Episode #28: Small Shop Strategies with Rachel Bearbower

[Music] Welcome to the Fundraising Elevator, where we're all headed up. This podcast is a production of ElevateNonprofit.com, an online learning platform for fundraising event professionals. We're coming to you today from the studios of the AV department. Please welcome our hosts, Kristin Steele and Samantha Swaim. All right, well today is a day of solutions. I am very excited to welcome to the Fundraising Elevator, Rachel Baerbauer, where we are all headed up. This is someone who brings so many

solutions to help us head up that we had to have her on the show. One of the number one questions that we get is, "But how do I do it if it's just me?" Or, "What if we have a small team?" And Rachel is the expert when it comes to small team efficiencies, strategies. So, Rachel, thank you for joining us. We're so glad you're here today. Oh my gosh, Kristin, Sam, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. Yay. Well, let's introduce Rachel to the audience. Let's do it. Rachel Baerbaue

r is a fundraiser, former ED, so she knows of which she speaks and founder. She is the host of the Sprout podcast and spends her time building a community of small shop executive directors inside her membership, Sprouted. Her work stems from struggling inside an underfunded, limited resource, systemless organization despite working countless hours. With the combination of never having enough time and feeling isolated as a leader of a small shop organization where burnout was inevitable, a story

that's not unique to anyone inside the nonprofit sector. Rachel believes in reclaiming your time to create better relationships with donors, aha, and raise more for the mission you love, yes, while creating a sustainable and lasting impact, which is why we love her. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And she's a magic sprite. Let's just put that out at the top. She's a magic sprite. So Rachel, let's kick off with sort of the big question today that I think is going to have resonance for a lot of people

listening. Small organizations often have one, two people doing three, four, 12 jobs. Right. Right? All the hats. What's the ball duties as assigned? Yes. We're in that part of the resume. What is the best advice you have for these overwhelmed folks about where to start? Oh, I have the best answer. Great. It depends. Yes. So specific. I mean, listen, where you start really does depend a lot on the different factors that are happening inside your organization. What your skill set is, what's uniqu

e to you, your organization, what your resources are, right? We're all coming to the table a little bit different. But the one thing that I can tell you, really the first thing you need to know is your why. And why you, meaning like why your organization and why your organization specifically is the only organization that can do what you do. So often we are talking of, you know, we want to help all the people. We want to just do all the things. But at the end of the day, like your organization i

s really special for a reason. Like you are the only animal shelter in Kitsap, Washington, or you are the only orchestra that has this specific conductor. Conductor. You know, what makes you specific? And there's, have you guys have an impact statement? Yes. Oh, absolutely. Okay. So I have this process to like figure out your impact statement. So if you're listening, you're like, oh my gosh, like you're saying all these words. I'm nodding my head, but like seriously, where do I start? It's four

questions. Okay. Oh, okay. I'm writing these down. Number one, what makes your work inspiring? What problem are you trying to solve? What does your nonprofit provide? Like, and I mean that like tangible, like what do you, do you provide clothes? Do you provide, you know, animals? Like what is it that you provide? And then the last one is what will, or how will your organization impact the lives of others or the community? Okay. So how, so the first, or I guess that third question is like the tan

gible thing. Like, what is it that you provide? And then that last question is like, how does that impact somebody? And basically answer those questions and then string it all together. Voila. Okay. So you just, you just provided a breakdown of a couple of amazing things. So when we're talking about small organizations that are kind of buried and trying to figure out the way forward, your first advice, start with why and what's unique and valuable about you. But then you broke it down even furth

er into four questions. What is inspiring? What is the problem you're trying to solve? What tangibly do you provide and how are you providing that? What impact are you making? How are you making impact? That's, that's a powerful sort of set of, and very, I think, doable set of questions to answer. And what I think is super interesting, and this might be me sort of walking out into left field so we can pull me back if we want, but unless you are the founder, this could be an incredible, well, and

maybe especially if you're the founder, but if you're like, you know, employee 12 in succession with this role, this could actually be a really amazing personal frame for yourself in the work, but also an organizational exercise. And we have to recheck back in with what we do and what we think we do, right? That this could be a valuable exercise. Because I think a lot of people go, yes, we have a mission, values, impact statement on our website. It's like, cool. Not talking about that. Yeah, bu

t what else? You and the work right now today, what's happening? And that that could lead to where potentially some of the disconnect is within the organization, some of the disconnect between you and donors. Because if you're seeing that, you're feeling that in the work, but you're not to anyone else or other people have ideas that this could be a way to sort of recalibrate. Yeah. And you do that. I mean, think about this. You do this at a board meeting or you do this at a staff meeting and eve

rybody answers these questions. You are going to get wildly different, wildly different impact statements. And from just an opportunity to connect and communicate, like it's great to be like, well, we kind of get into like our nonprofit speak. We start talking like robots and like answering questions like, you know, we're writing or saying it straight off of our website. Right. Our mission is. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, nobody talks like that. But you do this and you can start to see one. I lov

e the idea of like when somebody like whether it's donors or, you know, community members or program people say like something about your organization like take that information and like and whisper their words back to them. Right. So like this is an opportunity not only to like just understand where people are coming from and like how maybe your board member views your organization differently from your development director. But then also you have a crap ton of content. Yes. Whisper all these w

ords back. Yes. How many amazing ways to describe what you do just came out of this very simple activity. So OK, here's what I'm doing as a facilitator now. I'm pausing this episode. I'm going back and I'm re-listening to how you phrased each of those questions. I'm writing each of them on a big white post-it board and covering a wall and then having everyone in our board or our committee meeting answer each of those questions. And now I'm going to piece all of those together like a puzzle, a hu

ndred million different ways. Yes. Dreamy. Yes. Well, what? And they're all right. Right. Like I think that's the thing is that often we come to these and are like, yeah, but what's the right answer? Which one's the right answer? They can all be right. Yes. And well, I feel like sometimes in the nonprofit sector when we have one person doing all the things, there's a big like psychological driver around the need. And I think we often just focus on the need. Right. There's like so many people, so

many kids to feed. There's so many kids needing scholarships. There's so many houses to build there. You know, regardless of what our sector or our work is, the need often becomes the driver. But how do we avoid falling that like driver behind need, shifting things for us and falling into like savior complex? Yes. Have you seen that? Have you seen it? Are you familiar with this point? Few softballs for these first few questions here. You know, I think there's a time and a place for each, like a

couple of things I want to pull out, you know, talking about talking about the need. I think in fundraising specifically, it's really important to talk about the needs that you have. How what are and what are the consequences of not meeting those needs? I think that we as humans want to step up. We want to support. We want to help. If we don't know that there is a problem, then we're not going to help because we don't know there's a problem. Right. Okay. So I do think that there is a time and a

place for for communicating. That said, thoughtful. Go, Rachel. Go. I. The history of fundraising and nonprofits, especially in the US, is complicated and problematic. Yeah. Period. Yeah. You know, I think we can break it down in a couple of ways. You know, way back. I wasn't like 100 years that they did the tax exempt status. And, you know, we we think of the tax exempt status of how we operate our businesses. Nonprofit is a business. It's, you know, tax exempt is your tax status. And, you kno

w, it was meant to to boost philanthropy. Right. And and be this like incentive to give. But then it ended up being this like total tax judge for all the wealthy people. So like, you know, tax shelter. Yeah. Cool. You're right. All right. So, you know, and then then we have this like kind of old school way of fundraising that often dances around issues that nonprofits are fighting against. And, you know, we're we're tiptoeing, you know, tiptoeing around race and privilege and wealth disparities

and gender disparities. And, you know, we we don't want to be political in our organizations because we don't want to disrupt the the money apple cart, you know, and we don't want to be on the apple cart, you know, and, you know, so then who gets spotlighted, who gets shared, who gets the the power? It's the wealthy donors, mostly white, laying the savior card. If it weren't for me, thank goodness for me, I'm the best. I'm a hero. Let me save the day. And what you get is this savior complex and

it's not cute. It's not a cute look. (laughing) And I think as leaders inside of our organization, whether you are a large, tons of staff, huge board, serving lots of people, or you're a one or two person shop, like as a leader of our organizations, we have a responsibility to keep reevaluating who holds the power and whose voices get heard and who is at the table. And sometimes that means bringing more seats to the table. And sometimes that means stepping aside and back from the table to allow

other voices and other people be part of the conversation and take power and take ownership. Because to be frank, if you're an all white organization, serving communities that, if your organization doesn't, your organization doesn't look like the community that you are serving, then I'm talking to you and that's the time to reevaluate. - Well, I think the importance of that small shop not acting from a place of deficit, but opening up and leaning back and thinking, who else needs to be at the ta

ble, is such a critical element to avoiding that trap almost of the savior complex of the need, the need, the need, and looking to how do we engage the entire community in this conversation to create bigger impact? And you're in Iowa tuning in today and talking to us today, we're in Portland, and recently there have been some conversations among political leadership where very difficult conversations, very difficult challenges that our community is facing have found new solutions by bringing mor

e people to the table and some really big things that we wouldn't necessarily see as a solution because it's not coming out of academia, it's not coming out of legislation, it's coming out of people with lived experience, bringing real life solutions to the table that have to do with things we would never understand if we hadn't had that experience at the table. So I think regardless of what our mission is, it's so critical to open up a little and think about even if we're a small shop, how do w

e engage more people? - Yes. - Well, and I think what's interesting too to think about is both as you were naming sort of the historic structure of nonprofit, and then within that, taking a look at, I mean, what we're naming is power, and the power structure doesn't have to be inevitable, and I think within the nonprofit sector, it feels that way. It feels driven by major donors and their attitudes or approaches to things, their demands on what percent goes to what, what does what with what. Yes

, I'm gonna say what that many times, we all know. But we've all been in those conversations, it's also bored and that structure of oversight and what that does. And I think also within organizations, that power comes to seed in division among admin development folks and program folks, right? We all, like how many organizations have we talked to that they're like, yep, development doesn't talk to program, program hates development, development wants stories and programs like not my people. It's

like we don't, horizontal oppression works on itself, we don't need the power structure to continue that, we can do it all to ourselves, right? So what, for organizations that have a lot of program folks and a few admin development folks, what can that collaboration look like? How can, how can development folks engage program folks in a way that moves everybody forward in the work? If we're all on the same page with our impact and our impact statement and what we're all rowing toward, how do we

actually do the rowing together? - I love that. I mean, at the end of the day, like what I started to say, was that fundraising and nonprofits, it's complicated and it's problematic in a lot of ways. And we are within this system and there is so much goodness happening. And I think sometimes it's getting back to basics and it is remembering that we are humans and humans want to feel like they have a voice and that they have buy-in. And so when you are thinking about the friction, right? Between

the program staff and this admin staff, there is that friction and for organizations that don't have that, like, amazing congratulations. - Keep rowing, keep going. - Keep doing what you're doing. But if we break it down and what if we gave each other the opportunity to really understand what each other does? Because my guess is that instead of, okay, let me set the stage here. August, if you're really on top of things, maybe September starting to be October and you're like, it's time to write t

he year end of appeal and I need some stories. And you start making the rounds and you're like, hey, program staff, do you guys have these stories? Like maybe a quote, I need something. And program staff gets really defensive. And they get, they feel like you, they're just being used and they feel like the only time you ever talk to them is when you need something and, you know. - Maybe not unlike your donors. (both laughing) - Absolutely, and so, you know, what could happen if you spent the day

with your program manager and really understand what it is that you do. And then also, you know, because program staff, they're equal partners in this, they spend some time with you and understand why maybe we use certain language or why we're not talking about every single program that we do because donors resonate with one specific program and that specific program raises the most money and then it allows us to do all these other things. You know, and then what might happen is, you know, your

program staff, here's a great story, here's a great quote, and they start coming to you because they are bought in and, you know, they understand what you're trying to accomplish and, you know, and once they get it, they're like, oh, okay, I see what's happening here. Oh, I just got an extra 2,000 bucks in my budget? Game on, let me support you. And it just, it kind of, it changes the struggle, changes that friction, it reduces that friction. - I've seen some pretty transformative moments when

the development team spends time, especially in like direct social service organizations, spends time with the case worker or the direct provider and vice versa when a program staff member is on a donor call or is in a donor meeting because it just helps people to understand the bigger relationship to all of it. Do you, are you familiar with Simon Sinek's Golden Circle of Why? - Yes. - Yeah. So he has the book Start With Why, which you start with too, in which he identifies that we emotionally c

onnect and make decisions from that place of why and from that same part of our brain that processes why. And we had an organization that we worked with one year, they were a school, so that helps, I think, in the frame of what they did. But as a school, they decided to read the Golden Circle of Why like a book report. And so they held a book club, they read it together, they did a book report on it at the adult, like facilitators, administrators. And then they brought into every board meeting a

nd every staff meeting, does anyone have a story of why from this week? And sometimes it was popcorn and three or four things, sometimes it was one or two, but every meeting started with, I think sometimes we call them mission moments. - Yeah. - Yeah. - But that storytelling back and forth, and as a school, they would get a lot of things like, yeah, I'm on the board because my student comes to the school and he came home the other day and this was going on for him and it was totally transformati

ve. So sometimes they got those personal stories, sometimes they got the teacher perspective, sometimes they got the student perspective because a story had been shared. But all of us in the development team had this whole like library of storytelling that they were bringing into meetings. And their fundraising went up that year 300%. But what's more than that, what's more than that too, is they also have a whole army of story listeners now who are coming and bringing those stories to the storyt

ellers. Like it's, they're creating a culture within the organization that will continue to do that. Not only for the year end appeal, which is lovely, we all need quotes and stories for the year end appeal. For them to stay sustained in doing the work on a daily basis, burnouts high. Like how do we circle back to what inspires us? - Right, right. - Yes. And I think that there's, you know, I mean, okay, year end, whatever, you're looking for that story that you're gonna share and gonna be the ca

mpaign, you know, the core story within the campaign. But there's a lot of power in finding the stories in the everyday. And really connecting that everyday story or struggle or situation that you don't get if you're like only coming around like once a year, twice a year, you know? And I like this idea of like, you know, you're sharing them on a regular basis. And so it's going to be like, you know, oh my gosh, like watching a second grader buy popcorn on Friday for the first time ever with thei

r, you know, monopoly money, like whatever, like, you know, like that's a very simple thing that might have been missed because, you know, we only, you know, we don't have that connection and that relationship with our program people. - Yeah, well, and for our over-programmed people, like I wear 12 hats, I'm one person. You're building it into an already established thing that's on your calendar, right? You're not like, we don't have to have a special meeting where we all show up in 20 stories a

nd try to think about it. You're just creating, when that culture is embedded in your organization and it's happening regularly, you can just be a part of it and sift it and it's the water you're swimming in. And then it doesn't, it sort of brings those to-do lists down because it's already happening, which I think is great. - Well, you said embedded in your culture, which earmarks for me that we need to take a short promotional break, but when we come back, I want to talk about systems that we

put into place, ways that we use AI, ways that we steward donors. So we'll be right back with Rachel to talk more about small shop strategies. - Great. (upbeat music) - At Elevate, we believe in bringing people together. Our online learning platform for fundraising events has webinars, workshops, downloadable tools and more, designed to save you time and stress when planning your next event. We're getting nonprofit, development and event planning professionals the tools and ideas they need to cr

eate events that inspire donors and raise more money. So join us at elevatenonprofit.com. The link is also in our show notes. - All right, welcome back to the fundraising elevator. We're here with Rachel Baerbauer talking about systems and systems that help small shops. And we were just noticing that if you're not watching this broadcast, but you're listening over Rachel's shoulder is a sign that so clearly articulates the work that she specializes in, which is better systems for better stewards

hip. So let's talk about stewardship, because I think we have so many organizations, especially when one person is trying to play so many roles that get stuck in, I think, acquisition addiction, that like, we need more donors, we need more donors, we need more donors. But the first gift is always the lowest dollar gift. And when we're able to move someone in our relationship to them to give again, oftentimes the long-term history, lifetime history of giving is so much more. So can you talk a lit

tle bit about how best and what kind of systems and tools you're using around stewardship, how to keep that donor relationship when you have one person trying to be in relationship to hundreds of people out there? - Yeah. - Well, I feel this as like a baby fundraiser, or when I was a baby ED trying to be a fundraiser, like literally having no idea what I was doing and like running on just like pure adrenaline and gut instinct, which actually worked out pretty well for quite a while, but like, it

probably could have been a lot better had I like read a book or something. You know, there are so many systems, but if we think, let's think about like donor stewardship, donor acquisition as like two sides of an equation, right? And then let's go back to like the human side of things, that kind of the human response, like our, that brain science, because again, we're all humans. So a gift comes in, okay? And there's two sides of that story. So on the organization side, you know, that email pop

s up, donation, you're just like, yes. Thank goodness, like you feel good. There's probably a bit of like, there's probably a big sigh of relief. And you're like, okay, check. Now on the donor side, now there's some dopamine going through the donor body. - Some feel good, yeah. - They hit donate, but the minute that they hit donate, they start to, they start to feel that like, like buyer's remorse, right? - No. - Okay? So think about like, we're on two sides of this equation here, you know, and

they're starting to think like, oh, did they get my gift? Are they gonna do what they said they were going to do with my gift? Did they appreciate it? All those questions are starting to come into their brain. And we live in this world where, you know, we, again, we are humans, we like instant gratification, we expect things right away, we want Amazon, I mean, Amazon Prime on the farm is like three days. But I hear that in other places, you can get it like the same day. Interesting. - Not at far

m camp. - Not at farm camp, no. Okay, so then we have this conundrum, right? Like you, you as an organization, you're like wanting to take a breather and a sigh of relief. And then, you know, according to the science, you need to be on it, right? And it took me a long time to like forgive myself. Maybe some of the small shops out there can forgive themselves, I'm giving you permission. But it took me a long time to forgive myself for like not sending handwritten thank you notes. I feel like that

's like grilled into you during like how to be an executive director one-on-one, or like just how to like be in a nonprofit, like write the thank you notes. And I realized that in some cases, in a lot of cases in the world that we live in, speed is more important and oftentimes more powerful. And, you know, so we heard it time and time again that you need like study show like within 24, 48 hours you need to have like some sort of acknowledgement and thank you back to the donor and, you know, mak

e it personalized and, you know, make sure it's heartfelt and, you know, don't say this and do this and like, you know, okay, so like who has the time? Most people don't have the time to turn around a handwritten, thoughtful handwritten thank you note within 24 hours, 48 hours. If you do, like please, I'd like to know how you do that. (laughing) But I know that it's not because you don't care, you just have a lot on your plate. And so then 48 hours becomes a week and a week becomes a month. And

then all of a sudden it's August and you're like finally finishing up the thank you notes from your end. - Right. - Right? - So I think that we have experienced some organizations that when that point of contact is lost, so is the donor and the simple re-engagement of a phone call, an update. We had an organization that had sort of a staffing transition and had that kind of gap in communication. And they deployed a group of teenagers to right hand thank you notes as interns and they engaged them

for a three day, here's pizza, here's a list of donors, here's some like context of what they were giving to. And then they deployed their board to do just calls and outreach, you're gonna be getting a note from us. We just wanted to leave you a voicemail to tell you we really appreciate what you've done. And all of that work, it was like a three day effort that was to sort of repair three years of no contact. And all of that work yielded them a waterfall of support coming back. And so I do thi

nk that that key simple thing of connecting to people is so important. But you said something really interesting that the connection doesn't necessarily have to be the handwritten note as much as it has to be hearing from you quickly. So how do you do that? - Yeah, I mean, and there's a lot of ways, there's a lot of ways to do that. And it also depends again, kind of going back to like who you are, what are your values? Where, you know, how do you wanna connect with the donors? Are you a texter?

Are you a person that sends pictures? Are you a pick up the phone kind of person? Like where you as the leader in the organization or the fundraiser, like if you are so uncomfortable having a conversation on the phone, don't pick up the phone, because you're gonna be awkward AF and you're gonna freak out all of your donors. Yeah, there's gonna be a time for having a conversation. But like on the whole, like shoot them a text, take a picture and be like, "Hey, I just saw your gift come in. I'm s

tanding here with, you know, at practice with the kids, like here, here's what your gift did." Like, that is so impactful. So impactful. But I do have systems because-- - Yes, that's what I'm hoping to ask. - I mean, like I've got system, I'm like, I'm hopeful. - So let's talk about decreasing stress, increasing impact. Like if we could even just marginally improve that for our superheroes out there, their lives would improve. So where are areas of focus and systems that they can take a look at

to make that happen? - Okay, so let's actually stick. I mean, there's, as a whole, you know, there's a lot of different ways that you could reduce stress. Think about the areas that do stress you out. Like, I think I focused on stewardship because writing thank you notes brought me so much anxiety. And then I would like, it would pile up and I would get stressed and I would like, and then it would just, you know, I'm out of mountain of notes. And so, you know, as a whole, think about the task th

at you do on a regular basis. Think about the areas that you're a bottleneck, right? For people who are managing people, like where do you get caught up? Okay, so think about areas that you could create systems. And so if we're thinking about donor stewardship, how can you systematize your thank you notes so that you know, because I think that there's this mental load, right? The gift comes in, you know you're supposed to write, I think you know, you know you should concentrate. So how do you re

duce that mental load? - Right. - Use a template. Okay, you, every time you, I had a friend who always wrote the best cards, the best cards, like whether it was your birthday or like, you know, just did something great or whatever, and she always wrote the best cards. And I remember being like, how do you write the best cards? And she was like, oh, I go to the card aisle and buy my favorite cards, and then whenever I have to write a card, I just write what's inside of them. - That's brilliant. (

laughing) - Like mind freaking blown. She's like, yeah, I just have like a Google doc of just like all my favorite things to say. I was like, what? - And the tooth fairy's not real. (laughing) But amazing nonetheless. - Okay, so use a template. And just FYI, like your donors are not like exchanging, like, you know, oh, what did they say to you? Write the same thing, write the same thing, use a template. Create draft emails. So like draft email templates. So every time a new gift comes in, you ca

n just like use the same template. And then, you know, then you can quickly send those notes. And if you really want to like, really level up, you can create an automation where any time a gift comes in, you can have a Zap, create a draft email into drop right into your inbox with the person's name, their email already in there, copying anyone that needs to be copied, gift amount if you wanna include that. - Okay, I need to use a sports analogy here and throw a flag on the play because you just

said something that's gonna be so confusing to people. You create a Zap for an automation. That might not mean anything to some people. It only meant something to me recently when I learned what a Zap was. So-- - I'm still impressed about the flag on the field, let's be real. - Well done, well done. Kristen's really good at the sports analogies. I'm not always so good at them, you know, sports ball. - That's amazing. - And I don't always go together. - That's amazing. - But this is where I think

small shops can benefit most specifically from the support you provide and the coaching and the resources you provide. Is this level of technology expertise you have to utilize technology in favor of the organization? So can you just tell us what a Zap is? - Absolutely, all right, you've got two different systems, okay? And there needs to be an entire episode about just like tech and systems and like all the things. But like you essentially have your donor management system and just say your Gm

ail, right? Like how you are sending emails. So they don't, your CRM and your email don't like talk to each other like, it's called an integration. They don't talk to each other. So you need-- - A peace broker. - A facilitator. Yes, somebody who can, somebody something, a robot, who can transfer information back and forth, your liaison. And so you have Zapier. There are other tools Zapier is probably the most-- - Common. - Robust and-- - Yeah. - Common, easy to use. But basically you set up Zapi

er so that your CRM talks to your email and you just, you set up this little workflow that pulls the data from your CRM when your donor donates and puts the information into a draft email. So what you're saying is, I'm here writing my end of your appeal letter. And meanwhile, ping, a donation comes in from our donate now button on our website. That gets registered and logged and processed into our CRM tool because that's where they made the donation through. So that's an automated process. - Yep

. - And now you've created a Zapier that says, hey, a new donation came in. I'm gonna create a draft email for Rachel to send out. And while you're sitting there working on your end of your appeal and are totally unaware of all of this happening in the background, you now have a draft email that you can add a personalization to and hit send. - Hey, Jo, it was great to see you at the grocery store the other day. And I can't believe that I just saw this come in. Thank you so much. - Well, I think

I've been on the receiving end of this kind of automation sometimes because I have one organization that I donate to that almost immediately, like almost instantaneously, I get a personalized email from the development director. And I'm friends with the development director. We know each other because they've done good stewardship and it built a relationship with me. But typically there's a like mission statement in there about like, thank you for making this work possible. But there's always so

me personal like, Sam, wow, wasn't expecting this today. You totally made my day. Like a personal something connection. Now I guess that could be automated, although I do get different messages, but I am always impressed. And like you said, we're all people. I do get that little dopamine hit back of like, I felt good giving and then I feel seen and I feel appreciated. - Seen part of something. Like, I mean, it's all the things. - Susan Howlett, 101. - Well, and I love your tag, let the robots ro

bot so the humans can human. - Yeah, and I think people sometimes get a little like, oh, I don't know how I feel about automation because like, it's so impersonal and things like that. Well, you can write, like I wrote the email that I, or I've done this quite a few times for EDs and I'm like, write a thing, you know. And then all I do is take out the name, I take out the number or the gift amount and insert the important data. And so you do feel like it is personal, you do feel seen. And I enco

urage you to do it as a draft because, you know, I once sent like my mom a thank you note and I missed it. And it said Linda and I got like a, excuse me. - You start calling me by my first name. (laughing) - And I was like, oh crap, that was an automation, like I missed that one, you know. And so if the name is, you know, Sam, but you know, they really go by Sammy, then you wanna make sure that you adjust that or like if you just saw them at the grocery store, like it was so great to see at the

grocery store, well, like how I just saw this come in, like you totally made my day. You make that little adjustment, but it reduces that mental load, right? Cause it's done for you. And if you just don't have time, you just click. - So for people who aren't using a lot of automations yet and the idea of Zap and automation or two new vocabulary words, are we talking about AI? Is this AI? Are you using AI? How are you using AI? Tell us about AI. - How much time you got? - Yeah. - I wanna know abo

ut how AI is helping or hurting the work of donor stewardship. - I mean, there's, you eat too much cake, you're not gonna feel good. (laughing) There is great things that can happen with moderation. You know, I think AI is something that, let's also remember there's no silver bullet, right? - Yeah. - AI is all of a sudden gonna run your organization. That's not what's going to happen here. But it is important to learn how to use AI. And when I say AI, artificial intelligence, that can mean a lot

of different things. So there is the chat GPT side of things, where you have a robot who can write things for you and it's a large language model. So it's pulling information from a lot of different places. And then you have things like, you know, like email workflows and automation that, you know, connects our tools and tech and our systems, right? So like AI can have a lot of different meanings. It can be used in a lot of different ways. Something that, you know, better systems for better ste

wardship. I am all about the systems. I am all about utilizing, you know, the systems and resources that you have in place. And also making sure that it's still personal. - Yeah. - You know, we're still humans. It still feels human. But I'm also very on board with giving small shops a little bit of breathing room. - Yep. - If you can set up these systems to allow you to better connect with these donors to create lasting relationships, I'm all for it. - Because you're not gonna get a donor meetin

g. You're not gonna get a second gift. You can't get that first thank you out. - Yep. - Yeah, I often see lack of systems. That is the barrier. You know, we have had organizations that have secured gifts in a conversation directly with the donor that is a pledge. But then they had no system for tracking it and voicing them, thanking them, recognizing it, collecting it, and then they had to write it off as lost because they had no system in place. So I do think the importance of automation is to

free up the time and resource to have the relationship and the connection. And I'm intrigued by what's possible with something like Chat GPT, where you can simply look to it as a time saver. That it's not necessarily taking away, because it's a computer. You need the human connection in it. But it can get you a first draft fast, and then you can personalize a first draft. And I think that in the nonprofit sector is so valuable. I mean, you said you were the ED that was overwhelmed by how to writ

e the perfect thank you note. You could tell Chat GPT to write the perfect thank you note for a $100 donation that just came in from Kristen Steele to my nonprofit organization. And a thank you note would appear that you could then modify or customize. That is the same thing as what your friend is doing walking down the card aisle and cutting, pasting, and copying these brilliant messages. So I do think there's a place for AI. Interestingly enough, when you talk about having a seat at the table

and voices at the table, AI right now is very informed by mostly thought leaders that are white men. So what is feeding AI impacts what AI can do and what it can create. And most AI content is, there's very little diversity in the voices of who has informed AI content. So I think we have a lot of work to push back on technology in. But I do think that when we're small shop trying to figure out quick solutions, getting a first draft is a really powerful thing that we could do in something like Ch

at GPT. - Well, and I think it's also, I just wanna sort of defend the sector and the jobs in the sector. - Yeah. - This is not how you add staff without the over, right? Like I think a lot of people are like, if I automate my whole job, then what am I gonna do? And it's like the thing that will make your heart sing and this organization go, which is relationships, right? Like a lot of- - Things that can't scale. - Exactly, the system stuff that we're talking about is how do we take, do you want

5% back in your life? Do you want 10% back in your life? At most, what are we talking like 30% back in your life, depending on what your role is, right? Like we're not talking about these systems replacing you. And if your boss found out that this could happen automatically, dear God, what would I do? It's like a lot. You could still go act on that mission a lot. But it's how do we turn down the volume for you so that you're not split in 50 different ways so that you can actually have impact an

d have focus on some things. And you can just turn down that background volume. - Yeah. - And let's talk about, like we wanna be data-informed, right? And so let's talk about what's working because your conversion rate of a donor comes in and a donor becomes a second time donor or they become a $10,000 donor or like whatever conversion means in your organization. This word conversion is so important because we are in this impact business and yet at the same time, we don't follow the data and ove

r and we hear something and it's like, well, the science says this and I'm like, ooh, what? I just, that isn't gonna work. How's your feeling it? And the data says this. And I think one of the easiest ways to start incorporating automation AI into your organization is through email. Email automation allows you to work smarter, not harder. And their meta and Instagram, like they are rolling out a lot of changes, especially this year. It has an election year. So organizations that we talked about

being political, well, there's a whole lot of hot buttons that are political and a lot of organizations are going to be censored on social media. And so you need to be shifting your communication strategy to something that converts. Now, I feel like for a lot of organizations, ooh, I don't wanna send a lot of emails, like we're gonna get the unsubscribes, like, oh, it makes me feel uncomfortable. If you are multitasking while listening to this podcast, I want you to just like, come on back to me

because I'm gonna throw a couple of stats out here. Number one is there is a $44 ROI for every $1 spent in email. - Wow. - A $44, okay? Number two, 72% of customers prefer email and use it as their primary communication channel. - Yeah, yeah. - 99% of email users check their inbox daily and 58% of them check it in the morning, okay? So now you take all that knowledge, you combine it with the automations and the workflow and you take the personalization that you have learned, but put it all toge

ther. You create this like beautiful soup of workflows and automation, the nurture sequence and welcome sequences and I know I'm spouting a whole bunch of words that you've maybe never heard before. Come follow me, we can talk all about it, but you start doing that and you're gonna be unstoppable. And if you're like, oh my gosh, well, like how the heck do I write like all of these emails? Jess Campbell from Out in the Booms has it for like $11 a month, you can get access to the fundraising templ

ate shop like emails to you, delivered great emails designed for small shops that you can send to people. - Wait, share that resource again. - So it's the fundraising template shop. - Okay. - I can... - We'll link it in the notes. - We'll link it in the notes. - Yeah, it's $11 a month. You can also individually buy templates, but emails are sent to you, a template. You just fill in the blank. It's like Mad Libs for fundraisers, it's amazing. And they're great emails and they convert. They conver

t. And you're going to have more conversions via email and automation, they start getting their emails automatically. It's like the most beautiful thing. - So potentially what I'm hearing, let's just cut to the chase. You could raise more, spend less time, but by doing less of this work with less of your time to increase time elsewhere. So I feel like we're having a mic drop moment here. - I think Rachel's life has a lot of post-it notes in it and a lot of calendars and a lot of paper systems th

at then she moves into technology. Is that true? That's just my vision of you. - Yeah, I love it. I'm a big fan of the, start with the paper technology to then help to figure out how to utilize. - And okay, back to the brains and being humans. We've got, we talk about our digital and our analog systems. It's okay to be both, it's actually great because you are 40% more likely to do something if you write it down. By writing something down, it allows your brain to start solving the problem. So yo

u write things down, you work it out. Like how many of us have notebooks that we've like never opened again? That's okay. - They did their work. - That's okay. - Well, we had Juan Martinez on the show and he taught me, he's a frontline fundraiser works for Latino Network and taught me the value of engaging program team members in building and cultivating relationships with donors by creating very, very small donor portfolios for them in which he would take a Post-it note white sheet, like one of

the, you hang on the wall, mark the calendar or the months of the year, all 12 months and give them two, three Post-it notes with the name of the donor that they were cultivating and encourage them to have a touch point with their donor at least every month. And when they saw that they had had a touch point, they moved the Post-it note down a month. So if they hadn't had a touch point, that donor was floating up here as a reminder and it just lived in their office. He would check in on them onc

e in a while with like, "Hey, what's happening here? Let's schedule some time." And it was so easy and so beautiful. And those touch points became things like, I mean, he's so masterful of this. I haven't seen my donor in a long time. I'm gonna invite him to attend a gala with me for another organization, or I'm gonna invite her to participate with me in the symposium as a guest. That just simple simplicity of something that can start as analog is something that then can move into our integratio

n of technology. And I think it's just so valuable for small organizations to think about some really simple ways to better use time and move relationships forward. And perhaps to see this automation workflow as getting you back to that place. - Yeah. - Right? The setting up of the thing and the making them talk and the zapping around and all that sort of stuff. Like there are people you can engage for that. There are systems to do that, get that set up. You actually don't have to be as big a pa

rt of that. Enjoy the ease when the email shows up in your inbox. Take two seconds. Remember that person. Gone, right? That this is actually able to bring you back to the simplicity of that system that is the human system. It's girded by these automations that are happening below to tee you up to be able to be in the human business. Awesome, I love it. - All right, we need to take a promotional break. And when we come back, we're gonna jump on the fundraising elevator. So we'll be right back wit

h Rachel. - Great. - I love it. (upbeat music) - The fundraising elevator is recorded at the AV department in Portland, Oregon. For years, they've been our trusted partner, delivering exceptional audio visual production and videography for nonprofits. In 2020, they transformed into a dynamic live streaming studio, producing more than 900 virtual and hybrid events. Now, we embark on an exciting journey together to bring you this podcast. Seeking the best in live events, video production and live

streaming, we proudly recommend our friends at the AV department. Link in the episode description. - Welcome back to the fundraising elevator. We are here with Rachel, who is talking to us about how to open up space to do your work less frantically, more hopefully. - Hopefully. - More hopeful-y. - So let's talk boards and staff for just a minute. For small shops, how do you, do you, what advice, what advice do you have to achieve some healthy relationship there between board and staff? What can

that approach look like? - Yeah. You know, I don't wanna pretend that I am an expert with boards. I think that there's a lot of people out there that are much smarter than I am in this area. But I do think, you know, it comes back, it comes back to the human side of things. And I think clear is kind. And I think it's important to have, you know, clear communication, a clear job description, especially if you're the only staff member, there's just a couple, a clear contract, clear boundaries, cle

ar non-negotiables about how you spend your time and when you're working and when you're not. And just be clear about those things because in the murkiness is when, you know, resentment pops up and burnout pops up and frustration pops up because there isn't that clear direction or clear communication. And so being upfront, you know, I think about like prenups. (laughing) Right, like so uncomfortable. I was talking to my partner about this recently, there was the Super Bowl. And so, you know, wit

h Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift and I was like, from like a business standpoint, if they get married, like, what does that prenup look like? Wow, like such a, like, and you think you're like, but they're in love, like, you know, and I'm like, no prenup. - Oh yeah. - And if you think about that, like, there can still be all of that love and passion for an organization and the people that you care about in, you know, on the board or, you know, inside the organization. And at the same time, very c

lear prenups, very clear, like job description. This is what I'm doing. These are the boundaries. This is, you know, and talking, articulating that when people come to the table, you know, clear-headed and calm and before something happens, you know, you have that, that all written out so that when something happens, because something will, you can go back to that document that you mutually agreed on and said, okay, this is what we'll be doing. This is how we'll be moving forward, so. - I think

it's a place that automation can support too. We've had organizations build better relationships with their board when they had a regular board reporting structure, because the board was in the dark about the day-to-day operations because the organization didn't have a system in place. And just a weekly report out of a couple of key metrics kept the board in the loop and it was all automated and built a sense of engagement and trust and investment because the board then had partnership in it. -

You know, and I wanna like break this down for, you know, you say like a, you know, a board meeting structure and, you know, and as a super small organization, you're like, I mean, you know, I'm just trying to find board members or whatever. - Yeah, yeah. - You know, I worked, I was interim ED last year for an organization and it was a pretty casual board and I oftentimes sent a group text message with a voice memo of like, hey guys, I just want, you know, I wanna let you know what's going on. T

his just happened, like, this is really cool. You know, it, we sometimes think that we have to like professionalize this or like make it this really like strict like, you know, process or whatever. And it doesn't have to be that way, you know? You can kind of turn it into whatever you need it to be. - Yep, I love that. I think that that last five minutes was, I hope people find some relief in that. Like, I feel like that frame of clear as kind. - That's important. - Is one of the best frames I'v

e heard on that. And that, I mean, we're talking about it, I think a little bit more from inside the small shop, but I wonder to what relief that would bring to board members when they came into service with clarity about, this is what's expected of me. This is what my role actually looks like. Many times people showing up on boards and coming into boards are passionate about mission, but I don't have a long history of board service and they're on their resume and don't know what that means. - R

ight. - No, literally you're walking in the store and you are fiscally responsible for this organization. Let's talk about what that is. Right? Like you're saying yes to that. If I'm saying yes to that, I want to know what that means for me personally, right? Like, what is my role? What is my responsibility? What does that look like? So thank you, I think that's a really, really important frame. - All of that is tying back together to me too, about like the health of the organization, the longev

ity of the people in the organization and how to prevent burnout. Just this idea that creating some pressure valve release and some communications and some clarity, you know, what's your best recommendation in the sector right now when you see folks in a small organization trying to do so much and are kind of in a stress response or even like a trauma mode of can't do, can't get to what they're trying to do. How do you recommend organizations prevent burnout? - Well, first let's give credit wher

e credit is due. Burnout is a sign that you are totally crushing it as a human. (laughing) - Fair, fair. - So, you know, well done. But yeah, we really in our sector, we operate in this consistent stress cycle. And this, you know, I don't need to go into the whole stress response cycle, but it is important to learn, you know, when like how to actually complete that process because the stress response cycle is an actual like chemical reaction happening in your body. And burnout is what happens wh

en we suck at the stress completing the burnout response. And-- - No, thank you, man, have another. - Yeah, we do not process stress well. And so then like, we've got all these stress hormones. Like burnout is what happens when you have all these stress hormones just like marinating inside of your body. And like, again, not a cute look. And you know, and so you really have to, like you have, we talked about clear as kind, those boundaries, that job description, like your non-negotiables. Like wh

en are you giving yourself time to eat, to sleep, to go for a walk, to connect with your family? Because that's important too, you know, the antidote to burnout is connection. And, you know, I talk a lot about productivity and time management, which can be complex and problematic in its own ways. And I think that most people find me because, you know, there are organizations that are trying to, or there are people in their organizations trying to do more. And that's not actually why I teach time

management and teach systems. And, you know, people in our, I think people in our sector, you know, they give so much of themselves that they are literally making themselves sick, you know? Finish a big event and what happens? You get sick. You know, and we have to go back to those basics. And we have to unlearn, right? Like unlearn the stories that we tell ourselves about how much we have to produce. You know, because really at the, I mean, at the end of the day, like productivity isn't the po

int. - Yeah. - Right? - Yeah. - Productivity isn't the point. - It turns into another version of the savior complex. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And let's be honest here. Like productivity doesn't actually care about your life or your family or your hopes and your dreams. And, you know, we're all obsessed about like achieving these goals and having a side hustle and like, you know, hustle, hustle, hustle, doing all these things. And, you know, like what happens between those points of like this goal to th

at goal and like this hustle to this hustle, your whole life. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Your whole life happens between those two points, but, you know, so then your friends, your family, your health, your karaoke nights, your hobbies, your spiritual practice, like all of those things get lost. And, you know, I believe in systems, and, but I also believe that there's a way to get from point A to point B that allows you to be human, because productivity doesn't care about those systems. Like I mean it an

d it doesn't care about those systems. And, you know, find the ways to get from point A to point B that allows you to make, you know, a ton of impact, but also allows you to like live a meaningful and joyful and happy life, because like that's what this is like. We get one life, we get one shot at this, like not to be like totally like, hey, you know, birds and flowers and like frolicking through the fields, but we work so hard. - Well, honestly, as a donor, that's the person I wanna donate to.

The person who is showing up fully and has a full sort of community and connective spirit, because the person who is like fried and running on empty all the time is the person that I'm worried their organization's not gonna be there. - Yeah, we know too much about how the sausage is made, to be frank. - Right. - So when that person shows up in that way, I look at it and go, wow, this speaks volumes to me about the organization and what's happening. And maybe, just maybe, without complete institu

tional overhaul of your organization, some systems and some zaps can help find some time and space in the bucket. Will you get on the elevator with me, Rachel? - Oh my gosh, I've been waiting for you to ask, yes. - So let's go up to the penthouse first. This is something I ask of everyone. Go to the party, go to the party. This is where the party is. Talk to us about a party event gathering, you name it. It can be anything that you went to that was memorable for you, that you found joy in. - I a

m fairly certain that it was my eighth birthday party. - Yes! - Yes! And I just, I'm 40, so we're solidly in the 90s here. And I love root beer floats, and so is a root beer float, sleepover. Every kid's dream come true. And my mom brought out the root beer float fixings, and that included diet root beer with vanilla frozen yogurt. - How did that go? - Well, there was a lot of curdling. And one of those, I mean, diet, diet soda along with frozen yogurt, where was the margarine? I mean, it was ju

st like classic 90s. And I have a few friends from that time in my life, and we still laugh about it, that, oh my gosh, do you remember when that happened? That was 30 plus years ago. - I love that your theme was root beer floats, and the one thing that we got wrong at this gathering was the root beer float. - If you're gonna do root beer floats, just do it. You're already committed conceptually to a sugar high. Like, let's just make it happen. - Yeah, like get the good ice cream, get the good r

oot beer. Don't get the frozen yogurt. - I love it. - Life lessons. - Yes, curdled. Such a great word. Thanks for that. Let's jump back in the elevator and head down to the boiler room, where all the tools are. And I don't wanna presuppose what answers to this might be, but what are a couple of key tools in the fundraiser's toolbox that you would suggest? - So for those that don't know, I really do live on a farm, and I really am a farmer in training, and so tools are essential, not only in fund

raising, but also on the farm, or maybe I should say on the farm, as well as in fundraising. So I've got two. Maybe you'll give me three. So an actual practical tool is the lopper. That is my favorite tool. - As an L-O-P-E-R, I think. - Okay. - So what I use the lopper for is like, we've got a ton of trees on the farm that just need trimming, you know? And so you can take the lopper and just start trimming the trees and clean things up. And I think it's a great metaphor for always thinking about

, sometimes we just kind of let things overgrow, and all of a sudden we're trying to do all the things, and things are a little messy, and sometimes it's okay to just let things go, and we just need to trim those trees so that you can see clearly what you are trying to do. - Yeah, love it. - So we've got the lopper. - Okay. - I have the lopper and the tool chest. - Love it. - I highly recommend the one from Home Depot. You like to warranty. I've gone through three already, like, yeah, definitely

. Then like an actual practical tool. I love all tools. I am hesitant sometimes to recommend tools because they're gonna change as soon as I recommend them. But I do believe in a solid email marketing platform, and I think that that is a complex thing, because integration, like I'm the tech person, right? So like sometimes it's hard to get all of our systems to connect, but a solid email marketing platform, and I do actually really love ConvertKit, and if you're interested in really investing in

your communication, investing in some technology, because you'll lead to some zaps to work with the nonprofit stuff, it's a really powerful tool and can really transform how you communicate with your donors. But yeah, love ConvertKit. - Thank you. - Okay, we're gonna link that for folks to be able to connect to. We wanna know how to connect to you. That's the most important part. When we have organizations that say, "How do we do this?" We wanna send them your way. How do people find you? What

are ways out there that people can connect to you? - Absolutely. So obviously my website, smallshoppestrategies.com, I hang out a lot on Instagram. Instagram is more of like, I try to relate farming to fundraising, and sometimes I just don't. And then I'm also on LinkedIn at Rachel Baerbauer. Those are kind of the places that I hang out. - But you've launched a new platform I wanna hear about. - I have. - You have. - Like really? - I am. - Like really, just, just, just, just, just. - Yeah, like

this just happened. Yeah, the nonprofit automation agency is live. It is out there. We have talked so much about automations and systems and words that some of you have maybe never heard before, which can feel really intimidating and daunting. And also, is your time really best than figuring out automations? Probably not. You should be spending your time connecting with donors. And so the automation agency is really a place where you, it's unlimited tasks. We will, we'll set up those, those auto

mations where you will get things connected. We'll make sure that you can, you know, you can human and we'll take care of the robots, you know, make sure the robots can robot so that the humans can human. And it's, you know, it's a, a monthly thing and, but it's unlimited tasks. And so it can really be transformative, transformative for a small organization. So yeah, nonprofitautomationagency.com. - I love it. - I love it. - Rachel, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for being a part of t

he fundraising elevator and talking to all of our nonprofit friends that wear too many hats. And we look forward to continuing to watch all of the tools develop in your work. And we will provide links so that folks can find automations, find you, find resources. Thank you and have a great day. - Thank you. - Thank you. - The fundraising elevator is produced in partnership with Swain Strategies at the studios of the AV department. The program is produced by April Clark and directed by Steve Osbur

n with audio engineering and original music by DuWayne Andersen and Heidi Christensen. Video production by Chris Peterson, Whitney Gomes and Nathan Bouquet. Video editing by Steve Osburn. Graphic design by Pendulum Creative Group and support from Sophia Keller, John Liles and Andy Dowsett. - Loving the fundraising elevator but wondering how you can talk to Sam and Kristen? Well, now's your chance to do it. Book one-on-one consulting time with Swain Strategies experts, Sam, Kristen and Mary and g

et all your event questions answered. Our team has you covered on strategic planning, fundraising strategy, storytelling, data tools and registration support. Get the tools and the help you need to make the most impact at your fundraising event. Book at elevatenonprofit.com. The link is also in our show notes.