Ep. 128: Old School Fundraising Won’t Get You New School Money: What to Do Instead
EPISODE 128
Old School Fundraising Won’t Get You New School Money: What to Do Instead
About the Episode:
Today we’re breaking down why traditional fundraising isn’t cutting it anymore. Donor habits have shifted, motivations have evolved, and clinging to outdated tactics like galas, auctions, and 5Ks is holding your organization back.
Here’s the hard truth: what worked a decade ago now delivers diminishing returns. Donors today want connection, impact, and innovation—not the same tired playbook.
In this episode, I’ll unpack why these methods are falling short, reveal what’s working right now, and arm you with the insights you need to take bold action. Share this with your board to show them exactly why it’s time to ditch the old-school approach and embrace strategies that actually resonate with today’s donors.
If you’re ready to stop playing small and start driving real results, this episode is your roadmap.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Donor habits and expectations have evolved, and clinging to outdated fundraising habits is now your biggest bottleneck—fundraising isn’t timeless.
Old school fundraising’s core issue is that they are focusing on transactions rather than cultivating community engagement or meeting donors where they are
Fast-track your visibility by partnering with influencers and leveraging social media to leave the traditional donation timeline in the past to get more money in the door faster
Creating donor movements so irresistible that followers, donors, subscribers, and volunteers can't help but give
How you can double your campaign, increase recurring giving, hit funding goals early, grow your donor base and more using a Social Street Team™
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:
“The reality is that your tried and true method is actually the very thing stopping you from reaching your full fundraising potential.”
“It does feel risky to make a change when the stakes feel high, but the bigger risk is actually waiting and staying stuck in outdated fundraising strategies while other organizations are actually out here and embracing bold new approaches.”
“Partnering with influencers can turn your event into a cultured event instead of a tired tradition.”
“I want you to start thinking about your fundraising as being a movement maker, not just a transactional money raiser.”
“You have to start with bold storytelling. You have to start leveraging digital first and partnering with influencers to amplify your message.”
“If you’ve tried digital campaigns and it didn't work, the reason why they didn't work is not that digital isn't effective. You are likely missing the spark. You are likely missing the partnership.”
“This is just layering on modern techniques. It's not about ditching your annual gala or your direct mail campaign, it is about doing something different to get you to that next revenue level.”
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Christina Edwards 00:00Well, welcome back to the show today. We're digging in on old school fundraising and why it's not going to get you that new school money. And I am not just talking about cultivating younger generations with this. I'm talking about habits changing. I am talking about donor habits, donor motivation changing completely, and why old school fundraising practices isn't getting you the traction. And you may have seen this with how last year ended, or you may have ended last year and said, Okay, we did it, but Whew, that was a grind. So I'm going to share with you today a better way to fundraise. I'm also going to share a couple of hard truths. So maybe you've been stuck in the gala or the auction or the 5k or those tried and true events that you were told were the best way to fundraise, that maybe historically were the best way to fundraise, and yet they're yielding diminishing returns now. So if that's you, keep listening. And we're also going to share some outdated practices. I'm actually, I have a list of a bunch, and you're going to find some on there. And this could be a good episode, even, to share with your board, to share with leadership, to say, if I, if you have a new creative idea, a new, innovative strategy. You're like, I want to try this, but maybe I'm getting some pushback from the board. Share this episode with them so they can see, in fact, the proof of what's working what's not, and how habits have changed. So let's get real. Let's get real with the habits that have changed, the strategies that you may have been using for years and years. You may have read in a book, you may have sat in a lecture or workshop or taken a course, and you were told this was the way to fundraise, right? And maybe you've been stuck in a cycle of replicating that year over year. Okay, so what's working, what's not, and how do you shift into more modern, bold, impactful fundraising? That's what we're digging in today. First, I want to share with you the problem, the misconception. And this is it, right here. It worked before, so it should work now. Fundraising is timeless, right, wrong, donor behavior and expectations have completely evolved. Think about for me, I think about 2020 there was like pre, 2020 post, 2020 everything that was impossible for us collectively to do suddenly we figure it out, right? Think about how you got grandma now on Zoom, you got people who absolutely were essential to be in office. Now, working from home, everything shifted, and that, I think, was a huge part of just habits, preferences and expectations changing. This is a big one. Expectations now, we as consumers and as donors, expect something different. We expect things to be right there in our phone when we need them, and that's how we're getting information. I said to my husband recently, something had some sort of news story had come out, and I'm like, oh, did you hear about it? And he's like, Oh, no, wait, what? And I was like, Yeah, I saw it on Tiktok, and I said it half joking, but mostly true. I was like, Yeah, apparently I get my news from Tiktok now, right? Like, the way that we're getting news, it's like, it was like, ABC News on Tiktok, and there it was, right? And the algorithm showed it to me even that it's like, I'm not going to abcnews.com to get my news. No, I'm not going even to the news app on my phone. I saw it right there. Or maybe I'm seeing it because a friend shared it. Okay, we're gonna dig more into that today. So the core issue that I'm seeing is, let me read you that I'm the reality is that your tried and true method is actually the very thing stopping you from reaching your full fundraising potential. So it is, in fact, the thing that you've been doing over and over again that is literally the bottleneck in your organization's revenue growth, that's kind of like a whoa moment. So let that just kind of sink in, and just be open to the possibility of that, and we'll dig into some ideas today and some ways that that shows up. So you may be thinking, and your leadership especially may be thinking, if we step away from doing. What's always worked. Aren't we gonna lose donors? Won't we fail? Won't this be just a total bust? Christina, if you're if you're saying, throw it all away and start all anew, won't we just alienate everyone? And I get that fear. I get that fear. And first, I'm not saying throw it all away, I'm saying, evaluate what you're doing, and let's keep what's working, and let's layer on a brand new, bold strategy. And it does feel risky to make a change when the stakes feel high. I get that. I totally do. But the bigger risk is actually waiting. The bigger risk is staying stuck in outdated fundraising strategies while you're competition while other organizations, while other brands and businesses are actually out here and embracing bold new approaches. So I want that to be you, and everything I'm going to share with you today works for an organization who is a small shop and works for multi million dollar organizations. So this isn't a barrier to entry, and that's my favorite part. Okay, no barrier to entry here, and what I will share with you. So the core issue is that old school fundraising focuses too much on transactions, not enough on connection, movement and influence. Those are big ones. Y'all connection, movement, influence. If you're relying on galas, long cultivation cycles or direct mail as your primary methods, you are not meeting donors where you are, and it's costing you. Think about that. You're not meeting donors where you are, and it is costing you if you're relying on this one standalone event, this one direct mail piece, or my least favorite, these long, arduous, drawn out. They're like long courtships, these cultivation cycles. You don't have to do it this way. So what are some ways that I see this in the wild, clinging to the gala dinosaur. Let's be real. Let's be real. Galas are the dinosaurs of fundraising. Now that doesn't mean if you have a gala and you're like, we raise half a million dollars a year with this gala, Christina, if you raise half a million dollars a year, and you net profit from that, and I'm not talking about 25k from half a million, a significant amount of profit from that, then we can talk. But most of y'all are spending the bulk of your staff hours planning this event, then selling this event, then running this event only to re to raise a certain amount of money and have most of that money be an expense. I know many of you are nodding along, and you're like, we did this all. We worked on this for six months to make $35,000 how is this? This is not a good use of our time. Okay? Now, if you are like, I still think our audience wants a gala, and it actually is, is cash positive, and it's not a big time suck, then here's how you're going to level up. Here's how you're going to level up. You want to make sure that you're actually building upon the crowd, the attendees, year after year. So partnering with influencers can turn your event to a cultural moment, not a tired tradition. We'll talk more about that here in a bit. How else does this look begging donors like an ATM? Now I have taught many a webinar where y'all actually tell me this you feel like you're begging donors and treating them like an ATM, and that feels terrible, terrible because donors aren't Cash Machines, right? And treating them like one, where you're like everything is like this, please, please, please. I need this 911, moment, right? That feels terrible for you. It feels terrible for them. You're losing connection. Okay? Because influencers can actually help tell your story in a way that lights up their audiences and makes donors feel like movement makers, not like check writers, not like check writers. No one likes that feeling slow motion fundraising. This is that long cultivation cycle where you're chasing that major donor, right? It is so slow and you don't need to do this to hit your next fundraising goal. So influencers are a great way to fast track your visibility, trust donations and collapsing what those timelines, collapsing those timelines. So everything we're going to talk about today is focused with an online edge, an online component, and the reason why that is essential for every single nonprofit is because it collapses timelines. I'm working with a nonprofit who does have a very solid direct mail, direct mail campaign strategy, and it is a part of their their revenue slice, and it makes sense for them. But start to finish that is a lot of time to create the story, to format the story, to go through edits, to go through edits again, to pull the list. To segment the list, to deal with Postal Service stuff, then to have that person maybe get it, maybe not get it. Maybe get that. Maybe take action, maybe not to take action. When we could just work with an influencer, we could just run a peer fundraiser, we could just collapse this entire timeline. Okay, so good. You. You
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also be ignoring the digital gold rush. So if you're stuck in analog anything, and you are not prioritizing email, you are not prioritizing partnering with influencers online. You do not have a strong ambassador program. Those are all symptoms, to me, that you are stuck in old school fundraising, and you are ignoring this gold rush that is happening right in front of you. It is happening right in front of you. It's we need to reposition the priorities and the timelines. Okay, maybe you're afraid to make a big ask. Maybe that is something where you've been sitting on mid level donors who you know have the capacity for more, but you're afraid and you've been playing small with asks. That is a big bottleneck. That's a big piece of why your organization is stuck where it is. Maybe your social media is boring. If it's boring, I want to offer totally understand if it's boring, if you're like, yeah, that's us. A lot of times in the nonprofit sector, we kind of have this culture of like, well, at least we're doing something, at least we're putting content out there. I don't know what else to do, and sort of shrug hands in the air. And also, I'm planning this gala anyway, or I've got to spend my time over here anyway. And the problem with that, the problem with creating really boring content, is that it's not moving the needle at all. And in fact, it could be repelling people. There are people right now who could partner with your organization to fundraise, to raise visibility and awareness. They may land on your feed, on Instagram and go, I don't know what this is, boring, right? And leave. I recently came across an influencer, and I was blown away. So she's a Swifty, and one of the things that she does is, I think, I think her whole, her whole shtick is that she goes to all of the Taylor Swift concerts. So she's like, it's kind of like, I'm thinking of the Grateful Dead when people would like go, you know, deadheads would go on the road to all the different Grateful Dead shows, so like that for Taylor Swift. And then she live streams, and she's got this whole thing. It's really, really cool. Here's the actual cool part is, if she's in Indianapolis, she will fundraise. And Taylor's Taylor is playing an Indianapolis show, let's say she will find a local, local, local organization that I never heard of, you never heard of, and she will pop up a fundraiser, and anyone who donates can then watch her live stream. I think that's approximately how it goes. And she has raised 10s of 1000s of dollars per campaign, which means hundreds of 1000s of dollars collectively. Now think about it, if she's landing in Atlanta, Georgia, and she sees, you know, she's like, Oh, well, let's raise money for a domestic abuse shelter, right? And she lands on yours. Is she gonna be like, are they still open? What are they even doing? What is this or er, right? She needs to make a decision very, very quickly, because she's in these stops very, very quickly, and that's why it's really important to think about like, outwardly. How are we presenting ourselves, right? Are we dressing our best? And it's not about spending a lot of time on your social content. It's just outwardly. Is what we're doing new and different? Is it innovative? Is it is it attracting potential partnerships? Okay, here's another one. Are you snubbing in kind partnerships? So here's the thing, a lot of organizations, a lot of board members think that working with influencers is a paid partnership. I'm here to tell you it's not. It is not a paid partnership. So this is something that's in kind, similar to your advisory board, similar to your board member, similar to a committee member, similar to a volunteer. This is something that they're like, I raise my hand. I want to be a part of your movement. I want to see the world better than we left it. How do I help? And that's why it's a free, unpaid partnership, and it is a long term collaboration, and it works like a charm. And no one is doing this. No one is like so untapped for our sector, now is the time. So let's dig into what do I mean, fundraising, and let me start over you. So let's talk about the solution. I want you to start thinking about your fundraising as being a movement maker, not just. A transactional money raiser. So where can you start making those movements? And a big part of the answer of this will be, I can't do it all alone, and I don't want you to do it all alone. That's why you need to start creating donor movements so irresistible that followers, donors, subscribers, volunteers, can't help but give like they can't not give. That's what my social Street Team method does. So it's not about working harder, it's not about working longer hours. It's about being braver, bolder and actually pulling out a street team to fundraise and advocate on behalf of your organization. Okay, so what does this look like? Let's break it down. First, you need a fundraising strategy that actually puts donors at the center of this Unstoppable Momentum, this movement. Okay? They can't do that with the same sterile, outdated tactics and stories, right? You have to start with bold storytelling. You have to start leveraging digital first and partnering with influencers to amplify your message. Okay? So when you partner with influencers, they actually start advocating on their own networks to lift up your brand visibility. What it is you do and they fundraise on behalf of you. I'm going to share some examples here in a sec. Here, so giving Tuesday wasn't that long ago, and there are two types of nonprofits, really, three. Okay, there's the nonprofit that absolutely crushed it. They hit, hit above and beyond their goal. One of our clients hit their Giving Tuesday goal before lunchtime. Like, think about that. Think about how that would feel so fun, right? So, there's that nonprofit, another one of our clients, 5x their Giving Tuesday goal, right? There's those who are like, this felt like a movement. This felt like a party. This felt fun, this felt impactful. This felt like it was working. This felt like I wasn't alone fundraising. It wasn't just me. This didn't feel like a slog. That's their group, that's a group. There's a mid group that either hit their goal or got close to their goal, okay, but it felt like a grind. And you know what I mean when I say that, right? So there's that group, and then there's the group that didn't meet their goal at all. So first I'm going to talk to the one that didn't meet their goal at all, and whether or not this is giving Tuesday or some other campaign in the middle of the year, totally fine. If you didn't meet your goal at all, the number one thing missing was that you didn't have a social street team. All you were doing was using your social media, your email, your phone, your direct mail list, if you even have those four pieces right, and then hoping and praying and wishing and treating donors like an ATM, right? So it's very, very hard to do that and grow. What you need is a team of ambassadors who are actually advocating and endorsing your organization using the power of influence? Okay, using the power of influence has 5x greater results. So if I see an ad for a bottle of water, whatever my brain is, just like once a bottle of water, but if I see my friend Muriel, be like, this bottle of water is alkaline and it tastes amazing, and it's got this great lemon twist, lemon lime twist, and it's so good, suddenly I'm like, Oh, I didn't know I needed an alkaline lemon line twist water, like I'm curious about it. At the very least, I'm interested. I'm curious. And then she's sort of selling me on it, simply by just talking about what she likes about it. You with me? This happens all the time. It With You know, online, it happens all the time for for profits, but nonprofits are so under utilizing this tool. And the irony is that nonprofits have such a better story to endorse than a bottle of water with a lemon lime twist that I just made up. Right? How would it be, instead of Muriel's like this shelter that helps animals who have let me, let me redo that example, this shelter that is a domestic abuse shelter is so amazing, and I had, you know, I just donated to it, and here's why. Or I had no idea that this problem existed until I heard about it. And like the power of that is 10x what any influencer could tell you about a mascara or a bottle of water, right? Y'all are under utilizing it so hard. So start thinking about what are. Some ways that we could have done that on Giving Tuesday. So that was the one that didn't meet their goal. If you did meet your goal, but it was or got close to it, but it was just a slog. It felt very, very hard. Same thing, that's all that's telling me, is that outdated practices were front and center, and that it was you the organization that was fundraising, and it wasn't a party, right? Instead of having an army, a street team of ambassadors who were like, it's like, Put me in coach. We mobilize them. We mobilize them that week or that day or that month. Okay, I had a client that did this, and she hit her event ticket sales goal a week early because of her street team a week early. So year over year, last the previous year felt like a slog. The next year, she had a street team. She's like, Yeah, we already we sold out. Like, S Yes, that is the power of a street team. And then if you're like, Okay, Christina, we hit our goal like my client who hit it by lunchtime. I know I already know what happened, unless a you got MacKenzie Scott money drop from the sky and write you a big fat check, which is amazing, if you did, most likely, what I know you had was a team made up of ambassadors, who are volunteers, champions, people who already know your organization, and influencers, people who have a large community online. Large can be 100,000 people, 10,000 people, 5000 people. So you might be thinking, Okay, this sounds amazing, but I am already stretched too thin. Where do I even start? I can't even begin to think about starting a street team now, like I've got this other thing happening. But the problem is, you're stretched too thin because you're not doing this. You with me. The good news I have for you is, is that you don't actually need a bigger team to do this. You don't need more staff power. We have clients in the purpose and profit club my coaching program, that are our solopreneurs, that are solo executive directors. We have clients who are larger staff sizes. You can do this at any level. Okay? We have a complete system to start or grow your street team. We have complete templates and pitch scripts. We have video trainings to help you figure out the question of, who do I ask and what do I say to them? We have an entire process for that. And if you're thinking, what if my donors don't care about social media, you're wrong. You're just straight up wrong on that. Now you may be able to find a handful of donors that don't live online and aren't online beautiful. You have other ways to reach them, but the majority of people do. I'm thinking about as young as teenagers, as old as probably there are 90 and 100, 100 year olds, right? Like it is, spanning all generations. So for you to not use this is such a misstep, and I also want to talk about this shift in how we position it. It's not about your organization spending a lot of time creating a lot of beautiful social content. The beautiful thing, the most amazing thing about a street team is you're partnering with influencers who are using their expertise. Now we give them, we have a template, we give them a toolkit if they need it, but many of them will just throw up a story or a video or a live stream of them talking about your organization, just like that Swifty did, right? She's just talking about this domestic violence shelter. It's like, she's not. It's not costing the organization a bunch of time to create their own content, because they have an influencer who is like, I know exactly how to do this, Put me in coach, and if you're thinking, but we don't have any influencers in our network, like, Where would we even start? Here's the thing, influencers don't have to be celebrities. This is not about getting Kim Kardashian. This is not about getting, you know, some sort of famous, Uber famous celebrity. That's not what you need. Who have millions and millions of followers, the best influencers are often parents, alumni advocates or lifestyle, hyper community driven, hyper local. As long as there is alignment, it will work beautifully. So we show you how to find that alignment and how to activate those natural audiences of buckets that are already in and around you. And it cracks me up, because anytime anyone says, like, Oh, we don't know any influencers, they will email me back and be like, okay, so turns out our board members daughter is a YouTuber. I'm like, Uh huh, yeah, I know they're everywhere. It's the Creator economy. It's a billion dollar plus economy. Influencers are everywhere. Now is the time, or if you're saying to yourself, we've tried digital campaigns and it didn't work, the reason why they didn't work is it's not that digital isn't effective. You are likely missing the spark. You are likely missing the partnership. It, and what you were doing instead is throwing some random posts online hoping for the best, throwing a couple emails online hoping for the best. That is not what I'm talking about here. That is not the campaign system we teach in the club. If you're curious about how your older donors might like this approach, here's the thing, it's not either or it's not this or that. This is just layering on modern techniques. It's not about ditching your annual gala if it's the best thing ever, it's not about ditching your direct mail campaign if it's the most profitable thing ever, it is about doing something different to get you to that next revenue level. And this is a digital first strategy, okay? And I also want to make this distinction, your influencers are completely online. So I'm thinking about some clients whose influencers were literally all over the world, okay, all over the world. She raised 10k with that. So your influencers can be on physically all over the world, and also platform agnostic. They can be on YouTube, they can be on Instagram, they can be on Tiktok, whatever. If you're worried about failing, let's think about this. What if you just don't try what is the cost of staying stuck? I have organizations who have come to me and said, This looks really cool. I really want to try this, but I'm so busy. And then they come to me a year later and their revenue is exactly the same, and they're more burnt out. And I'm like, Are you are you ready to do something different? Are you ready to sunset the old school fundraising tactics and start something new? This is time saving. This is record breaking growth. Many of our clients double their campaign using a street team. So they look at their previous campaign and they they double it. That's the power of a street team. If you didn't hit your goals on a campaign or on just an annual level last year, it's because you didn't have a street team. You when I say this works, I mean, it works. My clients have broken through revenue plateaus secured. Five and six figure gifts have launched or grown. Their recurring giving programs have absolutely blown their Giving Tuesday or other online campaign goals out of the water. Have hit event goals early. Have grown their donor base, have grown their retention, have grown their brand visibility this way. This is also something you can use for non revenue generating activities, for example, if you need more program applications, if you have memberships, a street team is great. So you can, you can mobilize and activate a street team year round, not just year end. And you can do it for different goals. You if you're fired up, you're like, Okay, this makes sense. Tell me more the purpose and profit club coaching program is opening soon. It's opening on january 30. We're kicking things off with a webinar where I will share with you more about this concept, and I will also share some brand new bonuses. The best thing to do is hop on and join either our wait list or sign up for our free webinar. We also have every resource you would need. If you know you're going to get some pushback from Board for approval, then go ahead and grab our template now and submit it to your board. Share with them this podcast and say, Listen, I see you want us to raise another 50k this year. I know you want us to raise another 100k this year. I know we've been talking about launching that program for three years, and we don't have the funding to do it. Right? Okay? So if we can all agree on that, and we see where last year got us, which is burnt out, stressed out, and barely, you know, barely to the finish line. Can we do something else? Can we try something different? Can we innovate? We look at an organization like charity, water. You look at an organization like new story share. You look at the modern organizations who have had massive growth in a collapsed timeline less than 10 years, right? Something like that. Anyone that's that that speaks to you. You don't have to go with a big one like that. But I look at them and I go, how'd they do it? How'd they collapse the timeline? How did they get brand awareness in such a short period of time? And I'm like, because they priority, prioritize Digital First, because they were willing to innovate and be creative, because they partnered with ambassadors and influencers. That's it. What if it could be thus, that simple. If you have any questions, my inbox is open, send me a message over at splendid consulting on Instagram, and I will see you soon. You.