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Operating a non-profit mentoring organization costs money. But that money isn't self-generated like a normal business, so where does it come from? In the second of a three-part episode on the subject, Jeff Giddens from NextAfter joins Zach to discuss the practicals behind the powerful tool that is online fundraising.
Show Notes
Operating a non-profit mentoring organization costs money. But that money isn't self-generated like a normal business, so where does it come from? In the second of a three-part episode on the subject, Jeff Giddens from NextAfter joins Zach to discuss the practicals behind the powerful tool that is online fundraising.
Reach out to Jeff at NextAfter:
https://www.nextafter.com/
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Reach out to Jeff at NextAfter:
https://www.nextafter.com/
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Hey. Welcome to the You Can Mentor podcast. I'm here again with Jeff Giddens, and we're talking about fundraising part due. A dirty word. Yes.
Speaker 2:The f word, so to speak. Hey. So the last time that we met, we talked about just the heart of fundraising. We talked about trying to fundraise out of joy and not out of fear. We talked about how people give to people and how it's all about the story and how your job as a fundraiser, it's not to raise money.
Speaker 2:It's to share what the Lord is doing through your ministry. Stories, stories, stories. How's it going, Jeff?
Speaker 3:It's good.
Speaker 2:It's great.
Speaker 3:Glad to be back at 4 Runner.
Speaker 2:Hey. Good to have you, man.
Speaker 3:All of 90 seconds from my house.
Speaker 2:It's a neighborhood thing over here. Alright. So today, we're gonna talk about 2 more aspects of fundraising. We're gonna talk about online fundraising, which is the expertise of Jeff Giddens, and then we're gonna talk about events. So, Jeff, kick us off.
Speaker 3:Alright. I think the the the main points you know, I think there's a lot of misconceptions about online fundraising, first off. And, you know, what what I've learned in the past 12, 15 years of of doing online fundraising is this. There are a few things that are really valuable, and there are a lot of things that are not really valuable. Right?
Speaker 3:I guess one way to start would be, like, what's the point of online fundraising? How do I start? What am I trying to do? Right? And, ultimately, I think a lot of people think about online fundraising being like these really tiny gifts, and it may not be worth it.
Speaker 3:Maybe I can get some bigger gifts or some, you know, foundation grants and things like that. But, ultimately, the the the point of online fundraising and the thing that online fundraising does for you is it allows you to expand your market. It allows more people to know about you. People go online to find things. They go online to get, not always to give.
Speaker 3:And so it's a it's a huge marketing opportunity. And when I say marketing opportunity, let me rephrase that because marketing can be kind of a a buzzword. Mhmm. It's an opportunity to create a market of people or an audience is a better way to think about it. An audience of people who care about what you're doing.
Speaker 3:K. Right? And they care about what you're doing because they, a, know about it, and b, you've helped them in some way.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like, it's almost like someone can't care about what you're doing unless they know about what you're doing.
Speaker 3:Imagine that. Right? And I would say unless you bring you use some form of communication to to bring them deeper into what you're doing. K. Right?
Speaker 3:Now if you think about just the the ability and and the, you know, how how quickly you could possibly, like, scale a number of connections. So forget about fundraising for a sec. Let's talk about connections. Like, if you want to meet and cultivate and communicate with a lot of people and maintain a lot of relationships, you know, that would be really difficult to do in person Mhmm. Because you'd have to be face to face with them, which means you might have to travel to them, or you wouldn't be spending time with other people.
Speaker 3:Right? And so this concept of, like, mass communications is what it was called when we were in school, right, of speaking one to many. There's a lot of efficiencies. There's also a lot of of of wasted space, and I wanna talk through a little bit of, like, what what is valuable. And as a, you know, someone running a mentorship nonprofit and is trying to raise money for this, like, to help help separate the wheat from the shaft a little bit.
Speaker 3:Right? Like, what is what's valuable? What should I be trying to do? And what ultimately is not that valuable? And so I wanna order these things kind of from the let's talk, like, really from the the inside out.
Speaker 3:I was trying to decide which way to go there. Outside in, inside out. It starts with me inside out of, like, most valuable. Right? Like, the most valuable thing if you're trying to build a fundraising program is that someone can give you a gift online.
Speaker 3:Yep. Right? And so let's start there. The if someone the first the first thing that's necessary for someone to be able to give you a gift online is a donation page. K.
Speaker 3:Right? This is commonly overthought. Like, people kinda like I don't know what system to use. You know, there's all this, like, technical kind of mumbo jumbo, and it's like there's a lot of off the shelf products that can you can start taking gifts tomorrow. Pushpay, great system.
Speaker 3:Raise donors, probably one of my favorites. Easy to sign up. You pay a small monthly fee, and, you know, you're you're accepting gifts. Right? So I think the one thing I wanna talk about about your donation donation page, and this is something that we've discovered over over years of research in our company, is that it's not enough for your donation page just to say donate now.
Speaker 3:People are showing up to your website. This is this this startles some people, but on most main donation pages is what we call it. So, like, you go to 4 Runner Mentoring Project, you click the donate button. Like, that is your main donation page. Right?
Speaker 3:Yep. They're not it's not a campaign. It's not a clay shoot. It's not a specific fundraiser. It's just the main thing.
Speaker 3:Right. What we found is that 2 things. Number 1, more than 50% of nonprofits have less than a full sentence of of word of copy on their copywriting. So, like, it says donate now or make your donation. That's it.
Speaker 3:Right? And it assumes that most people who get there are ready to give, and the truth is they are not. The your main donation page is a great place to practice the elevator pitch, that we talked about, which, you know, you started the problem. Mhmm. And you talked about how you might be able to provide the solution, and then you present that opportunity to the donor to to help bridge that gap between problem and solution.
Speaker 3:Just what we talked about in the last podcast. Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So so I always assumed if someone comes to your web page, then they they have decided before they came to my web page that they're gonna give a gift. But what you're saying is no. No. No.
Speaker 2:Them coming to your to your website, that's step 1. But there's more steps after that in order to get them to give.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, if you look at the online if you look at, like, Google Analytics, which is a free analytics platform that you can install on your site, if you look at Google Analytics for most nonprofits, the conversion rate, which means that the the amount of people who show up and give divided by the amount of people who show up is less than 30% on main donation pages. That means 70% of people click donate. Right? Which everyone says is, like, it's a they're they're bought in.
Speaker 3:They're ready. You know? And then they don't give. And the question is why? And the the number one thing that we've been able to figure out in research is that they're not properly motivated yet.
Speaker 3:They're not convinced. And so they need some something on that page to get them to do the, quote, unquote, hard work of pulling out their wallet and making the gift. Right? I think this goes back to, like, a fundamental thing about people. It's like, we don't really wanna give our money away.
Speaker 3:Like, no one wakes up being like, where can I give all my money away today? Right? Like, we're you think about I think there's also the assumption that, you know, when people are on your website, on your donation page, it's the only thing they're thinking about are their computers. It's like, no. Their mind's going in a 1,000,000 directions.
Speaker 3:They have their text set up. You know, they may have, like, 20 other tabs in their browser. They have email that's, like, firing away. And so, you know, you have to captivate people. And the the number one thing we found is that, like, most donation pages are missing a value proposition, which is, you know, if I'm if I'm, your ideal donor, why should I give to you instead of someone else?
Speaker 3:Right? So let's start, like, there, because I think that is a the number one thing to have in place. Number 1, because you should have a donation page if you want to accept gifts online. It's kind of a a prerequisite. And then number 2, it's a great place to tell your story and to lay out that value proposition of, like, whether it's, you know, 75% of young men in this area don't have a father figure.
Speaker 3:They need mentorship. We know that the lack of a father figure contributes to these sorts of things. But, you know, we whether you wanna take the spiritual angle, have a father figure, or whether you wanna take some, you know, like, positive angle on all the things that it can do for your community, and we're trying to match these men, you know, with with or women with positive mentors and are trying to, fix this issue. You know? And it it happens through or it's facilitated through through gifts.
Speaker 3:Right? So you have some value proposition on that page. That's like one place to start. The real question that I think and the and the real opportunity that that online presents for you is building an audience and growing and cultivating that audience for very for cheap. Right?
Speaker 3:Because email platforms and I'll talk about email. I know that social is the hot thing, and there's a lot of great things about social. But email platforms, the marginal cost of sending an email is, you know, next to nothing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And so you can send lots of email if you want to. But I think that what we've discovered in terms of audience building is, as you know, not everyone is ready to give right away, so they may want some more information. And the as as you're trying to build an audience, right, like, as we discussed with all the face to face fundraising that we talked about in the last podcast, it's one visit at a time. Right? One visit at a time.
Speaker 3:You're gonna have coffee 3 days a week. You have 2 lunches a week, and you're gonna start building, you know, these relationships. Yeah. And so the question is, well, as you build those, let's say you actually did that. Let's say you actually had, you know, 3 coffees a week, which is a 150 coffees a year, and then 2 lunches a week.
Speaker 3:I mean, maybe you're not working every week of the year. 2 lunches a week, which is another 100. You know? And so you've got 250 contacts. How on earth there's a lot of, like, research that shows that people can maximum they max out about a 150 relationships.
Speaker 3:Right? So how on earth are you gonna communicate with all these people? And what we found is that there's a lot of benefits to having a strong engaged email list. In fact, we found that it's the number one indicator of your future fundraising success. Because when you need to tell someone or ask someone for money, right, like, what do you what do you wanna do?
Speaker 3:Well, be great if you could, you know, send a mass text that's got some legs to it. It'd be great if you could just call everyone. It'd be great if you could meet everyone at some event, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But, like, the easiest, lowest hanging fruit thing to do is send an email. Yep.
Speaker 3:And there's a couple of benefits to it. Number 1, email is transactional. It's where people do business. They're used to getting out their credit card when they're opening their email. I get, you know, bills and all sorts of things come through my email.
Speaker 3:And number 2, it's the guaranteed deliverability. You know? In the old days of social media, you could build a following of a 100 people and hit send on a post or hit post on on Facebook on your page. And, you know, you would if they were logging on, they would they would probably see that. You know?
Speaker 3:But the algorithm that selects people are gonna see means fewer and fewer people see each post. Doesn't mean you don't need to be doing that. We'll talk about that in a second. But email list is like, I'm going to get into your inbox. I'm gonna be there.
Speaker 3:Now you never know if people are like the, I have 45,000 unread emails or, like, I read everyone. Right? But because it's transactional, because it's communicative, and because it can appear more one to 1 Mhmm. Like, we always say, hey. Like, focus on building an engaged email list, and it's a great follow-up if you don't.
Speaker 3:That's a great, you know, part of those face to face interactions. As you build that, can I add you to our newsletter? Like, what email should I send? We'll talk about that in a sec. But building an email list online is one of the the most effective things that you can do to increase the amount of people that you can communicate with at one time.
Speaker 3:Because as a small nonprofit or as a solopreneur kind of starting, some sort of mentoring nonprofit, like, you're going to need to increase your efficiency. You're gonna need need to be able to talk to a lot of people at once. Mhmm. And so that goes to, like, well, what do I send them? Right?
Speaker 3:And there's really kind of, I think, 3 primary types maybe 4 primary types of of things that you should send them. Right? Number 1, I think there are appeals, obviously. So, like, we're gonna raise money. We'll talk about you know, you might send these throughout the year.
Speaker 3:You might send them at year end. You might send them as follow ups to a in person fundraising event that people couldn't show up to. You sent me a an email, you know, asking me to join or sponsor a clay shoot that you were having. Right? So it's this communication type that sets up all of the other methods of fundraising that you're doing.
Speaker 3:There's appeals. There's cultivation. The way that I would think about cultivation is how do you tell people what's happening in your nonprofit? This can take the form of a newsletter. Right?
Speaker 3:Some people are like, hey. Like, I know if you if you use Mailchimp or something like that, like, you know, they'll have some templates where you can plug in your newsletter, but I would I would even get away from that. Sometimes filling in a a Mailchimp newsletter template can be really daunting. It's like, what am I gonna say? You know?
Speaker 3:And I think that the easiest, lowest hanging fruit thing to do, if you're trying to optimize your time, is just, like, tell people what's happening. Like, it does not have to look pretty. In fact, what we found is the less pretty it looks, the less it seems like marketing, and the more it feels like a communication coming from one person to you. Right. Right?
Speaker 3:Which, you know, has its as we talked about, like, fundraising is all about building these personal relationships. And so we if we can reflect those personal relationships in some way, you know, then we can actually build a digital relationship. It's a lot harder to build a relationship online with someone. It's not the same. You know, that's it's another podcast.
Speaker 3:That's why people are so unfulfilled by all the social connections they have. It's just not the same. But we need to be cultivating people and telling them what's happening in our nonprofit. That's one of the hardest things to do because if we're mission motivated, they're, like, we wanna be doing this stuff all the time and not stopping to tell people what's happening. But if you don't ever tell them
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:They won't know. And so when the time comes that we're like, hey. Can you help support this? They're like, you know, they will ask themselves. They may ask you.
Speaker 3:They'll probably ask themselves in it not out loud, but in their heads, like, what do I know that they've been doing if they don't know what's been going on? You know, that is that's that's a problem.
Speaker 2:Right? Well, so, like, this is what's so great, Jeff. I used to include an appeal, which is an ask on every time that I sent something out. Right?
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But, you know, what I found is what that was doing was, like, I would just ask for the sake of asking. Mhmm. And it was, like, when people opened up what I sent them, they didn't know what to expect. Yep. And so now what we found is, like, we we truly only ask only a couple times a year.
Speaker 2:But what we found is the cultivation piece, which is just telling the story. Like, hey. What's going on in your nonprofit? We've had so much more success on keeping people engaged with what we're doing because of that. It's just every month, hey.
Speaker 2:Here's one thing that happened. Here's two things that took place between a mentor and a kid this month.
Speaker 3:It doesn't have to be, like, overthought No. Or, like, some grand production. No. It just needs to, like you know? And I think that I think that you start when you when you think, oh, I'm gonna try to send something monthly Mhmm.
Speaker 3:To all of my supporters and my non supporters, just my email list. Right? When you start to think like, oh, I have I have an outlet for this, you start to look for those opportunities. You're like, oh, this this cool thing is happening. Right.
Speaker 3:I need to tell the people about this. Right?
Speaker 2:Well, so here's what we do. Right? We have a channel on our Slack that is just called stories. And anytime someone on our staff sees the Lord move, anytime that they have something that was the least bit encouraging, they tell that story through our channel. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So we've got I mean, dude, we've got 100 upon 100 of stories of how the Lord is doing work through our nonprofit. Now what this does is a number of things. 1, it keeps us encouraged. Right? So, like, we every day someone's saying, hey, even if you aren't seeing what is going on, here's something that happened.
Speaker 2:2, it's easy access to share the stories with anyone who wants to know more about our non par nonprofit. And the third thing, Jeff, it's just fun. Like, it is so fun to read what the Lord is up to. And so however you guys can find a place for your staff to share those stories, that thing's gold.
Speaker 3:Yep. I would say this too. When you send an email so we talked about appeals, you know, a couple times a year, focused campaigns, goals, things like that, asking for money. Cultivation, when you send an email, make sure that people can reply back. There's 2 little things.
Speaker 3:Number 1, you know, this is this is tested. We test we do a lot of testing in our library and or in our organization. We we record these experiments in the library. What we've learned is that email is fundamentally a human transaction. People can sniff out marketing.
Speaker 3:Right? And so don't send your emails from an organization. Send them from a person, and make sure that the reply to email is monitored because you will get lots of people who email you back and say this is such an awesome story. And you're like, thanks, dude. You know, it's all you know, we we couldn't do without you.
Speaker 3:Right? It's all those little pieces are are opportunities. And and don't worry. You're not gonna get flooded with the responses. You may get, like, 2 or 3 per email.
Speaker 3:Right. But when they write back, that's when they have truly, like it that's when your communication has transcended marketing, and they realize that you're actually sending, you know, from a person.
Speaker 2:What about a title? So, like, I used to send emails that were like, here's our March newsletter. And what we found is that might not be the most effective way.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think that the goal of the subject line is to get people to open the email. Right? And so when you say, here's our March newsletter, it's like, well, no one woke up this morning. Wanted to hear your March newsletter.
Speaker 3:There's a there's a law of diminishing returns where it's like, you you won't believe what you see or, like, you know, you never thought this would happen. It's like, you can't use those suspense filled lines, but it's like, you know, it should very simply just point to what's in the content, but try to do it in some enticing way. Right? So don't overthink it. We could spend a lot of time.
Speaker 3:I think people who are not, like, writers, I'm not a writer myself. I've learned to write subject lines, but it's, like, don't overthink it. Do the thing that comes that, like, whatever pops into your head about, like, hey. I just wrote this email story. This is what I think the subject line should be to get people to open it.
Speaker 3:Like, send it. Don't don't worry about it. You know? Like, you're gonna send a lot of these, and so it's it's good just to, like, train yourself to to what do they say, Occam's razor? Like, the it's like the simplest solution is often the best.
Speaker 3:Right? Or the most obvious. So we've talked about appeals. We've talked about cultivation. We'll talk about a third thing, which is content, and this is probably the most underrated, you know, asset that nonprofits have.
Speaker 3:Right? So, Zach, you've been mentoring young men for
Speaker 2:how long? Shoot, man. 15, 20 years?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So 15, 20 years, you've developed, like, a wide base of knowledge Mhmm. About all sorts of things. We're sitting in the literacy lab. Right?
Speaker 3:And this is helping kids learn to read. Right. Hopefully. It's called the literacy lab. So I think that the underrated thing that that nonprofits realize they have is they have a lot of knowledge, and there are a lot of people who could benefit from that knowledge.
Speaker 3:Right? What we found is one of the most effective ways to market a nonprofit or to develop an audience for a nonprofit or for a cause, especially mentorship, is by helping people become better mentors even if they're not doing it through your nonprofit. Right? I mean, you think about mentorship. Mentorship is a obviously, there are in in your area, you're doing it for young men who don't have a father figure at home.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. But I've got 2 boys at home. And, like, part of what I'm doing for them is mentoring them. Right? And so you probably have a resource that could help me as a dad become a better father.
Speaker 3:Right? You may you think about what happened with COVID. Like, all the parent all these parents had to figure out, a, how do I start educating my kids? I'm not an educator. Like, how do I do that?
Speaker 3:And, b, I've also got a lot more time to fill with my kids. What can I do? Like, why don't we ask the guy who's been running an after school program for, like, 10 years in this neighborhood? Like, you have content. You know?
Speaker 3:And so if you think about the things that attract people, stories stories definitely attract people. They have to be, like, ready for it, but content. Like, if you can help someone meet a need, I would say this. Like, if you're doing some sort of, bible study with your team, like, invite your donors and and people to come along with you on that. Right?
Speaker 3:Like, there's all sorts of content that comes out of a nonprofit that you produce, and you don't think about it as anybody else being interested except the people who are your, constituents who like your your the the focus of your mission, the recipients of your mission. Right? But the the thing that we found is that donors, you know, get as much of this they get as much out of that as as the the recipients of your mission do. Let me give you a couple examples. So we work with a group in Pittsburgh that helps parents of autistic kids develop healthy relationships with peers.
Speaker 3:It's very challenging because of the the the challenges of autism. Right? So there's curriculum called healthy relationships they walk people through. Well, guess what? Every parent wants their kid to be able to have healthy relationships.
Speaker 3:And so they have a version of that that is basically, like, how to form healthy relationships minus all the autistic stuff. Right? That is for parents. Because, ultimately, the people who are gonna benefit from their nonprofit are parents, and they realize that there's a certain age piece happening there where, like, people who are able to give them are not young people. They're older people.
Speaker 3:And as you're older, you have kids, so you become a parent. Right?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:They've taken this content, and they're giving it away as a as a way to help parents first, like, help their kids have healthy relationships and also to present them, say, hey. You might like this resource we're giving you. Right? The reason we developed this resource is because we work with autistic kids and their parents trying to help them. And so if if you think your child is having it tough, like, imagine if you had all these other challenges.
Speaker 3:Right? And so we've given this for, you know, to you for free because of generous donors who are allowing us to do this, and we're wondering if you'd become one of them. Right? It's a very, like, easy entree. Let me give you another one.
Speaker 3:We work with a group in Virginia that does lots of prison work. And part of what they do is they have a, a study called the prisoner's journey, which is like an 8 week study, where they talk to prisoners about Jesus who was once himself a prisoner and tell them the story, you know, that God loves them through this discipleship program. And our evangelism program really is what it is. And they're like, well, how do we attract people to this program? Like, why don't we give away the Bible study?
Speaker 3:Right? Like, people are out there looking for something. Everyone I don't think there's many people in the world who are doing the amount of Bible study they want to be doing. Right? They want a resource, and so we created this free Bible study called Love and Justice.
Speaker 3:It's like, how do these two things, love and justice, connect? Like, how do they how do they work together? Right? And it's a part of this curriculum. They didn't have to make it from scratch.
Speaker 3:It was already in what they were teaching the the the prisoners. Right? So it's like, you sign up for it. It's like, hey. Guess what?
Speaker 3:There's someone else who wants to go through this Bible study too. The difference in you and them is they're in prison, and they don't know Jesus, and they have a hope that doesn't appear to have, like, have any future beyond bars. Right? But you can mentor them and walk them through and sponsor them through this 8 week study if you're willing. Right?
Speaker 3:And so you think about, like it's like bait. Like, what are you gonna attract people with? Well, content is a very underrated piece. So I would encourage you, like, as you're developing resources for your nonprofit, like, let people see those. Like, give them out.
Speaker 3:But if you're saying, like, hey. One of the, you know, hard parts of mentorship is, like, what do we talk about when we get together? Like, how do I start those conversations? It's like, well, make a conversation starter guide. That could help introverts in general.
Speaker 3:Right? You can create lots of content and attract people with that content. In fact, what we found is people are willing to trade their emails to get that content. Right? Because it's valuable to them.
Speaker 3:And so I think the the just one of the underrated things that we found in in nonprofits, and it's something that we've become very good at, is going into a nonprofit and finding the content that's valuable that we can take to market, if you will, and take 2 people who might be supporters one day. And I think there's a big difference here if you're, like, operating kind of a community based nonprofit versus a more, like, national, you know, wide reaching thing. I think that, you know, it you have to think about your aim. Are you trying to build, like, a a a regional Mhmm. Base of support kinda like 400 does here in, like, Highlands, or are you trying to build something that could really reach anyone?
Speaker 3:Those are 2 very big different aspirations. Yeah. But content's the 3rd piece. So appeals, I'm gonna ask for money a couple times a year. I'm never gonna do it as a one off.
Speaker 3:I'm always gonna try to send, you know, multiple appeals towards that multiple emails around one campaign. So make couple emails over a week, couple times a year. I've got cultivation. I wanna send one every month. It doesn't have to be special.
Speaker 3:It doesn't have to be, like, beautiful or shiny, but I seem to tell people what's happening. And think about content. What can I what do I have? Whether it's intellectual property, knowledge, you know, some process you've learned, what do I have that can help build people up? And I'm gonna send that out to people.
Speaker 3:Why? Because people share that too. They'll say, like, hey. I'm gonna take this conversation starter guide for mentorship. Not only can it help me become a better mentor, it can also help me start conversations, you know, with coworkers or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And, man, Jeff, like, from what I found I mean, that's why we started this podcast is because what we found is the things that we're experiencing as a mentoring nonprofit, other people need to learn from our mistakes. Right? Like, by no means do we consider ourselves the experts, but what we wanna do is we wanna get around as many people as possible who are mentoring and learn to become the best mentoring org for our families.
Speaker 3:Yeah. For sure.
Speaker 2:But here's what I found. Early on, I wanted to charge for everything. Mhmm. And there isn't anything wrong with that. But what I have experienced is if you just give it away for free, your reach is gonna expand way more quickly.
Speaker 3:And way further than you think, like, in in in different ways than you think it could.
Speaker 2:Right. And and just like, yeah. Sure. I can sell a book on how to become a positive mentor
Speaker 3:Mhmm. For
Speaker 2:$10, and 500 people might purchase that book. That's $5,000. Right?
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Or I could give it away for free, and that 500 turns into 5,000.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right? Yep. It may
Speaker 3:be a small percentage of people that ever give you money. Right.
Speaker 2:But it's more about getting the word out. And here's what's so crazy. It's not about getting the word out about your nonprofit. It's about getting the word out about what the Lord is doing in ministry.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And so it's like, okay, so here's God. And he has a heart for something. Right? And he has given you his heart. And what your job is, it's it's your job to go and tell other people about what his heart is for the things that he cares about.
Speaker 2:And so it's like, as a fundraiser, I haven't I have an unbelievable opportunity to share about God's heart for a bunch of different things, whether it's kids or people who are poor. And and just like you're spreading the name of Jesus. You're giving him honor. You're you're doing all of these things to advance his mission, his kingdom.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And it's like, why wouldn't he put his hand on that and support you financially? Sure. It's like like God God wants to see his name spread all throughout the world. And if you're doing that, and if you're more concerned about that than fulfilling your budget, then, like, I have just found that God takes care of you because God God owns everything. Like, this is his money, and God can make a a huge donation happen like that.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Out of nowhere.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And so a great story. We work with the organization. It's a seminary, and they had always sent fundraising letters because they'd had several high profile people graduate from their seminary. Right?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And they would always be like, well, how do we how do we create a market? Like, who's the next person we should be sending a a fundraising letter to? And they, you know, they try to do things like get their graduates to talk about how great the seminary was and hopefully get some of their church members to give. Right? But it was just like they were just kind of boiling the lake, if you will, and getting very low results because it was like, we need to train future pastors like these big names.
Speaker 3:And those big names are getting older, and they're just like, how do we how do we reach new people? And we're having a meeting with them and be like, what do you what do you have that can you're seminary. Right? You've been teaching people for almost a 100 years. Like, what do you have that could build someone up?
Speaker 3:What what could teach them their their big thing is, like, teaching all 66 books of scripture. So what do you have? Like, well, we did film this course in the gospel of John a couple of years ago. It's really ugly. Like, they just set like a camcorder on a desk, and, like, you know, there's it's not multiple cuts.
Speaker 3:I was like, well, let's see it. And so we we looked at it, and it was, like, I think, 10 lessons. Each one was, like, 45 minutes. It's a it's a true seminary course, but happens to be one that's, like, pretty understandable by the common man. It's not, like, advanced hermeneutics or something.
Speaker 3:You know? And so they started marketing that. They they kinda put it together in a fashion where you could sign up and you get these emails, and it would give you a lesson per email and send you back to the site. And they've had, like, total of about to pass 750,000 enrollments in these online courses that are free. And, a couple of years ago, they were having a fundraising out in California, and they had a cancellation at a table.
Speaker 3:And they're like, well, who should we invite? We have this table. Let's fill it up. So, like, why don't we just go find people who have taken a lot of our courses and live in the area? If they invite a couple of folks who are kinda like potluck table.
Speaker 3:Right? And this this woman shows up, and she, like, pulls someone aside, and she's like, I'd like to give you a gift. They're like, you know, okay. And she gives them $500,000 check. It's like, they found this woman online.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. They taught her remote courses. They invited her randomly and almost accidentally to an event, and, you know, she unleashed this blessing that, like, they never saw coming. Right. And why?
Speaker 3:It was because they had given they had they'd a very functional sense. They'd given her something of value. Right. Right? Granted, it was a spiritual eternal value, and they made a connection that they otherwise never would have made.
Speaker 3:They would have never known to find that woman, but they put this out there. She was attracted by it. Right? It was it was something she wanted. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And so she took a step towards them, if you think about that. Yep. And, you know, then they had her contact information so they could obviously reach out to her and say, we're having this event. We'd love to have you come. They did a, you know, presentation at the event, and all of a sudden, like, bam, major donor right away.
Speaker 3:Half mail. 0 to major donor. Right? So it's like you'd like, you never know how far this stuff is gonna go, but what you gotta do is you gotta be able, like, to release it and to let it go.
Speaker 2:Well and, like, for me, out of my fear, it's like, oh my gosh. I have to get I have to get like, I I need your recurring donation. I need your money. Like, I, get get get get get. And that's me focused.
Speaker 2:Right. That's that's selfish if I'm, you know, like, that's that's not a good thing.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:But one of the things that I've learned is instead of asking how can I get value from you, how can I get what I want from you, it's how can I add value to your life? Yes. It's like, what do I have? Whether it's in it's a story, whether it's, you know, piece of content, like, what do I have that's gonna add a little bit of something to make your day more enjoyable?
Speaker 3:I was thinking about, like, a bank. It's like you fill up someone's account with relational value, and then there are times when you ask to draw from that. Right? And I think that's where social fits in. Like, a
Speaker 2:lot of people
Speaker 3:are like, oh, I wanna do online fundraising. Like, I should just start all these social media platforms and, like, try to keep them all going. And, you know, the way that that I I always think about it is, like, hey. Like, you know, fundraising like like, email, if you think about it, what we've been talking is this transactional medium. Right?
Speaker 3:And everyone, like, get their email. They check their email. You can be more than likely sure that they're gonna get the email in the first place. But the like, social media is like the snacks. Right?
Speaker 3:So you have these meals. Like, email, like the meals, and social media is like the snacks. And it's like, you know, we think about the nutritional value you're gonna get from, like, a meal. You're always gonna raise more money. Like, email's the number one fundraising channel for almost every number one digital fundraising channel for almost every nonprofit outside of their main donation page.
Speaker 3:Right? But social media is important. It helps you convey those stories, but you have to remember people go on social media. Like, why? While I'm standing in line at the DMV, I looked down at my phone.
Speaker 3:I've got 10 minutes to kill for my number gets called. Right? I'm not sitting there with my wallet out being like, where do I give? But like you said, a story can help, you know, add value to my life. Maybe a resource, some sort of content resource, or teaching can help add value to my life.
Speaker 3:Right? I think people who are really good at teaching some sometimes underestimate how remarkably easy it is to teach someone, like, to develop some sort of training course. Like, it didn't have to be pretty. It could be like something someone signs up for. It's 5 days long.
Speaker 3:It's gonna help you be a better mother or father. Right? But, you know, social fits in. It kinda fills in the gaps. And so it's important to have, like, a right understanding.
Speaker 3:And I I can say this with a lot of data behind this. Right? So your conversion rate from social media is always going to be, you know, at best half of what your conversion rate is from email. And that that's not because you're doing it wrong. It's just because of the medium.
Speaker 3:Right? And, like, what people are looking to do, like, when people open their inbox, they're at work, they're, you know, they're it's a mindset they have, whether it's kinda like, you know, like turning on the TV. Like, you turn the TV when you're ready to, like, zone out. They say there's there's scientific research that says your brain is more active when it's sleeping than than when you're watching TV. And that's what that's what social media does for people.
Speaker 3:Right? But you wanna be in those spaces. Like, I think that I'd love to hear from you what social channels you found most effective because I think sometimes it can become overwhelming. Like, I have to have all of these accounts. Right?
Speaker 3:And and I'd love to hear from you, like, your your mindset about how how 4 Runner approach social because that is an important part of building an audience even if it's not the main thing that we're going to try to build that it's going to be, like, a true valuable asset for us. Right. What was y'all's approach to that from the very beginning? Because I know you guys have a lot of I think Instagram Mhmm. And Facebook are kinda like the big 2 Yep.
Speaker 3:That I see, and you guys do a lot of content for that. But, like, how do y'all manage, like, the building of that knowing that this is going to add value to your fundraising, but it may not be the place where you do a lot of asks. Yeah. How do y'all do that?
Speaker 2:So my my approach to fundraising and I think I told you this last episode, but it's just whenever the Lord stirs someone's heart to give
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I want our nonprofit to be top of mind. And so that is what I use social media for. And so it's like a ton of those stories. It's about pictures. Like, it's just about letting people know what it is that we're doing on a, you know, day in and day out basis.
Speaker 3:So you kind of see it as, like, an awareness channel.
Speaker 2:Most definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You guys do fundraising. I've seen you guys, you know, around North Texas Giving Day. You guys will do lots of videos and stuff like that. But but your primary state is like, hey. We're going to build this awareness.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Right.
Speaker 2:Well and, I mean, this is also the thing is, like, I I wanna focus in on what the Lord's doing in the lives of our kids.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I wanna focus on their future, not their past.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So and, like, I've got 2 ways to go. I can share about, hey, guys. Like, here is this here is this poor kid who doesn't have a father around, and he's not, you know, doing awesome in school, and he doesn't have you know, the like, I I can focus in on his past, and I can try to, like, stir up that compassion to where someone feels bad and they give because they feel bad.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. But
Speaker 2:what what we try to do is we try to focus on where they're going. And we try to focus in on the positive stuff. Like, hey, like, if if a kid's in our program, he's had a tough life. Like, I don't need to sell you on that. But what I wanna do is I wanna show how we're making their life better.
Speaker 2:And I wanna show smiles. I wanna show, like, actual kids hanging out with mentors. Like, I I wanna show what the Lord is up to in a positive light. And just like, I view social media as here's a way to show off what God's up to, and here's a way to celebrate what God's up to. And so it's like, hey, here's a story of transformation.
Speaker 2:Here's a story of positivity. Here's a story of joy. And because the joy of the Lord is our strength. And, like, I think that's great because it's like, hey, look, like, you're seeing the solution to the issue. Like, this kid has a tough life that's producing some things that aren't positive.
Speaker 2:We're trying to change that. Here's an example of that. And if you wanna make more kids experience this, hop on board. Yep. Because that's where we're going.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if you think that this is cool, if you want more kids in, you know, your community to experience this, here's how to do it. One thing
Speaker 3:I've seen that you guys do really well too is you you create a lot of content for social media, and then you reuse that
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:In your newsletters. Yeah. Right? So it's not like you're having to create unique stuff all the time. You're able to be really efficient because it's like, hey.
Speaker 3:I'm creating these stories. Right. People might see those stories. They might not depending on when they log in or if Instagram wants to show it to them in their feed. You know?
Speaker 3:But then I can take that same story and put it into my newsletter and expound on it. Sometimes you tell a little bit more of the story. It's a little bit more of text, you know, than it is, like, video or photos or anything like that. And it's like, it's I know for you, it's doing double duty because you're creating some content, trying to tell that story. You're using what you already have rather than starting with a blank slate every time.
Speaker 3:Right? But what it's doing is it's it's cultivating. Ultimately, it's trying to tell people it's trying to stir people's hearts and affections for what you're doing and and really just tell them for what God is doing through you. Really just continue to relay that message. Right?
Speaker 2:Well and and that that all goes back to having a way to capture those stories.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And so here's here's something that we found is what you think is not a big deal, it's actually a huge deal to some people. And so it's like, oh, yeah. That kid had a good day. Well well, yeah. He had a good day.
Speaker 2:But for the last 3 years, he's had
Speaker 3:Bad bad. Bad days.
Speaker 2:And so it's like, we can take for granted what the Lord's doing. And so it's like training your mindset to, like, hey, like, no. There's actually a story there. And so it's like, how how can you train your staff? How can you train yourself to be intentional when the Lord does show up?
Speaker 2:How are you capturing that? And then we take those stories, and it's social media, toss it on a blog. We use it as a newsletter.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Sometimes they turn into a podcast. Sometimes that turns into a section of a book. It's like those stories, they are absolute gold. And don't waste a story. Don't waste a chance to tell other people what God is doing because that is ultimately advancing his mission and giving him a ton of glory.
Speaker 2:And that's what he's all about.
Speaker 3:Yeah. What we talked about like, we started kinda with the donation page. Like, this is the center of the circle. You have to have this to accept a gift online. Very functional.
Speaker 3:Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You wanna tell some story there. Right? And then the next ring, if you will, think about a target, that's the bull's eye. The next ring out is like building an engaged email list. Because if you want to fundraise, if you want to make an ask, you have to have a way to get that in front of people.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And so you should always be thinking, how can I build my email list? How can I get people when I have coffee to sign up? Maybe I should when I post a story on Facebook, I should say, hey. If you want to read more stories like this and, you know, get them in your inbox, like, you can sign up here.
Speaker 3:Like, post I should try to use those. And then the outer ring is, like, this layer of awareness of, you know, how how you motivate people, how you build your audience. Right? And and I think that there's ministry in that too, Zach. Like, there's ministry in someone who you don't know what they've gone through today, who is a donor to you.
Speaker 3:Right? I think we underrate sometimes the ministry that that we talked, you know, the the the ministry of giving, which is a common grace that God gives us because you don't have to be a believer to feel good when you give. Mhmm. But it's also, like, we don't know what people are going through, you know, when you post a story on Instagram or something like that, and they sit down and see it that night. It's like that warms their heart.
Speaker 3:They may had a really rough day, and they needed something like that. You know, there's a lot of, like, really depressing stuff on social media too, and which only gives your content, like, the opportunity to shine brighter. But I think that, you know, we just have to set expectations right. You know, it's, like, it's easy, and maybe you've gone through this. It's easy to, like, think from a fundraising standpoint.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna go try to launch this campaign. I'm gonna do it all on Facebook, and you end up raising, like, $50. Right? And it's like, well, you know, I I say all this just to set expectations about, like, what is truly valuable? How do we build the most valuable things?
Speaker 3:But how do all of these things work together so that you can, as you said, like, hey. I'm gonna take a picture. You know, this kid had a good day. Right? And we're gonna tell that story really quick on Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker 3:Right? And your expectations can be properly set for that because you don't know what's going to happen to it. So it's like letting go of the fact that I think, you know, I can I can leverage this to, like, go get money from people? It's like, no. You you build those over time.
Speaker 3:A a mentor in fundraising who came by my desk one day, and he knew we were running this campaign. It wasn't going that well. And, you know, I was like, I was I was I was obviously down about it, and he was like, well, you can't make people give, and he walks off. And he's, like, it's, like, so wise. Like, you can't make people give.
Speaker 3:You can only hope to inspire them to obey the calling that God has already put on their money. Right? And like you said, be top of your nonprofit be top of mind when they choose to give. That said, I wanna talk about one more thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3:We talked about channels, kinda like which online channels should we use, social media versus email versus your website. You know, you talked about, like, blog content. That's great because ultimately, to get people to your donation page, they have to show up at your website, so you gotta have a place to send them. But I wanna talk about recurring giving because this is something that has always been. There's a book written in the eighties called hid Hidden Gold.
Speaker 3:It's by a guy named Harvey McKinnon, Canadian guy, and he's fascinating guy, very far from God. He came to our conference a couple years ago. Had some great conversations. But, basically, he made this argument in the eighties from a direct mail perspective from, like he's like, if every nonprofit went all in on recurring giving, they would all raise more money. And he's like, it's just math.
Speaker 3:Like, you just put this stuff into a spreadsheet and you say, you know, if I'm going to work hard to get, you know, an average gift, like, what we see in in in data from the donor side is, like, people have they're gonna usually gonna give what you put on your donation form. Right? The amounts, and they're like amounts in people's minds. Right? So it's like, I'm gonna give you $50 or maybe a $100.
Speaker 3:Like, those are sort of like handles, if you will. Like, if I don't I don't know how much to give. You know, maybe it's like, I'll give you $20. I'll give you $50. I'll give you $100.
Speaker 3:But they kinda break down into these, like, common areas. Yep. Right? It's just people you know, one of the benefits of a nonprofit didn't have a price, but people need a price point. They need to know, like, how am I gonna budget for this?
Speaker 3:And you start to think about it. It's like, well, if I could go get it $50 from a donor today, that'd be great. I'd fit out of $50 my pocket. Right? And then I have to figure out.
Speaker 3:Well, when am I going to ask them again? And then they would have to say, yes. So I have to keep in contact with them. Right? And I might get another $50 maybe 2 years later is what the data shows.
Speaker 3:But you start to think, like, hey. If I could give someone to give if I could get someone convince someone to get $5 a month, I'd actually get $60 from them in the 1st year. And then next January, you know, provided their gift continue to recur, I would instantly start getting $5 a month more, $10 a month. I might be able to get a $100 from somebody today. That'd be great.
Speaker 3:But guess what? If I get $10 a month, that's a $120 this year. This is a way that we, often help our clients think about this from, like, a business perspective. Right? Because recurring giving is super efficient.
Speaker 3:I think it does a lot for the donor that people don't talk about, which is, like, easy to budget for. Like, I have a budgeting app that my family uses, and some of it's gonna be hard if you get an ask. You know, like, I feel like we should contribute to this. Like, one of the things, you sadly, that stops people is, like, I don't know how to fit this into with my budget this month. I don't know how to go find $250 that I wanna give to you.
Speaker 3:Right? But the good news is, like, the behavioral economics and also just, like, the the trends are, like, hey, if you can get someone to say, you don't have to give me $250 today. I just want you to give me $20 a month. Right? Like, that means they're gonna give you $240 in that year, and they're gonna keep giving, which is the most important part.
Speaker 3:So I would say if you're building a small nonprofit from the ground up, like, recurring giving could be your best friend because what you don't know is how difficult it's gonna be to retain those donors. Right. And, you know, just the endless sort of marathon of asking and asking and asking, recurring giving makes it easy for the donor. And I would say, like, culture's in your favor. Like, we subscribe to everything these days.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. You know, like, I was buying water filters from my fridge the other day. Amazon's, like, do you wanna subscribe? Like, I never thought about doing that. You know, there's obviously some sort of deal, but it's, like, sure.
Speaker 3:Yes. Send me one every 6 months. Like, it's built into our consciousness now. It there's a there's a feeling of empowerment and autonomy that gives the donors. They can they can cancel or giving at any time.
Speaker 3:But the truth is most people don't. Like, if you're if you're giving $10 a month, it's like a very easy thing to give. And donors who might never think of giving you a $100 by giving you $10 a month have committed to give you $120 for that fiscal year. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 3:So, I think that when you're looking at online giving platforms, like, make sure it can accept recurring gifts, make sure your payment processor processor can accept recurring gifts. And I think that as you're thinking about which appeal should we run this year, year end, obviously, there's, like, a big halo effect of giving at the end of the calendar year. But I would say, like, run a recurring giving campaign. Don't make it about money, make it about donors. So I'm looking for 10 new recurring donors and maybe it make make that one of your fundraising goals every month.
Speaker 3:You will be amazed at how fast the revenue grows. We had a client who was doing came to us with a very large major donor programs and other stuff, a very small online. They're doing, like, 60 to $90,000 a year last year. Right now, they're doing $15,000 in recurring donors because we took this hypothesis that recurring donning donation works. We created a little there's this, like, challenge coin that you get for being a recurring donor.
Speaker 3:It's, like, cost $3 and you know it's just a little trinket it's a super heavy coin but it says the nonprofits name on it says thank you for you know your gift it's something can carry in their pocket or keep on their desk and just kind of reminds them of this and you know it's their their results are like not 10% better. They're, like, 100% better than last year. Yeah. Right? Because this money that people started to give is still coming in.
Speaker 3:It's mailbox money is what they say. And so I would say, like, from an online fundraising perspective, like, be thinking, like, hey. How can I build this kind of snowball that's rolling downhill, right, to be able to fund this ministry without having to go out and ask? It takes a lot of the pressure off. The best news of all is that people who give recurring gifts still give onetime gifts.
Speaker 3:Yes. Like, you ask them at the end of the year, and you say, hey. I know you're a recurring donor. We're we're raising funds because we're trying to expand our program or, you know, allow more kids to enter it or build this literacy lab, whatever it is. Like, they will still give you money.
Speaker 3:In fact, recurring giving is a great indicator that people have the available money to give to you. Right? So all that to say, like, you know, we talked a little bit about channels today, about your donation page, things like that, but I do wanna focus on recurring giving because Harvey Mckinnon back in the eighties was right. He's still right. The data proves it out, especially if you are not a fundraiser.
Speaker 3:I would say if you don't consider yourself a strong fundraiser, like, this will be your best friend. Right? Because you will have those gifts coming in every single month without having to go set all those appointments, ask every time, you know, renew them. Just ask them to give $5 a month, and you'll be shocked at how quickly that grows. I know you've seen some success with these sorts of programs too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. For sure. And, like, here's here's one of the things that I found. And, like, this is just people who support you in general. The recurring donor is huge.
Speaker 2:Like, that that is how we grew. It's because, you know, most people gave $50 a month, $100 a month, had a couple, 2.50, had a couple, 500, which were huge. But what I found is whenever someone gives you a gift, even whenever someone gives you a contact, whenever you meet with someone, I have said this to my staff. I believe that this nonprofit was built on saying thank you. And, like, every time that someone gives for the 1st 6 years, every time that I met with someone, I would send them a thank you note.
Speaker 2:And this does 2 things. 1, it keeps your organization top of mind.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:2, it shows well, I guess it does a whole lot more than 2 things. Sorry. 2, it shows that you appreciate them. And then 3, this is my favorite part. It allows your heart to be thankful.
Speaker 2:And that changes how I saw fundraising.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, whenever I'm operating in a spirit of thanksgiving, and, like, man, that person gave up an hour of their time. Like, man, that person gave us a connection that they didn't have to give or they support us financially, and they don't have to do that. Like, that that changes my heart.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I think that, you know, it it's easy to become jaded in fundraising. Mhmm. It's easy to see people as prospects, and you're trying to close them. And, you know, you can just develop this, like, honestly, like, self centered heart.
Speaker 3:Right? And it's easy to say things, like, we can only do what we do because of you. You know? But it's hard to live with the heart like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And, like, constantly saying thank you conditioning yourself. You did it to me when I left, here last week with that first podcast we did. You texted thanks, like, 10 minutes later, and I was like, I just did it. Like, that's why that's why I came back, to be quite honest. But, like, you're putting those things, and you're still doing those things in place, and it creates a culture as your of as your nonprofit has grown, you know, of, like, this is who we're going to be.
Speaker 3:This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna people of gratitude. Yep. Because, you know, gratitude produces generosity. Right?
Speaker 3:Like and I think the other thing is you'd be shocked at how many people don't say thanks for gifts. We did a study a couple years ago where we gave gifts of $1,000 to $5,000 to 40 nonprofits, and most of them said nothing to us after 45 days. Nothing. They, like, never even asked for another gift. I think something like 25% of them said thank you and reached out in some personal way.
Speaker 3:These are big gifts. Right? And, like, you underestimate how big I thank you can be, not only because it takes your heart and molds it towards being someone who's humble and grateful, but also because, like, so many words just don't say thank you. Right.
Speaker 2:And
Speaker 3:it's opportunity to stand out and, like, it's different. Right? When you especially when it's personal, I think that's the thing is, like, everyone's gonna get a receipt. Like, you have to do that for tax reasons, but not everyone's gonna get a thank you. Right.
Speaker 3:And that is a lot of hard work, but you're planting seeds. And, you know, you talked about the parable of the sower and how fundraising is like that. You're gonna go give people opportunities. Like, every time you say thank you, you're casting another seed. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:For whatever that next gift may be or the fact that you're doing it, you know, irregardless of whether they ever give again, you're building that capital, and you're building that relationship. And that's something that's very human. We've talked about online, which is kind of this digital thing, but that's something that's very human, and it adds just a a dimension that, you know, social media never can. Right. Right?
Speaker 3:So Well
Speaker 2:and, like, you are giving them an opportunity to partake in advancing the kingdom.
Speaker 3:Like, people They wouldn't have it without you.
Speaker 2:Like, people who give are vital to your ministry.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And so, like, seeing that person, like, hey, like, we we literally couldn't do this without you, and here's what your gift is going towards. And so I'm saying thank you for that. Like, you know, your connection, your, you know, gift every month. Like, you are advancing the kingdom in this way, and you like, that makes someone feel good because they're a part of the Lord's work. But 2, like, it's the truth.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And so It feels good to align yourself with the Lord's will. Yeah. You know, it feels bad to break it in sin. Right?
Speaker 3:And that is a very basic thing. But even if you don't believe in God, it still feels good. Mhmm. Right? And so I think that encouraging that, by thanking people, it's, like, a huge part of things.
Speaker 2:Alright, Jeff. Hey, man. Well, thank you so much for sharing your online wisdom. Super grateful for you. We just talked about things, but thank you.
Speaker 2:And, hey, that's all we got. Anything else that you would like to add?
Speaker 3:No. I just say I think that as a as a note of encouragement to new fundraisers from a jaded old fundraiser, you know, not Rome wasn't built in a day. You have to keep doing these things. It's easy to beat yourself up over metrics. I mean, people talk about online.
Speaker 3:There's all sorts of metrics. Like, you know, Facebook has spent 1,000,000 of dollars trying to find the right shade of blue that when you see a like, it makes you feel good, you know, and, like, you gotta protect yourself from that stuff. You gotta be willing to do stuff and, like you said, build a snowball, starts with a snowflake. Right? So you're trying to build these things one at a time.
Speaker 3:It is good to track. It's like, hey, how many new emails did I get last month? You know, but ultimately, like, as is the scripture says, you know, the the horses are prepared for battle, but victory belongs to the Lord. Right? So your job is to prepare the horses.
Speaker 3:And I mean, the Old Testament is full of story after story after story of whether it was one person taking on a whole army or no people. One of my favorites, you know, the the Israelites, like, they go to sleep and they wake up and all their enemies who had surrounded them are all dead. It's like, what? Like, all these things, you know, all these all these crazy stories that happen, like, they're still happening. Right?
Speaker 3:The it doesn't we're not in pitched battles in the wilderness anymore, but it's easy to get yourself down. The hardest thing is, like, why are people giving? Why are people giving? And it's, like, the the you know, your faithfulness to this is a is an act of worship. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And don't ever forget that you are providing people as we talked about in the 3rd 1st podcast. You're providing people an opportunity to do something with their money that they can't really do anywhere else, which is advance the kingdom. Right? They have all sorts of opportunities to spend their money, and you're giving them a chance to support the Lord's work. And that you could do that knowing that it's going to benefit them more than buying anything they could buy online.
Speaker 3:Right? And so all you gotta do is present it and, you know, continue to let them, as you said, you know, be top of mind. Realize that something amazing is happening in their community and they can be a part of them.
Speaker 2:Yep. Faithful with a little, master over much. Right. Alright, Jeff. Thanks, man.
Speaker 2:Hey. Thank you all so much for tuning in to the You Can Mentor podcast. If you guys like what you heard, go on over to our website, share it with a friend, like us on wherever you listen to your podcast. Yeah. And if you didn't hear one thing today, let it be this, you can mentor.