“The bet I took that changed how we reach donors…”

"I need you to trust me." 🙏

Caleb was brought on to help reach younger donors, but leadership wasn't all in on his approach.

He explains how he convinced a skeptical board to stick with it for 2 years... until he saw six-figure success.

Connect with and learn from Caleb here 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-dansby/

✍️ Got your own story to tell? Submit a diary entry to be featured on the podcast 👉 https://bit.ly/4tXt0d6

🩷 Connect with our community on LinkedIn 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/nonprofit-diaries/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Nonprofit Diaries. Here we share the stories that don't make the newsletter. I'm your host, Kimberly Bottom, and this week's guest is going to have you inspired to trust your gut and fight for what you believe. He's an award-winning photographer and digital media expert, turned nonprofit marketer, and he's currently sharing his talents with the Christian Relief Fund as their director of marketing. So Caleb and I actually met a few years ago when we co-presented an educational session at a conference, which actually walked through his strategy for using paid ads to find and nurture donors. Now, that strategy has led to some impressive fundraising results for CRF, but the road to get there wasn't without resistance, as he will expand upon today. So outside of nonprofit marketing, Caleb is a husband, a father, a man of faith, and a generous, kind spirit whose passion for serving others is apparent in everything that he does. Welcome, my friend, Caleb Dansby. Caleb, thank you for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, thanks, Kimberly.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So, like I had mentioned, you know, we met because your whole strategy for basically bringing CRF to a new generation of donors, it's considered pretty forward-thinking in nonprofit space, right? Like paid advertising is not something that everybody is doing. So let's set the stage for the diary entry and let everybody know you joined CRF about four and a half years ago. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, it was uh beginning of 2020 uh 2022. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Okay, perfect. So over four years ago. Because you you came straight from college, right? Pretty much straight from college, and you were charged with helping to bring the CRF story to the younger generation of donors because you yourself are of a younger generation, right? So tell us a bit about that experience coming in.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah. So I went to a small college in West Texas. Um, and you know, getting a degree in digital media arts and business marketing kind of had the dream of, oh, I'm gonna go into a you know corporate marketing career. And, you know, in the height of when I graduated in 2020, um, it was not a lot of places were hiring. And so it was really tough to kind of get into that field. So I went to work at a small uh outdoor store in West Texas and for a little over a year, and then I got a call from the president here at CRF to join the team. Um, because I was, you know, looking for a job in marketing and was passionate about serving people around the world. And but I didn't really know anything about nonprofit marketing. So it was a huge shift of kind of what I knew from like the university level of what marketing tactics were to then try to apply that to the nonprofit sector. So it was a very hard to kind of learn and adapt that first year.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, but I mean, they hired you for a fresh perspective, yes, right. That was kind of the point. But it's it's funny when we chatted about this before you know we came on to record, you got a little bit, even though they brought you in because they wanted your fresh perspective, you gave it to them, and they were like, I don't know, we've always done it this way, right? There was a little resistance there.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Absolutely. And you know, and and what I was learning about nonprofit uh marketing was kind of things we weren't doing. So, you know, kind of the the Google ads or even just you know advertising outside of our sector of connection. Uh, because you know, what made CRF work for so long? You know, we've been at it for over 50 years, and it was just personal connection. So going from place to place one-on-one, a lot our present or you know, uh former founder, you know, they would go to churches or other groups to fundraise. And, you know, getting being in the present age, that's hard to do with attention spans. It's hard to do with just trying to reach too many people at at one time. And so bringing in kind of that idea of, hey, we need to try to do this, was kind of met with, oh, we've tried that and it didn't work. And so was like, okay, well, how did we do it? Oh, we kind of did it on Facebook or we ran it ourselves. And so the the person who was ahead of me, um, who is now the director of water and uh strategic growth, um, you know, we kind of worked with a group called Feather, and the first two years were a little rocky. Um, you know, not a lot of conversions, not any conversion value, uh, but enough to kind of make our money back. Um and some of the board and our leadership was, well, is this really worth putting the money into it? And it was like, let's let's trust it, let's do another year, let's see where it goes. And in our third year, we brought in $135,000, $140,000 of ad revenue, um, which was 30x of what our ad spend was. In year four, we reached almost 200,000. So even further from there of just all right, we're in the space now, but like that we've waited and patiently waited, kind of you know, trying to say, hey, this is where we need to be doing it. We're reaching people where we wouldn't be able to in person.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Mm-hmm. And so for those listening who aren't aware, feather is a um a platform, right? It is a software that is specifically made for nonprofits to help them use paid advertising to reach new donors and uh basically, you know, kind of like the cart abandonment, right? When you almost buy the shoes but you don't, and then you get all these reminders over the internet to get go back and buy the shoes. So it's it's very much like that. Um, and that's, you know, sort of just how the younger generation consumes content now, which is these constant taps on the shoulder to remind them to do something. And to your point, even if you were able, Caleb, to travel to every single university and every single neighborhood to go canvassing, the first time you approach somebody, they might not be ready. So to come around and remind them several times and not just remind them. You know, the ad is not just donate now, right? The ad is reminding them why. What is the impact that they're gonna have? Are they funding your water program? Are they sponsoring a child? Like these images and these messages are just getting your mission in front of somebody again and again and again and again. So to your point, you're still dealing with people, right? Even if I see the message five times, I'm a busy, distracted human who might have five other things going on at that exact moment. So you do need to give it some time. So you you you stood your ground, you've you fought the good fight. Now you you had told me you got a really great response from your board last time when you when you came back with those fundraising numbers. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, the you know, the the last two times, you know, it was again a shock to the board that, you know, this thing that was kind of just, oh, this may work, this may not work, we you just need to see where it goes, blew up from not even just a conversion perspective, but even just how many people were reaching. It was an eye-opening experience for them that, oh, this is actually how we can do it, just print media or going to places. And that has brought on a lot of encouragement to try new things, uh, from you know, doing our own digital media um like video or kind of expanding on this idea of, hey, we need to, you know, take the momentum that we have and build our native, you know, efforts to to follow along.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

I know a lot of people who are probably listening to this podcast are going, I love this idea. I don't think my board would give me two years, right? They might give me six months and be like, no, pull the plug. So for you, Caleb, that in-between time, when you weren't seeing, like you said, the massive amount of conversions or the really large donations coming in, how did you keep them on board? Like, what were, as we say in business, the leading indicators that this was working and that you should continue down that road?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

I mean, uh, I I think the biggest thing is constant communication um with the board. Like, hey, this is this month's report. These are the things that are looking good, these are things that are looking, you know, a little rough. But hey, we're this is this is the progress that we are seeing live and being open with the communication um and and all and allow them to ask questions because oftentimes I think the hesitation of going somewhere new is the unknown. Um, I mean, even as marketers, like we're I'm having to do things that are unknown every day. You know, oh, is this ad gonna work or is this print gonna work? Is you know I that's in my world every day. So if I can help alleviate that for the leadership and the board, that's that's key to uh to success.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Something that I really loved about what we presented together when we were at that conference was the way that you sort of laid out the process, explaining it in terms of, you know, very, very simple terminology, right? Boards probably don't know what getting a thousand impressions mean, right? You gotta go in and say, hey, that's a thousand more eyeballs on our website, a thousand more people who now know what we do that didn't before. So, like phrasing it so that they can understand the value is one big thing. But to your point is to say, hey, we're gonna try this, and it's probably not gonna work after six months. I need you to buckle in. Like, I know what I'm doing. And if you I think if you really lay those expectations out, as long as you get that initial buy and they're gonna be like, okay, I understand this is not just going to be magic because nothing ever is. So if you don't, you know, pretend that it's just going to suddenly turn on and we're gonna be just rolling in the dough, that expectation's gonna take you a really long way. And now if you've got somebody who's listening to this and going, I love this idea, but my board's maybe not as collaborative or I have a little bit, what would be like your one piece of advice to that person?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

I mean, I think start off small. Um, if you can start off with even trying some native things, um, whether that's like me being consistent in an email campaign. Um, you know, especially if if you're already sending out emails on a regular basis, make it creative, make it purposeful to a certain thing, not just, hey, this is who we are, but hey, if you are doing a f uh canned food drive, this is what we're doing. Like that the communication, this is what it goes to, then and just stick to it for several months and and do it consistently. So it's just one thing at a time, you know, it we can't just like eat the whole donut, eat small bites of of a donut and and and get where we want to go. Um and just ensuring that to the board that um little things will add up to big things and almost approaching it as not a like monetary thing, like, hey, we want to reach people. Yeah, and so and that's one thing that helped really is outside of those two years where we didn't have a good conversion, I could say, hey, we're reaching 300,000 people.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah. Something that my boss always tells me, and I find a lot of comfort in, is there's no losing. You either win or you learn. So even if something doesn't exactly go the way you think it is, it's supposed to, then you can pivot and you've learned, okay, that doesn't actually work. Because to your point, you came in and said, hey, we should do this, or like, oh, we already did that. You're like, but did you? Did you really? Did you give it, you know, the right amount of time? Did you pay attention to what was what was working and what wasn't, and then make adjustments? Like, you know, marketing and advertising is not something you just turn on and it just goes. You know, you need a smart person behind those numbers to really analyze the reactions and make those adjustments. And I'm so proud of you for sticking in there and doing what you know needed to be done and now creating just incredible outcomes for CRF, right? The the donation revenue is impressive, but what you guys are actually doing on the end of the mission is even more inspiring. It's something that if you haven't gone and checked out the Christian relief fund uh loyal listeners, please go do so because just the website's gonna make you have a tear in your eye. It's such a beautiful mission, and Caleb, I'm so happy that they have you and they have someone who's got enough gumption to stand up for what they believe in to make a big difference for them. So thank you for sharing your story today.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

I know it's quick, but I mean, I I could probably talk about this for, you know, hours upon hours.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

So Okay. Well, I'm gonna link Caleb's LinkedIn in the description for this podcast. So if you want to have a conversation about nonprofit marketing or any just, you know, just meet a really awesome human, shoot him a note because he's a good guy to know. So, Caleb, thank you again for being on the podcast. For everybody out there listening, this is your reminder this week to hydrate and practice self care. You are doing great. And if it helps, uh, we would love to have you on the podcast. You can submit your own diary entry by clicking on the link in the description. Have a wonderful week, guys. We'll see you next time.