047 – Modernizing non-profit digital marketing tools, with Bryna Dilman

Episode Transcription

David: Welcome to the Non-profit Digital Success Podcast, I’m your host David, in this episode, I’m gonna be speaking with Bryna Dilman from Fundraising Kit. And at the end of the episode, she has an amazing offer for you.

This is one of the most exciting interviews that we’re gonna have simply because donors are looking to give money and non-profits and charities are looking for money, and this is gonna kind of bring it all together. Looking forward to chat with Bryna and her giving all kinds of great insight to everybody who’s listening.

So let me introduce her, Bryna is the director of growth at Fundraising Kit, which is a data-driven toolkit that helps non-profits raise more for their cause. Integrating with leading non-profit databases, their fundraising fit identifies supporters early and who are ready to give and segments of donors for targeted communications.

They track fundraising progress, and They’ll save you time and hours and hours and hours so that you can increase your revenue in your bottom line. Bryna is an expert in data analytics with an extensive background in the non-profit sector, something between like 15 and 20 years of working in the non-profit arena, which is fantastic. And, you know, the unique technology needs of non-profit organizations, which require experience in maximum ROI and being able to deliver that and strategies to help non-profits raise more to deliver their core mission is right at the heart of everything that she’s into.

So, hi, Bryna, that was a bit of a mouthful, welcome to the show.

Bryna: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

David: That’s awesome. You’ve got a ton of, you know, non-profit sector experience and it sounds like you’re pretty busy. So, I certainly appreciate you taking some time to join here. I’m curious, like what drove you to work in the non-profit sector?

Bryna: So funny, I did my postgraduate studies in corporate communications and public relations, and we got to do a co-op. One of the co-op options was obviously a PR agency and there was one non-profit that was associated with the program. I chose that just because I thought it sounded interesting, it was for KidSport Ontario, and I fell in love with working for a cause.

I thought it aligned with my values, I thought that it was such a unique opportunity to do something and work hard for the community and for people versus, you know, having to get somebody more vacation time or a bigger cottage. I just felt that my time and energy was just so well deserved going to that community in those families and ever since then, I’ve just stayed within the industry.

So that’s kind of how it worked, which is strange, because now I’m not in the non-profit industry, but I’m supporting the non-profit industry. So I feel good about what I’m doing.

David: Important for me to have a sense of purpose, right? Yeah. And that’s, you know, from what you’re saying that’s really what drives you. And I think that really drives anybody that’s related to, like, if you think of a cloud around non-profits and charities there’s all these different types of businesses for profit, non-for-profit, etcetera are in that space.

Bryna: Yes. I love it. I’m happy.

David: Awesome. That’s great. Alright, so let’s jump in. First question here for you, what digital marketing opportunities have you seen arise for non-profits over the past five years?

Bryna: Well, first of all, non-profits are now starting to use a lot more digital tools than they have in the past. And I think online giving grew by, I think I have my notes here 60% from 2017 to 2021. And so what the great thing about having these new digital marketing tools is that non-profits have more ability to create awareness and raise funds for their cause.

So I’ve seen people use their websites in different ways. I think a lot of the time non-profits have a website for a vessel of information, and now people are actually using it as a marketing tool. A way to actually showcase where and how to get help, where to donate, how to get involved, and not just showcasing the information in which they have about the disease or the whatever they’re supporting. Another opportunity I’ve seen is social media and digital ads.

Bryna: Again, I think I’ve seen that digital advertising budgets have increased by 19% in 2021. So these non-profits are actually going out and finding grants for Google ads and PPC or Paid Per Click ads because they’re seeing there’s a change in a shift in how people are seeing and viewing these opportunities to get involved in a charity. And they’re using those type of digital marketing opportunities.

Another way I see is obviously social media, I think 18% of donors worldwide donate on Facebook. Again, a trend that we’ve seen in the beginning when social media started that Facebook and Twitter were used more as awareness pieces versus now it’s marketing to generate dollars in revenue.

Again, non-profit software, online giving software, we see peer-to-peer events and donation pages as a huge opportunity for non-profits to increase fundraising. And I think Salesforce put out their 2021 trend report staying that even post-pandemic, 30% of non-profits are still using traditional peer-to-peer fundraising events for generating revenue. And because of that, non-profits need to utilize those platforms and those avenues to generate revenue*.

Text messaging and automation tools, something that we’ve really seen increase over the last couple of years, you know, text messaging used to be again, just like websites, an awareness opportunity where non-profits would use it to drive people to the website or to gain more information. Now they’re using text messaging for giving something, that’s increased mobile giving. I think I have here 25% of donors complete their donations on mobile devices. And in the past year, mobile donations have increased 205% and it takes 90 seconds to respond to a text versus I say 90 minutes by email.

So non-profits really can start to look at using those kinds of digital marketing opportunities as well. And then email marketing software, you know, non-profits are increasing connecting with their donors via email. We see email list sizes increase. In 2021, there is an increase of an average rate of 7% building on 4% and 2% growth in the previous years.

So again, all these different digital marketing things we’ve seen over the last five years, in particular, are really helping non-profits use those pieces of technology and digital opportunities to not only drive awareness but to increase revenue. I don’t know, is that what you see as well? Or here? I feel like those are kind of the top ones that I’ve noticed.

David: Yeah. And I think that makes a lot of sense, right? During the pandemic over the last two years plus, people are at home more. Cellphone prices, data plans, and I guess general access, it’s getting less expensive. People have more easy access to technology, and we’re seeing this trend right across with websites as well, like in terms of analytics, right? You’re seeing an increase in mobile access to websites over desktop access.

People are sitting on their couch, they’re doing more surfing from their phones. They’re seeing a commercial on TV, they’re Googling it, they’re doing all that kind of stuff. So they’re more ready to kind of like, I don’t know if you think of the wild west where they’re walking around their hands on their hips like to pull the gun, right? Like, no, they’ve got their cell phone in their pocket.

They’re like ready to pull it out and shoot. Right? And take some kind of action. It’s really important that non-profits think about these other kinds of mediums as they’re building out their digital presence.

Bryna: It’s really important. And again, I think a lot of non-profits are trying to stay in line with the trends. It’s just trying to balance that with skillset, it’s trying to balance that with remote working and how do you teach and mentor all these new individuals coming in or leaving with great resignation, etcetera, etcetera.

But once you have these core opportunities in front of you and you’re utilizing the digital world, you really have such a large opportunity to engage a bigger audience, so it’s important.

David: A hundred percent. You need to be able to engage and differentiate yourself from other similar like organizations. Just because your organization is doing this doesn’t mean there isn’t somebody else that’s doing the same thing that’s gonna try to fight to get dollars from donors in that same kind of space.

Whether they’re local, regional, national, international, there’s tons of organizations out there that are doing that. So if we kind of shift into, okay, “here’s the high level”, you know, different trends, that have come in what we’re seeing in terms of numbers and growth over those super important metrics for us to kind of understand.

But, let’s drill down a little bit in terms of, I guess, boosting online donations, right? What are some of the best practices that you could recommend for non-profits?

Bryna: Number one, engage with your donors. How do you create an engaging experience for your donors on your website? And number one way is to put together an online presence or an online donation page that really resonates and makes them feel empowered.

How do you do that? One way, I think there’s a lot of statistics about embedding your donation page on your website. So, instead of having someone click on a donate button and be redirected to another page, you want it within the organization’s webpage.

This gives trust, it showcases branding, it’s just an opportunity for these non-profits to showcase to the donor that the experience is the same. They’re not being taken out of where they’re intentionally supposed to be going. Another opportunity is having those ways in which to engage them and empower them. One, let’s say, thermometers; so whether or not you’re having a campaign or an event, even just a donation drive, have a thermometer to showcase impact, non-profit donors want to see impact. There is I think a step that says overall giving increase by 35% when non-profits use a thermometer on their webpage.

Again, this real-time dynamic, you know, widget or gamification kind of tool is really giving that donor the opportunity to see “my donation matters”. Even if it’s $10 or it’s $5,000, whatever it is, that donor wants to see that the non-profit is benefiting from their experience and from their donation. Another really great way to, I guess, I always say inspire and satisfy is give donors the opportunity to cover the fees, these processing fees.

Some non-profits are a little bit shy to ask for their ask donors to give a little bit more but guess what your donors want to give to you, and they want 100% of the funds to go to you*. But again, working in the non-profit sector, there’s administration and processing fees, and that’s not a bad thing. That keeps the world moving and going and growing and people employed it’s OK.

And these donors have the capacity to give that extra 35 cents a $1.25 more, and it makes them feel even better being able to give that little extra, so the non-profit can get 100% of that donation cost. Again, another great opportunity is having buttons on your site that allow these donors to find corporate matching.

Why? they say 9 out of 10 companies offer matching gift programs with an estimated 2 to 3 billion dollars donated annually. So what does that mean? Donors are maximizing the amount of money they’re giving to the donation without having to double dip into their own pocket.

What a way to really strengthen your relationship with that donor and feel like you’re giving them the power again, that word, empowering those donors to feel like they’re contributing more by showcasing to them. Here’s an opportunity to find, find out if your non-profit, if your organization has corporate matching, and then using your technology, make sure you use suggested donation amounts.

There’s statistics that say there’s a 12% increase in average donation when people see a donation number versus them just putting in what they feel and when they see those potential asks, they think they’re supposed to click on one. So even if they went in intentionally thinking, I’m just gonna give $20. If the minimum number is $25, they’ll think, “well, that’s what I should be giving”.

So, engage with your donors. If you want $25 to be your minimum donation, those that are able to give that will give it because you’ve given them the option to do that. Again, having tribute giving, one-third of all donors worldwide they give tribute gifts.

They want to know that they’re honoring their family or their friends or their networks when they’re donating a gift to a charity. So having them be able to showcase who they’re tributing their gift to is, again, a nice way to honor them, engage with them and boost donations. And then, you know, things like social media shares widget, have the opportunity for the donor to share that information on that donation page that will really help increase fundraising.

It gives the non-profit the opportunity to share their messaging with the donor’s network. Again, maybe a huge group of people that may not know about the organization themselves. 43% of people attend or participate in charitable events in their community because of social media and 55% of people actually engage with non-profits on social media, end up taking some sort of action.

So again, an opportunity to increase revenue with your donation pages, and then obviously in giving options, having many different giving options, monthly giving, recurring giving, having that option and button on the donation page will really help increase revenue. 45% of donors enroll in a monthly giving program a year and monthly giving revenue increases by 23% for those non-profits, which impacts their revenue. So just having that option there, it’s gonna help increase funds.

David: Wow. That was a lot, I think there were maybe 7 or 8 in there. That’s amazing. So I made a couple little notes as you were talking, and I’ve got a couple of questions for you. About that in terms of donation forms, what are your thoughts in terms of, you know, how long should a donation form be? I’ve seen some that are like “name, email amount, and then like takes you into billing”, right? So your credit card details, that type of thing.

I’ve seen some that they want your address and they want to know like your life history and your DNA code and like this and that and whatever. What are your thoughts on that?

Bryna: Great question. And there’s a fine balance. So, if this audience is the non-profit sector, you know, I would tailor towards not your DNA, but ask more questions. Number one. And you know, David I’m assuming you’re a donor as well, and when you’re giving information, you feel proud. Just giving your name and your amount you’re like, “oh, that’s it”.

When you are asked, okay, like, “why are you giving, do you wanna try a corporate gift? Would you be interested in a monthly donation? Would you consider donating or covering the processing fee?”. Again, not all of these have to be mandatory questions, but again, every time there’s a question and interaction, it’s a relationship.

The reason why it’s an opportunity for the non-profit is because you’re online. You don’t have that face-to-face interaction to say like, “Hey David, thanks for giving to this, becaause do you have a reason? Like, can I ask what that is? Can I show you where this impact is going? Can I tell you how that donation is helping this company, this family member, this environment, whatever it may be?”, it’s an online transaction.

And in order to develop a relationship with your donors, which these non-profits need to do, especially in this digital age of talking. Even pre-pandemic, this is an opportunity to utilize a medium where there’s no face-to-face interaction, ask them questions. You know, when I go meet somebody for the first time or you go to the dentist and they’re just like, “hi, what’s your name? Okay, come in, let me do your teeth. Goodbye”. Versus there’s a little back and forth, I feel at ease, I feel comfortable, I feel they’re credible, I feel like I trust them. You want to develop a relationship with your donors because you don’t want any donation to be transactional.

The more transactional it is, the less of an impact you’re going to make on that person’s life, and the less impact that person’s going to be able to know they are making on what that non-profit is doing. Again, you want to have a healthy medium, but there’s really an opportunity, and I always say, if I’m committed to donating to a cause, and I think the statistic for non-profits for having people who are affected by your cause, that network, is like almost 80% of people who want to give to a cause have a direct relation to it.

Asking me an additional 2 to 5 questions is not going to turn me off of that disease or that support. I’m not gonna stop caring about the environment because I was asked a couple more questions or if my grandmother has had, you know, heart and stroke issues, I’m not going to not want to give to them because they’re asking for my address, or if I’m interested in becoming a monthly donor. You want to have a balance between mandatory and non-mandatory questions, but create a relationship, you know, as best as you can in that online medium.

David: I think that’s really great, and one of the things that is kind of weaving through what you’re saying, but you didn’t actually say it is really kind of tell the story. Like, what is it about your organization that people are gonna care about? And if you get this insight by asking some questions like, “Hey, you know, thank you for your donation of $8 or $50 or whatever it is, you know, here’s the ways that we’re gonna use it”.

If it’s like a general purpose type of fund, but you know, kind of creating that story. And if you ask them, “Hey, what was it that, you know, prompted you to donate to rhino’s foundation”, right? You’ll be able to learn about the audience and ways that you can connect with them and the story that you can tell that would connect with them.

Bryna: Exactly.

David: All right. So we’ve got an awesome donation page now, right? We’ve got like 85,000 different ways that we can engage with them. Right? How do we get people there? And I like to always talk about email marketing and being able to get out there because people are still using email at, at email isn’t dead. So do you have any best practices in terms of what people can do with regards to email marketing?

Bryna: Absolutely. And I think this plays into your point about stories. So now that you’ve captured all this information about these donors and you’ve, you know, talked to them, you can now personalize your communications. And I always say one piece of data is so important.

You know, somebody’s a monthly donor, well they’re different than somebody who’s just given one time. You know somebody’s covering the processing fee?, well I think they care, not care more, but they have the opportunity to be able to give a bit more. You can talk to them differently. Personalizing your email communications is not just about saying “hi David”, “Hi Bryna” when you email, or “thanks for giving $30 or $150”.

It’s not about just transactional communications, it’s about personalizing. “Thanks for giving to this particular campaign”, “thanks for giving to this particular program” or “thanks for becoming a monthly donor”, “thanks for covering the processing fee”, the more that you know who your donors are, the better you are able to communicate with them and making sure you have the right tools to be able to do that.

So, not just sending out an email, but figuring out who are you sending that email to. Fundraising Kit has the opportunity to properly segment these donors, to be able to say how in which they came to your organization so that you’re not just the blanketing these messages.

Another opportunity to really make those email campaigns go a long way is picking the right time for sending email. Now, I know there’s a lot of talk about sending on a weekend, a weekday, a midday in the morning, in the afternoon. That’s great, and you need to figure out what that is. That’s a little bit of trial and error, but it’s also the right timing.

If you can look at my donation history and you can see I’ve never donated in the summer because I’m always away in the summer. I wish I’m just using this as an example, that’s my dream. You’re not going to want to send me emails during those months because I’m not going to open them, I’m not gonna engage in them, I’m not gonna be able to really see.

So, you want to have the right technology to send a personalized email at the right time. So again, that’s where Fundraising Kit can really tell you the time of year, the time of month that you should be interacting with these individuals. So, you’re not just blanketing, “thank you messages” and you’re doing it in a timely manner, right? So you want to make sure you say “thank you” right away, obviously, but you want to make sure throughout the year. Especially if they’re giving to a certain campaign or program that you’re doing exactly what you mentioned, the storytelling, “this is where the funds are going”, “oh, hey, this is how it’s now been impacted”, “this is who you’re impacting “.

Using mobile-friendly emails, you mentioned it, I mentioned it, people are on their mobile phones all the time. How about if you created this gorgeous, amazing, beautiful-looking email and someone opens it on their phone and it looks different all the time.

David: Oh my God. If you have to scroll sideways on an email, let’s just…

Bryna: Turn it sideways. You want to make sure that when you’re sending out emails that you’re testing in on a variety of different devices, not just mobile. Tablets, all these kind of things that people are using now to ensure that they’re seeing the impact that you’re trying to showcase in those emails. Segmenting your emails, utilizing an opportunity to properly segment, which goes back to personalization.

The more you can segment, you’re creating that relationship, you’re continuing it. You started it on the webpage, when they came to see your information, you continued it when they were able to click through and make that donation. And now you’re going to enhance it with the information that you’re using by talking to the right people at the right time. And then you want to make sure you’re re-engaging with inactive customers or inactive donors.

You don’t want to just leave them out, you want to really find ways to reengage and really find that retention within those donors. They say, “I think acquiring new donors can be 50 to 100 times, a 100% more expensive than re-engaging those who have given to you once”. So, what does that look like? all those things that we just mentioned to figure out how to reengage, how to communicate, how to at the right time, with the right message, in the right way through personalization and all the above high level.

David: And super high level, Right? But I think it’s also important to do some outreach in between, right? So. not just connect with your donors when there’s a campaign or giving Tuesday or something like that. They want to be reached out to throughout the year, knowing where funding is going to tell the stories about an organization helping children, right? Feature some of the children or some of the families, and like try to pull at those heartstrings. Create that emotional connection, and that’s gonna get you better and more engaged donors.

Bryna: It’s ambassadors, right? And you know, working in the non-profit sector I’ve worked at a variety of different causes and organizations, but even one, you know, Kids’ Help Phone I worked at where you really, you can’t showcase a kid. Or when I worked in the city center, a lot of people think, you know, well, “my kid doesn’t need this work or help”. Well, you need to personalize it and you need to show impact.

Somehow there has to be a way to find that connection and it’s saying throughout the year. Communication isn’t from a campaign, it’s not because of a donation, really communication and email communication should happen throughout the year at a variety of different opportunities to say thanks to. Talk to them about all the different holidays that are arising, and make sure that you thank them for just being part of your community.

It’s an opportunity to allow your non-profit to be top of mind so that when there is donation request email that comes up you haven’t been silent since the last donation. You haven’t been MIA, you’ve been present, you’ve been active and you’ve been relationship-building.

David: Yeah. My family, we give to there’s about a dozen charities that we donate to. And, you know, there’s different times of the year, right? Like end of year, we want to get tax receipt, things like that, right?There are only two out of them that I get communications through regularly throughout the year, and I have a very different opinion of those organizations.

I do have these ones where I’ll get a piece of mail: “Hey, you know, it’s time for a donation, thank you”. You know, you’re going to get my donation, but like “what’s happening?”. I care about the non-profits that we support and the charities we support, I follow them and I’m seeing different things. But, they’re not out there really promoting themselves, really talking about amazing work that they’re doing, the people that are helping.

How they’re creating impact, changing the world, all that kind of stuff, which is probably what everybody that’s listening to this or watching this is out there doing. People want to know, they want to know how their money is being used when they’re donating.

Bryna: Absolutely. Absolutely.

David: Yeah. So, I guess taking that thread in terms of driving engagement or using technology to drive engagement, what do you see as ways that non-profits and charities can improve or increase stakeholder engagement?

Bryna: Number one, technology. Technology is the most opportune way for these non-profits these days to increase stakeholder engagement. I say that because what’s happened in the last couple of years: a pandemic, the great resignation, remote working. All of these things that have really given the non-profit industry.

And again, excuse me, another one is a lot of these non-profits when this pandemic came to be, weren’t able to meet their budgets or had to pivot quickly from all of the planned events and programs that they had in place. What is the one common stability within all of that: is technology. It bridges that gap, and how does it bridge that gap? It allows the non-profit to utilize the technology to really boost or improve engagement.

What I mean by that is that when you have a database that has now been collecting all of this information over the last two years, especially if you went online from all these, you know, in-person events that pivoted you now have a whole bunch more data and hopefully what I’ve been saying about all, you know, our previous questions that you’ve had an interactive donation page, and you’ve been able to really collect information, have so much more data than you’ve ever had before you need to use it.

This is such a good opportunity to now talk to them about it, to be more inclusive. Really non-profits want to look and need to look at their technology and ways in which they’re going to use it. Having the right CRM, having the opportunity to really get all that information in one place so that when you say, you know: “Hey David, thanks for contributing at this time at this date” and you’re like, “wait a second, I also contributed here and here and here”.

They’re not consolidating at all in the right CRM, they need the right tools and the right databases to be able to collect all that information.

Then, how do you use that information? Again, marketing and email journeys. Being able to use social media, segmenting your donor information – with Fundraising kit, when you plug it in and reading all this data. You have all these remote workers and all these different parts of the, you know, the world potentially because you don’t have time to just hire right in your neighborhood cause you want to open the pool to talent.

In order to do so, you can’t sit beside somebody and tell them how you do this and how it works. You’re doing it all Remotely. Data fills that gap data has the opportunity to really help these non-profits figure out easy ways to pull the right list, to use the right types of communication, to communicate at the right time. All these different things, to be able to communicate and create again, increase stakeholder engagement that’s through volunteering that’s through anything that you capture in your CRM, your customer relationship management platform.

Really utilizing it to its best ability and talk about it. And then a huge opportunity to really boost stakeholder engagement is through the virtual event world and the virtual event space that it’s never going away. And I remember when, you know, hybrid events were the new terminology and virtual events were very different or strange.

A lot of individuals over this last 2.5 years have moved away from city centers where a lot of non-profits tend to hold their big events, a lot of these donors have experienced new health issues, and new problems developed new relationships with non-profits that they never had experienced before and want access to them.

They can’t be everywhere at every point, so how do you do that? You ensure that you have the opportunity for these individuals to engage virtually and or in person. Giving them again, I love this word, empowering the donor to choose how, in which way they want to communicate, to donate, to support, and be part of your organization. But your non-profit has to have the ability to host those different types of virtual, hybrid, in-person, online events as well

David: That’s great. I think, you know, one of the key things that you mentioned a few times already is, you know, I’m just gonna summarize this really short here, like how amazing would it be to know, “I need to reach out to this group of donors right now, because this is their time when they wanna give”. Going out and saying, you know, having some kind of data-driven analysis to say, okay, “these donors they’re primed, they’re ready, they’re like gonna donate next month, so let’s hit them up with some messaging now”.

And by the way, let’s leverage our technology, and when we send out that email with a: “Hey, you know, want to donate? click here” kind of thing, let’s increase those donations, those default numbers in there by 10%, instead of 110% or 120%, right? And being able to leverage the technology to be able to do that would be huge. Like what organization would want another 10% more donations just by leveraging technology to be able to enhance that?

Bryna: And I feel so privileged to work at Fundraising Kit because really the last 15+ years that I’ve been in the non-profit industry, I’ve really tried to utilize technology to the fullest and pulling data and segmenting it myself. Talking to my staff and saying, “guess what, use this information and talk to the donor based on that”, is a very manual, manual process. It takes a lot of time, energy resources, and again, technology is the opportunity for these non-profits to bridge that gap, especially where we are today in the world.

It’s almost exciting because for the non-profit, there’s no benefits needed, there’s no time off needed. There’s, you know, this is an opportunity to really use technology, and use it to its fullest benefit. It’s really, what’s gonna help these non-profits really create those engagements with those stakeholders and what the right stakeholders at the right time.

David: Absolutely. Absolutely. And earlier you were talking about, you know, monthly giving programs and things like that. So how can monthly giving programs benefit digital giving and marketing strategies?

Bryna: Well, firstly, monthly giving is an opportunity for the non-profit to feel stable. I think I mentioned earlier 45% of monthly giving donors enroll in a monthly giving program a year and monthly giving revenue has seen a 23% increase for non-profits, really increasing their revenue.

So having a monthly giving program is almost for the non-profits to take a sigh of relief or breath. And so why do these non-profits need to invest in these monthly giving programs? because they need to make sure that there’s longevity, that there’s stability. How do you find new monthly donors? How do you engage monthly donors? You need to, again, as we mentioned, technology.

A lot of donation pages have options to ask donors if they want to give monthly, or if they want to give a recurring donation. Recurring donations are fantastic, but if they’re not regularly giving, how does a non-profit again, find that stability?

So you gotta literally go into your database and comb through and find, “okay, these people gave three times, these people gave five times, these keep people gave eight times”. That’s almost monthly donor, but they’re not a monthly donor. So again, technology like Fundraising Kit, where you just plug it into your CRM, you will be able to segment and find who’s ready to become a monthly donor.

I’d say having an opportunity to really gour like look through your database and find people who are interested in it. And maybe they just dun about the monthly giving program. Maybe they think they can’t afford a monthly giving program yet they’re giving really monthly. Or if you look at what they’re giving annually and you ask them to do that monthly, you have the opportunity again, to steward them and to talk to them and to build up the relationship with them.

So you can ask them for a little bit more. So really finding the ways in which you can find stability for your non-profit is to focus and support monthly giving. Monthly giving has retention rates of over 80% in the first year and 95% after five years. Whereas I think new donor retention rates have an average of less than 23%. So it’s a great way to engage your donors. Another opportunity is with younger donors, millennials, they say, and a lot of millennials, there’s a huge opportunity to create a relationship with these young individuals now who will then eventually, you know, grow into their wealth or grow into their, you know, businesses and have the ability and the financial stability to give more.

But if you are able to give an opportunity for these young people who we’ve seen in all these data and statistics want to be able to give to causes even if it’s $5 a month, whatever it may be. These millennials are looking for donors and there’s a stat that says 60% of millennials are interested in a monthly giving, and 45% of millennials have already given online, indicating they’re obviously comfortable with this technology. They have the ability, capacity, and you have the opportunity to, again, build those relationships. Continue it, so that these monthly donors continue year over year and provide stability for your non-profit.

David: Yeah. I mean, just thinking about your numbers, right? If you were to convince somebody, instead of making a $20 donation to make a $2 a month donation, that’s 2% more over the year, right. You’re getting $24 instead of $20, right? But you can work on building them up and getting them more.

And as you were saying, if you can connect and create an impact with the younger generations, there is a lot of wealth that is gonna be transferred down over the next decade. As you know, the baby boomers, the silver tsunami is kind of like what the media are calling it, right? They are going, they are cycle of life, they’re gonna be passing away. Estates are gonna be, you know, making donations to organizations or passing money down to younger generations. If you can create that bond and that connection, the sooner, really the better.

Bryna: And to be honest, there’s a lot of organizations and companies, I think for, you know, in the law society and law organizations, in order to become partner, you need to be able to showcase your philanthropic actions and giving. And so again, getting these young individuals or individuals newly interested in fundraising, now they’re building up their opportunity for them to be successful.

So it’s a win-win situation. They can utilize these opportunities to become partners or whatever else they need in the corporate world, but obviously fulfilling that need and that support to contribute to society. But then also having the opportunity to connect with a non-profit and organization, being able to develop that longevity and that relationship with those individuals. Win, win, win.

David: The triple win. Perfect. Okay. So looking into the future, what trends do you see kind of emerging that fundraiser should maybe be thinking about or getting familiar with?

Bryna: So many David, but just to name a few, I would say adaptability. The pandemic really, I think highlighted this for the non-profit sector is being involved and having the opportunity to pivot. I’ve, I’ve done surveys and studies with not just the nonprofit industry, but the donors at large, and donors are willing to pivot and change the way in which they give to causes that they care about.

When a donor continuously gives in person and you don’t have an in-person event, it doesn’t mean that they’re not looking to give. The non-profit needs to adapt to what’s happening. Provide an online opportunity, and you’ll see that donor step up and contribute. So adaptability, I think is huge for these non-profits. How do you adapt is having the right technology. Make sure your technology driven, minded, and that’s a variety of technology online platform for donation pages.

Having the ability to collect information and store in the right way with your CRMs, having Fundraising Kit technology, to be able to tell you how and when to donate. A whole bunch of opportunities to really support your organization in a way that fills the gap between those, you know, support people that you might not be able to retain or keep for all these again, reasons we talked about great resignation.

Focusing on donor retention, I think, is another huge opportunity for these non-profits. Really focus on the people in your database. It’s amazing when you want to find these new donors and all these new people to support your cause. But again, the people who love you, who need you and who want you to succeed are already, most likely, have given to you, are in your database. So talk to them, we’ve talked about this the whole podcast, I think being relationship building.

Honor them, steward them, talk to them, call them, email them, thank them at any and all times to show your appreciation and really find those ways to retain those people who care about you and your cause. And then again, we talked a little bit about this, but you know, from corporate work, I can’t say this enough, it’s just front and center, the great resignation.

People are leaving jobs to be able to just figure out what is meaningful for them. With remote work and all these things, how do these profit businesses find ways to keep their employees? provide workplace? giving them options? Approximately 5 billion dollars are raised through workplace giving annually. So looking at employee engagement programs, opportunities for employees to feel like they’re giving their time and energy outside of work, but within work to non-profits that they care about and allowing them to choose.

I think that non-profits shouldn’t feel scared to approach these businesses. You know, there was always once a kind of cloud of, you know, these are corporate partners and you need to find the one or two that relate to your organization. Well, again, when you have the right information, you’re collecting on your donation page and you ask people where they work, why don’t you go to the non-profit information say “you’ve got 150 donors from this workplace? So even though you don’t know our non-profit, you’ve got workers across the country that clearly care about our cause. Why don’t you consider doing an engagement program with us?”.

So again, non-profits need to look at their data, find ways to build relationships, be adaptable and use the information that they’re given from the donor. The donors are giving this information to you. You’re not pulling it, you’re not begging for it, they’re freely giving you this information, hoping that you will do something powerful with it, and you’re just putting it back in their hands and empowering them to do what’s needed for the non-profit industry and that’s awareness and raise funds for these causes that are important to our communities. I think that’s kinda high-level.

David: Bryna, if you were to recommend one thing as like the next course of action for anybody listening to this episode, what would that be?

Bryna: Look at your data and find ways to utilize the donors that are in there, and engage with them, and raise money using that information. It is the number one opportunity. And again, Fundraising Kit is the best opportunity to use.

I’m really only here because I care about the non-profit sector so much that I know as a donor, as a supporter, as a employee, all the different ways in which I’ve interacted in the non-profit space, use your technology, use what’s at your disposal to be able to really engage with your audience because they are your number one ambassadors. They are the ones that are supporting your cause and you can build that relationship and increase your funds right then and there.

David: That’s awesome. Super powerful insights and thoughts, Bryna. To everybody listening, take action on something that we spoke about today. You’re not gonna regret it. During our pre-show Bryna, you know, and I mentioned at the beginning, you’ve got some freebies, some offers. Can you tell us about what those are?

Bryna: Yes. So we’re excited to offer 20% off the first year on our annual contract with Fundraising Kit when non-profits email me directly and I can give my email address: [email protected], and you can put it in the subject line 20% off from Wow Digital, thanks to David. And that pricing for Fundraising Kit varies by CRM, so just check out our website, www.fundraisingkit.com to see which CRM customer relationship management platform you have.

But 20% off your annual contract, I think is awesome and I believe in this product. But, also I’m really happy to provide an E-guide with 5 fundraising trends to get ahead of 2023, if anyone is interested as well. So just send me an email or follow me on LinkedIn, and I’d be happy to share my insights.

David: That is fantastic. Those are two amazing offers. If you’re out there in internet lens, somewhere, podcast lens, pick this up and connect with Bryna. We’re gonna have links in our show notes for you so that you can click through. You don’t have to try to remember how to spell Bryna or Dilman or Fundraisingkit.com, check it out, see what they have to offer and the different platforms that they connect with.

They’re basically connected with all of the major ones out there. So head over and, and check them out. Thanks again so much Bryna for hopping on. It’s been great having you on the Non-Profit Digital Success Podcast. As I mentioned everybody, check out the show notes, head over to www.nonprofitdigitalsuccess.com and click on this episode for all the details until next time, keep on being successful