Ep. 120: Building a Thriving Monthly Giving Program (and Donor Base) with Dana Snyder
EPISODE 120
Building a Thriving Monthly Giving Program (and Donor Base) with Dana Snyder
About the Episode:
Today, I'm so excited to introduce Dana Snyder, the author of The Monthly Giving Mastermind! Dana is all about helping nonprofits create steady, reliable support through monthly giving. She has a gift for turning one-time donations into ongoing support that organizations can truly depend on. She shares practical tips for starting and growing a monthly giving program that builds real connections with donors, creates a strong community, and boosts your impact over time. Whether you're new to monthly giving or ready to level up, Dana’s advice will help you build a loyal group of supporters who believe in what you do.
Topics:
Why recurring donations are essential for creating loyal donor communities and stable funding streams
Building a “product” out of giving: How naming, branding, and purpose-driven communication can transform a donation into a meaningful donor identity
The importance of crafting a donor journey that keeps donors engaged through personalized touchpoints, unique events, and surprise milestones
How running compelling campaigns, leveraging automation, and using Facebook Ads can attract new donors and keep existing ones
The most common pitfalls Dana sees in monthly giving programs and communication, and how to overcome them
The future of nonprofit giving: Dana’s vision for democratizing philanthropy, allowing everyone to feel like a philanthropist, no matter the donation amount
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
‘’With recurring subscription programs, there are so many creative ways that you can do in the first 12 months and beyond.’’ - Dana
‘’Monthly giving programs are all about community and bringing people together.’’ - Dana
‘’Get your Street Teamers™ at your event because they are your true ambassadors. ‘’ - Christina
‘’Having constant communication with your donors is a must.’’ - Dana
‘’I think for anybody that says I don't want my dollars going towards marketing, then you don't want anyone to know about what you're doing.’’ - Dana
‘’The whole point of a mastermind is for us to be in community together, lifting each other, sharing ideas, and brainstorming.’’ - Dana
“I want everyone to feel and be able to become a philanthropist.”
About Dana:
Dana Snyder is a dynamic speaker, author, host of the acclaimed global nonprofit podcast “Missions to Movements,” and the visionary creator of the Monthly Giving Mastermind. Her mission is to empower nonprofits to attract potential supporters through innovative digital marketing and to create sustainable giving models by establishing robust monthly giving programs, making philanthropy accessible to all.
Connect with Dana:
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 00:01
All right, you guys. Dana Snyder is here, and we are going to dig into monthly giving. And I told her in the green room, I have more questions than we have time. So this is going to be a juicy episode. Now, Dana is the author of the monthly giving mastermind book, and I knew she had to come on with this book coming out. So welcome and set the stage for us a little bit about the launch of this book, the why and the work you do. Thank
Dana Snyder 00:24
you. Oh my gosh, it's such a wild thing to be like author, and now that it's been a couple months, it's like, it's very surreal that that's even a thing. So I have been focused on the monthly giving space for the past few years, and all really started as a genesis of me being a monthly donor. And I realized I love this experience. I love the impact that I feel. I always felt like I could never feel like a or be a philanthropist if I wasn't donating millions or 1000s of dollars. And I felt like, as a one time donor, I was like, What's my one time gift of 25 bucks gonna do? What's my one time gift of $50 gonna do? But collectively, with a community, my $25 gift every month can make a significant impact. And so I just started to really lean into that. And so my background is in marketing and digital marketing from the New York City world, and I worked for nonprofit straight out of college. And so I understood all of the challenges and the resources and the bandwidth and the needs from working for a nonprofit, and then I was able to really get all of this kind of like insider access that a lot of organizations don't working for some big New York companies and clients. And so I in 2017 I just jumped ship from corporate world, and I was like, I just want to take all the learnings that I've gotten and the experiences and bring them back to the for good sector, for the nonprofit sector, and what we do. And so that's what I've been doing for the past seven years, and then, more recently, in the monthly giving space, amazing.
Christina Edwards 02:04
So we probably, I collectively, probably, have a ridiculous amount of subscriptions happening in my world, whether it's Netflix or Spotify or all of the different apps and things I've had a subscription for, like razors for years, and it's like the best, right? Like, we are now a subscription economy, but what does it look like to adapt that for monthly giving and, like, how is it different, or is it different for nonprofits? Yeah,
Dana Snyder 02:33
I love this question diving into this, because it's a whole chapter in the book where I think it's helpful to understand the history and the context of the subscription economy, and it's actually been around for a really long time. The term was technically coined, like over 15 years ago, by this guy, Tien, and he Zora, is the company who worked for and it was all about talking about, we don't necessarily want ownership thing of things anymore. We want custom made customization of things we want things quickly. And so he coined it back when it was more so thinking about one of the first things that turned subscription was SaaS products. So if you think back to like Adobe, for instance, Adobe was a massive, expensive product to have, usually on an annual license basis, that made it really hard for the majority of consumers to have. And then they were an example. Salesforce is an example of these companies that turned into more of the monthly or maybe even annual, but broken down subscriptions, yep. And that was kind of the start, and then then it turned into, I remember living in New York City, and in like 2013 2014 when Birch Box came on, everyone had their makeup beauty box, and it was this huge thing. Then you had your food subscriptions for Hello, fresh, right? So what happened like in the past decade is not only the popularity of all of these consumer goods, services, items that we purchase, but also in our world, the technology and the tools that power people to be able to donate realized this shift in consumer giving and then changed the donation tools to empower monthly giving and recurring giving that wasn't common before. I think what was common, more common in our space when you said recurring was like sponsor a child, yeah, like sponsor, but not to the extent of today, how it's building monthly giving programs. And even Charity Water is mentioned in the book. And we know them, of course, huge the spring, but they even said, like, they didn't start their monthly giving program until, I think it was like seven or eight years in, didn't realize the opportunity behind it, whereas now it's definitely more top of mind. So I think it's been a cultural shift. But for nonprofits to actually, you. To integrate it. We've had to wait for our technology to also, yep, learn that this is something that's important and provide the tools for us to do so.
Christina Edwards 05:09
And now that's here. Now there are a number of fundraising tools that I feel like, make it as frictionless as possible. But when we think about this idea of like, okay, the for profits are doing it. We also have, like, the average person has a subscription or 20 right kind of rocking and rolling in the background that they forgot about. How is it different? Like, can a nonprofit go, cool, we're just going to do this, we're going to add this, we're going to have the right tool. And then, and then what? Like, how is it different for a nonprofit to have a monthly recurring donor. How are they? I guess what I'm saying is I'm imagining like a Spotify. Spotify is like, become a premium subscriber. You don't get ads, and they deliver that to me every single month. But they're not like, showing me social proof. I mean, they're kind of surprising and delighting me at the end of the year, with my year end wrapped, actually, now that I say it, that's kind of fun and my day list. So hang on. Wait, they are doing this. You see what I'm asking, though? Dana, right? Like, how do we adapt this for nonprofits? Totally,
Dana Snyder 06:10
totally. So I think there's a couple different factors. One, it creates this whole segment of like, charitable living. And as a month. If you are a monthly donor, it's a usually easier on your wallet to donate in that way, because it's usually a lower amount. And so some people want to give a bigger gift, but they just can't do like $500 at one time, said me, usually, and so I want to break that out over a year. It also it makes it it's silly, but it is. It's easy, it's practical, like it just it is a set it and forget it. And I think something that nonprofits have sometimes said to me is, should we remind them that they're giving monthly? And I'm like, yes, yes. Like, definitely communicate that impact, because you want them to feel what they're doing, that excitement. They had excitement when they hit that button and gave it wasn't a painful am I going to have regret of this button? No, it was excitement. And so you want to continue that every single month the things that are special. There's a whole the book is based upon a framework of five different steps. And kind of what you just talked about with Spotify is sharing constant joy and gratitude. And so with recurring programs, there are so many creative ways that you can do that through the first 12 months and beyond. Because what's also super cool is the average recurring donor stays on for 567, plus years, based on like a neon one study, which is insane and amazing. And I mean, I'm proof of that. I'm over three years into one of the organizations that I support. So what's similar is the transaction of giving with a credit card. Usually, what's different, I think, is the purpose that you feel and the identity behind what you're supporting.
Christina Edwards 07:58
Okay, I love that, so let's move into, like, their experience. They sign up. They become a monthly donor, typically, I mean best case I'll describe best case scenario. Best case scenario, they get, like, a really warm welcome within the first 30 days. Okay? So they've got, like, a maybe a handwritten note. They get a good email sequence, like all the things we like to see, okay, but then what I feel like people get a little overwhelmed, where they're like, Wait, am I supposed to send them like a T shirt and a backpack? Am I supposed to give them swag? Do I have to create a whole new email plan for them? What about a newsletter did they get? What does the next like, not only 12 months, but what is the long term like to get that sweet spot of that retention seven, eight years even, yeah, and battle with the nonprofit, who's like, I don't have time for all of this. Like, what do we do? What's scalable?
Dana Snyder 08:51
Yeah, you definitely want to put in automations where you can so after so within the first month. I love and you, you're my email queen. I usually recommend. I call it like a 4.5 email that goes 4.5 emails go out in the first 30 days, and it wraps with like a happy one month anniversary email. So they feel celebrated, they feel seen, and then it's a transition into this is what you can expect from us moving on. What happens in months two through 12 and beyond is different for every organization and the bandwidth, and, like you said, the resources that you have at a minimum, what I like to see is, yes, this group should, actually, should absolutely be segmented away from your everybody else in your email list. They should receive a separate monthly email updating them on what's happening. Because I always like to say every single month on their bank statement, they're going to see a transaction from your organization. And we always wonder, huh, either you hope they're not saying, Who is that? What is that transaction? Because that's that's not good. You want them to be like, Oh yeah, that's right. I got that email the other day. Let me. In, like, follow up on that. So you wanted to correlate with the timing of knowing every single month there's a gift taking place. So sending that email, then I have an organization roots Ethiopia that's featured in the book, where, quarterly, she does a video, and she sends out to everybody and lets them know what's going on. The hope booth that I support nearly every single month with this is like, not as sustainable as they grow, but they've sent handwritten thank you notes every single month telling me how much they appreciate me as a supporter. You can automate that through tools like letter labs or handwritten where they send out it looks like handwritten sexual pen. And you can automate that through tools like Zapier on the swag comment, yes and no. It depends on if it's one of those things where, like, I know the Tim Tebow Foundation, if you give a gift of $40 a month or more in we changed it actually. They used to send it out right away, and now it's going out on month three. So it's like, wait a little bit, get into the program, and then it's like, you kind of forget. So it's like a surprise, oh yeah. Like my shirts coming. So it depends on if you are wanting to send it as a sign up, like, bonus, yep. Or if it is truly going to be a surprise and delight, which happened to me with dress sember, who I support monthly. They sent me one of those, like cross body bags after I was a donor for about a year, and they did a partnership with a company. You can have all different types of snail mails. You can ask for their birthday. So you can send those notes. You can invite them to special events that you're having, if you're like a hyper local there are so you can have a like founder fireside chat and invite your monthly donors in. You can provide community perks if you're partnering with corporate partners. Give them discounts. Like, there's literally the sky is the limit with brainstorming with this, this group, but you always want to think about what, what's important to them, what are their values? What is actually going to prove, like, impactful for them? Yeah,
Christina Edwards 12:04
so you mentioned a bunch of really amazing options, and I think this is the piece where people will be like, wait, I should do that. I should do that. And it's like, what, what actually is in line with your organization? What is right? What do they want? And I will say, I worked with a large organization here in Atlanta, and they were, they changed my mind about swag, because I'm not a I'm kind of a minimalist when it comes to that stuff. But they were like, Christina, people love wearing our T shirts around town. It's just like, and that's that identity piece of like, I'm someone who does stuff like this, right? So you kind of want to know, like, are they is? And then the other piece that you mentioned was, like, is it a bonus for signing up? So I want to move a little bit into the marketing of monthly giving programs, because a lot of people will come to me and they're like, No, we have it. And I think it's Tim you on one that's like, if you have a tab that says, give monthly, that is not a monthly giving program. So what does it what? How is that different? And what does it look like to effectively launch or grow a giving program besides, like we need this book. The book is, is our manual? What does that look like? Give us kind of broad strokes,
Dana Snyder 13:09
yes. Okay, so to tie a bow on real quick about what we were just talking about with the sending out swag and communicating with your donors. Some people don't want any of it. I think a really unique opportunity with recurring giving is to ask them, and they will actually give you more information because they are invested in the long term. One like trick for this is on your thank you page after somebody gives is to have them either click through to a simple form that says, like, how do you prefer to be communicated? SMS, email, like, whatever your options are, snail mail and let people give you that feedback, ask them for their birthday in that post form that can be also included in your thank you email series, so that you can gather that information, have it in your CRM, and then you are personalizing the thank you experience to that person. On the flip side, when it comes to marketing. Yes, I love that you stated this. It is not a monthly giving program just to have a switch over tab. However, it is definitely crucial to have that on your donation forms. Do not leave that out for people to be able to upgrade their gift. To have a program. The first step in the framework is create the product. And I truly believe a monthly giving program is a product. And I say this because I'm going to show you this. Some of you will see. This is a spin drift, sparkling water that I'm drinking right now. It has a flavor. It is called something. There is a design, there is language all over it. Real fruit tastes better, like people came up with this stuff, right? So this is a product. It has a budget, it has branding. It has a name. There's a team behind making this happen. The same thing needs to be possible for your monthly giving program, and that is huge. I think community or monthly giving programs are all about. Community and bringing people together. And if there's not a brand, if there's not a name to rally behind, then it just becomes it feels more transactional. Yep. Then I know like Floyd Jones, who we both love, really talks about like transformative gifts. And I think that's what having a product, having a program, does from the business side. You should also think about it as a product, because it's a new revenue stream. It is. It's a consistent, predictable revenue stream. It should have a budget. When it gets to the size, it should have a team member, or at least someone who's partly dedicated to it, which might seem like super scary, something that I talk about a lot in the book is actually change management and taking risks and how we are so used to seeing like major gifts officer a it's very rare to see like a sustainer role, Yeah, but how beautiful would that be? Right? If like their job is just to constantly express gratitude and be working solely on this program that is going to give you sustainable revenue. So the marketing side, like breaking that down really simply is, I think it should have a name. It should have its own landing page, so meaning,
Christina Edwards 16:11
I'm just going to lay this down like, I love that you said that. Don't call it monthly giving program. Don't call it monthly supporters. Call it something Yes, yes, yes,
Dana Snyder 16:20
yes. And there's a whole, like, naming convention exercise in here that I break down, that I do with my mastermind members, where it's a list of questions, and I actually have like, little post it notes in there that you can write in to do your own brainstorming. So it's very interactive. But, yeah, but having a name like the hope booth, I'm part of the movement Chamber of mothers. Oh my gosh, I love I'm part of the matriarchy. Like, nice. The other cool thing about a name, and they talk about this, it either hardcore attracts who you want and it repels who you don't want when you have a really strong name. And so they thought about that, the matriarchy, they're like. Some people might not like this. They're like, but we don't want those people. That's
Christina Edwards 16:59
the point, right? You want that identity. Oh, I love that so much. Yeah. Of like, what would your monthly donors be psyched to be known as? Yes, yeah. Cool. All right. So dedicated page name, yeah, okay, yeah.
Dana Snyder 17:14
And so those are the two main things to have, and then having at the top, like your big, audacious vision headline, that together, that community is helping to do blank
Christina Edwards 17:24
so, okay, this is, this is like such a wonderful exercise for so many people to go go through. I'm wondering how often, or is it rocking and rolling in the background after that initial launch? How often are you actively campaigning, running online campaigns or in person, even for members to join, for recurring donors. I love her,
Dana Snyder 17:52
All the time. Okay, this is one thing that I like cannot stand. So this has happened lots of times so like, but Dana, I sent out an email, um an email, one, maybe two. No, you all the time like this is people wonder why big organizations are successful with it. If you go on, you make it prominent everywhere. If you go on st Jude's website, not only is it pre selected for monthly it also has, like, a big blog article that you can link. It says five reasons to give monthly, and it like clicks through to a blog, and then on that page, sure enough, there's the ability to donate monthly. Like it is everywhere it's talked about everywhere. It's a recurring first ask nowadays. I actually have one organization right now that's in my mastermind, which actually, at this time we'll have launched. And they said we actually don't want a donate page. We just want it to go right to our monthly giving. Oh, wow, all right. And I was like, yes, catching so it is so, so important that you talk about it in everything you do, if you are on a podcast, you are leading people to your monthly giving program. If you are on stages, I think something that's also interesting is lots of my previous members, we do reunion calls every quarter, and they'll share they have an upcoming event. And I'll ask, okay, how are you talking about your monthly giving program? And they'll be like, Oh, well, it's gonna be one of the ask something. It should be the ask. It should be the header ask.
Christina Edwards 19:28
And so get resistance to that, yes,
Dana Snyder 19:30
but we talk about ways to this is one example I mentioned to an organization where I said, instead of you doing the asking, you now have, I was like, well, some of your existing monthly donors be there. And she goes, Yes, great. They're your spokespeople. That's right. Tell them in advance, do like a little mini committee meeting that each of you. It's like a game, game. Gamify it. If you can bring on five new monthly donors. Like as you walk around and you're talking to people and you're mingling. Okay, we're gonna have x celebration, or x swag or x thing, so have them go out and do it for you, and, like, work the room, because it's way more powerful when a peer or a friend
Christina Edwards 20:13
that endorsement. So everybody listening will know this is a twist on, like, the street team that I teach. So it's like, get your street teamers at that event, they are your ambassadors. It's so much better than one person just being like, join, join, join. Sign up, sign up. So you've mentioned a couple of organizations who are doing it right. Who are? It sounds like really putting that foot forward, and it also sounds like you've had some really great experiences yourself as a monthly donor. So let's kind of shout out bad ones. Okay, I was just about to say, call out, like, high level. Here's what I'm seeing, for the ones that are really having these successful programs, and then the other ones where you're like, Please don't, maybe best practices of, don't do right? Yeah. And I also have had, I think I told this story on the podcast already, but I was a monthly donor for three, four years with an organization, and ended up just continuing and immediately, just kept getting appeal after appeal after appeal, and it was very hard to cancel my subscription. And so that was the I was like, Oh, this is an I'm a great case study. Yeah,
Dana Snyder 21:19
yeah, yeah, that's not good the So on that note, something that you should a should not do that for what your experience was, what you should do. And I love there's an organization in the book daily giving, okay? And they say when somebody leaves there, they have 16,000 plus recurring donors. When someone leaves their program, they call them surfers, and I say, there's a ride in the wave. We hope they're gonna come back. If they leave the wave, that's okay. And so they're like, that's okay. We want to thank them. So when you left, what I should have happened is you should have received an email that said, Christina, we're so sorry to see you go. Would you like to there's an offer, would you like to lower your gift? Is there a reason why you canceled? Like, get some feedback, if not, hope, hope to still see you later on or at one of our events or whatever, right? But there's an acknowledgement that that happened, not just continuous appeals, and then make sure to not have you on those other lists. Yeah. I
Christina Edwards 22:19
think what ended up happening is this was a very large organization. I think they just lumped me back in general communications bucket, if that makes sense. So it's like they took me from where I was, and they were like, got it. She's off boarded from this. And they just put me in the, like, just the general and so it was like, I just got the general stuff. And I was like, Oh, that's a bummer. Yeah, yeah, no, that's so good. Okay, so best practices on some of the ones you've shouted out that are that are doing it well is, don't hide it. So don't bury this, you know, front and center. What else,
Dana Snyder 22:48
I think, constant communication. So having, at the bare minimum, like a monthly email that goes out. However, the ones that have kind of more of an omni channel presence, because sometimes people don't open emails. So watch your email open rates. If they're not high, then people aren't receiving those they're not seeing the impact. So is there another touch point that you can have with them, whether that be direct mail, whether that be SMS, whether that be social advertising? Like to make sure that you can reach those people, so that they do see the impact that they're making if they're not receiving those emails or a phone call, also old school. So those are the ones that I think are doing a great job. Are the ones that just find you where you are and share the message of what's happening. One organization I love, the Tim Tebow foundation, I was just working with them a few months ago on their retention plan, and something we set up was a strategic SMS strategy at certain points about what they're gonna be sharing every single month. And then also, like celebratory moments, those are also the ones that I think are doing a great job. Is outside of just the impact acknowledging happy six month anniversary, oh my gosh, you've been a supporter for a year. Like those touch points are really nice, and they feel personalized, so it takes a beat away just from what's happening. Um, but put put some attention back on the donor. Um, some practices that don't work great. Is literally the opposite is not hearing anything Yeah. Or I hate it when I'm called friend and I know you have my first name that just like, drives me crazy. Or when I get sent messages to join the monthly giving program, and I've already joined the monthly giving program and I haven't been segmented, and I'm like, I already am in here. Like, Okay, those are the things that maybe irk me more because I'm on the tech side. But I think,
Christina Edwards 24:45
no, I think that would join, join the monthly giving program for what you're already in. That's a that's no good. I think that would irk everybody. But you've mentioned segmenting a couple times, and I want to talk about segmenting from a different lens, which is, okay, they joined. They're. Monthly sustainers. But do I tell them about our Giving Tuesday fundraiser? Do I ask them for a year end, there's always that friction, that pain point from organizations like well, they're already giving. So do I segment them out of other messaging for funding? Fundraising?
Dana Snyder 25:18
No. So you do those things with a different context. Okay? So what I would say is they receive a different message. So for giving Tuesday, maybe instead of asking them to give on Giving Tuesday, you're asking them to share something on social, to invite their friends to join X program with you, because that's what you're doing, right? Maybe for the year end campaign, it's instead of a one time gift, you're saying, will you increase your monthly gift by 20% right? Which is, can be a couple dollars. So it's just different. So yes to all of it's like a yes and answer,
Christina Edwards 25:53
okay, amazing. And I'm gonna jump back because we mentioned Facebook ads a bit, and because that's your zone, like that is your zone of expertise. I want to talk about this idea of, can you run well, I'll back into it. This idea of like, are the prospects who are likely to join this program going to be your warmest, most engaged people, so meaning they're already in your world, they already give. They're already on your email list. Maybe they're a social follower, maybe they've never given, but they're hanging out. Or, and I bet that's a yes. But also, like, can you actually run cold ads and have it convert to become monthly donors? Or, and I know for some people, there's a little more high level, but, like, more advanced, or does it have to be, like, to a lead magnet, and then you got to nurture them for a while,
Dana Snyder 26:41
and then you ask, like, Does this go to totally cold? Okay,
Christina Edwards 26:44
how? Like, why does that work? Give us some like, get us excited. Because I don't think enough, I don't think enough organizations are using ADS at all, at all, and so I think there's so much opportunity out there. But paint the picture
Dana Snyder 26:59
it requires. Here's the thing, it requires testing. And testing can be scary because testing requires a budget. However, the great thing with Facebook is you always get back data. It's not going on to the abyss, and you have no idea what image worked. You don't know what copy worked. There is data on everything that can help you. So a case study that I share in the book is and I just talked about them as a Tim Tebow foundation, so they hadn't used ads either. And then last year, in the summer, Kyle, who's amazing on their team, started tinkering with ads, spending a couple $100 started seeing success actually using a video from 2020 so talk out you can definitely repurpose your content. Yep. And started to see what was working. They had about 6500 recurring donors at the time, in less than a year, from purely Facebook ads to guess at how many donors.
Christina Edwards 27:57
I'm so excited. Tell me they were at 6500 did they double it? 20,000
Dana Snyder 28:01
more than double 20,000 they spent. Now this is they ended up, yeah. What's the investment? Yeah, they ended up spending a big budget. They had spent a million dollars, but they got a 4.5 times return on that investment. So it went from a couple $100 you're just testing, but then you start to see, oh my gosh, it's working. Oh my gosh, it's working. Let's just
Christina Edwards 28:22
so like every dollar they put in, they got $4 back. Yes,
Dana Snyder 28:26
right? And it's a recurring donation, right, right, which is so it was directly pushing to a recurring first gift.
Christina Edwards 28:33
I'm really glad that we are talking about this example, because that takes a lot of calculated risk, a lot of guts to put now it was incremental, right to make that investment in ads, right? Because it's not an investment that most nonprofits are used to. Going, Yeah, go for it. Here's $1,000 a
Dana Snyder 28:52
month. The thing I hear the most is, we're the best kept secret. We're and, you know what's interesting, audience. Audiences on Facebook has changed so much, there's now like a setting in there. It's called advantage plus, and it's meta has beyond data on us, it's just fact. And so it starts to pay attention to who's engaging, who's clicking through. Because the ad not to get too like nerdy in it, but you're asking for a conversion in this you're asking for a quote, unquote sale, according to meta. So it is wanting to find people who are going to take that action that you are requesting, that you've selected. So they want to find other people who are engaging, who will make a transaction. And then it just starts to like, spread, yep. And so it obviously wants the ads to do well, because then you're going to spend more money on the platform, like it doesn't want your ads to fail and so to not be the best kept secret. This is a extremely low cost way to do it. I mean, you might say, like, a million dollars is a lot, but then if you get a. 4.5 times like then it's not and
Christina Edwards 30:03
this is, this is always the forward thinking. The more modern lens that I see the organizations who are scaling up like this aren't anyone's secret anymore. They're willing to go all right, let's try this over here, and you're right. Like meta knows not to serve that ad to your aunt Cindy who just clicks but never buys, and knows to show, to set to show that ad to somebody who actually will convert and take out their wallet or use Apple Pay or whatever. And so, yeah, this is a that's a fun way to think about, okay, for for an organization, maybe that's like, listen, we're rocking and rolling. Our monthly giving program has a name. We're kind of at an intermediate level, right? But I think we've kind of hit that ceiling with our current audience. This could be a more advanced technique too. Yeah,
Dana Snyder 30:49
yes, for sure. I love testing it at you test out videos, static image, posts, like reels. You can test all the different types of content to see what's actually going to move people to take action. And there's a great free tool called ads library. I love that you can always search and get ideas of what other literally go to, like non or Facebook ads library. And you can search us any organization. You can put Nike in there, if you wanted to, that's right. You can search charity, water, whoever Tim Tebow Foundation, and you can see all the active ads that are running to get you and inspired. Not
Christina Edwards 31:22
only does it get you inspired, but I like that. Like, show your board member, show your ED, show somebody who's like, we're not doing this, and be like, but you keep talking about charity water, and I just want to show you that they have, currently, 42 ads running. That's a lot or whatever, right? So that could be another way, or
Dana Snyder 31:39
you have to remain top of mind, like that is everything, and I think you have to be willing to invest in marketing to be able to grow these missions, or else, why? Why are you doing what you're doing? And I think for anybody that says I don't want my dollars going towards marketing, that it's like, then you don't want anyone to know about what you're doing, that seems backwards.
Christina Edwards 32:02
Yeah, I've never believed more than marketing and fundraising are, yeah, completely intertwined. Yeah, yes. Is there anything about the book about monthly giving that you want to share that we didn't go over?
Dana Snyder 32:15
Oh my gosh. I just say, if you don't have a program yet, start. Yeah, start now. The book is your like, $20 Yes, there is actually a whole section in there right at the beginning that talks about, like foundational truths to get started. And so if there is a little bit of risk adversity at your organization, whether you're struggling with that, or leadership is struggling with that, I give some tips in there. And actually scenarios to like, work through with different like data points, because I understand that's a thing. So I would say, just pick it up and give it a shot. Start. The forward is written from an organization that just started working on her monthly giving program that I give to so it's meant literally for peers to peers to learn together, and that's why it's called mastermind. Is that's the whole point of a mastermind is for us to be in community together, lifting each other up, sharing ideas, brainstorming. So I am forever grateful. There's like 15 organizations that I interviewed and shared their stories and their challenges and their experiences, and it's like real life stuff from all different sizes. It's not the big players, so not all big players. There are a few, but I wanted everyone to feel seen in it. Yeah,
Christina Edwards 33:29
this isn't something that has a barrier to entry, right? Just can start like so as long as you have a fundraising tool outside of, like a PayPal, let's go right, something that has some automation in the background. This isn't something that you can actually get away with saying, Oh, we don't have the budget right now. Like you get to you get to carve out space. Thank you so much. We ask every guest on the podcast to share one thought that they like to think on purpose. So this can be a mantra and affirmation, just something that guides them forward in this work or in this life? Would you share yours with our listeners?
Dana Snyder 34:05
Oh, man. The mantra, I think, right now, the one that's like, based on the mission of what I'm trying to do, is for everyone to feel and be able to be a philanthropist, and whatever that looks like to them. So I think that would be it like, simply, everyone
Christina Edwards 34:19
can be honest, yeah, and let's end with that idea of just like, what if you did treat your $25 a month monthly donor like you did your $25,000 a year or two. Like, imagine that, and think about how many people they would talk to and lift up and endorse and advocate and tell their friends about your organizations, because they saw that this wasn't transactional, that they were a part of something. So yeah,
Dana Snyder 34:46
that's beautiful. It's a beautiful ripple effect. All right, where can people
Christina Edwards 34:49
come hang out with you? And we are definitely going to link to your book in the notes. But where do you like to hang out the most online? LinkedIn,
Dana Snyder 34:55
for sure, you can just find me. Dana Snyder on LinkedIn if you prefer a more. Colorful channel, I'm on Instagram, positive equation with 1e and then the book, yeah, is positive equation.com. Forward slash. Book, amazing.
Christina Edwards 35:09
Thank you so much for coming on.
Dana Snyder 35:11
Thank you, Christina, that
Christina Edwards 35:14
was great. You.