Donor Growth

Louis Diez & Mike Duerksen

There are proven ways to make your nonprofit nonprofit organization less fragile by developing more—and deeper—relationships with your donors. Louis Diez and Mike Duerksen will discuss one big idea every week to help you level up. Brought to you by the Donor Participation Project and BuildGood.com. 

  1. 09/28/2023

    The end of a (short) era

    Hasta luego. Tot ziens. À bientôt. The podcast got too big, too quick for these two social sector entrepreneurs and we need some time to regroup. What’s NOT changing? The concept of Donor Growth - more AND deeper relationships with more of your donors. We want to be here to support you–intellectually, emotionally, professionally–and will figure out more and better ways to do it. That’s our promise to you. Why are you stopping the podcast? You’ll have to listen to find out! As usual, we share with full transparency. Wait a sec, does this mean you guys are out of a job now? If only. Fortunately, we’ll continue to steward our thriving businesses. Check out BuildGood and the Annual Fund Toolkit! What’s next? You tell us. How could we best serve you? Would you host us for a Donor Growth meetup in your area?  Thanks so much for being a part of this adventure! We look forward to catching up with you soon. GET CONNECTED Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn  Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn  Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation. Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.  ABOUT THE HOSTS Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit. Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

    25 min
  2. 08/24/2023

    7 recession-proof fundraising first principles

    Are we in a recession?  Who knows.  But it’s no secret: a lot of nonprofits are seeing a decline in revenue after the covid bump we experienced for a few years.  On today’s podcast, we get into 7 principles of fundraising that will help you keep the main thing the main thing—even when cash flow changes. These aren’t just principles to whether a recession.  They’re timeless first principles that apply to your fundraising in good years and in lean years.  Consistency compounds Money flows where attention goesAction yields information Trust is worth more than a bigger return  Growth is a choiceCharity is not a zero sum gameYour calendar and your budget = valuesYour turn.  What would you add? GET CONNECTED Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn  Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn  Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation. Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.  ABOUT THE HOSTS Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit. Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

    29 min
  3. 07/27/2023

    Check this off your list: ✅ creating a checklist to support fundraising

    Can a simple checklist reduce the complexity of your fundraising operations?  It sounds too simple. Maybe even too systematized and rigid and robotic. But what if the complexity of our lives requires the simplest of solutions to give us back the time to do more human stuff…like having coffees and lunches?  Or calling someone on the phone? Or making a meaningful connection? And what if a series of simple checklists can help us spend less time worrying about rote and repetitive tasks of fundraising, and more time engaging donors? In today's short episode, we talk about why now might be a good time to create some simple checklists with your team—and how it might help you increase your fundraising performance. GET CONNECTED Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn  Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn  Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation. Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.  ABOUT THE HOSTS Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit. Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

    18 min
  4. 07/20/2023

    Are nonprofits competing for market share?

    You’ve likely heard this before: “your nonprofit is competing for market share—so you need a clear value proposition to win.” But is that really true?  Here are some assumptions we’re making if we think that way: That giving to charity is like buying a product or serviceThat our competition is other nonprofits (vs. inaction, building up more savings to pass down to kids, or countless other ways people spend money every single day)That we are competing in the first place That there’s a fixed pie of generosity  What if instead we thought about it this way? People’s ability to grow their generosity isn’t fixed It’s not a function of: are we nicer, prettier, more impactful, more efficient than other charities.It is a function of how engaged people are with us… …and how well we align with their values and passions and worldview (those are things you largely cannot change, by the way) So rather than thinking: how can we stand out from other nonprofits?  What if we think: how can we “stand in” more in the lives of our donors? What if we focus on donors, not competition? Because there’s no competition in the first place. GET CONNECTED Follow Louis Diez on LinkedIn  Follow Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn  Join the Donor Participation Project here—a community of fundraisers who get together every month to co-create solutions that increase donor participation. Get access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix—a FREE mini course that will help you craft compelling fundraising messages that move donors to action and increase response.  ABOUT THE HOSTS Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He's the host of the Donor Participation Project and founder of the Annual Fund Toolkit. Mike Duerksen hosts the Build Good Fundraising Podcast. He’s the founder and CEO of BuildGood, a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors.

    15 min

About

There are proven ways to make your nonprofit nonprofit organization less fragile by developing more—and deeper—relationships with your donors. Louis Diez and Mike Duerksen will discuss one big idea every week to help you level up. Brought to you by the Donor Participation Project and BuildGood.com.