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mike rusch.: welcome to
the State of Good Report.

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This podcast exists to
help you fund the mission

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of your nonprofit.

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If you lead fundraising in
a nonprofit or you're the

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executive director, or you
sit on the board, you carry

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something that most people
around you don't fully

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understand the weight of
knowing that the mission you

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care about, it only moves
forward if the funding is there.

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And that pressure, as you
know, it never goes away.

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You close out a great year and
the clock resets in January,

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you land a major gift and you
immediately start thinking about

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what happens if that donor is
not able to give the same amount

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at the same time next year.

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And underneath that pressure,
there's a question that keeps

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most of us awake at night.

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Is what I'm doing
actually going to work?

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Am I building something
sustainable or am I just

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keeping the lights on
for one more quarter?

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Now, layer on top of that, a
landscape that won't sit still.

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Government funding is
being disrupted, donor

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behavior is shifting.

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Foundations are changing their
priorities, and every month

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there's new research, new
data, new policy changes and

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somehow you're supposed to stay
on top of all of that while

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also running your organization
to serve some of the most

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vulnerable people in the world.

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That's the problem that this
podcast is built to solve.

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My name is Mike Rusch
and I'm part of the

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team at Pure Charity.

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We're a nonprofit technology
organization that builds

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fundraising and donor
management tools for

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the nonprofit community.

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And I mentioned that
because I want you to know

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how we approach this work.

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We're not backed
by venture capital.

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There's no pressure to
extract more profit from the

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organizations that we serve.

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We exist to help nonprofits
do what they do better.

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That's it.

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And this podcast exists for
the same reason, to serve the

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people who are out there every
day trying to solve the most

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difficult problems in the world.

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So every week we help you think
through three questions that

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I believe are at the heart of
sustainable nonprofit growth.

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The first one is simply,
"how do I fund this work?"

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Where's the money gonna come
from this year, next year,

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and five years from now?

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Every week we're reading the
research reports, tracking

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the giving data, and watching
the economic indicators

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so that you don't have to.

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We do the work of paying
attention to all of it,

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sorting through what actually
matters, and translating

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it into what it means for
nonprofit organizations and

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how they can take action on it.

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We've been doing this work for
15 years and served on nonprofit

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boards, served as executive
directors, founded nonprofits,

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and been tasked to raise funds
for the organizations that we've

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served, including Pure Charity.

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We've been there, we are there.

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We've felt the weight and
we've continued forward.

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The second question is
this, "how do I partner with

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donors and invite them to
be a part of this mission?"

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Because the organizations that
are thriving right now aren't

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just asking people for money.

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They're building relationships.

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They're helping donors to see
themselves as part of the story,

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not just the funding source.

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So every week we're asking
why do donors give, what

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is the donor psychology and
the motivation, and what is

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their research telling us
about how that is changing?

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And we want you to be able
to use that to deepen the

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relationships that you have
with your supporters and

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the people that you work
with who support your work.

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And the third question is
one that honestly doesn't

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get enough attention.

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"How do I care for the
supporters and donors

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that we already have?"

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Because here's the thing, we
know from the data, that donor

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retention across the nonprofit
sector is still a major problem.

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The average nonprofit loses
over half its donors every

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single year, and in most
cases it's not because the

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donor stopped caring, it's
because we stopped showing

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them that their gift mattered.

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and That's a retention problem.

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And it's fixable.

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So that's what you'll
get every week.

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Funding, partnership,
stewardship, retention, plus

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the policy changes and sector
news that affects all four.

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Each episode is under
about 10 minutes.

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No fluff, no jargon, just
actionable intelligence that

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you can use immediately.

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And the full written report
with all the links and

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all the sources is always
available at purecharity.com.

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Subscribe wherever you're
listening right now.

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New episodes will drop
almost every Tuesday.

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I wanna say thanks for
following along and please

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keep doing this good work.

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We believe that this
podcast series will help.