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Launch and grow your nonprofit with confidence! The Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast for Startup, Small, and Growing Nonprofits is your weekly resource for nonprofit startup advice, nonprofit growth strategies, and practical tips for nonprofit leadership. Whether you're dreaming of starting a nonprofit organization, navigating the challenges of a new role, or looking to scale your impact, this podcast provides actionable insights. Learn nonprofit best practices based around the 6 critical elements that any nonprofit needs to grow foundationally strong: Leadership, Development, Marketing, Programs and Services, Operations, and Finances. Learn effective fundraising strategies, and essential nonprofit management techniques. Get nonprofit coaching and access free nonprofit resources to build your nonprofit capacity and achieve nonprofit success. Join Matt Stockman, a seasoned nonprofit growth coach, as we explore nonprofit development and provide the guidance you need to make a lasting difference. Tune in for weekly episodes filled with nonprofit tips, inspiring stories, and expert advice to help you grow a nonprofit that thrives. If you are looking for nonprofit training or ways to improve your nonprofit strategy, this podcast is for you.
Matt Stockman (00:00)
The first gift from a new donor to your organization gets all the attention. We celebrate it and we should because it's absolutely worth celebrating. But the first gift isn't usually the most important gift. In my opinion, the most important gift is often the second gift that you get because the second gift tells you something that the first gift can't. It tells you that the donor wants to stay with your organization. And today we're going to talk about how to help first-time donors become
Long-term partners with your mission.
Welcome to the Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast for startups, small, and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong, sustainable foundation by providing the clear frameworks, the practical tools, and the real-world guidance that you can actually put into practice that you need for your nonprofit. I'm your host, Matt Stockman. I'm a nonprofit growth coach, and here at Nonprofit Launch Plan,
We believe that every successful nonprofit has to be operating at peak performance in six areas. Those six areas are leadership, fundraising, marketing, programs and services, operations, and finances. So on every episode of the podcast, we focus on one of those core areas to help you create lasting impact without all the unnecessary complexity.
Now, before we dive into today's episode, if you like the kind of things that you're learning and picking up from listening to the podcast, there's more of that. Each week in my free weekly email, I call it the Nonprofit Launch Briefing. Every week I send out one meaningful email about something different than what you hear on the podcast. Strategies, practical tools, fundraising insight, all the real world guidance for startups, small and growing nonprofits. So if you're serious about building a healthy nonprofit,
With real impact. I'd love to have you on the list getting that email every week. Just shoot me a quick email with a simple sign me up in the subject line. My email is matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. I'll take care of the rest. Just send me a simple email with sign me up in the subject line. And again, my email is matt at nonprofitlaunchplan dot com. Now, in the last episode, part one of this.
We talked about the first half of the donor journey. We we looked at how someone moves from awareness, step one, to interest, step two, to engagement, step three, and then ultimately to making that first gift. We call that moment the first gift, step four. So today I want to talk about what happens after that, because most organizations spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about how to get donors.
And very little time thinking about what happens once a donor arrives and makes a gift. And honestly, I get it. I understand why. When you're leading a nonprofit, especially a startup or a growing organization, there's always this pressure.
Programs need funding, the bills need to get paid, chances are good you're doing all of that. Or if you're lucky enough to have help, that staff person or volunteer that's helping you, they need support. There are real people counting on the work that you do. And naturally, a lot of energy and attention gets focused on bringing in that next gift rather than making sure that the loop is really closed well on the gift that you just got. But here's the rub with all of that.
If your entire fundraising strategy revolves around getting first-time donors, in other words, just repeating steps one through four in the donor journey over and over again, you're signing yourself up for a very difficult future. Imagine owning a bucket that's got a hole in the bottom of it. And every day you're carrying more water to the bucket and pouring it in. And for a moment, the water level goes up to the top, but then it slowly leaks back out.
The solution isn't just carrying more water, it's fixing the hole in the bucket. That's how that problem gets solved. And in many nonprofits, the hole is donor retention.
Matt Stockman (04:11)
Let's say your organization gets a first-time gift from somebody named Sarah. Sarah discovers your nonprofit through a friend. She visits your website. She reads some of the stories of impact on your website. She starts following your organization on social media for a couple of months. Maybe she attends an event and eventually she decides to make a $100 donation. Awesome. That's great. What happens next?
For a lot of nonprofits, Sarah gets an automated receipt. Maybe she gets a generic thank you email or even a phone call or a thank you from you. And then that's it. Silence after
Now, behind the scenes in the office of your nonprofit, Sarah's name gets added to the database, and then she might just end up getting like a monthly or a quarterly newsletter if you're sending something like that out. Or what could be worse is that she never gets anything from you for a few months until at some point she gets another fundraising appeal. Now, pause for just a moment and look at this whole dynamic from Sarah's point of
if you're Sarah, you cared enough to make a gift. You believed in the mission enough to take action. You essentially raised your hand and said, I want to be a part of what's happening at this nonprofit. And then nobody really engaged with you. I mean, they said thank you, but then nothing much happened after that. No one showed you the impact of the gift. Nobody welcomed you into the community. Nobody helped you understand what happened because of your generosity.
And in some ways, it's kind of like getting invited to a party, saying yes to the invitation, then going to the party. But as soon as you get there, nobody talks to you after you walk through the front door. You're probably leaving wondering whether anybody really wanted you there in the first place. And yet that's exactly what many nonprofits unintentionally do with first-time donors. The first 90 days after a gift are incredibly important because donors are paying attention during that period.
They're asking questions, even if they never say them out loud. They're thinking to themselves, did my gift matter? Did they receive it? Can I trust this organization with my financial support? Are they competent? Am I actually making a difference? And every communication that your organization sends is hopefully helping to answer those questions. Every communication that you don't send is also sending an answer to those questions.
So I've got four steps for you to make sure that your donor journey from the first gift to the second ask is as solid as the first four steps that you walked people through that we spotlighted in the previous episode of awareness, interest, engagement, and first gift. That's why I think one of the most important mindset shifts a nonprofit leader can make is this a first time donor.
Does not need a receipt process, although making sure that they get a receipt and that it's timely and correct and all of that is super important. What you really need is a first-time donor welcome process. The receipt just confirms the transaction. Your gift went through. A welcome begins a relationship. And that's what these four steps will lay out for you is a process to start to build that relationship.
Because the more you can create a process that manages this for you, the more you can feel good about your donors being led through the donor journey with care and intention without you having to do all of it. Think about your own experience for just a moment. If you've ever joined a new church, started a new job, joined a gym, become part of a new community, you probably remember how you were welcomed. Those early interactions
shaped how connected you felt moving forward. And the same thing is true for donors. If somebody gives to your organization for the first time, what experience are they entering into? Do they receive a personal thank you? Do they hear about a story of impact? Do they learn more about the mission? Do they get a sense of how their generosity is being used?
And do they get invited into a next step? Or do they simply just get a tax receipt and then disappear into the database? What I want to give you now is a very simple framework that almost any startup, small or growing nonprofit can implement. Think of this as steps five through eight in the donor journey. And the last episode, of course, had steps one through four in the donor journey. We talked about awareness, interest.
Engagement and then the first gift in the last episode. Now let's talk about what comes next. Step five is thank you. And when I say thank you, I don't mean simply sending a tax receipt. That tax receipt is just a record of the transaction. A thank you is like I mentioned before, the beginning of a relationship. Ideally, within the first 24 to 48 hours after a gift.
The donor should hear from a real human being, whether that's you or that's somebody on your team. That might be a phone call, that might be a personal email, that might be a handwritten note. But the goal is super simple. Let them know that they were noticed.
one of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make is assuming that donors know that they are appreciated. You have to tell them that they are appreciated in a genuine way and from your heart or from the heart of the person that will be managing that relationship moving forward. Tell them, say thank you. And again, ideally 24 to 48 hours after them making that gift. That's step five. Step six then.
is show them the impact. Within the next couple of weeks, ideally you'd like the donor to see evidence that their gift has mattered. And the easiest way to do this is through sharing stories. Tell them about a person who has been helped recently in your organization. Tell them about a challenge that was overcome in the organization because they helped to solve that problem. Show them the mission and action as a result of their gift.
The reason they gave their gift to begin with wasn't so that their hard-earned money could just become part of a large number or some statistic on a spreadsheet someplace. They gave to make impact. So let's give them proof of performance, the evidence of impact. A donor who can see the difference that their generosity is making is a whole lot more likely to stay engaged. This can be an email or a short video that you send, or even a follow-up phone call.
Even if you leave a voice message from a team member, the message can be something as simple as this: Hey, Sarah just calling to tell you how that hundred dollars you gave at the event last week is already making an impact. We just welcomed a guy named David into the program. David has been struggling to get his life on track for a couple of years now. He's been living on the street, but because of your generosity, David is now in the recovery program. He's got a place to stay.
And he's smiling again, which is huge. So again, thank you so much, Sarah, for making that gift. We just wanted to let you know how it's being used to transform somebody's life. That can be the message right there. And I want to add something before we get to step number seven. I've been in this place before and I know the tricks that our mind can play on us.
Our mind can trick us into believing that a person who's been generous and maybe just given probably just wants to be left alone and not be bothered. And so, you know, we should probably just leave them be and not reach out and tell them anything about how their gift is making an impact. We can allow that thinking to be so prominent that we think if we pester people with too much contact, that we will chase them away and they'll never give again. And that's not true. And to quote Dave Ramsey,
Thoughts like that are from the pit of hell and smell like smoke, if you know what I mean. The easiest and fastest way to actually chase off a donor is to not communicate with them. If you call them to tell them thank you or to share an impact story and they don't answer, they're not avoiding you. Leave a message, tell the story with confidence. So that's step six. Step seven then.
Is to add additional value. This is where a lot of nonprofits completely skip ahead to another ask. Instead, let's give the donor something useful. Maybe it's a behind the scenes update from you. Maybe it's a short video from the executive director or somebody else on your team. I've seen organizations give a link to download a free copy of a book that somehow relates to the organization, either written by the founder.
Or a book that is just important to the work that they do. Maybe it's a story that helps them better understand the problem that your organization is solving. The goal here in step seven is to deepen the relationship without asking for anything. Think about any friendship you have. If every conversation ended with that person who's your friend asking you for money, that wouldn't feel like much of a friendship.
Healthy relationships involve value flowing in both directions. And the same is true here. What can you do to add value to the donor in a meaningful way without asking for anything in return? That is step number seven. And then we arrive at step number eight making the second ask. Notice an important distinction here. Step eight is making the second ask, not asking for the second gift. Those are two separate things.
The second ask could be an invitation to make a second gift. We'll talk about that more in just a moment, but it could also be asking the person to consider making an introduction into their circle of influence. It could be asking them to volunteer for an upcoming event or to host a dinner at their house. It might not be a financial gift. And the question that everybody asks about step eight in particular is when is the right time to make the second ask?
And the answer to that question is probably not necessarily what you're expecting. If you were to Google the answer to this question right now, you're going to get thousands of slightly different answers from thousands of nonprofit growth coaches just like me. Here's my answer.
I don't think the right answer is primarily a time frame. I think the right answer is more about whether the donor has experienced enough gratitude, enough impact, and enough added value and engagement to justify another invitation. For some organizations, that cycle, steps five through eight, may happen in 30 days. For others, it may take 60 or 90 days.
what matters most is that the donor doesn't feel like they've received two asks right in a row. One of the rules I teach coaching clients is this: between every ask, there should be evidence that the previous gift mattered. If the donor's been thanked, they've been shown impact.
They've been given meaningful additional value. That's steps five, six, and seven. Then the second ask, step eight, feels natural. It feels like the next step in a relationship, not the beginning of another transaction. So if you're looking for a simple timeline, here's one example. This might work for you. Day one, as soon as they make the gift, they get a thank you. Maybe two weeks, day 13, day 14, they get an impact story from you. Around day 30, they get.
Something that creates additional value for them without an ask. And then day 45 to day 60 can be the second ask. Now, are those exact days magical? No, yours may be different, but the sequence does matter. Thank you, impact, value, invitation. When those steps happen consistently, donors begin to trust you more deeply. And trust is ultimately what leads to high donor retention.
Which brings me to a statement that might surprise you. I mentioned it at the top of the podcast. The most important gift your organization receives is almost never the first gift. It's the second one. The first gift gets all the attention. We ring the bell, we celebrate, and that's great. But the first gift is a lot of times the most transactional. Maybe a friend asked this person to give. Maybe they came to your banquet or an event, or maybe they were emotionally moved by a single video. But when somebody chooses to give a second time,
They're making a completely different statement. They are saying, I saw what you did with my first gift and I trust you and I want to hang out with you more. Think of it this way: the first gift is almost like a first date. The second gift is the commitment to an actual relationship. And that relationship is where your nonprofit sustainability lives. When you master steps five through eight in the donor journey, you're not just chasing money, you're building a community of people.
Who believe in what you do, who believe in your vision, who believe in your mission. Over time, those second time donors are the exact people who become your recurring monthly supporters, your event hosts, and your biggest advocates. But they won't ever get there if we leave them stranded at the starting line. Donors don't arrive fully formed. They grow over time, just like your nonprofit does. And our job as leaders isn't to pressure them into the next stage.
It is to intentionally guide them through each one of the steps. So let's put this into practice right now. Get something to write on and write down the names of the last five first-time donors who gave to your organization and then run them through this gauntlet. Did they get a personal human thank you within 48 hours? Step number five in the donor journey. Did you show them a specific story of impact within the next two weeks? That's step six.
Did you offer them something of value without asking for a dime? That's step seven. Or did they just get an automated tax receipt and then disappear into the database? If you look at the list and you realize we haven't done such a great job at this, don't be discouraged. Feel incredibly encouraged because now you've got the secret. You found the hole in the bucket. And fixing the hole is the fastest way to stabilize your fundraising and grow your impact.
The donor journey doesn't end with the first gift. That's just the starting line. That's it for this edition of the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast. Remember, if you like what you're learning on the podcast, you can get more of it in your inbox every week. Just sign up for my free weekly email, the Nonprofit Launch Briefing. Each week I send you one meaningful email.
About something you probably need to be considering or thinking about or working on as a nonprofit leader trying to grow your nonprofit. And it's something different than on the podcast. It's never the same stuff. Designed to help you lead smarter and grow stronger. So if you're serious about building a healthy nonprofit that's making real impact long term, I'd love to have you on the list. Shoot me a quick email with a simple sign me up in the subject line. My email is matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. Again, sign me up in the subject line.
Email is matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com. That is all for this episode of the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startup small and growing nonprofits. If this podcast has been helpful, share it with another nonprofit leader you feel might benefit from it and maybe need some more clarity in their nonprofit journey. Until next time, keep building wisely and keep making a difference.