Missions to Movements
This isn't just another nonprofit podcast - it's your weekly invitation to think bigger, take bold risks, and create lasting change in an ever-evolving social impact landscape. Meet Dana Snyder, your guide through the evolving landscape of nonprofit innovation. She's on a mission to help change-makers like you push the boundaries of what's possible in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Each week, Missions to Movements serves as your personal mastermind session, delivering actionable insights and bold strategies that challenge traditional nonprofit thinking. Dive into revolutionary approaches to digital fundraising, discover how to build magnetic monthly giving programs that create lasting donor relationships, and learn to amplify your voice as a thought leader in the social good space. Whether you're reimagining your organization's impact or forging game-changing partnerships, you'll find the ideas, insights, and inspiration to take your mission further than you've ever imagined. Ready to turn your mission into a movement?
Missions to Movements
Inside the Mastermind: How 5 Nonprofits Launched Monthly Giving Programs
What happens when FIVE nonprofit leaders overcome their fear of asking for monthly donations? Transformation. Growth. Sustainability.
Today’s episode is an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the final support call of my Monthly Giving Mastermind.
The Campers, The Plenty, The Advocates, The Circle, and The Cultivators reflect on their launch journeys, their biggest mindset shifts, how they leveraged their boards, and the strategies that are already helping them attract and retain monthly donors.
You’ll hear firsthand how FundraiseUp, Flodesk, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator all played a role in simplifying their tech stack, personalizing and segmenting their audiences, and building stronger donor relationships.
Plus, Dana and the group discuss the underestimated power of asking current donors to invite a friend or updating automated thank-you emails to create meaningful momentum.
This was such a fun round working with these organizations, and so I wanted you to hear how we wrap, and the discussion and the support for one another, and my desire and what I'm plan
P.S. I'll be bringing these organizations back in 6-8 months to share their continued progress! If you want to apply for the next round, click here.
Resources & Links
Check out the featured giving programs from this episode: Camp Cocker Rescue (The Campers), Community Mindfulness Project (The Circle), Picnic Project (The Plenty), Green Arrow CoLab (The Cultivators), and Black Coalition for Safe Motherhood (The Advocates).
This show is brought to you by iDonate. Your donation page is leaking donors, and iDonate's new pop-up donation form is here to fix that. See it in action. Launch the interactive demo here and experience how a well-timed form captures donors in the moment they care most.
Let's Connect!
- Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
- My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
- Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!
In today's episode I am taking you behind the scenes into the last group call I had in the fifth round of my monthly giving mastermind.
Speaker 1:This was the call where five organizations were wrapping up the mastermind.
Speaker 1:They're becoming alumni, their monthly giving programs are live and in the last month of my mastermind we do a support call every single week and so this was the final call with the Plenty, the Campers, the Cultivators, the Circle and the Advocates. Those are the five names of the monthly giving programs that are now live and I am so excited. This was such a fun round working with these organizations and so I wanted you to hear how we wrap and the discussion and the support for one another, and my desire and what I'm planning to do is to bring back these organizations between six and eight months from now and do a recap on where are they now. So here, where they are in the moment of just launching one of them was about a week out from launching what their goals are, what the mastermind experience was like, and I hope this really inspires you and gives you encouragement in building your own recurring giving program. So please give a virtual, audible round of applause for these five organizations and welcome into a mastermind call.
Speaker 2:How can we sharpen how we tell our story, who we are, what we do, why we do it, what's our niche? Like we have a niche. Let's lean into that and this just really helps because you know, if we're going to be asking people to commit every month for years to come, we need to be able to tell that story really well.
Speaker 1:Kathy, okay, so I'm going to start off with you, so if you can start with and I put the questions in the chat. But where is your monthly giving program to campers? Where is it at now? If you're open to sharing around the number of people you have in six to eight months from now, where would you like the program to be?
Speaker 3:I think I'm just hovering under 500. I'm almost at 500. Amazing, and where I hope to be in six months. Oh my God, it's aspirational. I wish I could double that. Okay, I don't know if that's, that's probably not realistic.
Speaker 1:Let's speak it into existence. In six to eight months from now, you're going to have nearly a thousand people in your monthly giving program. And don't say that that's outrageous, because if you think about it, you have an existing 500. If you ask that group and let's say like 20% of them invite one friend, right, the way that I think about it is I math it out If I was to ask my 500 donors how many of them are engaged right the monthlies, to invite one friend, one friend to join, what does that create?
Speaker 3:I guess it sounds scary to me because it's like I feel like, because I'm in animal rescue, there's so many other options that are not breed specific that I feel like every one of my donors I worked really hard for because I'm not an all breed rescue group, but that's okay, people love, like specifically the breeds that you work with, so I think that's actually great that it's so niched down.
Speaker 1:Okay, let that be a benefit, a pro, an amazing part about what you do, and not a negative. I would totally flip that mindset around.
Speaker 3:Well, also the fact that we're probably one of the few rescues that go all in on major medical dogs, so that's another niche that sets my rescue apart from other animal rescue groups.
Speaker 1:Yes. So, Kathy, for and this is for listeners now listening Camp Cocker Rescue, so you can check out the campers and I will link to it in the show notes. Kathy, what do you think for this mastermind process? We're in our final wrap-up call. What's been the most helpful part of the mastermind process for you?
Speaker 3:Before I started this mastermind, I felt like I was a good fundraiser because I was comparing myself to my peers in my community of animal rescue. I realized through this I'm like, oh, I have a lot to learn. I've learned a lot from you.
Speaker 1:You are a good fundraiser, by the way.
Speaker 3:Well, I feel like prior to this, I didn't know what I didn't know. Does that make sense? And I had a lot of fear about asking for people to donate monthly, like a lot of fear. Like I felt like, how dare I? Who do? I think I am Like, so I'm getting over that fear and I'm I can't say I'm fully like, yeah, but I'm getting through the, I'm working through the fear, I'm asking people to donate monthly and so and then also just the tech part, I'm going to save so much money in long run of just the tech changes that I did with your guidance, like yeah, and the growth, the growth of your platform going to the next level, huge.
Speaker 3:Just the simple thing of moving my email, how I send out newsletters from MailChimp to Flowdesk. I haven't even started to learn all the things that Flowdesk can do and the few things that I've learned. I'm like, oh my God, if I'd been doing this the whole time, I would have had been more engaged, my donors would have felt like better engagement with me. And I also started doing this thing in my newsletters with Flowdesk at the bottom. I I set it up like a survey and I have people say, hey, do you want more frequent follow-ups on a specific dog? And I list all of our current medical dogs. So, like a lot of people are checking all of them, I'm like, oh, they want to hear more updates. I was felt like, oh, I emailed too much or you know, I'm tiptoeing until I get a little bothered. People want updates on specific dogs and that's another surprising thing.
Speaker 1:It lets you be able to personalize beyond a first name is the biggest thing. Yeah, and then to be able to now you can even have an option where it's like, tell me about all the dogs it could be like Susie, sally, whatever and then to be able to now you can even have an option where it's like tell me about all the dogs it could be like Susie, sally, whatever and then like all the dogs. That's amazing. What are three next steps? I know you have a very long to-do list that we worked on last time. Two to three things that you're working on for the continued growth of the campers.
Speaker 3:The next three steps for continued growth. I need to learn more about the things that I'm using, like the fundraise up platform. I need to learn more of the tech stuff that's not second nature yet, and the same thing for Flowdesk. Also, I'm switching my website to another host because my website was a DIY one before, and so from your mastermind, I learned that it's time for me to modernize and upgrade and get a more efficient looking. I need to do it. You're on your way.
Speaker 1:It was so good for me, what would be? I mean, I think, from you and like the launch document that we worked on, I think one super low hanging fruit which we kind of just talked about is reaching out to your existing monthly donors. Like just send an email list to that group and ask them to invite a friend and give them the link. Like simple, remove like the tech complications and it's like what's the lowest hanging fruit? It's that. It's like you have in the email acquisition series that we worked on, it's sending that out, right. That's how you just like start the growth and all the tech stuff. Yes, will happen, right.
Speaker 3:So I guess I'm a little afraid to ask my current monthly donors for another ask. Like to do a thing, ask your friend to join, but I need to work through that.
Speaker 1:Yes, we want to do that, like if this is the one thing I can state, like I am one. I am a monthly donor to five organizations. I give more than just a monthly gift. Ella gives lots too. Yes, so your monthly donors are the ones that want to do the extra things. You just have to ask them and instead of thinking about it and ask, you're giving them the opportunity to step further into the thing that makes them happy, truly, so feel so good about giving them the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 3:Okay, I think that's just me. I need to. Just, I've always been embarrassed to ask. I've been embarrassed to ask, so I need to get better at that.
Speaker 1:No, do not feel embarrassed. Ever Like this is. You're not forcing someone to donate to you. If they didn't want to, they wouldn't have done it in the first place. And if you look at your list, kathy, think about how many have been doing it for years, right, right, since 11, 12. And they are waiting. I promise you, you're not even asking them to give more. You're just asking them to share. Share what you're a part of, share that you're part of the campers. Do you have a friend that also has a dog that, like, invite them into the program? You will be blown away, I promise you. Okay, you got this. Okay, I'm going to cherry pick over to Mark. Okay, mark, you've done some like really exciting stuff, starting with your event. Will you share? Where is the plenty now and where would you like it to be in six to eight months from now?
Speaker 4:We are total active recurring plans. We have 22 now, which is bringing in just over $1,000 a month, which is great. What?
Speaker 1:was your goal, you set out to do.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so in the next six to eight months we want to get bigger, but also part of it is to live into some of the things we promised of making it a like a full-on community really delivering on, like inviting people to cookouts and building those relationships. I think that's kind of an exciting part of it. Obviously, growth would be cool, but we really want to develop those relationships. It's kind of one of our things. I love that. But yeah, I mean I would love to get that up to $2,000 a month and then to see where we can go from there. I think we can fairly easily do that. Yes, I mean I can discuss that in question number three.
Speaker 1:I love that. What do you think has been the most helpful part of the mastermind process?
Speaker 4:I think it's two overall things. One, is it kind of forced my hand to actually dedicate time. This is something that I knew was important for a long time. I've read about it, I've heard about it, how important recurring giving is, but in our day-to-day we have a small staff, small organization. It never reached priority status, which is unfortunate, but we actually applied for a fairly large grant and part of that we earmarked to build out a recurring giving program, which I love.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited about it being used in this way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we did that. Also asked them for matching funds for Giving Tuesday, and they were thrilled to help with sustainability and just long-term goals, which is great. You know, I never really thought about asking to pay for recurring giving development before, but they said yes, so then I had to do it, which is great. So that's the first thing, just dedicating the time to it, you know, having regular meetings with homework. And then the other thing is just, you know, in the past when I looked at doing this myself, it was just kind of overwhelming. There's things I don't know, there's things that I could learn but it would take a long time. I tried and failed to do the pixel thing and I don't know, I don't really understand pixels and webhooks and all that, and that's fine, they're up and running, so. So just all that all the people, the other organizations, the team, you know, just everyone pitching in to make it work has been great.
Speaker 1:Amazing, Thank you. What are the next three things that you're planning to do? Two to three things for the continued growth to reach that 2,000 per month mark.
Speaker 4:Well, one I already touched on is the really building those relationships, like doing the meetups, doing the custom emails for our Plenty members, things like that, emails for our plenty members, things like that. But I am leaving in a couple of days to go to Spain and when I get back I plan on launching the donor acquisition email series Awesome. So we haven't even done that yet, and that's a pretty big thing and we've always had pretty good results on our emails. We have a solid open rate, click rate, all that, and we get a lot of responses. I sent out a little newsletter-y type thing and I got multiple responses people just responding and talking and chatting about things that were in that.
Speaker 1:I saw that email. It's so good. Thank you From Chef Mark. Yeah, the biggest thing with Acquisition Series is we obviously provide the templates for those, but make it in the same obviously brand voice, make it from you, make it feel personal, and I would even you just had your event. I would make sure, when you send that out, to segment the groups and you could have it start differently for people who purchased a ticket to that event and you can reference the fact that they were at that event, that they had a ticket to it. This is what we're all about. Versus for people who might have not attended that event, you can make it be a little bit more general, but I would definitely segment those out so that you can add that other element of personalization.
Speaker 4:I mean, I think that could actually be my third. Next step is that kind of thing? So that email that you saw was my first. What do you call it? A link action? So I had the little plenty graphic at the bottom and it went to a segment of people, clicked on it and didn't sign up. Then I moved them into a segment that showed they're interested in the plenty.
Speaker 1:Hey, okay, let's go Mark.
Speaker 4:So doing more of that, doing those customization things and just making everything personal and tracking that, which will make it easier in the long run too.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely, definitely. I think, something I'm actually going to when we're talking about this. I just had an episode go out with the education manager at Flowdesk, so if you want to listen to that episode, you can hear directly from Dawn. But something to your point is I don't send a lot of emails that just go out to my mass list outside of just a newsletter. Everything is very segment specific. So it'd be a couple hundred for me, a couple hundred contacts at a time, 70 people at a time, like based upon things that they have said through clicking on a link like you just talked about, and being segmented that they said they were interested in. So I love that, thank you.
Speaker 4:Speaking of, we'll add a fourth. I applied for the sales navigator. Is that what it's called On LinkedIn?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yay, congrats. Okay, that is LinkedIn everybody.
Speaker 4:I listened to your LinkedIn podcast too, so moving right on Amazing.
Speaker 1:Linkedin sales navigator is an amazing tool to be able to find new donors on that platform and who's connected to your organization already Awesome. Did you end up contacting in the last call? Did you end up contacting a restaurant to do like the gift card promotion that we had talked about?
Speaker 4:I have a stack right here.
Speaker 7:Hey, look at that.
Speaker 4:So, yes that part of the donor acquisition email will be those gift cards.
Speaker 1:I love it so good. Thank you, mark, you're welcome. Thank you, ella, do you want to go?
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm ready to go. I loved Kathy and Mark's answers.
Speaker 1:I know and I even love Kathy. I'm excited for Mark's future too. And yes, casey, I saw your note. You are questioning Kathy. Ella, where is your monthly giving program currently, and where would you like to be in six to eight months, because I know right now we're pre-launch?
Speaker 2:months Cause I know right now we're even we're pre-launch yeah, we went from 500 to 22 to three pre-launch, which I am not ashamed of. I'm so proud to get those. We are a two person team and we got these monthly donors with no marketing. And the reason I joined this mastermind was one of the donors.
Speaker 2:It was a former colleague and when I started at this role, I just, you know, asked you know, some friends and family like, will you consider being a monthly donor? It really would mean a lot. And one of them answered out of an email to like a hundred people and he has been giving for over a year and at his one year mark he doubled his donation and and this is all organic, but it just has been like such a spark for me. He has his employer since day one match the donation, but they don't only match, they 3X every employee's donations. It's like an insane employee perk that I that I hope more organizations do so. I just was like so inspired by that and I was like, okay, if I can do that without asking, with only asking once, I'm feeling really hopeful about you know what's going to come when we launch next Wednesday, seven days from now.
Speaker 1:Yay, one lead countdown. Yeah, so excited. You've done so much amazing work, work. What do you think has been the most helpful, beneficial part of being in the mastermind group? So much.
Speaker 2:I mean I think more than anything, I want to echo the dedicated time and the inspiration and the support from the group. These have been really hopeful ideas for so long. To actually like not only be able to have you and the team show me that it's possible, like I think there was one meeting where you're like in the next 30 minutes we're going to do this, and I was like that's impossible. And then we did it and I was like what I don't understand. So that when that kept happening every week, like when we just kept moving things forward and it felt less and less ambitious and more possible, that was just huge. I mean I totally agree.
Speaker 2:Like just being able to automate things and have, you know, real expert support on things that just felt so big and scary. You know, coming in has been huge. And also like validating our messaging. Like one of our big goals as an organization this year I mean it's always a goal, but we have really like of the top three this is, this is a top three goal is like how can we sharpen, how we tell our story, who we are, what we do, why we do it, what's our niche? Like we have a niche. Let's lean into that and this just really helps because you know if we're going to be asking people to commit every month for years to come, we need to be able to tell that story really well. Every month for years to come, we need to be able to tell that story really well. So just having that real guidance and brainstorming and bounce back and literal redlining coffee, it just was huge.
Speaker 1:Yes, literally the call and believer. Step three the messaging is huge and I loved going through all of the emails and I think there was one comment where you're like thank you for making me tell my story here, or something.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, we forget sometimes, I know. I think what happens is it seems like we've maybe told that story a bazillion times, but that's what matters the most, and so many people haven't heard it yet, and especially in these new welcome series that we're writing. It's like we think we've talked about it to like we're blue in the face, but the reality is that so many people haven't heard it yet in this manner, and your personal story is what connects people and that's why literally one of those emails and the welcome series is like the personal from the founder email. I know you have a lot of next steps that you're working on A couple of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we are a hyper local like we're. It's a big County but we're focused on one County and what I've learned through our major donors is personalized outreach really is important and so one of the first things that's going to happen for launch, even before the larger mass acquisition emails sorry, not mass, I should say segmented very carefully and thoughtfully acquisition emails go out. I just want to do, you know, a series and I'm planning and just writing it out. Actually writing the emails out this week and early next is just like personal outreach. Personal outreach to the donors that already give and I think you know, to Kathy's fear.
Speaker 2:Before, like I was really inspired by one of your former clients, dana, sharing an email that she wrote in the sustainers where she was like it's sharing joy because not only in asking them to invite a friend which I almost kind of wonder if I should just start with, asking them to increase by like $3 or $7 or $10. And that was inspired by her sharing that. She actually did it and a lot of people signed up for that and it's just. I just think it's just.
Speaker 2:You know, there's a lot of data around, you know, focusing more on retaining the donors you have rather than trying to bring in new donors, and so I want to lean into that and learn from it before we go too wide. And then I also, to that end, want to really lean into. You know, our board has been incredible, supporting us on major donor acquisition, and I want to also tie to our goals, really make sure that we are inviting new people in and maybe not everyone can give thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars and celebrating the folks in their network and encouraging them to invite people in their network that want to give and support in another way. So I'm going to ask them each to invite three people, and then I'm also going to it gives momentum and I actually like that.
Speaker 1:You brought up the. I think that was Megan Walsh who had that email in the group, and that leads me back literally to everybody. But Kathy, you especially where you might not need 500 more people, you just need those 500 to give two extra dollars.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly.
Speaker 1:If you state it in that way where it's like $2 over a month could generate so much, because you already have such a built-in group and they will do it if you ask.
Speaker 2:Anyways, Ella, yeah, I mean the fact that you have 500 before launching this. Now you have so much more firepower behind you to get even more. It's awesome, yeah, so I, and then the final thing I think you said three steps. Another thing I was inspired by from the giving summit because I'm all day not all year, but clearly about how they invested time into changing the automated thank you notes that go when everyone gives a gift, and telling a story and using that as a chance to not just have it be a tax receipt but actually tell a story of impact, because we're going to have our welcome series and we're going to have acquisition series.
Speaker 2:But I just feel like that's another chance for engagement. That's unexpected. Like I get, I do monthly giving, I donate, you know, to organizations and I just love that that would be automated and that I could just switch it out for all of our campaigns, not only monthly giving, and so that's something I just want to. We have so many stories already that I can pull from and then, you know, hopefully can keep up a cadence for that switching monthly as well.
Speaker 1:So I love that. Yeah, and what she's referencing is in the receipts. In the receipts yeah, yeah, yeah. Love that so good I'm terrified and excited. I'm so excited to see, like what happens in just like even a month not even six months from now, but just like a month from now and follow your story. Thank you, ella. Thank you, casey. Do you want to go with your sweet babe? Where is your monthly giving program currently at Casey, and what are you most looking forward to?
Speaker 5:So we have five people, including two, that have signed up since we put the page live and we don't know where they came from. Love, that, that was interesting. It doesn't look like they came from the Facebook ads, so I don't know where it came from or how they know about it. So there's two mysterious people that signed up without us even launching yet. So that's cool.
Speaker 1:They might have come from the ads, because sometimes the pixel literally just can't track because of people's privacy settings.
Speaker 5:Okay, okay. One seems to be my pediatrician from when I was a kid, but I don't know if it's the same name, which would be funny if he got served the ad, because he's in Vermont and our work is in California, but I don't know. So that's been exciting, that's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which I actually think I want to like lean on that for a second. So I think some of you are hyper-focused, like Mark you're in Sandburg, I think. People who don't necessarily live in the area, but they're passionate about the mission, or they visited there, or they used to be from there, or they have family there. Don't think that you should exclude asking certain people or reaching out if they don't necessarily live right in your area, or that they won't care about the work that you do because they're not there there. I think that's again another mindset shift to overcome, especially when COVID happened and people moved all over the place, and so I still love organizations based in Los Angeles, even though now I live in Atlanta. So just something to think about.
Speaker 1:Leslie, kimberly, khadija, do you all three want to share together? I will yield to Khadija. All right, khadija, we'll start with you. All right, khadijah, we'll start with you. What was the monthly giving program like before and where are you? Where is the Advocates now? Well, I guess the Advocates was created, so maybe talk about what was happening before and then where you're at now.
Speaker 7:Yeah, before we never asked people to give. We just, I mean, every once in a while we would have a section in our newsletter, but we never really built out a program. We would try to do a campaign for Giving Tuesday. That was pretty much it.
Speaker 7:But I think that it was nice for the masterminds to help us create a giving program where we have a whole website dedicated to it and then we have our why really fleshed out. And I love the email series and the templates were super helpful, and so I just think that it was just great that you guys held our hands throughout the process, gave us the resources, and I think we have a better understanding of, like you know, why it's important for others to give. We currently we have three donors now they're on our board. We have three donors now they're on our board. But I think once we we get our ads up and going we did create the facebook page awesome, the other facebook page once we get our ads going and continue to send in our newsletters I know leslie has been networking a lot, so just you know, asking people if they will be willing to give or maybe if their company would be able to give something, would be great.
Speaker 1:Yes and I would anytime you're doing you guys do a lot of workshops and speaking engagements. It's just sharing the advocates with people, leaving it in their hands to be able to take the next step and open the opportunity to support you in that way. And I think anytime that you're out doing tabling or leading those workshops or meeting with people and meeting with doctors, it's something that you can easily bring up in conversation as an entry-level way for somebody to get started with the organization. What are? I know you've been meeting the three of you recently. What are some next steps that you have to really build up the monthly giving program?
Speaker 7:The Facebook ads and also we're going to do like a I think it's a Mother's Day newsletter we also talk about. Let me see what the notes. Yeah, an email for the newsletter.
Speaker 1:social media posts email for the newsletter, social media posts. We also talked about getting the board to host events at their homes in our last call, Kimberly.
Speaker 7:Oh, okay, sorry, I missed the last call.
Speaker 6:Yeah, the last call, we did speak about us getting the board involved and, like we were just speaking earlier about getting the board to ask certain people not to bombard a lot of people, I think our issue is is just asking, just tell them. I mean, you know, I don't know, I think we're I'm afraid, or we're afraid to ask people for money because we fear of the no. We anticipate a no instead of a yes, but we're going to work on this stay program up and running, which is a great start. We're going to try to. I'm going to utilize all the the holidays that you mentioned in the last call, because it's a good time. I mean, we think stuff is off limits, but it's really not even summertime. Yeah, you mentioned that too. I mean, you know this is all been new, of course, and it's really not even summertime. Yeah, you mentioned that too. I mean, you know this is all been new, of course, and it's very enlightening.
Speaker 6:I've been encouraged and never thought about a giving program like anything like this before. And thank you, dana. I mean, yeah, didn't know what to expect when we were chosen. I mean, yeah, didn't know what to expect when we were chosen. It's been an experience, unbelievable experience, I would say the least. But yeah, I mean, anybody who gets this opportunity will be a wow. If you're already in the month of giving space, I mean hats off to you, because I had no idea, none whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Yes, you all have such potential and I think that the feeling of the ask. It's so interesting because when you think about it, especially your board. So, if we think about the board, your board said yes to be on a board because they believe in what you're doing and in coming with that. They know that the only way to do the work that you do comes with funding and so they need to help be a part of making that possible. And then, outside of that, just your everyday supporters. Again, same thing they believe in the really important work that you're doing in supporting maternal healthcare for black mothers and families. They're going to want to be down for the count to change that systemic problem that's happening. Like, how do we fix this? Oh, you have the knowledge and the resources in this workshop and you've already put it together. Great, I can't do that. I don't have the knowledge to do that. You do, so I will fuel you by giving you what I can, which I actually wanted to share with all of you. So there was a great.
Speaker 1:I just happened to stumble upon it on Instagram. There was a video posted by the ACLU and I give to them monthly and it was just a video talking about the work that they're currently doing, and I don't know who this person is. This is a random Instagram comment, but they said and this is why, even when the budget is tight, I never miss a monthly contribution you guys are truly awe inspiring. Thank you for your expertise, your morality and determination, and that is for every single one of you, your monthly donors. You might not be hearing it, but, man, are we all believing in it? And you are doing the hardest work and that is the programming that you're running. And if donors are asked, if they get the opportunity to be asked to support you in that way, that's our role. It's just being like we're here. You just got to let them know you're here. You're here and these are the ways that we would love to help you support us. I just thought that was so cool. And then, right below that, the comment was this donating to the ACLU is one of the fastest ways to help in the fight. Many thanks to them for doing the heavy lifting they're doing.
Speaker 1:And then I commented to that person like that's what it's all about and so believe in yourself and making these asks. So I just want to say like when you're starting at ground zero. You're doing the hard work that's so necessary. There are people that want to believe you. And to Ella's point earlier about really fine tuning that messaging that we work on, that's what allows you to like find those people and that's why, like Kimberly, khadijah, leslie, when I talk about Mother's Day, and that is so what your cause is focused on is supporting moms and their health and having advocacy.
Speaker 1:Is it such a perfect alignment in time where people are out buying flowers and gifts for their mom, their daughters, their grandmas on this day, their sisters, and what is a better way than literally saying I made a monthly contribution on your behalf to this organization that's doing this work over giving them flowers that are going to die in a week? So, anyways, just always think about that. So I love that so many of you have talked about the difficulty of making the ask of a monthly gift, but just know there's so much power in that. So I love that so many of you have talked about the difficulty of making the ask of a monthly gift, but just know there's so much power in that. Awesome, casey, coming back to you Also, your little one is so cute.
Speaker 5:Thanks. How old is he now? Nine months.
Speaker 1:Nine months, oh my gosh, that's when I remember that gets so fun and they start to like well, kennedy was starting to walk all over the place. I like 10 months, I think, and start to be much more like animated with you and stuff.
Speaker 5:so yeah, he's definitely getting that. Yeah, he wants to walk everywhere. So fun he's recognizing words and yeah, it's fun and laughing. He just started dancing this week. Actually really funny. Just you wait until they get to be two and then it's fun and laughing. He just started dancing this week actually, it's really funny.
Speaker 1:Just you wait until they get to be two, and then it's a whole other world. Okay, cultivators, okay, so you had. How many years? Is there five now?
Speaker 5:We have five now and two have come since we put up cultivators webpage. Two have actually joined the Cultivator's, even though the Cultivator's isn't live yet.
Speaker 1:Awesome Love that. I think the ads will work even better too. I know, right now it's just the warm audience, but if you can expand that and you do that like other the audience from the previous one, then you'll get that outside of just your space. But so no emails have gone out or anything yet.
Speaker 5:No, nothing's gone out. We haven't even told anybody, so it must be just from the Facebook ad, or yeah, I guess it must be from the Facebook ad.
Speaker 1:And from the ones I saw through, did I see were they $50 ones? Yeah, Amazing, that's great, Huge Congratulations. What are when you are like ready to go out there and do the launch? What?
Speaker 5:are the next couple of steps that the team's working on Meeting with the board our acquisition series, emails and PR Awesome. What are you?
Speaker 1:asking of the board.
Speaker 5:I'm going to ask them to do the LinkedIn posts. I'm going to ask them. We asked all of our staff to think of like 10 people that they would share this with, so I'll do the same for the board. I think that's it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, just the networking. That's amazing, and I know you're joining us all the way from Italy. How has the mastermind process been for you? What's been the most helpful?
Speaker 5:It's been great. I think the most help has been all the individualized support and then also having most of the work that I would have done, such as like writing the landing page, the design, all of that done for us. I think that was like a big draw for me. So I've always wanted to do a monthly giving program, but having someone yet to really guide me was key and do a lot of the work. That takes a long time.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, we just keep the momentum moving. Amazing. And actually you brought up LinkedIn. So this would be a really great thing actually for all of you to work on. So we've talked about what we're asking of board and of donors, but all of you individually. In the Google Drive folder there are two and actually I'm going to link them really quick. There are two LinkedIn templates for you specifically to craft, to share on your own LinkedIn channels about the launch, the relaunch of the program, to share with people, and so I think I shared this.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this was in the last call or maybe a couple of calls ago, but there was an ED who had shared on LinkedIn about a new monthly donor that came on and she had tagged that person. Obviously, she had her permission to do that and she had tagged that person. Obviously she had her permission to do that and because of her sharing that that person who was tagged, three new donors came because they saw that their friend had given to that organization. So the ripple effect is amazing. So don't discount you sharing your experience. And so I think actually it's in your workbook templates. One of them is the personal story about the organization, why you're a part of it. The second one is taking them literally behind this process. So this is the one that starts with like I'm buzzing with excitement to share something we've been working on behind the scenes for the past four months through the mastermind program. Obviously, feel free to customize this.
Speaker 1:My recommendation, honestly, is, if you're feeling a little bit even tongue-tied with the templates, is copy and paste them into chat, gpt and literally say like this is the organization. This is a little bit about give it some context and be like use this template to customize this for me and my personal role in the organization. This is a little bit about Give it some context and be like use this template to customize this for me and my personal role in the organization and see what it spits out for you. That maybe helps you give a starting point. Tell it what kind of tone you want it to have, but I would get these out sooner than later. Even if you're not formally launching, it's the sneak behind the scenes of what you've personally been working on from, like, a thought leadership standpoint. Yeah, and Kathy, spend more time on LinkedIn. Yes, it's an amazing, amazing platform for connections.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited to post and also, when everyone else posts, send it to me and I'll comment and celebrate so that it can help spread the cross-country reach.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, tag me too. Of course I will engage. Yes, make sure to tag me, tag each other. I will do with all of your permission. Are you okay if I share?
Speaker 2:Ella is your site shareable yet no, but on Wednesday. Next Wednesday will be.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'll wait until next week and then, are you okay with me? I'll shout out each of you with the links to your sites.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Amazing. That would be awesome, amazing. Thank you all so much for doing that and this has been, literally this is my favorite thing to do. My biggest thing, like literally as we all wrap and we've been sharing these like next step with one another is make the ask. Make the asks, do it consistently, do it frequently.
Speaker 1:Think about all the ways that you can integrate your monthly giving into the events that you have, into a speaking thing you have into a podcast. You're asked to be on literally all the ways, and then you all have been invited into the Sustainer Slack group, so the brainstorming doesn't stop just because our calls stop. There's a whole community in there. That's amazing. And then I was actually going to send out an email to all the previous Mastermind alumni to get us on a call together and just brainstorm and share. So that's like 23 people now, whoever's free to join those, and so that's really fun. To even meet people back from the first group was in 2022. And yeah, so very excited about the growth and the potential with all of you. Did anybody have any? Yes, kathy.
Speaker 3:I was thinking I would love to meet all the other mastermind graduates. Would you ever just have I don't know a group like a reunion or like for your alumni or whoever you know, I don't know something annual with all of your graduates to share?
Speaker 1:inspiration or yeah, yeah, that's what I had just met with, like emailing all the alumni and getting together like on a call and just like sharing all the updates and learnings and what everybody's working on.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said I misunderstood you. I'm so sorry, it's okay. I meant like in the sustainer slack, like everyone there. I didn't know it was just the oh yeah, no, no, no, specifically like alumni.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, ella, I saw you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I also wanted to ask cause.
Speaker 2:I know I think Mark had the comment in his Q and a.
Speaker 2:I think one of the biggest lessons I've had, the more busy I get running this organization, is putting time on my calendar to dedicate, to working on something is the most important thing I can do, like dedicating time, and time blocking has been like the most game changer for my productivity versus like a written to-do list.
Speaker 2:And so I wanted to ask if anyone you don't have to answer now but if anyone wants to join me as a small group for like a biweekly or monthly hour where we don't even have to talk but we can, but we literally are just working on our recurring giving to dues together quietly. I would really love that because one it will be nice to like have peers and know we were, you know we have the same context. But also, like I just need like I'm going to put on my calendar now Like I have kind of this thing I'm trying where it's like you know finance ops hour each week and you know like HR people things each week, but like I just would love to do it with someone else that has been through this with me.
Speaker 1:So I love a monthly giving hour. I think I actually I should set this up in the Slack group and literally make it like a huddle and people can just join the huddle and like it's open for questions. Otherwise it's literally you can just be on mute and be silent and ask questions if you need to.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly. Yeah, I just like I. I know I will make progress, but I just want a little bit more of the like accountability of you know, like this person's also going to be doing this specific work. We all have a million things we could be doing, but for this hour together we're going to be doing this work. I just love that. So, bring it out there.
Speaker 1:Love that I know if something's not on my calendar it doesn't happen or it gets blocked over, right, yeah, anybody else? Any final questions, thoughts? I'm literally so proud of y'all, like I'm so excited and continue to like to share questions in there, like that's the biggest thing is I want you to know, like that the community doesn't end and that it's here for you and feel free to use it as a resource. And it's not just me in there, but all the other hundreds of nonprofits that are in there too, that are at all different levels of fundraising. Truly, everyone's so great in there about answering questions. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Dana. Thank you for bringing the team together of co-conspirers co-experts I don't know the right word, but it's just been so great. I'm so happy we did this.
Speaker 1:Yay, yes, I'm so glad to have met all of you and worked with all of you and I am planning to do don't have the details yet and worked with all of you, and I am planning to do don't have the details yet, but if it's in your futures, an in-person experience here in Atlanta. In the fall, that will be specifically on acquisition, and so I'm going to bring in a publicist. I actually just hired him for me. I'm going to have him come in and do on-site pitching for you and just work through all of that, and so it's going to have him come in and do like on-site pitching for you and just like work through all of that, and so it's going to be very growth focused.
Speaker 1:I'm touring a really cool house tomorrow that has like an outside pool area and it's going to be like like a cool little vibe and it's going to be small. I don't want it to be more than like 15 people probably. Yeah, come on back to ATL. So day and a half, but very, very intimate, very, very hands-on, literally doing I will look over your shoulder and read your email and then you send it. I love that, but I'll keep you all posted when that happens.
Speaker 2:Amazing. You're going to have to start doing a road show across the country with those oh gosh.
Speaker 1:I was like hey family.
Speaker 2:And then just hop over to Italy too. Invest in an Airstream. Crazier things have happened.
Speaker 1:Oh, you'll be here in October. Okay, leslie, you're gonna have to let me know where and when you have to shoot me an email. Awesome. Thank you everyone so much. It was such a pleasure working with you and please stay in touch. Thank you so much much. It was such a pleasure working with you and please stay in touch. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movements. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review. Wherever you're listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, too, so you'll never miss an episode, and until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.
