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The ENGAGE Podcast

Subscribe to The ENGAGE Podcast to hear experts from across the social good community share best practices, tips and must-know trends that will help organizations increase their impact. Formerly called The sgENGAGE Podcast.
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Now displaying: May, 2018
May 31, 2018

Coming up with strategies for fundraising can be difficult. However, if there’s a culture in place that promotes and encourages giving as a norm, an important chunk of the work is already done. That’s why it’s so important to create a culture of philanthropy, especially in the nonprofit sector. 

On today’s episode, Alia McKee and Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies are here to talk about their report, Inside Out Fundraising: How to Create a Culture of Philanthropy by Treating Systems Instead of Symptoms. Alia and Mark explain what it means to have a culture of philanthropy, the things that get in the way of creating that culture and how nonprofits can overcome the challenges to doing do. Listen to the episode to learn why culture is an important part of fundraising success and hear the big takeaways from their research. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

  • The signs Alia and Mark saw that indicated it was time to start talking about culture with their clients
  • What it means to create a culture of philanthropy, and why it’s so important
  • What Alia and Mark found in their research
  • The primary challenges that get in the way of forming a culture of philanthropy
  • Implementing “the golden trio” in your nonprofit
  • Balancing facts and data with passion for a cause
  • What boards can do to take pressure off fundraisers
  • How fundraisers can put recommendations from the Inside Out Fundraising report into action 

Resources: 

Alia McKee

Mark Rovner

Sea Change Strategies

Inside Out Fundraising: How to Create a Culture of Philanthropy by Treating Systems Instead of Symptoms

“Fundraising has become like driving a car with the emergency brake on. The car moves, but it’s not pretty and there’s a lot of friction.” –Mark Rovner

“I think the biggest “aha!” was that only one in five fundraisers say that their organization has a strong culture of philanthropy.” – Alia McKee

“Don’t get overwhelmed with all of the change that needs to happen. Think about how you can shrink that change.” –Alia McKee

 

May 24, 2018

Online fundraising has been around for nearly 20 years, and it continues to grow in both size and revenue amongst nonprofit organizations. In light of the increasing importance of digital fundraising and online giving, it’s important to look at what the field has learned about what works and what doesn’t, and how to implement proven best practices to ensure that nonprofits are making the most out of online giving opportunities. 

Today’s guest is Jennifer Abohosh, the chief digital strategist for Dunham + Company, which recently released their second Online Fundraising Scorecard. Listen in to hear what Jennifer has to say about what’s changed in online fundraising over the last five years since their original Online Fundraising Scorecard, what types of organizations are seeing better performance in online giving than others, and how nonprofit organizations can start implementing best practices to improve their digital performance. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

  • What’s in Dunham + Company’s second Online Fundraising Scorecard
  • The biggest changes, both positive and negative, in email fundraising, email communications, online donation experience and gift acknowledgement over the last five years
  • How mobile giving was looked at differently on this scorecard than in the past
  • The importance of improving communication between nonprofits and donors
  • What organizations need to think about from a digital perspective in the near future

Resources: 

Jennifer Abohosh

Dunham+Company

Online Fundraising Scorecard

 

“In email specifically, five years ago 46% of emails were mobile-responsive and now 90% of emails are mobile responsive.”

 

“How can we craft language around an email signup that will make it both exclusive and desirable to the end user?”

 

“Organizations should be doing some testing to continue to see what works and what doesn’t work for their particular organization, then continue to optimize the donation process along the way.”

 

May 17, 2018

You can’t pay attention to the news without hearing about the concerns and issues around data privacy and data protection. It affects every type of industry, government, and nonprofit organization out there. As of May 25th 2018, new laws will go into effect in the European Union that attempt to address these concerns for European citizens. 

In today’s episode, I’ll speak to Cameron Stoll, a member of Blackbaud’s legal counsel team and the chief data protection officer for Blackbaud’s European companies. We will discuss the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and what they mean for NGOs both in and outside of the EU. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

  • What GDPR is and what it does
  • How GDPR evolved and differs from previous laws
  • The difference between processors and controllers and what each one does
  • How GDPR aligns with current best practices
  • The intent and meaning behind legitimate interest when it comes to GDPR
  • How the right to be anonymous plays into GDPR
  • How the definition of personal data has been expanded
  • How GDPR may affect organizations outside of the EU
  • Whether legislation similar to GDPR might be seen in the US, Canada, or other countries 

Links and Resources: 

Cameron Stoll

GDPR 

“We have to have contractual relationships with these processors to make sure that they will abide by our instructions and to make sure that they can’t take that data and analyze it and sell it to another company, for example.” 

“Ultimately it really comes down to very general principles: protect the data that you have, give people choices about how you’re going to use their data, and be really transparent about how you’re using the data you collect.” 

“I think it can be seen as an extension of consumer rights on a really large scales across all industries in Europe.”

May 3, 2018

We all know that acquiring and retaining donors is one of the most important things nonprofit organizations must do to improve their fundraising performance. The question is how to do it – and do it well. This requires that we take a broader look at trends across the non-profit sector to help us better understand how our organizations are performing but also understand more about our donors. 

To help us explore this and some brand new research from the Blackbaud Institute is Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s Chief Scientist and author of the Vital Signs Report. In today’s episode, he’ll share some of the changes that he’s noticed since the last Vital Signs Report and talk about what those changes mean for the future of the non-profit world. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

  • What Chuck found in Part 1 of the Vital Signs Report a little over a year ago
  • How the newer Vital Signs report shows signs of a turnaround in giving
  • The urban legend that giving is a zero-sum game, and how the recent research disproves that theory
  • What happens when donors stop giving to a particular organization
  • Where donors’ loyalties lie – with a specific organization, or with a cause
  • Steps that organizations can take with the new research in mind
  • Why organizations should try to convert donors to monthly giving
  • Whether the current pool of donors is sustainable long-term
  • The directions that Chuck’s research will go in next 

Links and Resources: 

Chuck Longfield

Vital Signs Report Part 2

Vital Signs Report Part 1

Blackbaud Institute for Philanthropic Impact

Blackbaud

“I sort of put it into three categories. You could have more people giving more money, you could have fewer people giving more money, or you could have fewer people giving less money.” 

“A big driver of this – not the only driver, but a big driver – is what some people are calling rage-giving.” 

“If you can get over that initial hurdle and retain these new donors, these are pretty good donors to retain.”

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