106 – Non-Profit Growth Mindset, Email Hacks & Digital Direction for 2025

Episode Transcription

David Pisarek: I’m going to tell you right now what the three most important topics and the key takeaways for success are based on the 2024 data and over 20 years of experience working with non-profits. We’re going to be talking about mindset email journeys and impact strategies in this episode. There we go.

You know that I’ve been working with non-profits for over 20 years, and I’ve seen firsthand how adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, crafting effective email journeys, and leveraging digital marketing can transform your challenges into opportunities. Now, I just want to take a quick moment here and just say please be sure to subscribe. Leave a review on the podcast. It helps us reach more listeners like you. So now let’s hop in.

I want to share my strategies and explain why these strategies are must-haves for non-profits. And I hate saying this, but thinking outside of the box helps, and it’ll make a much more significant impact. So let’s dive in.

By a staggering 377%, the most played episode of 2024 was episode number 81, where we talk about the entrepreneurship mindset in non-profits with Alex Charfen.

Why are non-profits so interested in this? Mindset is easily the number one issue because technology, workforce mentality and environment are changing more and more rapidly. So there’s a lot of pressure as time goes on to have the right mindset and adapt to the changes because the world is changing with or without you, and it’s not going to slow down and wait.

When we think of entrepreneurship, we often picture startups or tech companies, but the core principles still apply to non-profits, too. And let me tell you, from my experience working with non-profits, these principles have been game changers for every organization that has shifted.

So, there are three key elements of an entrepreneurial mindset that non-profits need to be thinking about. The first one is agility. I’ve had moments where I had to completely pivot a campaign because external circumstances have changed. Whether it’s shifting fundraising strategies or adapting to new technologies, staying agile has helped us save our clients more times than I can count. Don’t be afraid to take control and go, “Hey, I don’t think this is working. Let’s try something a little bit different.” That is absolutely okay to do.

The second is problem-solving. Entrepreneurs focus on solving real-world problems. For non-profits, this means deeply understanding your community’s needs and delivering impactful solutions. For example, we once redesigned a resource hub because the original wasn’t accessible enough, but it made a huge difference. Our teammates and our clients absolutely appreciated the mindfulness and the thoughtfulness that we put into helping them understand that they can serve their constituents better by adjusting that.

And the third is risk-taking. Taking calculated risks can open doors to innovative approaches this year.

I would call 2024 probably the year of AI.

It really took a much bigger stronghold than it had in the past, and non-profits that are getting access to AI and using it in a very specific way, where you’re not getting confidential information or financial information into it, but they’re able to actually integrate it into processes to streamline different ways that they do things. And it’s saving them so much time. As an agency that works with non-profits, we get calls all the time and emails and booking consults and stuff like that.

A lot of the conversations happen to be around email marketing and how to properly set up a tool or leverage the right messaging, the right times of year, and stuff like that. And one of the most powerful and underutilized tools in the non-profits toolkit is email journeys, right?

Patty Breech and I had a great conversation. We had an amazing insight episode. I believe it was episode 80, and I want to highlight why they’re super essential to leverage in 2025.

The first reason is segmentation is key: Being able to tailor your messages to different types of donors, whether they’re new donors or recurring or maybe they’re lapsed donors, makes your messaging more impactful. So, for example, for new donors, focus on a warm welcome sequence. Share your mission, your why, and the immediate impact of their contribution for recurring donors.

Send personalized updates showing how their ongoing support is making a difference, and potentially, if you have any behind-the-scenes content like pictures or videos or success stories, you definitely want to include those.

For lapsed donors, you want to try to re-engage them with messaging that will be highlighting what’s new, or how their support could continue to help solve a pressing issue. The second is storytelling and personalization. An email isn’t just a message; it’s a connection. To create the connection, you need to use the recipient’s first name in the subject line and or the greeting.

You want to share a specific, heartfelt story of someone who benefited from your work. So instead of saying, “We helped 500 families,” say, “Hey, meet Maria, a mother of two who found hope thanks to your support,” and bla bla bla bla bla. Go on with the story there.

And the third one is to include calls to action CTAs that make donors feel like active participants in the mission. So you can be something a little bit vague like “join us in making a difference today.” Or you could be really specific, and it could be “help more families succeed” or “help feed five children,” ten children, 15 children breakfast before school.

The third is automations, which helps build relationships. Setting up automated email sequences can keep donors engaged without overwhelming your team. So here’s how: the first is a welcome series.

Create a series of 3 to 5 emails that will introduce your organization, your impact, and ways to stay involved. Very similar to what I just talked about earlier.

The second is a thank-you automation: Send an immediate, heartfelt thank you email after a donation, complete with a story or video showing the impacts of their gift. And the third is an updated series. You want to keep donors informed over time with monthly or quarterly updates highlighting achievements, upcoming events or urgent campaigns.

Automations save you so much time while ensuring consistent, meaningful, and communicating… (Let’s try that again. Automate. Watching you laugh just made me laugh. All right.)

Automations can save you an incredible amount of time while ensuring consistent messaging and meaningful communication with your audience.

Finally, let’s take a step back and dive into something a little bit more general, like digital marketing as a whole.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, your online presence can make or break your non-profit’s success.

In episode 87 with Chase Neely, we shared some fantastic strategies that I’ve seen work, so let’s talk about those details. What are they? There’s three.

The first is storytelling for impact. People connect with stories. When we shared a series of personal stories from our clients with those that we’ve helped, the response was overwhelming. It’s not about selling. It’s about showing the heart of your mission, remembering that we’re all humans and we’re all interacting with other humans. So let’s look for that connection.

The second is an omnichannel approach. Meeting your audience where they are is critical. So getting clear on the psychographics of your audience, your ideal person that you’re trying to connect with, learning where they spend their time. Are they on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok? What’s that new one? Birdseye? No. Uh, hold on a second. Birds. Not birds. BlueSky. All right, let’s try that again:

Get a clear understanding about where they’re absorbing their content. So whether it’s Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, BlueSky, whatever it happens to be, being consistent across the platforms will build trust as well as recognition.

So, with one of our clients, we recently tried TikTok, and it brought in a younger demographic that they weren’t able to reach before. And the third is budget optimization. Even small budgets can yield big results with the right targeting and analytics.

So for one campaign, we use remarketing ads to re-engage people who visited our client’s site, and it significantly boosted donations.

Digital marketing is constantly evolving, but it remains one of the most powerful tools to expand your reach and deepen your impact. So please keep that in mind.

So this wraps up today’s episode and adopting an entrepreneurial mindset mastering email journeys leveraging digital marketing. These are not just buzzwords; they are actually necessities.

Your non-profit can make a bigger impact while staying agile, connecting with your audience and taking calculated risks. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen. We’ve done this for our clients. We can do this for you too.

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with your team and let’s keep the conversation going. On social media, you can always book a free consult with me at wowdigital.com/consult. If you’re looking for more ways to bring innovation to your organization, be sure to subscribe.

Leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners like you.

And until next time, keep on being successful.