I’m in the early days of reading the Bible cover to cover. I didn’t set out to do that, but I sort of started in Genesis and now find myself in the middle of Exodus, so I think I’ll just keep going.

(It’s the NKJ version for inquiring minds.)

In smaller organizations, it can be hard to feel like we’re truly stewarding donors before we show back up again asking for something else.

Let’s look at the donor like a bank. (Crass but hear me out.)

If we’re only ever making withdrawals, eventually the flow of money from the bank will stop, and we’ll have to move on to a different bank.

Looking back on my career in higher education, one of my favorite roles was the four years I spent building affinity programs. What started as a ground-floor experiment quickly grew into a wildly successful program that transformed donor engagement at the university.

Last week, I mentioned the power of matching gifts in year-end campaign planning, and it sparked some great conversations about how nonprofits can use this strategy year-round.

This week, I’m focusing specifically on corporate matching programs. We’ll circle back to individual donors providing matches (and when to ask!) in a future newsletter.

It’s mid-September, and many nonprofits are already planning their end-of-year giving campaigns. And for good reason: Q4 giving can often make or break the entire year’s revenue goals.

In fact, nearly 30% of all annual giving happens in December. Even more shocking, 12% of all annual giving takes place in the last THREE DAYS of the year.

This week my daughter came home from school with a Bible verse that stopped me in my tracks:

Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’”

This verse is powerful because it captures the moment when the prophet Isaiah willingly accepts his calling, even though he knows it won’t be easy.

When I read the verse, the first thing I thought of was all of you on the front lines of nonprofits.

Over the past decade, corporate giving has transformed dramatically. The old “slap our logo on your event and call it a sponsorship” model has gone the way of the dodo bird. Although that approach might still work for annual gala sponsorships, there’s a lot to explore in the world of ongoing, transformational corporate giving.

Have you ever noticed how the work we put off doing is louder than the work we’re getting done?

That follow-up email that needs sending.
The meeting that needs documenting.
Those donor letters that need signing.

… all of it!

Growing up in the ’90s, I was just a bit too young to really appreciate the .com boom. My family got our first home computer in 1998, and I put it to very important use: Barbie paint-by-number coloring pages and endless AOL Instant Messenger chats with my high school friends… at least when the landline wasn’t tied up.

The internet started as a novelty, just something fun to tinker with.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been following a woman on social media who’s working to pay off $100K in debt as a stay-at-home-mom. Her strategy? Side hustles. She takes online surveys, writes Amazon reviews, joins research studies - you name it.

But her most lucrative gig? She’s a mystery shopper for apartment complexes.

In my first real fundraising job, I always hit my goals.

Season tickets? Nailed it.
Sponsorships? Check.
Annual gala? On target.

And although it sounds really impressive, the truth is the goals were too low.

After a few years of this, I asked my boss to raise the bar. I wanted to see what I was really capable of.

It’s my third week sending this newsletter.

To you, it’s no big deal. You can read it, delete it, and move on with your day.

But for me, it’s a very big deal.

Who are the most overlooked donors in your database? Unless the answer is "all of them,” I can almost guarantee it’s your mid-level givers.

Most nonprofit CEOs I talk to are hanging on. There's never enough time, never enough staff, and never enough budget. It makes sense that mid-level donors are the most overlooked because they aren’t the big-spenders and they aren’t the easy-to-automate low-tier donors, either.

Nearly 20 years ago, I started my career in college athletics. My job was to be the on-court entertainer during timeouts and half-times at NCAA basketball games. I was constantly developing fun games for fans to play, and I took it so seriously. Hearing the crowd laughing and cheering meant everything to me!

Then one day, a new donor to the athletics department approached me mid-game, with her hands cupping her ears, and yelled in my direction, “Your voice is piercing my ears! It’s terrible!”

I was stunned. Did everyone feel this way? Or was this woman just old and crotchety with no appreciation for good entertainment?