Issue 20: Evolve or Die

I’ve been on a nostalgia kick lately in my personal life. Not only did I splurge for an arcade machine that allows me to play many games I grew up with and can now share with my friends and family, but I also have binged the entirety of the new X-Men 97 show on Disney+.

Nostalgia can be a powerful emotion to tap into, but ultimately, the danger is focusing too much on past glories that were likely not as good as you remember. Instead, tether the feelings that nostalgia can bring and use it to demonstrate the path forward that you are hoping to have others see.

Vision manifesting into reality is what mission ultimately means in practice. Trust is built through the words you say and the actions you take. And many in the nonprofit sector still have a healthy and active distrust of technology.?

This week’s newsletter addresses this by focusing on different actionable resources you can use to build trust in your generosity experience design.?

Generosity in Action

We’ve tried some new approaches to online education this year that I think are working out well, but there’s still something to be said about a well-structured webinar. That’s why I was thrilled but not surprised by the huge interest in Mallory Erickson ’s webinar yesterday.

If you missed it, this session had it all:

• A drill down into how to structure your work for maximum success
• How to design a welcome series for recurring donors
• Designing inclusive content focused on community building, not exclusivity
• The importance of surprise and delight tactics
• Implementing feedback loops for flexibility in your strategy

She put her all into it and there’s a reason that Mallory is one of our top experts. The session also inspired me in a few other ways, so looking forward to seeing more of Mallory in the future.?

Tips & Tricks

As someone who got his start in the nonprofit sector as a grants writer, I’ve consistently pestered our product team about improvements in how nonprofits can manage grants within the CRM. If you look at the state of grants management for the typical nonprofit donor management or constituent management offering, its pretty bleak.?

Yet, our community has consistently told us the importance of grants and how they’d use the platform more effectively if we improved those areas. And we have!?

But supporting grants management goes beyond just the technology, so when my content team asked for recommendations on who we should work with on some blog content that goes deep into grants, I immediately put them in touch with Sheleia Phillips, MPH, CHES of SMP Nonprofit Consulting.?

I am thrilled about the comprehensive article she put together for us. Since its so meaty, I’m not going to spoil anything other than guaranteeing you’ll feel more confident in:

• Researching Prospective Grants
• Developing and Submitting Your Grant Proposal
• Implementing Your Grant
• Monitoring and Reporting
• The Role of Grant Management Software

Plus, she also outlined 7 grant management best practices ON TOP OF the above. This is what a generous learning ecosystem looks like!

Data Dive

Digital donations are awesome and are a big reason why recurring donations work well for nonprofits, but it is critical to also remind ourselves the larger generosity ecosystem that exists.?

The vast majority of donations are still being made in offline ways or being tracked in ways that disconnect the activity properly from the core database. That’s why it is critical for nonprofits to have plans that address:

• Check entry
• Cash gifts
• In-kind products
• Non-cash assets like art

There are some great innovations that I feel will help continue to deepen the existing trends that our partners at Visa have found around check usage overall. Examples of this include the establishment of platforms like Chariot for digitizing Donor Advised Funds as well as our own native evolution to support requests like allowing for grant pledges to be paid through a secure online portal for groups like a giving circle.?

See Simon Scriver’s original post that got me thinking about this.?

Community Spotlight

I will practice what I preach today in spotlighting great tech and service companies that ensure I can deliver on my own brand promises.?

The first is our virtual conference platform, Ring Central. I’ve written a few times over the years about technology’s role in executing Generosity Xchange, but what a world of difference between the previous owners and the new vision for what the service can do for clients who want to put on exciting and accessible brand experiences. I want to give particular love to our Client Success Manager Maggie Swansen , who helped guide us toward a vision where I am not able to bring our expertise in creating magical generosity experiences to an even bigger audience through some special partnerships that I’ll be able to announce in the coming weeks.?

The second is what I’m calling our “tactical swag” partner, Screen Embroidery. I was connected to these folks through a recommendation by Dan Gross and they’ve been some of the most fun and interesting folks I’ve worked with in brand design. I’ve learned about inventory management, embroidery file types, and the intricacies of personalized swag. I’m dropping another set of Recurring Giving Report gift kits in the mail today (another customs form to fill out for Canada, its coming Warren!) and they are the ones who made this possible.?

Let’s share some love - tag a vendor that feels more like a partner than a contract in the comments and what they’ve been able to do for your own work. Local or national, doesn’t matter!?

Upcoming Events

The livestream is coming up next week! RSVP here.

Saved by the Bell: Turning Giving Day Moments into Recurring Giving Momentum

May 31, 2024 | 1:00 PM ET

I’m back with another live coaching session, this time using the form to recruit the beneficiary of this innovative format! If you’re wondering how to capture attention and turn moments into momentum, then this is a session you don’t want to miss. I have a special 90s-themed prize for one lucky registrant.?

Save Your Spot

Final Thoughts

I finished up X-Men 97 and especially appreciated Professor X and Magneto's deep and complex relationship. Suppose you haven’t watched the show or any of the movies. In that case, it is basically the superhero version of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.? But underneath the surface of the more ham-fisted allegories is a message that ultimately says, “Evolve or die.”?

Life is made up of thousands of seemingly insignificant or unrelated decisions that have been made by and for us and build into our reality. The part that we need to overcome collectively is that a shared reality is often obscured by the hyper-personalization of the digital forward world that we live in.?

Many nonprofit professionals are still struggling to adapt to the technological changes that have been forced into prominence the last few years. My personal opinion is that we’ve collectively taught the sector the wrong questions to ask about technology’s role in the growth of nonprofits and that in many ways, we need to go back to square one.?

The promises of technology like artificial intelligence and automation will never be realized if people are inherently skeptical or uncomfortable with the tech’s role in their work. We have enshrined money and placed a digitized wall around it - it’s time to evolve or die when it comes to our thinking about how to build a healthy culture around data-driven strategy.?

Puzzle of the Week