Bill Crouch says deeper donor connections are not a fancier way to say thank you. Bill is the CEO of BrightDot Fundraising Advisors, and for 40 years he has helped nonprofits reimagine fundraising. His idea of mattership starts with one question every donor is asking: does my life matter?

Many nonprofits connect with supporters mostly around gifts, events, and appeals. That keeps the calendar full, but it can leave donors feeling managed instead of valued. Bill shares how nonprofits can move beyond transactions and build relationships that make supporters feel they truly matter.

In this episode:

• Why stewardship is still transactional, and what a real relationship looks like
• Why the month after a golf tournament matters more than the month before
• The one question a funeral home owner says everyone is asking
• How mattership helps high wealth donors see that their lives are significant
• Why high wealth donors need different vocabulary and new collateral
• The personal touches that signal a real relationship, from stationery to texts
• The text message test for knowing a relationship is moving forward
• How a question about a favorite childhood toy reveals a donor's joy
• Why mattership has to start inside your own development team
• How longevity bonuses can help fundraisers stay past 16 months
• Why a $20 gift with a thoughtful note is an investment, not an expense
• How one donor went from giving $100 a year to a $5 million gift
• The stories major donors want to hear, and why listening comes first
• Why asking a donor for advice makes them feel they matter

You will leave with a clearer picture of what it takes to build donor relationships that last, and a few simple ways to start this week.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:21) What deeper donor connections mean beyond stewardship (4:22) The hidden cost of letting events define donor relationships (12:15) Signs a donor feels known, not managed (19:45) How to build a culture where everyone feels they matter (25:53) Low-cost ways a small team can make donors feel they matter (29:40) How one donor went from $100 a year to a $5 million gift (32:27) How to tell stories that invite donors into the mission (36:22) Why asking for advice shows donors they matter (40:11) Closing thoughts

Guest: Bill Crouch, CEO, BrightDot Fundraising Advisors https://thebrightdot.com/

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-donor-relationships

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Amberlee Burrows says a nonprofit data strategy starts with the information behind every gift, donor record, and interaction. The Development and Salesforce Director at Bearing Tree explains that gift processing is not just administrative work. It creates donor intelligence that helps fundraisers improve communication and build stronger long-term relationships.

Missing contact details, duplicate records, and delayed gift entry can lead to returned mail, awkward donor interactions, inaccurate tax receipts, missed major-gift opportunities, and fundraising asks based on an incomplete view of a donor’s giving history. Amberlee shares how nonprofits can strengthen data quality, standardize gift processing, and make more informed fundraising decisions.

In this episode:

• Why gift processing should be a core part of your nonprofit data strategy, not simply back-office work
• How reliable donor data helps fundraisers build stronger, more personal donor relationships
• The donor communication mistakes that can happen when gifts, contact details, and household records are not updated
• How duplicate donor records can split a donor’s giving history and cause fundraisers to underestimate donor value
• Why incomplete donor profiles can lead teams to make the wrong ask amount or miss major-gift opportunities
• Three donor data quality checks to run: duplicate-contact reports, contact-completeness reports, and current-donor reports
• How to match potential duplicates using multiple fields, including donor name, email address, and mailing address
• The donor details to capture from mailed checks, online donations, campaign pages, and other everyday transactions
• How donor interests, program engagement, volunteer activity, and outreach history support segmentation and personalized communication
• A realistic data standard for small and mid-sized nonprofits: every donor should have at least one valid contact method
• Why clear ownership, standardized gift-processing procedures, trained backups, timely deposits, and regular reconciliation reduce risk
• How better gift processing can prevent lost checks, improve tax-receipt accuracy, reduce audit stress, and increase trust in the CRM
• Why clean, connected donor records must come before AI, predictive analytics, and personalized major-gift outreach
• How automating online gift processing into your CRM can reduce manual entry, limit human error, and give staff more time for donor stewardship

You will leave with a clearer nonprofit data strategy for improving gift processing, strengthening donor data quality, using your CRM with greater confidence, and turning everyday donor information into fundraising intelligence.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:32) Where weak fundraising operations show up first (3:01) Why gift processing should be part of your nonprofit data strategy (4:17) How poor gift processing and data entry affect fundraising results (6:25) How duplicate donor records distort donor value (8:32) Three ways to check whether your donor data is good enough (13:03) How better gift processing and caging improve fundraising operations (17:09) The donor data you need for better segmentation and communication (19:30) A realistic nonprofit data strategy for small and mid-sized teams (21:32) Why clean donor data needs to come before AI and advanced analytics (26:04) The one gift-processing improvement to make in the next 30 days (27:38) Closing thoughts

Guest: Amberlee Burrows, Development and Salesforce Director, Bearing Tree https://bearingtree.com/

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-data-strategy

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Michael Medoro says nonprofit coalition building works when partners stay grounded in a shared mission, bring their own strengths to the work, and remain clear about what they can and cannot do. The Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at Childhelp explains that bold advocacy is not about being the loudest voice in the room. It is about being clear, disciplined, and focused on outcomes for the people you serve.

Some of the biggest challenges nonprofits address, including child abuse, trauma, and exploitation, cannot be solved by one organization working alone. Michael explains how coalitions can bring nonprofits, government agencies, corporations, and community partners together to reduce duplication, pool scarce resources, and advance systemic change.

In this episode:

• Why coalition building is becoming a more necessary strategy for nonprofits facing systemic challenges

• How mission-centered coalition work differs from partisan political advocacy

• Why coalitions can help nonprofits create systemic change that would take one organization much longer to achieve alone

• How Childhelp’s Children’s Advocacy Center model brings law enforcement, medical professionals, child welfare agencies, prosecutors, and forensic interviewers together to reduce retraumatization and better support children

• The common concerns nonprofits and corporate partners have about advocacy, including brand risk, loss of control, and slow decision-making

• How to keep advocacy focused on your mission instead of reacting to trends or the news cycle

• Why shared values and clear roles matter more than funding and operational plans alone

• How Childhelp stays focused on its core strengths while connecting people to trusted partners and local resources

• Why boards, legal teams, communications teams, and corporate partners should be involved early in coalition conversations

• The questions nonprofits should ask about mission alignment, governance, resources, ethics, and brand values before joining a coalition

• A practical coalition-building framework: trust first, structure second, results measurement third, and ongoing communication throughout

• How to explain coalition decisions to donors, staff, corporate partners, and communities by starting with the mission-based why

You will leave with a clearer way to evaluate coalition opportunities, establish boundaries and shared goals, build trust across sectors, and advocate for meaningful change without losing sight of your mission or your partners.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:18) Why coalition building matters for nonprofits today (3:52) How nonprofit coalition building differs from political advocacy (5:33) Why nonprofits choose coalition advocacy to strengthen mission impact (10:38) Common fears about coalition advocacy and corporate partnerships (11:55) How to keep advocacy focused on your mission (12:52) How shared values and clear roles build stronger coalitions (16:57) How boards and executive teams should approach coalition advocacy (18:26) Questions to ask before joining or launching a coalition (20:17) What effective coalition building looks like in practice (21:41) How to communicate coalition decisions with stakeholders (23:36) The future of coalition building for nonprofit impact (24:43) Closing thoughts

Guest: Michael Medoro, Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff, Childhelp ⁠⁠https://childhelp.org/⁠⁠](https://childhelp.org/⁠⁠

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-coalition-building

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/⁠

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Lindsay Whorton says nonprofit-public partnerships work best when nonprofits support a public system’s goals rather than trying to shape its decisions. As president of The Holdsworth Center, she explains that lasting partnerships require real alignment from the start, respect for the public leader’s chain of accountability, and the willingness to say no when the fit is not right.

Public systems often face constrained budgets, limited staff capacity, and urgent needs. That can make any outside resource feel like an opportunity. Lindsay says the better test is whether the nonprofit’s offering supports the system’s actual strategy and priorities, not simply whether it addresses a gap or comes with funding.

In this episode:

• How to tell the difference between a nonprofit partnership that strengthens a public system and one that quietly tries to direct it
• Why saying no to an unaligned partnership can protect a district’s limited time, attention, and capacity
• How The Holdsworth Center works through superintendents rather than approaching school boards directly
• What the organization’s five-year partnership with Lockhart ISD shows about shared ownership, redesigned leadership roles, and sustainable results
• Why the nonprofit takes responsibility for adapting its delivery to each district’s culture while keeping clear values-based boundaries
• How funder boundaries protect district confidentiality and keep district selection independent of outside influence
• Why real scale means building a system’s ability to continue the work after the partnership ends
• The questions to ask before entering a partnership, including whether the work aligns with the system’s goals and whether leaders have the capacity to benefit from it

You will leave with a way to evaluate nonprofit-public partnerships before they begin, clarify who owns the strategy and accountability, communicate boundaries with funders and stakeholders, and build support that strengthens public institutions without taking them over.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:26) The growing need for nonprofit partnerships in public education (5:02) What a healthy nonprofit partnership with public schools looks like (7:51) Working inside public school systems without losing your mission (9:41) A public school partnership that strengthened outcomes for students and educators (13:22) The biggest fears about nonprofits working with public systems (14:40) Strategic support versus short-term fixes in public partnerships (17:53) Building trust and shared culture across nonprofit and public school teams (20:39) Getting boards and executive teams aligned around a public partnership (23:32) Questions to ask before entering into a public partnership (25:30) What it takes to build a long-term public school partnership (28:12) Clearly communicating roles in a nonprofit-public partnership (30:41) The future of nonprofit partnerships in public education

Guest: Lindsay Whorton, President, The Holdsworth Center ⁠https://holdsworthcenter.org/⁠

Full transcript and show notes: ⁠https://www.anedot.com/nonprofit-pulse⁠

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: ⁠https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/⁠

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Erica Cox has spent more than 30 years in technology consulting, and she says nonprofit AI adoption is the polar opposite of a large, singular transformation. The Chief Innovation Officer at Provisio Partners recommends small, controlled use cases that let a team fail fast or win fast while building the guardrails it needs.

The usual instruction is to clean all of your data first, then modernize systems, then consider AI. Erica says data readiness does not depend on organization size or a sophisticated platform. It depends on the minimum viable data required for a useful job.

In this episode:

• How to find a small AI use case inside a recurring process instead of starting with one large transformation project

• The minimum viable data test, including why asking staff to enter 100 fields can hurt both adoption and AI results

• How the Higher Learning Commission used runners, walkers, and bystanders to identify early adopters and bring more people in

• The guardrail behind Pacific Clinics' agent Hope, which had one identifier and no other information about a person

• Why a client kept staff at eight-hour days but helped them see ten kids instead of five and complete three grant applications instead of one

You will leave with a way to inventory AI already in use, choose a pilot, revisit governance monthly, and explain why responsible adoption can strengthen the human work your team does.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Starting with AI without a transformation (1:14) Small pilots beat the big transformation (3:14) The minimum viable data test (7:19) The runners, and permission to fail (10:31) How to inventory scattered data (13:18) What the agent named Hope actually does (15:37) Guardrails before sensitive data (19:19) Why AI is changing work so fast (25:38) Why ignoring AI can be risky (30:00) AI that strengthens human work (33:09) Where to start this week

Guest: Erica Cox, Chief Innovation Officer, Provisio Partners https://provisiopartners.com

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ai-how-to-start

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Krissie Kelleher brings more than 25 years of strategic fundraising experience to Team IMPACT, and she says an annual fundraising plan is not a document. It is a decision about what you will do and what you will not do.

The answer is not a 40-page plan no one reads. Krissie starts with the few revenue drivers that matter, maps the work across the year, and turns ambitious goals into math the team can manage. Fear is not a strategy, and neither is hope.

In this episode:

• How to identify the 3 to 5 core revenue drivers instead of treating every idea as equally important

• Why 70 to 80% of revenue is often predictable, while the rest can be tested, shrunk, or removed

• What a $3.7 million Team IMPACT gala reveals once $750,000 in event costs are counted

• How a 12-month calendar becomes the strategy for campaigns, appeals, events, and stewardship

• Why the top 25 prospects and 30%, 50%, and 75% yield calculations keep a pipeline honest

You will leave with a one-page planning approach, a calendar your team can follow, and a quarterly review rhythm for changing course. Focus on relationships, not activity for activity's sake. Krissie would take a sit-down visit with a major-gift prospect ten times more than an event invitation.

Episode highlights: (0:00) What the plan says no to (1:26) What makes a fundraising plan work (4:58) Choose revenue drivers that matter (8:36) A 12-month calendar people use (12:59) Targets ambitious enough to manage (18:25) Planning mistakes to avoid (24:55) When to revise the plan (27:58) Fundraising beyond the development team (34:16) Staying focused amid shiny objects (43:37) Start with the one-page plan

Guest: Krissie Kelleher, CEO, Team IMPACT

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-annual-nonprofit-fundraising-plan More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Luke Mickelson helped turn Sleep in Heavenly Peace into a volunteer-powered nonprofit with more than 300 chapters, and he did not want to become the bottleneck. The organization's national ambassador says founders do not always have to step back. They have to step differently, from daily operator to a role that protects the mission while local leaders carry it forward.

That transition demands a shared process, not hundreds of separate ways of doing the same work. It also demands an experience that lets volunteers contribute meaningfully, even if they have never touched a tool before.

In this episode:

• How Sleep in Heavenly Peace grew from seven chapters to 125 in less than a year, while its budget rose from $80,000 to $1 million in six months

• Why every chapter needs at least four core team members, rather than one or two people headed for burnout

• Why a jig that builds beds ten times faster with ten times fewer people can work against a volunteer-powered mission

• How public bed builds turn one person's 10 to 30 beds a year into a community effort that can build 300 or 400

• Why chapter presidents receive a weekly P&L and the organization presents its finances every quarter

You will leave with a framework for deciding what to centralize, choosing coachable chapter leaders, designing a meaningful volunteer experience, and preparing for the moment your organization outgrows you.

Episode highlights: (0:00) How to grow past the founder bottleneck (1:41) When founders must step differently (6:40) National standards, local ownership (9:49) A founder's job: vision, not operations (14:06) Keeping quality across 300 chapters (18:19) When growth breaks the system (22:33) Choosing leaders who can be coached (28:26) Volunteers who become long-term champions (35:13) Why radical transparency matters (41:40) Before your idea takes off (45:46) Where founders go from here

Guest: Luke Mickelson, National Ambassador, Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-scale-a-volunteer-powered-nonprofit

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Dave Raley, Founder and CEO of The Center for Sustainable Giving, says recurring giving programs do not grow on technology pixie dust. Recurring giving has changed with the subscription economy, but too many charities still treat it as a checkbox.

The average recurring donor retention rate is between 78 and 84%, yet a recurring program can still plateau when nobody owns it or donors have no reason to stay. Dave explains how to make recurring giving a full-fledged discipline, not a side project.

In this episode:

• What The Joshua Fund changed to grow from about 1,900 to more than 4,000 recurring donors in two years

• Why Netflix and Spotify spend heavily to acquire subscribers, and what that says about donor lifetime value

• The difference between voluntary and involuntary churn, including the 20 to 25% of cards that go bad each year

• Why a $1,500 to $3,000 recurring donor is worth a call when a payment fails

• The "how many and how much" questions to answer by the end of today before assessing six technology criteria

You will leave with a way to identify the owner of your program, define a recurring value proposition, and start reducing churn with the resources you already have. Technology can be a barrier or an ally, but it will not grow the program for you.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why recurring programs stop growing (1:06) Why resilient programs still plateau (3:44) Quick wins for a stagnant program (5:11) What Netflix and Spotify reveal (7:38) When recurring giving becomes core strategy (9:50) Who owns recurring giving? (12:49) A value proposition donors want to keep (15:08) Reducing churn and winning donors back (18:24) Growth without a big tech stack (21:20) First steps toward sustainable growth (24:42) Start with the program, not the technology

Guest: Dave Raley, Founder and CEO, The Center for Sustainable Giving

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-recurring-giving More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stephen Minix thinks nonprofit impact measurement starts with people, not a report or a platform. As Vice President of Community at UpMetrics, he helps investors, funders, and nonprofits move beyond transactional engagement toward authentic partnership.

An annual report that says everything worked is validation, not learning. Stephen explains how nonprofits can own their story, decide what success means for their intervention, and use information to improve instead of merely meeting a funder requirement. The work becomes more useful when teams can see themselves in the process.

In this episode:

• Why collecting every possible metric makes it harder to identify what actually matters

• How a single source of truth can replace disconnected surveys, budgets, marketing data, and spreadsheets

• What the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation event revealed by putting a story before the data

• Why Affirmative Athletics could move from the story to its data without putting Rob Thelusma on the back foot

• The $8 million funding loss that affected 12,000 kids across Los Angeles and exposed the cost of an ineffective data strategy

You will leave with a people-first approach to choosing useful measures, combining numbers with stories, and making room to change course when the data shows an intervention is not working. Start with the mission and values before looking for a tool.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When measurement becomes a burden (1:10) Make measurement work for your team (4:13) One source of truth, not scattered systems (7:20) From collecting data to improving programs (10:16) When numbers and stories work together (14:01) A shared framework with funders (17:46) From ad hoc reports to disciplined measurement (21:59) Data confidence for non-data people (26:39) Define the work before choosing a platform (29:49) Start with mission and values

Guest: Stephen Minix, Vice President of Community, UpMetrics

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-data-impact-measurement

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Laurie Hood has spent 20 years growing Alaqua Animal Refuge, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Northwest Florida, and she says nonprofit crisis preparedness begins long before an emergency. For Laurie, relationship building is not something to turn on in a crisis. It is work an organization lives every day.

When Hurricane Milton created an urgent need, Alaqua had less than 24 hours to organize hundreds of dogs from South Florida. The response worked because people knew its role, trusted its team, and could be assigned to work quickly.

In this episode:

• How Alaqua became part of a statewide disaster-response coalition before it needed to activate one

• What changed when hundreds of dogs arrived from South Florida and Alaqua was fully set up within 24 hours

• How more than 1,000 volunteers contributing 80,000 hours a year create readiness before the next call for help

• Why knowing volunteers' strengths lets a team assign tasks quickly, safely, and without chaos

• How to use AI as an intern to create a starting point for an emergency-management plan and identify community partners

You will leave with a simple first move: make one phone call this week, start one relationship in the calm season, and build the trust that turns goodwill into coordinated response.

Episode highlights: (0:00) The relationships a crisis response depends on (2:03) Build community before the emergency (4:18) Who needs to be at the table first (6:49) Making room for readiness on a maxed-out team (7:56) Why calm-season relationships matter (10:46) Earning a seat in emergency planning (14:16) Keeping volunteers engaged between crises (16:22) The cost of activating community too late (18:12) What a prepared response looks like (19:24) One call to start building readiness (21:05) Your first relationship this week

Guest: Laurie Hood, Founder, Alaqua Animal Refuge

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-community-before-a-crisis-hits More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Tasha Van Vlack says nonprofit ambassador programs fail when organizations treat people as a marketing tactic instead of building community. As Founder & Co-Director of The Nonprofit Hive, she has seen why a Slack channel full of posts to share can turn committed supporters into a distribution channel.

The goal is not simply brand awareness. Tasha argues that ambassadors should create trust, belonging, and influence around the mission. That begins by defining the purpose, choosing the right people, and giving the group a role that is clear without trying to control every action.

In this episode:

• Why an ambassador program should be a community strategy, not a cheaper substitute for paid advertising

• How The Nonprofit Hive used a one-page overview, an internal owner, and minimum expectations for its cohorts

• Why 12 ambassadors may need to become 18 instead of being asked to do more

• The value of separate tracks for a TikTok contributor and someone connected to a local chamber of commerce

• How a second-Wednesday monthly rhythm lets ambassadors put 12 months on the calendar

You will leave with a practical way to pilot an ambassador program, define its role, and recognize people without making the work feel transactional. Start small, learn from the pilot, and refine it.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When ambassadors become a distribution channel (1:08) Why ambassador programs miss the point (4:45) When programs turn transactional (7:00) Define the purpose before recruiting (8:53) What a working ambassador program needs (13:13) Values before marketing goals (17:18) Ambassadors as community leaders (20:01) Scaling without burning out supporters (25:59) Building belonging beyond the task list (30:08) How to start a program that lasts (37:08) Start small, learn, refine

Guest: Tasha Van Vlack, Founder & Co-Director, The Nonprofit Hive

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ambassador-programs More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.