems and donor problems
Working harder vs. working with leverage
The danger of relying on the same few people
Why waiting instead of inviting stalls growth
Cold-start campaigns and donor churn
Why monthly giving fails without priming
Measuring success per donor vs. per campaign
Strategy hopping vs. shared operating systems
Designing fundraising systems that compound over time
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here! https://christinaedwards.krtra.com/t/xKuLs6tOiPZa
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“If the entire boat stops sailing because somebody is going on vacation or somebody needs to take a period of rest, like we have a problem.”
“You don't lose donors because you asked, you lose them because you disappeared.”
“When campaigns end without the handoff, the next one does feel like it starts at zero because you haven't primed anyone.”
“Monthly giving form is not a monthly giving campaign.”
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Double Your Donations - Raise More From Your Laptop Without Chasing Grants or Galas
Easy Emails For Impact™ - Turn Your Inbox into an Income Stream
Donations on Demand: Build a $5K Email Campaign System in 30 min/week
The SPRINT Method™ - Fundraise Like a Pro, 5 Figures At a Time
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Christina Edwards 00:00Welcome back to the podcast. I'm going to start with a couple of updates. So we just had an incredible launch this past month for the sprint method, and it was our biggest launch to date. And if you're not familiar with the sprint method, or maybe you've heard me talk about it and wondering who it's for or what it really is, it is the system where you learn how to run five figure campaigns, $10,000 or more every time you fundraise from your laptop. So this is a very short cycle to bring in a huge amount of funding. So many of our sprint clients are doing this in 10 days. They're doing it in a week. They're doing it in 14 days. And it's really like life changing amount of funding for so many organizations who have been chasing that level of funding, 20, $30,000 $10,000 in so many other ways that require so many more people, so much more time, so much more effort. And this is like unlocked something amazing. So we had a really great sprint launch. And I love our community in there. And one of the things that I noticed in this past sprint launch was it was really different from the launches that happened in last year for the same program. And the reason why I want to share this with you today is because I want to normalize it like the launch that you have, aka the fundraiser you have, the campaign you have in q4 is going to be different than the one you have in q1 and there's lots of reasons. There's a seasonality to it, right? There's habits to it. There's also the cycle to it. There's also information and news that change changes right and changes people's response. And I don't want you to let a campaign that goes that goes out and you're like, Yeah, you know, we've done this spring campaign before. It usually raises $30,000 that's what I can count on, and you basically do the same things that you used to do, and maybe right out of the gate the first few days you're you have like a Oh crap moment. You're like, this feels different, and I don't want you to let that deflate you and have caused you to either retreat or freeze, okay, because I literally am an example of that. So the first right out of the gate on this sprint campaign, this we opened enrollment for sprint, and we had a an amazing webinar. Great people on the webinar, really good signups. It was all like checking the boxes, and the actual sales cycle was very different. And I just had to watch my thoughts. I had to watch my thoughts, the negative kind of spiral, and just go, Okay, this is okay. We are we're in a different cycle. There's a shit ton of stuff happening in the world right now. There's a lot of people being pulled in different directions. And I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep inviting people in. I'm going to keep launching this. And it turned out to be our best lunch ever, like ever for this program, and we now have such an amazing group in there. And so I just want to share that with you, because I don't want you to put your take your foot off the gas. When you are faced with something where it's like apples to apples, year over year, you have this expectation, and you are given plot twists. We are all given plot twists, and I just have learned to expect the plot twists and not make the plot twist mean that something's gone wrong. And here's my here's my transition into the purpose and profit club. The purpose and profit Club is a magical group of nonprofit changemakers. These are where teams, leaders and individuals join because they want the whole fundraising engine. Okay, it's like having a 360 degree strategist on retainer. So we meet weekly. We really look holistically at your fundraising and marketing strategy, your leadership, your coach. We coach on everything from your sprint campaigns, your online digital campaigns, and then bringing that fully into your ecosystem. So messaging, audits, major gifts, upgrades, laps, donors, direct mail. We have a great group who are really focusing on converting their direct mail but also syndicating their direct mail. So one of my clients, Michael, he just did an amazing direct mail piece, and we have a strategy. He came to coaching, and I'm like, Well, how else are we using that direct mail piece? And he was like, oh, so an entire strategy to actually get more longevity and conversions, meaning donations, from just one little single piece of content. So I'm really excited for him. So we have another client that is experiencing the exact thing, or a flavor of the exact thing that I did.
Christina Edwards 05:15
they're in the middle of a launch, and it's gone differently than it has previously, right? And that's when coming to coaching is not only an amazing thing to sort of just like recalibrate what you're doing, and where do we want to actually iterate? Where do we want to make sure that we might want to layer in another strategy, or where do we want to check to see where people may be getting confused?
Christina Edwards 05:55
that's why I really love this program, because the plot twists are going to come especially as your organization grows. So when your executive director and your development person are experiencing a plot twist, you can come to coaching go, Hey, we thought it was going to be this way. It's actually this way. Now what? And we have an entire strategy now, after yesterday's coaching call, where I'm like, they're going to hit their goal, they're going to hit their goal, and they're also going to get so much wisdom to iterate and add more communication in between their fundraising campaigns and in between some of their other events, so that this doesn't feel as much of a plot twist in the future, right? And so you're priming their audience better. So it really is just such a strong program for people to go. How do we really align the entire strategy together? Okay, that's the first thing that was a long first thing.
Christina Edwards 07:47
I was listening to a podcast this morning about the foster care system, and it was such a just eye opening conversation. And foster care is particularly kids who age out of the system, is something that's always been really important to me. And the host of the of the podcast said, you know, we don't really usually do this, but I really think that people should share this podcast, and it was such a good reminder to me of how we all need to do this more. We all need to talk more about the causes you serve. We all need to talk more about the work that we're all collectively doing. And you may be thinking, I already talked to so and so about it, or I already tell people to share about it. But like, do you like? Where can you just weave in a little bit more of that? So I'm going to walk the walk here, and I'm going to say to you, dear listener, if this podcast is something that is resonant with you. Share it. I would invite you to share it on LinkedIn, share it on Instagram, share it wherever you hang out. Share it. Text it to another co worker or friend, and we're celebrating our third year of the podcast. So if you haven't already, I would be so grateful for you to leave us a rating and a review wherever you listen to podcasts that being said, those are my updates. We're going to dive into the six indicators that your fundraising strategy needs to change. And so these are six indicators that I'm seeing. Really, I'm thinking of the like social the social trend where it was like, red flag, right? Red flag. So we're going to go over kind of those red flags today. And they're symptoms. And much like you go to the doctor and you're like, I'm feeling this way and this way and this way, they're sort of like, hearing you and going, here's what you need. Sounds like you're deficient in vitamin C, sounds like you need some B, right? Sounds like you need x, y and z. So we're gonna get into those six indicators today. Here's a big one.
Christina Edwards 09:59
So when a nonprofit leader tells me, we've tried everything, I don't hear defeat. I hear exhaustion. They've tried a lot of the things in a lot of directions without a shared way of working across the year. It's very step snap, right? And fundraising feels like whiplash. Marketing feels disconnected. The team is tired, the board is tired, and somehow the results are at best, fine, but not growing. That's not because you're bad at fundraising. That's not because you're bad at communicating. That's not because you're bad at your job. It's because the strategy isn't built to build itself. The dominant story in our sector looks something like this, donors are fatigued. Giving is down. Attention spans are shorter. It's just harder now. But what the data and the lived experience actually show is this, people are still generous. So many people are more generous than ever. Generosity, though, follows momentum. Research consistently shows that donors and consumers, which, by the way, are the same thing, shoppers or donors, donors or consumers need 15 to 17 touch points before making a decision, not because they're skeptical, not because they don't want to, not because they're not generous, not because they don't love what you do, because they're human, human and very, very distracted. So when fundraising feels disconnected, cautious, episodic, people don't lean in. They drift. If it feels like God, you only call when you need something, they're out. This isn't a donor problem. This is a momentum problem. So oftentimes I'll see organizations get stuck here when there's not a shared operating system. So those teams kind of compensate. Or maybe, if you're a solo, solo led organization, you're sort of compensating with that feeling, with more motion, right? So chasing the next idea, hopping from one strategy to another. So if you were like my client who launched a campaign, and then I was like, huh, it's not quite going how it expected, you abandon said campaign, and you look for another shiny object, you start applying for grants. You start going, yep, maybe we should do the gala.
Christina Edwards 12:26
you might start to over rely on one thing that worked before, and really kind of like squeeze it till it's just completely done. Default to what feels familiar, because at least it's predictable and over time that creates burnout, internal tension, a quiet sense, sense and frustration with like, why is this so hard and inside the club, this is often where we need to begin. It's not with tactics, but it's really with reorienting people to move in the same direction again, because right now, many teams look like one person rowing, one person swimming, and one person like adjusting the sail. Everyone is technically working, and no one is aligned. How many people are doing this? It's not even like we're all in row boats, right? We're not even rowing in different directions. We're literally some some person just swimming in the ocean while the other person's working on the sail, like we're not even working on the same thing. So the real issue here is that most fundraising strategies are built to just run one off appeals. They're not really built to carry energy forward, to carry donors forward, to prepare and nurture donors for the next step that is so so key, that compound effort over time is missing. So what happens? Every campaign feels harder and heavier than the last. Every ask feels riskier, every upgrade feels awkward, and you're just like, I'm just not going to do that right now, right? And that's what these six indicators reveal.
So indicator number one, you're working harder for the same results, working harder. This does not look like we're just sending more emails. It actually looks like we're planning for weeks of planning for outcomes that used to take days, endless conversations before making a decision, right? Very like, let's kick the can, let's circle back, a growing sense of everything feeling more pressure, more high stakes. I can tell that a strategy is maxed out when leaders are pouring their more mental and emotional energy into results that aren't really moving, like again, that like over squeezing like a ringing out something that's already been rung out. What's underneath this is maybe a quiet thought of like, I don't know what else to try, so I'll just try harder at this thing. That's not grit, that's a system that's run out of leverage, that is an outdated operating system. And so the consequence looks like decision fatigue, slower execution, strategy hopping, less experimentation. And I cannot underscore how important creativity is here. Experimentation, innovation is here. It is everything for you and your donors. So you start to burn out, not because you don't care, because the system stopped working.
Indicator number two, everything relies on the same few people, and so here's kind of an internal test you can do. What happens if one person steps away for two weeks, maybe the Development Director, the board chair, that one major donor who always shows up, if fundraising just freezes, the issue isn't staffing, it's design, right? If the entire boat stops sailing because somebody is going on vacation or somebody needs to take a period of rest, like we have a problem, right? So most organizations have are, have already have people who could be contributing, board members who care but don't know how to help, not actively, not more than once, not without you really, really kind of cornering them. That is not what I'm talking about. That is not the goal, right?
Christina Edwards 16:18
you could have marketing and communications teams working in conjunction, in parallel, in harmony with fundraising, but instead, your social media person is siloed off over here, just creating content that doesn't convert into funding, doesn't convert into new email subscribers. It's just nice content for what right. Instead of aligning everybody together, you could have community members and ambassadors who would advocate, who would drive awareness, who would Fill out your programs,
Christina Edwards 17:01
who would become amazing digital ambassadors and fundraisers, part of your street team, if they were invited, if you had a process that felt easy and important and like resonant with them. So instead, what happens? Responsibility concentrates a few people carry that emotional, physical weight, right? All of the tasks are on them, and everybody else stays on the sidelines, like going, mm hmm, yeah, hey, have you tried this? It's like well meaning opinions, right? But they're not actually helping. That can change. That can change.
and no one really. Knows how to reignite it, and then boom, that fear comes in of like, well, if people aren't donating now they haven't already donated, like, let's not push war, because we don't want to annoy them, right? So it's that in between space, right?
Christina Edwards 20:20
after the campaign ends with maybe you do a basic thank you message, something automated. And there's no real bridge. There's no real connection. Now we're in the loop of Yule and Colin. You need something, and in the in between seasons, the nurture disappears, almost entirely or completely. So most campaigns I'm seeing, they're not even failing. They're just kind of ending, and when campaigns end without that hand off, the next one does feel like it starts at zero because you haven't primed anyone. There's no, I call this like pregame. There's no tailgating happening, right? It's just like, imagine if baseball season and football season ran at the same time. This is hilarious, and doing a sports metaphor, because I don't watch I don't watch a whole lot of either. But let's just say I'm in Atlanta, so let's just say, like, one day you're watching, like, the middle of a Braves game, and then the next day, they're like, watch this, like, end of a Falcons game, and then then there's nothing. And then a month later they're like, soccer, right? Watch Atlanta united, right? You're sort of like, who am I rooting for. Why am I rooting for? Wait, what's happening? You haven't developed, developed any connection with the pitcher or the quarterback or anything. It's just very kind of fragmented. All right? Two more indications, left.
Indicator number five, you're asking for depth without building energy. This is where monthly giving usually breaks. This is big. Now, I know a lot of you should are interested in monthly giving, and should be. It's a really, really important factor for so many of our clients, but what I see is that organizations add a monthly option in the form, right? So an option to donate monthly, a quiet line in the appeal, a generic consider giving monthly and then feel confused and frustrated when nothing happens. Where are the monthly givers, right?
Christina Edwards 17:44
indicator number three, you're waiting instead of inviting. And this is a huge one for me. So if you're in my programs, if you're listening to this podcast, you know I want you to be more impatient. I want you to be braver and bolder and more courageous. So if you're waiting instead of inviting this one is really rooted in fear. It's not laziness. It is fear. The thoughts sound like, I don't want to bother anyone, I don't want to overdo it, I don't want to turn people off. What if people are annoyed or unsubscribe, right? I just don't want to. And it's like, insert negative outcome here. So what happens? You retreat, you soften the message, you reduce the frequency. You're not even close to those 15 touch points, right? You're at like two, and you're like, maybe two is too much. You know, you're spacing them out. So the average donor doesn't even remember the first two touches in the first place they wait for people to raise their hands, right?
Christina Edwards 18:59
but waiting is not neutral. In a crowded world, silence reads as irrelevance. I see this all the time, right, when the story could be bolder, right, when the ask could be clearer, right, when you could be magnetically drawing people in, right? When leadership is needed, most fundraising becomes polite, sterile, then quiet, then invisible. You don't lose donors because you asked you lose them because you disappeared, because it was vanilla. They didn't hear from you when they did, it was a vanilla indicator.
Number four, every campaign feels like a cold start. This one's one of the clearest signals that something needs that something's a mess, right? Something needs change, and so every campaign might require, like, really reintroducing the mission, re explaining the urgency, re earning attention. Nothing's really carrying forward. Okay, this may look like a lot of churn. A lot of your donors are one and done. Donors. Momentum often gets dropped mid campaign when energy dips
Christina Edwards 22:20
But the thing is, a monthly giving form is not a monthly giving campaign. Think about this, just because I may accept discover cards doesn't mean I'm actively inquiring, acquiring discover customers. You with me. Depth requires that that preparation, commitment follows that momentum, that messaging and donors don't upgrade to monthly simply because the option exists. They're not like, wow, Christina takes discover cards and all of a sudden everybody is like, I can't wait to open a discover account, right? That's not exactly how that works. So what does that mean for your organization there, that you really have to prime people into becoming monthly givers, and when that energy hasn't been built, the early asks do feel awkward. They don't convert, and you end up having a trickle, instead of a flood, of monthly donors come in, not because your givers aren't there, not because your monthly givers aren't there, but because donors are resistant, because they weren't ready in the first place. My last indicator, indicator number six, you're measuring success per campaign instead of per donor. So this one kind of hides behind the effort. Leadership meetings might sound like we spent so much time on this. This took months, and you're looking at like, Oh, look how long the committee did. Took to plan this auction, to plan this gala. Look how much time. That's how we're measuring it. The time is spent, the the flowers, the programs, the invites, the stuff, right? We took so much time on this. This took, this took months at least. We were able to sell 10 tables, right? But that time isn't the fundraising metric. Time doesn't translate into dollars. In fact, that long lag time is what's stifling and staggering momentum. That effort does not guarantee momentum, and that's one of the biggest lies that I see. Time doesn't translate into dollars, right? Because if it did, then everyone would raise the same amount of dollars in the same amount of hours per day. And that's not what happens. So here's what Matt, here's what actually matters. You do want to look at who stayed, who increased their gift, who disappeared, who's rolled off and lapsed, who moved closer, who went from a $50 gift to a $500 gift? Ooh, I'm going to give them a call, right? So when success is measured only per campaign, of course, I want you to hit your goal, but when you're just binary, looking at that campaign, fundraising, I see tends to stay transactional, but when it's measured deeply per donor system, start to compound instead. And this is the difference between just staying busy where you're. Like we're just putting in time and actually growing, growing your impact, growing your funding.
Christina Edwards 25:32
So if you recognize yourself in more than one of these, that's okay. That's okay. You're every you're every one of my clients has been one of these. They've come to me with at least if one, if not multiple, one of these. So you're not bad or wrong. It's not failure. It's awareness. It's the first piece to, like, right sizing the ship. Let's get the let's get the guy out of the rowboat. Let's get the gal to stop swimming. We're all gonna get on the boat together and we're gonna row and say we're gonna sail in the same direction. Okay, so high performing nonprofits, they don't push harder. They don't spend more time doing efforting.
Christina Edwards 26:19
instead they design their fundraisers and their entire fundraising and nurture strategy so each effort makes the next one easier. People are primed. They're not snapping between a football game, a baseball game a soccer game, and I don't know the Olympics, right? That's why they'll see their monthly giving programs work and convert upgrades feeling easier and natural or natural being teed up right? Retention starts to stabilize. One of my clients told me his retention rate, and I was like, Yes, I mean, it was like almost 80% that is flipped, flipped of the industry standard eight out of 10 donors typically give one time we've gotten his retention rate so that eight out of 10 donors stay. That's incredible. Let that be the goal. Let that be that's something we work on together. I'm opening up the purpose and profit club group coaching program, very, very soon, and the best way to hear about it, the best way to find out if it's right for your organization, is to come to our webinar, if you go to splendid courses.com, forward slash live, you'll get all the details to register for free. And the next couple of episodes, I'm going to be talking about how influence replaces waiting with invitation, so how you can borrow other people's audiences and really help to scale your organization's awareness, visibility and funding. I'll also be talking more about monthly giving, why it's the result of momentum and not just a starting point. And then again, on March 4, in my live webinar, I'm going to walk you through how this is becoming a cohesive system, instead of just like the string of disconnected efforts.
Christina Edwards 28:10
Okay, so I will see you next time. Have a wonderful week. Bye.