Missions to Movements
Missions to Movements is the nonprofit marketing and fundraising podcast that helps you grow recurring donors, scale monthly giving programs, and build digital campaigns that convert.
Hosted by Dana Snyder—speaker, strategist, and founder of Positive Equation—this show is packed with actionable nonprofit growth strategies, social media tips, and fundraising best practices.
Each week, you’ll hear how organizations are increasing donor retention, building thought leadership, and using digital fundraising to drive real impact. If you want to learn how to attract monthly donors, master nonprofit marketing, and transform your mission into a movement, this podcast is for you.
Missions to Movements
I Didn’t Expect This Year to Go This Way: Reflections & Looking Ahead
This year held some of my highest highs and lowest lows, and much of it happened faster than I expected. In this solo episode, I’m reflecting honestly about what 2025 looked like for me, both personally and professionally.
You’ll hear what surprised me most, the growth of the Monthly Giving Summit, what it was like working 1:1 with 14 organizations through VIP intensives, the unexpected speaking gigs (including international!), and the journaling questions I’m sitting with.
Of course, I couldn’t leave out the data, and we also dig into insights from this year’s M+R Benchmarks Report, including the stat that monthly giving now accounts for 31% of all online revenue. If you’ve been waiting for permission to prioritize sustainable, recurring giving, this is your sign!
My hope is that this episode helps you reflect on where you spent your energy this year as you build, prioritize, and prepare for the year ahead.
Resources & Links
LettrLabs is the proud presenter of Missions to Movements.
LettrLabs helps nonprofits build lasting donor relationships through real, handwritten mail that’s fully automated - turning moments of intent into meaningful connection. From thank-yous to impact updates, they help you cut through with mail donors actually open, remember, and trust.
Register now for the FREE Monthly Giving Summit on February 25-26th, the only virtual event where nonprofits unite to master monthly giving, attract committed believers, and fund the future with confidence.
The Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind: A high-touch Mini Mastermind + optional in-person retreat (May 6-8) for nonprofit leaders that have an existing monthly giving program and ready to take it to the next level with 1:1 and peer support. Apply now!
Let's Connect!
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- My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to bu...
For me, parts of this year held massive highs and some really low lows. It was a lot. And I feel like it was all happening very quickly. So if you also lived in that tension, that whiplash of joy, but then grief, momentum, and then exhaustion, clarity and then confusion, I was totally there experiencing all of that with you. If you can resonate. Just have a moment for yourself in the whirlwind of the holidays. But regardless, I'm so glad that you're here. And today's episode is a little bit reflection, a little bit strategy, and looking forward. So I want to really spend time. This was kind of like my self-diagnosis episode of looking back this year, and then gently really starting to look forward at what's next. So let's just start with reflection. And I think that's really important. This is something often gets skipped or missed. But really, before I move into some end-of-the-year fundraising strategy, is just to really think about your calendar this year. I don't know if you do this, but recently I've started like going back through my calendar. I have a obviously I have my like Google calendar that I follow on my computer, but then I also have like a wall calendar in my office. And so scroll back to January, flip through the spring and the summer, look at what meetings you had, what moments took place, what milestones happened, the things that maybe you quietly just survived that no one else saw or knew what was going on. And the questions that I'm asking myself and probably gonna sit with and journal with is where did I grow? What am I proud of? And then also looking at a calendar, the big question, where did I, where did you spend energy that you don't want to spend in 2026? Like, what are the areas? What were the meetings? What were the things that were like, okay, I don't want to spend time this way next year? Because for me, I feel like in thinking back, a lot of this year and just the nature of the climate of the world, it felt reactive. Life was lifing. I think that's been like my phrase this year. Life came at us fast, plans changed, feelings changed, the world was shifting, and we're just shifting with it. And I don't know if you felt that too, but for me, parts of this year held massive highs and some really low lows. It was a lot, and I feel like it was all happening very quickly. So if you also lived in that tension, that whiplash of joy, but then grief, momentum, and then exhaustion, clarity, and then confusion. I was totally there experiencing all of that with you, if you can resonate. And looking back on my year and just think about as I go through this, like what was your year like? I mean, this year was it was full of emotion and meaningful in some ways that I didn't even expect. We kicked off this year with the second annual monthly giving summit, really just hoping we could simply replicate the incredible energy from the first one in September of 2024. And y'all just blew us away. I mean, the attendance, the chats, the momentum. I talked about this in the December 3rd episode after Giving Tuesday. It was just electric. It was again, unlike anything I ever could have imagined creating in this business or anything I thought I could do. Anything, yeah, I mean, really reflecting. I didn't think it could ever get to this point where people would show up and gather and be in and have this community of just overwhelming kindness. And so we're gearing up for it. Again, the third annual monthly giving summit happening February 25th, 26th. I would love for you to be a part of it. Go to monthlygivingsummit.com. So that really kind of kicked off the year for us. And then from that sprung the new idea of doing VIP intensives. So getting back in my outside of just the monthly giving mastermind, doing some one-on-one work. And that's really filled my couple at. I worked with 14 organizations through those VIP intensives this year, from launching and working through monthly giving programs, optimizing donation pages, building annual plans, working on retention strategies, and really focusing on giving teams clarity and spending time in recurring giving. I spoke on conferences all across the country. And I mean, a super high high. I flew to Italy for Festival del Fundraising to teach monthly giving and my personal storytelling session around the worthy story framework and building trust and thought leadership. Like what? Again, one of those high highs totally blew my mind. Never would have expected speaking internationally. I recently I keynoted at the Sarkeys Foundation forum, and that was fabulous. And then in the middle of that, I went through two IVF cycles, had one failed transfer in the summer. This fall, another second cycle that failed entirely. And those definitely have been some of my lowest lows. And I know many of you have walked through your own private valleys this year, too, probably still showing up at work, still juggling life, still pouring into your mission and serving others. And so I know this work can be profoundly rewarding and profoundly hard because we are living in this world. And I feel like this podcast is, although I'm like speaking into a microphone, talking to myself on my computer screen. It's like, I just feel that I've been able to meet so many of you in person and can say this, but there's constant news and pressure. And yet there's something so special about what we do that we keep showing up for our communities because we just believe in something better. Like your resilience matters, your story matters, your presence here matters. And so looking back, I think is really important. And then also, how can we look ahead with some data, some direction, some inspiration? And I was looking back recently at the MR benchmarks report from this year. And here's just a couple of things that I wanted to re-highlight. Maybe you've read it, but it's been a while. They mentioned monthly giving now makes up 31% of all online revenue. Like, literally, if you've been wanting permission to prioritize sustainable recurring giving, do it. Do it now. You are in, like we are literally, as you're listening to this, in the biggest generosity season. What happens next? Like, we don't want to wait to invite these donors. Like, do you have the invitation, the place prepared in Q1 to invite people into a monthly giving opportunity? Really calling them in. So I cannot prioritize it, show up for the summit, join the mini mastermind, join the mastermind program, like whatever it takes to start setting up this sustainable revenue. Two, December right now, still accounts for 40% of annual revenue for most nonprofits. So if this month has felt intense, probably because it is. So how can looking again, looking forward, is there a better way to prep for this moment? Like how did you feel in this season? Or maybe you feel great about it. And man, cheers to you if that was the case. If it felt a little rash, if it felt a little intense, how do we plan ahead next year? And then number three from the report, donation page conversion rates sit around 11%. And I just got off a call with a client where that was true. It was like nine to 10%. And that means we need to do better work at identifying how to make changes. Cause that's crazy. Like there's so much low-hanging fruit there to optimize. That's so low. How do we improve that? Whether it's changing our donation tools, making that a priority, really like I guess looking forward, and like I'm thinking about this in my business and think about in yours is how do we prioritize the things that are going to streamline what we're doing? And some of those things, the foundational things might take some time to get up, but then they're on and they're making everything better. So leaning into a couple of those things, don't forget, like these last few days of the month are big as we head into the 29th, the 30th, the 31st. Like, don't shrink back. They're the biggest giving days of the year historically. So send the email, make the reminder, schedule. I should say, schedule the email. Please don't be working hard on schedule these emails, segment thoughtfully if you haven't done that yet. And hopefully your donors will be there to help you finish strong. And then on top of that, also don't forget to rest. I know my friends at We Are For Good, John and Becky and Julie have had some great impact ups, all focus on rest. Like this year has asked a lot of us. Again, going back to that reactiveness that I felt this year. And so refill your cup in whatever way that looks like. Is that long naps? Is it reading something purely for joy? Is it going outside for a walk? Is it journaling about what you envision 2026 to look like? And for me as an entrepreneur, these quiet days at the end of December and even the beginning of January are where I do my deepest vision work, the big dreaming, the what if we planning sessions, the imagining of what next year could look like. I love that is to me rest. Weirdly, maybe that's the entrepreneur flaw in there, but I love to give that space for me to schedule out time to work on the business that in the business. Right. So I guess this is really just a reflection point, right? As we come into hopefully a good solid chunk of rest that you can have in these next couple of weeks. And in next week's episode that's going to come out on New Year's Eve. Is New Year's Eve on a Wednesday? It is. I'm just looking at my calendar. So on next week's episode, I decided to pull together my favorite insights, strategies, stories from all across the podcast episodes this year. So this is a good one, I think, to grab a cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cozy up the notebook. Let it inspire your 2026 planning. And until then, Merry Christmas, happy holidays. I hope this energy radiates through the microphone. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of this community. Please share this show if you've enjoyed it with any of your friends or colleagues. Write a review on Apple, Spotify. I read every single note, I promise you. And again, wishing you the best holiday season and I will see you again on New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movement. 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 movie.
