Live at Dig South: Nonprofit Data That Raises More Money w/ John Seaman

A founder walks off a pitch stage and straight into the mic. We’re recording live from Dig South in Charleston when John Seaman from Datamoose.org joins us to unpack the high-stakes Wild Pitch, the push for a million-dollar prize, and the very real challenge his company is built to solve: nonprofits trying to raise more money while their donor data is scattered across disconnected systems.

We get specific about what’s breaking and why it matters. Nonprofits face shifting funding, an aging donor base, and new expectations for how supporters want to be engaged. Yet many teams are stuck wrestling spreadsheets, exporting reports, and hunting for answers that should be simple. John explains how Datamoose.org centralizes data from tools like Salesforce, Blackbaud, Bloomerang, and DonorPerfect into a single source of truth that stays updated through APIs. Then we talk about Ask Moose, their AI agent designed to answer practical questions instantly, like who is up for renewal, who is at risk of churn, and where retention is slipping. One of the biggest takeaways: AI sitting on top of disconnected systems doesn’t create intelligence, it creates risk.

We also zoom out to the Charleston startup ecosystem, including Harbor Entrepreneur Center and SCORE mentorship, and what that support looks like when you’re building a SaaS business. John shares traction in annual recurring revenue (ARR), why renewals prove real value, and what he needs most now: more awareness and more conversations with the right nonprofit leaders. If you work in nonprofit fundraising, donor management, CRM strategy, or marketing for mission-driven organizations, you’ll leave with a clearer picture of how modern data infrastructure powers smarter decisions and stronger giving. If you like what you hear, subscribe, share this with a nonprofit leader, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

How can Charleston businesses get noticed, found and chosen? The Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by Charleston AMA and recorded at Charleston Media Solutions, answers the marketing and media questions local business owners are asking. We explore media buying, advertising budgets, radio, digital marketing, storytelling and the customer journey, with practical strategies for growing your business in today’s attention economy. CharlestonMediaSolutions.com

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friend to Charleston Media Solutions Studios. From business and art to hospitality and tech, these movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. So what's their story? Let's find out together.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast. My name is Mike Compton. We're live at Dig South right now. I've got Amanda Bunty Coleman over there. Say hello, Amanda.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Hi everyone. Welcome to Dig South in Charleston on a Friday.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

That's a little hot. That's right. So sorry about the noise back there. We're getting a little distracted. There's a lot of people showing up. Speaking of some great people, we got John.

Live From Dig South

SPEAKER_03 1:13

John from Datamus. John, what brings you here to Dig South?

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Been a guest before. Uh this year I'm a participant. Okay. We were in the we are in the wild pitch. So I just right before I came up here, uh, pitched for to get some money from some investors and potentially a million dollar prize if we can uh million dollars. Million dollars. There's a song about that. If I had a million dollars, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Oh, that is a good song.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Tell us about Datamoose.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yeah. Yeah. So so Datamoose, we work with all nonprofit organizations. We turn their data into donations and insights into income.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Okay. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Yeah. So

Wild Pitch And The Million-Dollar Path

SPEAKER_02 1:51

uh nonprofits, uh, they're struggling right now. You know, federal funding, local funding. The whole donor base is is changing, they're aging out. People want to be solicited a different way. Uh, and it's a crazy how many nonprofits are going out of business.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

No kidding.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

And a lot of it has to do with as technology is moving everything up to the cloud, their their systems are uh they're not unified, they're not connected. Right. So a nonprofit could

Why Nonprofits Struggle With Data

SPEAKER_02 2:20

have uh their systems across a dozen different places that makes it very challenging uh to unify that data so leadership can make uh time sensitive, data-driven business decisions. Uh and what we're finding is that the fundraisers are spending more time wrestling with spreadsheets than they are raising money. Right, right. And uh it's crazy because uh in many cases those spreadsheets are their entire donor database lives on people's personal laptops of pretty much a security nightmare.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Right. Right. So so what you guys do is you come in and say, Hey, uh, this is what we can do to you for you in your data side, and this is gonna bring you funding eventually. At the end of the day, we're gonna help you raise your funds.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Well, uh yes, uh, we just started that. So we started out uh I call it the plumbing behind the walls, right? So we take data from wherever it is, okay, we unify it into a centralized data platform, a single source of truth. We keep that data refreshed using API technology. So as changes are made in the source system, whatever their CRM is, Blackbaud, Salesforce, Bloomerang, Donor Perfect, whatever it happens to be, those changes are reflected in our data warehouse. And at that point, nonprofits can take that data and connect whatever reporting or AI tool that they want. Now, we look at things in a crawl, walk, run. That's the crawl part of how we help

One Source Of Truth Plus Ask Moose

SPEAKER_02 3:47

people. The walk is we have our own AI agent called Ask Moose. Okay. So you can ask questions to your data where you ask questions to a colleague. Okay. And you're not waiting hours, weeks, days to get the custom reports that have to be created to answer those questions. Those answers are instant.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Like how many members are up for renewal this month, or exactly where um who's dropped off, or what donor or who's about to drop off.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Right. Who's most likely to churn, who's most likely to make a gift of a retention is very uh is a hard thing for nonprofits and membership organizations.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

That's right. And AMA is a membership organization.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yep, right. So which members answer whatever question you wanna you wanna ask?

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Right. Which members uh sign up for their membership on an annual basis. Is it January? And how many events have they been to?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

How many events does it go?

SPEAKER_03 4:46

How many events do they go to? Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

And and and a lot of not like all of us, right? We're all embracing AI. The problem is AI sitting on top of disconnected systems, it does not create intelligence, it creates risk.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

That's amazing. Well, what you're doing there is fantastic. How did your pitch go today?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Uh, you know, I I'm assuming it went well. Yeah, though I kind of it was only four minutes. Okay. And uh, you know, I I don't know. I think I did pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

How many people in the audience?

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Yeah, how many there was probably 40, 50 people in the audience. Which round was it? The first round.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

First round. There's four total rounds.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

There's four total rounds. And if we uh if we're one of the top three, we pitch later this afternoon, and the winner of that gets uh a chance to pitch for a million dollars later on. Oh my god. Not here, but right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Another another level.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yes. In another city, another city, and it's global, and and that's pretty big deal.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

And there's multiple people here from not just Charleston and in the pitch here.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Really interesting. There's multiple investors here from different cities, there's multiple um people that are pitching. Guy that went before me was from uh Redmond, Oregon, not Redmond, Washington. Uh the MC misspoke that.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

So Yeah, and I think I believe there's someone from India too.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yes, that's that's what I heard too.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Yeah, so from Australia. Yeah, it's amazing. So, what do you think about Dick South?

SPEAKER_02 6:13

I I I listen, I've known Stanfield for for quite a while. Okay. Um, I really appreciate that he's a founder, that he bootstrapped his company, and he's really uh, you know, he's really bringing together a tribe of of founders. Uh it is uh Charleston's a is a big small town. Where are you from? Uh I'm from Philadelphia. Okay. But I've been here half my life. Oh. And, you know, I say uh I say jokingly, I've had births, deaths, marriages, and divorces here in Charleston. That's gotta be worth a bumper sticker with the word native in it. It's still not outside. No, not native. Sorry. We're still not native.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I'm married to a native.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

You've got to have generations in a in a like a cemetery downtown to be.

Startup Community And Charleston Roots

SPEAKER_02 6:55

That's what I heard too. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Well, maybe someone in your family eventually will have that that designation.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

And you just you stayed though, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

So uh so Blackbod hired me in the 90s. Oh, moved me down from Philadelphia, and I sold their DOS version for people like DOS that came before Windows. Out of here, love that.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Yeah, Blackbod was was the heavy only tech for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

It really was. It really was. I was their 200th employee hired back in the day, and I still have lifelong friends that I that I met there and still keep in contact with.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

That's awesome. So, you know, here we are in uh you also you also did the so you're a resident at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, and that's how we met.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Do the listeners need to check out HarborEC.org.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yes, so you do.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Check out the Harbor Entrepreneur Center.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Collision happens there.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Datamus is a resident, Roombo's a resident, Amanda did their social media there for a little while there. You got a little bit, you're still doing the I'm still doing it. Yeah, and I can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

And the email newsletters, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

And the award-winning newsletter.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

So so the harbor-winning newsletter.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

Talk about a tribe. Yeah, there's a tribe of 130 businesses based out of the 60,000 square feet there. Yeah, you were part of the accelerator program.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

I was part of the

Harbor EC Mentorship And Accelerators

SPEAKER_02 8:14

accelerator program. It's interesting. I I reached out uh to score initially, sure, right? Sure. And met with uh a gentleman named Joe Moody. Yeah. Joe Moody and I are now friends. We're in a small group together at our church. Oh good. Oh, okay. Uh, we're, you know, just a phenomenal guy. And he said, you know, I think you're a little bit beyond score. So I want to bring you in uh and introduce you to the harbor. Yeah, okay. Became a uh part of the accelerator program and learned an unbelievable amount. I cannot say enough about the harbor and the mentorship program. Uh, and really it's positioned us for fundraising. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

And I just want people to know that SCORE stands for Service Corps of Retired Executives. Just in case you didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

I thought it was South Carolina older retired executives. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

And the only reason why I know that off the top of my head is because I had the same conversation with somebody yesterday on the marketing podcast. Okay. And we're like, because acronyms get thrown around a lot, and I some people don't know the acronyms, so I try to anytime I can explain what it is. And so I had to look that up.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

What does the SCRA stand for?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

South Carolina Research Authority.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Testing her, John, not you. I know. Come on now.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

And CRDA is Charleston Regional Development Alliance.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

There you go. There you go. Well, the SCRA is the sponsor of our podcast.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So that's the pitch and the folks there. They're great people as well. Great resource.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

So great. I mean, what they're doing statewide too is huge too. Um, so you did the accelerator, the harbor. Uh, how are things going right now? What does the future look like for that?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Thanks for asking. I gotta tell you, it's uh, I jokingly say, I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and this time I don't think it's a train coming at us, right? Uh no, we we uh we started out the year at uh just under 100,000 in ARR. Um uh we've closed about a half a dozen deals this year so far, which we're pushing 300,000 in ARR. All right. And uh what's ARR, real quick for the listeners?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

I don't know that one.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Annual recurring revenue. Awesome. So we're a subscription, we're like a next one, right? Yeah. Uh and the beauty is you sell it once and you get paid until they cancel. Which I'm proud to say, as a CEO, we have a hundred percent renewal of all of our clients. Uh, no one's no charm.

ARR Growth Marketing And How To Reach John

SPEAKER_01 10:30

100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

It's rare. Great customer service, that's great product, that's uh a whole package.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Obviously, great culture, you're doing something.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

If you've got a good enough sales team, uh you can sell someone in year one, but when they renew, you're really bringing value to what they so you do.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

That's so true. How can the Charleston Marketing Podcast help you? Uh, what's ICP wise?

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Well, if I can give a plug to you. Ideal client. Uh we just uh Mike, your company. Yeah, yeah, we're looking forward to learning more. And you know, there's not there's not one magic uh bullet that uh helps a company become successful. There's so many different things. So omnichannel marketing, videos like you and I have talked about, podcasts, uh, you know, everything we're doing, the team, all the things.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

It's the right weather on the right day at the right time.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

You got it. And our and our challenge is not build a better product. Our challenge is get more at bats, get more people that know who we are, yes, what we do, right, uh, and want to talk teams.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Right, right, right. Well, that's what we're doing right now. This is fantastic. It's all working out. You're.com. Share it. Share it with everybody. How can we get a hold of it? You're.org.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Okay, there you go. Right. Whatever it is. All right. So uh it's funny, we're switching websites. So datamoose.ai is our new website. Datamoose.org. We're we're slowly but surely retiring.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

So if you type it in, it'll go to my email address for now.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

I know I'm confusing the heck out of everybody. It's John J-O-H-N. I've got the H at datamoose.org. Let's come to Datamoose.ai uh and see what we can do to help you.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Yes, love it. Nonprofits, do you hear us? There's a lot of you out there. I know that. Check them out. All right, Amanda, how'd it go? Great. You have anyone left. It was nice to meet you John.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Nice to meet you, too. I know a little bit about your company, but it's nice to get a face to everything.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

John and his team are great. Uh we're looking forward to being part of it. Okay. Charleston Marketing Podcast listeners, thank you again for showing up, showing out. We're at Dig South Live. Uh, I'd like to thank our sponsors, the SCRA. Uh, I'd like to thank Trio and Elliott T. Friedman for helping us out with the production gear. Thank Amanda and John for showing up. Emily, first two hours on the job. Love it. She's doing great. Multitasking over there. Um, and thanks to Sandfield and Dig South for having us. All right, listeners, we'll talk to you soon.