Ep. 202: Stop Crying Wolf: How to Fundraise Without Burning Out Your Donors
EPISODE 202
Stop Crying Wolf: How to Fundraise Without Burning Out Your Donors
About the Episode:
There's a marketing concept that applies directly to how nonprofits fundraise: some messages are painkillers, and some are vitamins. Painkillers solve immediate problems: urgent, scarce, make-or-break. Vitamins build something sustainable: aspirational, visionary, long-term. Most nonprofits accidentally built their entire fundraising strategy around one extreme or the other, and both extremes are costing them donors.
In this episode, I break down the difference between painkiller and vitamin fundraising, when each one belongs in your strategy, and what happens when you overuse either. I also dig into the dangerous gray zone I call vague vitamin messaging, content that sounds nice, means nothing, and converts nobody. If your campaigns are flatlining, your donors are churning, or your monthly giving program isn't growing, this episode will show you exactly why and what to do instead.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The Painkiller vs. Vitamin fundraising framework, and why most organizations are stuck in one extreme
Why chronic panic messaging trains donors to churn, distrust, and disappear
What vague vitamin messaging looks like, and why it's just as dangerous as over-urgency
How one SPRINT Method™ client campaign hit 115% of its goal in under two weeks using a pure vitamin strategy
Why monthly giving is the ultimate vitamin, and what a small monthly donor program signals about your messaging
How to balance both Painkiller and Vitamin in a sustainable fundraising calendar
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!
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Some products are painkillers, and some are vitamins. Painkillers solve immediate problems, and vitamins support long-term health. Nonprofits accidentally built their entire fundraising strategy around one extreme or the other.”
“Organizations are either overcommunicating panic or undercommunicating emotional relevance.”
“People who are part of your monthly giving program are inherently part of it because of the aspiration and your vision.”
“People want to find momentum, they want to build something long-term lasting.”
“Monthly giving creates consistency, stability, predictability, donor belonging, and long-term connection.”
“Healthy organizations know how to use both: frequency issues and a content issue.”
“Sustainable fundraising cannot only be built on survival messaging. Donors do not stay because you panicked louder. Donors stay because they trust you.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Easy Emails For Impact™ - Turn Your Inbox into an Income Stream
Double Your Donations - Raise More From Your Laptop Without Chasing Grants or Galas
Donations on Demand: Build a $5K Email Campaign System in 30 min/week
Connect with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 1:25There's this marketing concept. Some products are painkillers, and some are vitamins. Maybe you've heard this distinction before. Painkillers solve immediate problems, and vitamins - well, they support long-term health, and nonprofits accidentally built their entire fundraising strategy around one extreme or the other, either everything is a five alarm flyer, 911 or everything is so vague that no one is really moved to take action.
so today I want to talk about the difference, why you actually need both, when to use them, and the hidden danger of what I'm calling vague item in messaging,
so this particular episode is one that I foundationally have wanted to record for some time, so whether you're newer to nonprofit marketing and fundraising or you are an established rock star fundraiser, you're still going to get a lot out of this episode, because the landscape right now has changed. Donor retention is struggling, depending on the data, as high as eight out of 10 donors only give one time. Small donor participation is declining, and organizations may be fighting harder than ever for attention. Up with a modern playbook, not the 2010 playbook for fundraising.
So, two thirds of households donated in 2000 Today it's closer to a half, so we see the decline in the number of donors giving, but the problem is not generosity. Hear me say that again, people are not less generous. The problem is communication, in the lack there of profound, inviting, inspiring communication, and the frequency of communication. So organizations are either over communicating panic, we'll get into that, or under communicating emotional relevance. This may be a lot of growing scaling orgs, so if you are an established organization experiencing a plateau, experiencing a dip in revenue, you probably are in this camp of under communicating emotional relevance. But neither build sustainable funding. So let's dig into what the painkiller fundraising is. What does that look like? Painkiller is urgent, scarce, critical, make or break. There is a time and place for this. Disaster relief, grant funding freezes, sudden funding gaps, crisis campaigns. Like these are important fundraisers to deploy. They have their place, they have their place, real emergency, real urgency, deploy it. Had so many clients, I just talked to one this week that I said, I think, I think it's time, I think you just explained to me why you have a painkiller fundraiser, let's go. So they work, the problem is when everything becomes an emergency, donors start to feel that emotional exhaust, exhaustion, distrust, and skepticism. They start to wonder, why is this always happening? Does this organization actually have a plan? Everything is like homeostasis 911 homeostasis 911 We need money. These, instead of peaks and valleys that feel softer, I want you to picture like triangular points. It's very sudden hard. It's very much turning into the boy who cried wolf energy, and it's not something that donors stay connected to. So, what happens? You don't usually notice the damage immediately. You notice it when donors churn, unsubscribes rise, donors become one and done, maybe two and done donors, and that's it. Campaigns that used to work suddenly flatline, and you might be thinking, but urgency works. Christina, you talk about urgency all the time. You say we need urgency. Yes, you do.
Christina Edwards 7:43
You need urgency, but that's exactly why organizations who are in this camp tend to overuse it. They're overusing it because the painkiller collapsed the decision time for the donor, it activates cold to warm donors very quickly. So, think about an earthquake or the fires in Maui, right, those types of things, where they're like disaster relief responses. People went from cold non-donors had never heard of your organization before to immediate donors, right. Time and a place for that urgency works, but the issue here is not urgency when it's deployed too much. The issue is actually chronic panic, right? It's the chronic, like that same vibe in your messaging, that same frantic energy in your story, that same pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pow messaging and frequency in your content, that's the difference. This moment matters, kind of activation. When you come from the place of everything is always falling apart. Oh my god, now what? Now, your messaging doesn't actually say that, but your stories say that. How much you're raising for says that. The way in which you're raising for it, that fatigues your donors. Now, most nonprofits are not doing this intentionally. I know this. Y'all are doing this to be manipulative. You're not doing this because it's part of your big strategy. You're doing this because you're overwhelmed. You're doing this because you're underfunded, behind operating reactively, waiting too long to ask. So, when you wait too long to ask, and you do not have a clear, clear campaign plan for the next six to 12 months for fundraising, then you become chronically underfunded, and every campaign becomes this has to work, 911 Donors feel that pressure, and that is how you accidentally train donors to only give during an emergencies. So, what is the antidote here? What do we do instead? When do we do it? Let's talk about vitamin fundraising. So, vitamin is building something sustainable, not just surviving. So, instead of you in a pool and you're like, "Help, throw me a life preserver, and I throw you a life preserver, then you're good for a while, and then you're like, "Help, throw me a life preserver. The vitamin is like, "We teach you how to swim, right? Okay, but the problem with vitamins sometimes is people know how to swim now, they're not taking actions. We're gonna dig into that, because true, true, true vitamin fundraising is not passive, is not boring, it is not just awareness only kind of fluffy, chill content. A vitamin campaign absolutely can and should have earned urgency built in, but the energy is different. So, here's how it would look. A pain killer campaign says stop the collapse, hurry, help, immediate response needed vitamin says build this future donor match, it still has built in momentum and urgency levers, but it's built in a way that actually feels trustworthy and sustainable for the donor, so it builds that trust, that donor identity, that emotional stickiness where the donor actually feels connected to your cause because they have long-term belief that their support of your organization is actually going to help the communities that you serve. It invites donors into possibility, and as I was thinking about this, this podcast episode today, I was thinking about recurring giving monthly givers, and I think that monthly giving may be the ultimate vitamin, because monthly giving is inherently it's a sustainability play, right? It's sort of this idea of in my city we have trash pickup and we have recycling pickup, but like a step beyond that would be to go the extra mile and pay for a service that's like composting, right? Because what is composting doing? It's like really much more environmentally friendly, sustainable, long-term support for your community, for your climate, for stuff to not end up even in recycling plants and dumpsters and all the things, right. So it's this idea of this like sustainable piece, it's prevention program, scholarships, mentorship, infrastructure, leadership development.
Christina Edwards 12:32
People who are part of your monthly giving program are inherently part of it because of the aspirational, your vision, where you were going, they're like, I'm in for the ride, so that's a huge difference, and maybe it's a wake-up call to you if you're like, we have a dozen monthly givers. Ooh, okay, so one of two things may be happening here. One is you just may not have built out your monthly giving program yet, and that's fine, we help you do that inside the Purpose and Profit Club, okay? But if you're like, no, we've, we've, we've tried it, we've launched it, we've branded it, and they are not coming. You may be over reliant on painkiller messaging, so people aren't even ready to say, let's co-create this together, let's partner together. I'm with you, I want to be, I share that identity, I share that connection to your cause, so vitamin is inherently towards that possibility.
Let me show you, or talk about an example of a vitamin fundraiser in practice. So, I talked about, like, hurricane relief, earthquake relief, disaster grant funding freeze. We need your support now. Those are painkillers, right? Help, we need to make operation expenses for next month. That's a bank dealer, right? So we had a client inside the Sprint method, my program for emerging newer solo-led organizations and founders. And inside the Sprint method, we had the duo on the podcast recently from Sharing Hope Africa, but they had a newer campaign called Chicks for Change, and this campaign reached over 115% of its goal in less than two weeks, a very short timeline, completely online from their laptop, and they were able to structure this entire campaign around the story, and the story was around funding a chicken coop that would generate ongoing income through egg sales for the preschool in Africa, and so they talked about that, that is a vitamin, that is like, I, that's a vitamin, that's a vitamin, as I'm going along, and I'm just like, when I think about this story, when I think about the story they told, which is hopeful, tangible, sustainable, emotionally compelling. The possibility of what it creates for these preschoolers who rely on this school for a meal each day, who parents rely on this school because there is no other option. That is the entire crux of what this campaign was about, not we're going to shutter, we're going to close doors, unless we raise this money right now, painkiller with me, vitamin and people really showed up for this campaign. They still had lots of urgency baked in, but we were along for the ride. It was very, very aspirational of what they were creating. What was the outcome, the result of this campaign? Donors weren't reacting to panic, they were investing in momentum, and that momentum was so visual, like once you saw the first $1,000 $2,000 $5,000 $10,000 came, come in, it just got faster and faster and faster. People want to find momentum, they want to build something long term lasting. So monthly giving says we're building sustainable care together, not we're surviving, or surviving another week, so monthly giving creates that consistency, stability, predictability, donor belonging, long, long-term connection. Strong recurring giving programs stop that reactive cycle, and so do strong fundraisers that are rooted in that vitamin strategy, because you've built the infrastructure instead of only the reactionary campaign, and I think a lot of organizations can lose the plot when they are like, listen, I don't want to always be urgent, I don't want to always be 911 and so they end up in this gray space, these vague vitamin messaging, right? So it's like a vague vitamin, it's content that sounds nice, stories that are super, super vague, and it creates zero movement. It's very support our mission, change lives, make a difference without specifics, emotional tension, urgency, vision outcomes, identity stakes. That's why your vitamin doesn't work, and that's why you've been overly reliant on the painkiller. You with me? So, without those things, people will scroll past, delete, not open, unsubscribe, nobody remembers it, nobody acts on it. Think about it, of organizational wallpaper, right?
Christina Edwards 17:31
It's just like in the background, and a lot of nonprofit content lives there. That's the difference. Sometimes I'll see the nonprofit content live there about 10 months of the year, and then wake up for a year end, and I'm like, there it is, but all those other months of the year, those 10 months, you're missing so much opportunity, so much opportunity, do and if you're thinking I don't want to overwhelm donors, I don't want to push too hard, I just don't want to be too much, I don't want to ask too often. Christina, I was coaching someone in my programs this week, and it was so interesting because they ran a really great campaign about four or five months ago, and they revealed themselves in some coaching that there was some reservation around, well, the people who gave to that probably can't give to this, and I was like, What are you talking about? What, what, what, what are you talking about? Five months ago, can you imagine if your favorite brand or business that you love to shop at was like, listen, she shopped there five months ago, she doesn't want to support our business anymore. Oh no, no, no, but it is a matter of balancing the story and the stakes in a way that that invitation to give, they're like, hell yes, so it's not about overwhelming them, but it's also underwhelming them. Is where a lot of organizations stay. You're underwhelming them, that's a big problem. So, your donors don't need either constant panic or flavorless inspiration. They need that specificity, that emotional relevance, that heart that soul to it, right, with clear invitations, not apologetic invitations buried in the last line of the email, clear invitations and stories that actually get them to move today, not five from five months from now, so you know you're in that vague item in territory when you reread your last email or appeal piece, and kind of feel nothing, kind of feel like shrug, because if you feel that way, most likely your donors do too. So the real goal here is not never use urgency. In fact, I have an entire class about urgency, and it's not all. Only inspire people. The goal is understanding when each type of messaging matters, when to deploy them, and when to do that in a way that drives action. Now, painkiller activates, vitamin sustains. So, if you're only relying on that painkiller, you're going to see that churn, and if you're only relying on a vitamin without urgency, you're going to have struggles with converting, meaning, you're going to put your campaign, your ask out there, and instead of seeing a flood of donations, you're going to see a trickle, and that vague middle is complete disengagement, where people are like you're another, another person said to me recently that some internal stakeholders, like board members, chairs, etc. didn't really realize that there was a fundraiser going on, like that's interesting, that's an invitation too, to hit the gas on your messaging, your frequency, and the soul, right? The what's deep down in your story, because if they don't know it, again, your donors are probably missing it too. So, my guess is that was a frequency issue and a content issue, a story issue. Healthy organizations know how to use both. You need both. It's like you need gas in the car, you need oil in the car. You can't operate with one or the other. We need to balance it, and that's how you're going to year to accelerate. Sometimes you're going to push it more over here, and sometimes you're going to push it more over here. So, I want you to ask yourself, does our organization communicate only when we need money, only when it's 911 only when we are feeling scarce, stressed out, freaked out. When I've heard it from top down leadership, now, now, now, have we trained our donors to panic? Are we nurturing our donors between campaigns? This is huge. This is huge.
Christina Edwards 22:02
I've been on the receiving end of so many emails, so many campaigns where I'm like, they are stuck in pain killer energy, and on top of it, they're not nurturing donors in between, so their churn rate is super high. Are our messages emotionally specific? Are we inviting donors into a future or just white-knuckled about the now, are we building momentum or just noise? Work would our donors describe us as stable, strategic, visionary, or scrambling, stressed. Sustainable fundraising cannot only be built on survival messaging. Donors do not stay because you panicked louder. Think about, like, the crying toddler. The first time the toddler pitches a fit and cries, and you realize that they're not hurt, it's just a toddler meltdown. The first time, second time, you're like, "You okay? What's going on? The like 50th time you turn it out right, turn it out. You're not, they're not getting your attention because they cry louder, right? I know toddlers will try this. They're like, "And I'm going to drop my food and leave a mess over here. They're like, "Will this get your attention? Will this get your attention? Right? You don't want to become that for your organization. Donors stay because they trust you. They believe in where you're going, and again they want to be part of that. Like, as a donor myself, I want to be part of the change that you're creating. That's why we donate. They feel emotionally connected to building it with you. They want to fund the momentum. They want to see you win. This is like one of my favorite things to remind you. We want to see you win. You know that, right? We want to see you win, so not for just emergencies. We want to see you win at every fundraiser you you have year round. So, if your organization is stuck in reactive fundraising, constantly rebuilding, constantly scrambling, trying to manufacture urgency, that's why I created the sprint method. Inside the sprint method, we teach emerging nonprofits, solo-led organizations how to build repeatable $10,000 and up campaigns. So we teach you that process of fundraising online. Now, if you want more high-level strategy, you're ready to put it all together across fundraising, communications, donor engagement, and campaigns, getting full feedback on your email strategy, your marketing strategy, your major gift strategy. Then the Purpose and Profit Club group coaching program is the place for you. You can always go to Splendid atl.com forward slash start for details about both. I'll see you in the next one. I want to hear from you. If this resonated with you, I would love to know. Did you find yourself? Was there a little mirror being shown? Was it a painkiller mirror or a vitamin mirror? And what your plan is for next time