Social Profit Stack
Want a simpler digital fundraising strategy? Every other Sunday, I share practical tools, AI ideas, and proven tactics to help you raise more revenue and improve the online donor experience. Free gift inside!
Your donors WANT to give monthly. Take your shot ⚽︎
Hey Reader, Here’s a number that should stop you mid-scroll: 58.6% of recurring donors set up their gift without ever being asked. No appeal email. No dedicated campaign. No ask at all. They simply wanted the option and clicked yes. The animal rescue shelter I worked with recently ran on a shoestring for years. Grant cycles, event revenue, and the seasonal ups and downs of year-end donations kept them barely afloat. Planning more than a year in advance felt like a long shot. When their...
Clean data pays off across every future campaign 👩🏻💻
Hey Reader, Somewhere in your CRM right now, I'll bet there's a donor listed under three different names. One is “Bob Smith,” one is “Robert Smith,” and another is “Smith, Bobby” with a trailing space. That latest donor report you pulled says you acquired two new donors this spring? Probably not. I chatted with a client recently who told me she was thrilled with their recent spring campaign numbers. Open rates were up. Gifts were coming in. Or so it seemed. She revealed that when she sat down...
You Don't Need All 8. Pick One to Begin ☝🏼
Hey Reader, If you've scrolled through your inbox lately, you've probably noticed: everyone is talking about AI. Including me ;) I recently attended a fundraising conference, and every second session focused on AI. If you're like the many fundraisers I talk to, your immediate reaction is somewhere between “I know I should figure this out” and “I don’t know when I’ll have time to figure this out.” My client, Maria, manages a two-person development team at a local animal rescue organization. In...
Donors aren't opening your email for information ℹ️
Hey Reader, A development director I know came close to shutting down her newsletter last month. Her open rates kept slipping. Her will to write had gone with them. Even one of her board members kept asking why she spent so much time on emails when "people use ChatGPT now." She didn't have a good answer. Rachel runs the development shop at a family shelter south of the city. It's tough. She'd been experimenting with AI to write her donor emails partly because she was burned out, but mostly...
You don’t need an AI strategy…yet 🤔
Hey Reader, Last month, I had coffee with a development director I recently worked with. I often check in to see how the team's fundraising is shaping up. She mentioned she’d attended at least two AI webinars that left her feeling more behind than when she started. She’s not alone. The conversation around AI is moving so fast that the question of what to do first has become a kind of a dread for many fundraising teams. I recently started working with a small nonprofit here in Calgary that had...
Your donors might be your BEST copywriters 📝
Hey Reader, Recently, my client Hazel stared at a number she couldn't explain. A significant chunk of first-time donors to her literacy organization hadn't come back. She mentioned to me that she didn't know if it was the economy, her emails, or something beyond her control. But what she did next is worth pursuing. A colleague of hers suggested a simple strategy for her to try: before launching the spring appeal, send your donors a short survey. Three questions. No more. Hazel nearly talked...
She showed me her screen. I haven't been the same since 🤯
Hi Reader, I have a thing about keeping things simple. For me, that means getting my work done quickly and efficiently — never overcomplicating things. But usually, that still takes some strategy to set up. So for once, I thought I had time to ease into this whole AI thing. No rush. Then I saw something that made me pause. A fellow consultant recently shared how she works with clients using AI. She pulled up her screen and walked me through a project she was managing. What I expected was a...
IWD isn't only one day. Never was 🦸🏻♀️
Reader, this week, something a little different — a story I've been meaning to share. I had a gut instinct early on in my career. Not a job title, but of the kind of work that mattered. Work that would help people and organizations grow their impact and do something meaningful in the world. So when I first moved to Calgary, an opportunity came along that fit. The sector, the mission, the potential — it all pointed in the right direction. But a year in, it became clear the person leading the...
Turning Subscribers into Your Best Donors 🥇
Hi Reader, I subscribe to quite a few nonprofit email lists, and read many that treat it like a box to check in their donor engagement process. Sometimes it’s a campaign update, a last-minute donation ask, or something sent simply because the calendar says it's time. It's not wrong, but every once in a while, I receive an email that uses it to build real momentum in building relationships differently. The secret? Intentional. The email writer is passionate about what they share and interested...
Building community is the lesson fundraising forgot 🧐
Hey Reader, I've always believed that community is the heartbeat of the nonprofit sector. But it wasn't until I met Tasha years ago that I really felt what that meant. Tasha Van Vlack is the founder and steady mind of the Nonprofit Hive, a space built on humanity. She had an idea, and instead of waiting for permission, she built it. Not for applause or optics, but for all of us. For those of us who sometimes feel isolated within a sector built on connection. She calls herself a community...
Want a simpler digital fundraising strategy? Every other Sunday, I share practical tools, AI ideas, and proven tactics to help you raise more revenue and improve the online donor experience. Free gift inside!