Ep. 135: It’s Not Your CRM: 3 Real Reasons You’re Missing Your Fundraising Goals
EPISODE 135
It’s Not Your CRM: 3 Real Reasons You’re Missing Your Fundraising Goals
About the Episode:
If you’re not hitting your fundraising goals, it’s easy to think the problem is your CRM, website, or donation platform. But switching tools won’t fix a broken strategy. I see so many nonprofits stuck in a cycle of blaming their tech instead of addressing the real issue—how they’re engaging donors and running campaigns. In this episode, I’m breaking down three major reasons organizations miss their fundraising targets and what to do instead. I’m talking about the difference between reactive and proactive fundraising (and why most organizations are stuck in survival mode), the fear of making bold asks, and the importance of differentiation—because if you blend in, you’ll be ignored. If you’re tired of feeling like you’re constantly fundraising but never getting ahead, this episode is for you.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The myth of "better tech = better fundraising"—why tool hopping won’t solve your funding problems
The real reasons nonprofits miss their fundraising goals
How to shift from reactive fundraising to a proactive donor engagement plan
The power of bold, emotionally-driven storytelling (and why playing it safe is hurting your donations)
Why differentiation is key—if you don’t stand out, donors will choose none
The fundraising Sprint Method: how to stop the constant scramble and start raising more with less effort
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Blaming your tools for not raising enough is the easy way out.”
“Having the tech tools doesn't mean that suddenly the influx of donations will appear.”
“You need buffer time between the sprint of the campaign so you can plan for the next one.”
“Vulnerability is like catnip.” Jen Graham
“Playing small hurts you because it fails to inspire donors. Today's donors want something that has that connection.”
“Take risks in your campaign - boldness is what gets noticed.”
“A confused mind doesn’t buy.”
“If you don't stand out, you will get left behind or ignored.”
“Not adapting, not innovating, and not stepping towards courageous action is what will keep your organization stuck.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
JOIN THE WAITLIST: The Purpose & Profit Group Coaching Program
The Sprint Method - Fundraise Like a Pro, 5 Figures At a Time
Connect with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
-
*Links may be affiliate links which means I may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Christina Edwards 0:01Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we digging into a really common mistake that organizations really of every size make when they're trying to solve for the problem of not hitting their fundraising goals. Before we dig in, I'm going to share a really fun success story inside my coaching program the club, we had an organization who runs, they run an annual event in person. And this particular organization, it's like, one of those historically, like, Oh, this is supposed to be a fundraiser, but we don't present it as a fundraiser. And so it ends up being a lot of work, but isn't really a fundraiser, and brings in a little bit of money, but not a lot of money. And I've been to galas that are actually positioned this way on accident before. Okay, I've been to galas where, like, it's supposed to be a fundraiser, but the actually fundraising part of the event is so hidden that it ends up kind of just bringing in pennies instead of big influxes of funding. So we repositioned the way that not only the like pre sell, so the marketing of the event, but the actual, the actual flow of the event. And it ended up bringing in over $10,000 to this event because of this. So it's this idea of not burying the actual work you do and how people can help. Very, very important. Do not wait if the event is over at nine o'clock, do not wait until 8:50 to make the ask and to actually change the way that you're thinking about events completely. To think about, how is it that it would benefit the people at this event, to know that it's a fundraiser, and to be asked to contribute to the fundraiser during the event. How is it not offensive? How is that for them? How is that benefiting them? How is that benefiting the people we serve, or the program or service we offer? Right? Really being clear on how that helps them, how that's beneficial to their experience, their philanthropic goals and why it's really, really important to not hide that and not be soft in your ask or apologetic in your ask. And I was really, really proud of this executive director for completely changing the way that she views the event and just having a clear moment fundraising opportunity mid event, and seeing it work so good.
All right, so here's the loop that I see. I see a lot of organizations coming to me who are saying we're not raising enough because of blank, insert, insert, problem. Our CRM isn't good enough. Our website is outdated. Our fundraising tool is holding us back. They're charging way too much in processing fees, right? So it's like, insert outside problem that is the cause of the internal issue of not enough donations. Okay? The truth is, blaming your tools this is tough love is really the easy way out, and often is just this tool hopping and shiny object syndrome can create this false sense of progress, okay? And it's never addressing the root issue, which is, why aren't we getting enough donations? Okay? So the real problem isn't really your tech stack at all. It's actually how you're showing up the strategy you have to connect with new and existing donors and building out your donor base online. Okay, so I'm thinking about a organization who really had this issue, who really had a tech tool. They were already on a CRM. They were already on they already had their tech stack, their website, everything. And what happened was they would get that shiny object syndrome. We all get it, where you're like, ooh, that's cool. That one's AI powered This one's cool. And actually, you know, it doesn't charge a monthly fee. Wow. They're offering this really great special on this one, right? And it can be really easy to go that's going to solve our problems. And listen, y'all, they have great salespeople working for these companies. So you hop on a great to hop on a great demo, and it goes really great. And you're thinking, this is the this is it. This is going to fix our problems. Okay, so I want to clarify here that CRMs and tech tools and websites and all this. These aren't bad like these are important foundational elements to your nonprofit success, okay, but they are not the magic silver bullet solution without the right strategy. Okay? Think about this. Think about your going to work. You work in an office, okay? And let's say I'm your boss, and you keep showing up late to work. And you're like, Christina, you know? And I'm like, why are you late again, right? You keep showing up, you know, 30 minutes an hour late, what's going on? And you're like, Listen, I have my car, but what I really need is a Ferrari to get to work, because then I could get there faster. And I'm like, do you but you have a car, right? And you're like, yeah, no, I. Have, I have a car, it's real. And I'm like, and it works. And you're like, yep, yep, but I need a faster one. And then you get the Ferrari, you're like, yep. And then sure enough, kind of keep getting, getting there late, maybe leaving a little early too. And I'm like, Hey, what's going on? And you're like, Listen, my car is too small. It's too hard to get in and out of like, people don't see me. I need an SUV or a truck. I need something bigger, right? What are you doing? You're just car hopping at that point. Will your car get you from A to B? Will the car you started with, your Honda, get you to a to b? Yes? Will your Ferrari? Yes? Will your SUV? Yes. See what I'm saying here. It's not the car, right? You need to leave earlier. Okay, so there are some CRMs I love, I think Bloomerang is a great one. There are some fundraising tools I love, right? There are websites I prefer over others. All of these are true, right? And just having the tech tools doesn't mean that suddenly the influx of donations just appear, right? The the if you build it, they will come. No, that is not how nonprofits work. That is not how any business works, right? You have to bring in your audience, and you have to run campaigns at key points throughout the year in order to bring in that revenue. So I want you to think about this, this question, okay, why am I missing my fundraising goal? Why does it feel hard if I'm hitting it even? Why does it feel so hard to barely hit it if I'm on a decent if my tech stack is decent, and I can't blame that, what else could it be? And take a few minutes and really ask yourself, what else could it be? I'm thinking about an organization they are right about at a million, and on their radar for the past few years has been website. We know we need a new website. We know we need more than just a little bit of a refresh. Y'all. They went from half a million to 850 Okay, on that same website, in the on the, you know, driving in the Honda, reliable, fine. Not, you know, whatever. Not the dream car, okay, not the Ferrari, whatever. Insert dream car here, and they're not blaming the fact that they're not at a million yet on the website. Okay, so it is this push pull, it is this important piece where you're like, When do we want to invest in tools? And when we've made that investment, it is on us to execute. That's really what I'm trying to tell you, is, yes, I want you to invest in strong tech. I want you to choose platforms that work well for your audience. If you're somebody who does a lot of events, auctions, peer campaigns. There are some tools that are going to be amazing for you if you have memberships. There are some tools that are like your go to for members, right, and for managing members and volunteers, right? There are things that were literally by your time back however, you're the executor, it's on you to actually make it happen. And you can't just say, Where's all the volunteers? I got the great volunteer platform.
Okay, so let's talk about the the real problems. Let's talk about the three real reasons that I see organizations miss their fundraising goal. Okay, So reason number one, you're reactive, not proactive. The symptom of this is very clear. You are stuck on a hamster wheel of fundraising. You're in a constant state of fundraising, meaning, by the time that event is over, by the time that online fundraiser is over, you don't even have time to rest. Retain the donors, right? Thank them. Make sure that they are stewarded before you're already thinking, how am I going to raise the next 50? How am I going to raise the next 10? How am I going to raise the next 500 right? It's like chain smoking, right? It's like, literally, the endless hamster wheel. So that's a symptom there. And most nonprofits are stuck here, because you all have big, bold goals, I get it. And so this constant state of fundraising is really, really reactive, and it means that you only engage donors during campaigns or emergencies or it's just like this. It's like, the donor never totally gets off because they were never totally on. It's a very interesting donor experience. So this might look like sporadic outreach. This look might look like no pre launch, no warm up to your actual campaign running, but internally you feel like damn fundraising all the time, or I'm at least thinking about fundraising all the time, or I'm always trying to solve for this. There's no momentum boosters happening inside your campaigns. There's no they're sort of just like, okay, Christina, I know we got to bring in money by the end of the month. What we do? Right? How we could do that, versus what's our 12 month plan? That feels a lot calmer, just to say, right now, right? What's the 12 month plan? And then you narrow in, you're like, All right, what's. Then we just back into it. What are we doing this quarter? And then you have enough lead time to actually build out the answer to that. Okay, so why this hurts? Donors feel transactional, not connected like donors, whether or not they can put words to it, this feels transactional to them, very whether or not they know why they don't like it. They don't like it, okay? Versus connected, versus sticky. It's like they feel like, God, I only hear from you when you need something. I only hear from you during a fundraiser. I don't feel like I'm part of the story. Or worse yet, who are you again? That's never a good one, right? When you're ghosting them, then fundraiser, ghosting them, then fundraiser, not a good feeling. So the fix here is creating a three phase campaign system. We teach this inside the club. We also teach this inside my new program for beginners called the sprint method. Okay, so I will be rolling out this program. It's live now, where we're actually teaching you how to run campaigns where you raise five figures or more every single time. And that doesn't mean 365, days of the year, because that's not what your fundraising plan should look like. It should look like sprints, peaks, valleys, peaks, valleys, marathon, not a marathon, right? Not a continuous flat line, state of running, but a peak, a rest, a cool down, okay, creating a year round donate, donor engagement plan with personalized touch points and stories. That's the nurture piece. Okay, some of y'all call that stewardship, right? That's the nurture piece, where donors aren't always feeling like you knock on their door with your hand open when you need them. Okay. This also requires you to stop scrambling and start planning. You need buffer time. You need buffer time between the sprint of the campaign, rest, buffer and plan so you can plan for the next one.
Okay. Let's move on to Reason number two. You the fear of making brave asks. So what does this look like nonprofit leaders, board fundraisers and even board members avoiding big, transformational asks out of fear of rejection, maybe even some imposter syndrome, and so they settle for incremental goals instead of reaching game changing results. Campaigns are sterile, safe, transactional and pretty devoid of emotion and vulnerability. Now that might sound like a lot, but it's rampant everywhere, so that looks like you having donors in your donor base that you know have the capacity to give more than they're giving now, sometimes by more than one zero meaning they're coming in at 10, they have the capacity for 100k and the fear is keeping you stuck at 10. It also is this culture of let's take what we can get. I don't want to not have the 10. I don't want to piss them off. I got to take the 10. No, no, no, no, no, no. That entire thought loop will keep you exactly where you are in funding. And if there's one, there's 10 of these in your donor base, okay? These are people who are regularly giving at some level, who you know have the capacity for more, and they're not being upgraded because you're scared, or because leadership is scared. Okay, now let's go down. Let's go to the mid level. And you know, under under $1,000 level, this is also happening slightly different. This is happening through sterile messaging. This is happening through safe storytelling, devoid of personality, personal experience and emotion. You may not realize you're doing this, but a good litmus test is, have you ever sent out a fundraising letter, a social post or an email or called an donor any of the above, D, any of the above, and the story you told kind of scared you. Where you're like, Oh, I feel a little nervous to hit send, because it felt a little more personal, a little more vulnerable. Remember, this is back in the fall. We had Jen Graham on the podcast, and one of my favorite quotes, she said, was, vulnerability is like catnip. Okay, vulnerability is like catnip. Now, she didn't say that in a way to take advantage of people. She said that in a way to wake us up. No one likes a bunch hearing a bunch of formulatic, formulaic stories and then having the handout for you to donate. Right? I want to know the real, real I want to know what your experience is like. I want to know what the experience is like for the people you serve, for them, for your mission, your cause, like give me the real story. If you look at the rise of something like storytelling on Tiktok, the people we follow, what are they selling? They're selling. What are they saying? Stories of resonance. There's this guy that I follow on Tiktok. Who's like, huge and he mows these people's lawns for free. And I think it's sb mowing is his handle, and he will knock on a door of house that is totally overgrown. Oftentimes the sidewalk is so overgrown, you don't even know there's a sidewalk over under there, and he'll knock on the door. And one or two things happens. Sometimes a person lives in the house and maybe is elderly, maybe has a disability, is unable to maybe it's economic reasons. They're not caring for their yard for a myriad of reasons, and he's like, may I cut your yard for free? Or sometimes he knocks on the door. No one answers. Then he goes to the neighbor, and the neighbors like, yeah, no one lives there. No one's really doing anything, and he'll mow the yard for free, and it's this beautiful transformation. It's like the ultimate makeover, and it's so cool. And he recently did this with a senior who was so grateful, and also had some accessibility issues, like getting into her house. They started to go fund me for her. They raised so much money for her, and it was such a like rallying movement, if you think about it, what does this guy do on tick tock? He is mowing grass. He's weed eating. I am watching this man weed eat. How in the world could that be interesting? It's interesting because it's vulnerable. It's interesting because it's different. It's interesting because it's real. And me and like 5 million other people are watching him, by the way, like he is huge, right? What he's doing is so meaningful because of the story. Now, had he just said, here's the story of a house that has a yard that doesn't look good, and here's the before and after. There's probably tons of accounts, by the way, that are doing a before and after. But instead he's sitting there having conversations. Sometimes these conversations with the owners go on and on and on. He's standing there. He's, he's, he's getting to know them by name. And it's, it's just take a moment to think about that. Where could I be braver in my story? Where could I be braver in the lens and stories is that I tell Okay, so playing small hurts you because it fails to inspire donors. It fails to inspire anyone. And today's audience craves today's donors, today's followers, subscribers. They want to they want something that is sticky. They want something that has that connection, okay, that Go Fund Me style of vulnerability. So it's going to require you to be unapologetic and more courageous in your asks. Share real stories, and I'm not talking about like something that happened to you that is unrelated to anything. Right? You can talk about your story through a lens that is still safe and still feels like you're not sharing your dirty laundry. Okay, there's that nuance. There. Take risks in your campaign. Take risks in your campaign. Boldness is what gets noticed. If you don't believe me, I want to share that 72% of consumers feel more connected to a brand when its story resonates emotionally, emphasizing the power of authentic storytelling and differentiation. Okay, why do I know the name of this lawn care company? Right? I know it because of that storytelling connection. I was able. I didn't have to look up SB mowing. That's his handle, right? That connection is there, all right.
Reason number three, you're not different enough. Here's what that looks like. Your nonprofit blends in with dozens of others because your messaging and positioning is not unique. So whether you serve at the national level, the local level or international level, there's probably more than one nonprofit that approximately does what you do. Okay, so let's say you have a cat rescue. Is there more than one cat rescue in Atlanta? There certainly is more than one here. Let's say you serve the homeless population. What makes you different than the other organization that serves the homeless population in your sector, in your community, in your town, and there's probably a dozen. Okay, so you really want to think about, how can we actually start to talk about that differentiation? Because if donors don't see that clear reason to choose you other over another organization, they will actually choose None. A confused mind doesn't buy they will actually choose None. So confused mind, in this case, doesn't donate. Okay? If you don't stand out, you will get left behind or ignored. That's what I love a social street team for, is I want you to think about how a social Street Team literally shines a flashlight on your cause. It's a flashlight plus a megaphone, and they're like, look at this cause here. Here's what they're doing. Here's where they're the premier best cat rescue in Atlanta. Boom, you got to support them. They're actually lifting you up and showing you to a community, an audience, a group online. Now, well differentiated brands like that can retain up to 75% of their customers. compared to the industry average of 48% okay. Now this is a wider for profit stat, but I really want to show you that that differentiation retains a significantly amount more that means reducing churn. Okay, so really, really important here. So the solution here is to build a proactive engagement plan that nurtures donors year round, and then you have these campaigns that are sprints Okay, leaning in to vulnerability and courageous action, differentiating yourself with bold storytelling, making your mission unforgettable. And might feel a little nervous to do the nerves are a sign you're doing it right. Okay. Think about charity water. Charity Water does this really well. Okay? They leaned into transparency. They leaned into bold, innovative campaigns. Right? Saying, we're gonna go with recurring giving first. We're gonna go with social media first, really telling the founder story. You know, Scott Harrison telling his founder story as a nightclub owner doing drugs to suddenly having this deep passion for ensuring that people have access to clean clean drinking water everywhere. I'm sure that story, his founder story, was not an easy story to tell the first time, and he's probably told it 1000s of times now, and it still takes some humility to be able to be that vulnerable and say this was my own before and after, and here's why I started it. Okay.
So if you're thinking, we can't afford to take big risks, we can't afford to take risks right now, I want you to think about the bigger risk here, being that staying stagnant is the bigger risk. So not adapting, not innovating, not stepping towards this courageous action is what will keep your organization stuck. Or if you're thinking, we don't have time for this strategy, you're already spending too much time, often on these sales calls or switching tools or googling another answer, or on too many webinars, that's another one. If you're taking too many webinars, stop it, right? And I want you to create a plan that you actually execute and implement. Okay? I've worked with clients where they thought this one thing over here was the issue. It's not the issue. It's not the website. The call is coming from inside the house. Okay, so stop blaming the outside and start saying, how could I take these three reasons and implement them today? And I am here if you want help, and you can get information about the sprint method. My newest program for more newer nonprofits to raise their first 100k or for the purpose and profit club for more established nonprofits ready to scale and start a social street team. You can click the link in our show notes for details on both. In the meantime, remember to start being proactive, not reactive. Lean towards making brave asks. And how can you differentiate yourself? Until next time, I'll see you soon.