 another episode of the non-profit shows on its way to you and we are delighted to have a guest, a return guest, Rachel Baerbauer with us from Small Shop Strategies. She's one of those gurus that we love to watch on social media. She's always talking about things that are really at the core of how we work with our donors and today she's going to really talk and drill down with us on this concept of a welcome series that really should bind your relationship to your donor and I'm really excited that you're going to share this with us because we know we hear this, oh you got to have this, you got to have this, but we don't ever know what to do. So Rachel, thank you for coming on with us. Hey, before we get going, I want to remind everybody that I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. My intrepid co-host, Jared Ransom, is actually taping something else this morning so she couldn't join us but she'll be back with us tomorrow. Again, we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors who've been with us. Pretty much all of these these sponsors have been with us since the beginning. Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, Nonprofit Nerd, Fundraising Academy, Staffing Boutique and Nonprofit Thought Later. These folks have been with us now going on almost 600 episodes, which is like, Rachel, isn't that hard to believe? I mean think about this, when we first met you, we were all running around trying to figure out what we were going to be doing because of this pandemic. Yeah, I think it was less than a hundred episodes. Oh yeah, I'm blown away. I'm blown away. You know, I'm blown away. I'm blown away. You know, we want to make sure that everyone knows if you want to get to any of our archives, you can find us on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV and Vimeo and then we also have our podcast. So we're super, super excited about that and it's a really exciting time for us as we're getting more and more viewers. Okay, Rachel, Small Shop Strategies, you have an interesting background because you have been in leadership. Before we dig in, talk to us about your journey. Oh gosh. Well, I'm a former executive director and founder of a small shop and I felt like as I'm like when I was a baby ED, I always looked at the executive directors at the networking events and I was like, oh, how do I sit at the big kids table? How do I figure out, I thought there was just this magic book or this formula of how to be an executive director and I realized there wasn't one despite my Google searches. So when I decided to leave my organization, I was like, okay, I'm going to make a place where executive directors can come together, they can have community, they can have resources, templates, like all the things that I don't have as an ED. And the last time I was here, I was very, I was just switching my business because we're a pandemic time and the community that is being created, like, makes my heart sting. Like it is just incredible. So yeah, but I was a banana suit wearing youth development executive director who like, I mean, everything I did at all, I did it all. You know, I think that's one of the things is that we, when we were talking about this in the green room chatter, this is a familiar theme that we do it all. And when we are in the nonprofit sector, you do have to do it all. And you know certain things that you need to be doing, but you're not exactly sure what to do, how to do them, what the process is. And it just is something, it's just so stressful. So you've got a really interesting thing, a five week strategy that's going to really work to help us retain donors. And you call it a welcome series. Yeah. I love this concept. Well, okay, I need to back up for one second, because I want you to like, like put your donor hat on. When you donate, okay, we got donor here. When you donate, you are pumped. That dopamine is coming in. You are doing some good in the world. Like, awesome. I made this donation. I feel good. This is great. Now, on the organization side, you see that donation in coming in and you're like, Oh, yeah, this is amazing. But what we miss here is that when the donor hits donate, that is when things change. So the donor, right after hitting that, that's when buyer's remorse hits in kicks in. So they're like, Okay, but are they going to get my donation? Did did that actually go through? Did is somebody going to see it? Or if they mailed it in? Like, did it get lost in the mail? So all these questions start to think through. And so while we're over here celebrating, the donors over here like, Oh, no, no. So what's important is the organization meeting meeting the donor's excitement as quickly as possible to mitigate any of that buyer's remorse. You know, I've never thought of it that way. And I really love that you have kind of framed this up because it really makes it even more imperative that we look at the stewardship process. And so you say, number one, acknowledge the gift and a wealth and offer a welcome. And that can be done. I'm hoping you're going to say immediately, can you give us a timeframe? Like, what do you? Yeah, so, okay. There, there's all the, you know, statistics out there. But if you can thank a donor within 24 or 48 hours, and, and with our all of our automation and our, you know, CRM platforms, Blumerang, you can send something immediately. But that's a that's a receipt. That's a transaction. So you want to send something else as soon as possible. And just that welcome of, Hi, we're real people behind this organization. We are grateful that you decided you chose to give your hard earned money to us. Thanks. Thanks for being here. We appreciate it. And now, as, as we keep talking about this welcome series, you can automate this. So it doesn't have to be this doesn't I know what it's like to be in a small shop. Like sometimes you just, you literally do not have time between that 24 and 48 hours to like get that done. So this five week strategy is to do it first, and then pull it out and make it an automated series. But we can talk about that in a bit. But yeah, you say hello, you remind them that you are a human and acknowledge that they are also a human and that you're starting a relationship ready to go. You know, like what you just said, and I can't wait to explore that further because it seems to me, and I, I'm fortunate because I get to know what what's coming, you know, coming next. But it seems to me like the best thing that we can be doing is to hello, come up with strategy, and to figure it out and so and make a commitment and say, okay, kids, this is what we're going to be doing. And then to your point, then start to perform some of those things in in a more digital format or, you know, put it into our CRM. The next thing that you have, which I thought was really interesting is the second piece, or email or communication should spark a conversation with a question. So instead of telling people, this is what we're doing, you're you're you're trying to involve that donor, right? Yeah, I mean, if you okay, again, you're putting that donor hat on. You've already done your homework, you know, about the organization yet, you know, we can, as an organization, we can tell more things. But like, how important is it to know, like why your donor gave, or what the motivation was, or where did they see us by doing that and getting to know your donor, then when you go to make another ask, you know them, you know that the reason that they gave, you know, the first time was because of the the summer reading program. And so when it's back to school, and you're buying books for the classroom, you're like, you know what, I bet that is something they would be into, right? So this is an opportunity to get to know your donor, so that you can have a better relationship with them. I love it. Now, the next thing, and I think that is email number three that you're talking about, share what your nonprofit does. It seems like that our donors would know. But maybe I think we, we feel like we're in the trenches, we know what we're doing, and we forget that we don't always communicate. Yeah, that's not what you're talking about here. It is. And this is kind of double edge, because you want to share what it is that you do, but you also don't want to overwhelm. And that's something like, hello, overwhelm club. Yeah, president right here. I am so good at being like, let me tell you all the things because they're all great. And I'm just so excited. So what you have to do is get really, really clear about what you do. As an organization, I teach, you can find it on my blog and I did a podcast about it, but creating your impact statement, which gets to the root of why, why you, why are you the only organization that does what you do? And why the donor, your donor, this donor should be investing in the work that you are doing. And so you're not telling them all the things, you're telling them about one really specific thing. So it seems to me, Rachel too, that that would be language and something that, if you are, you should be, but it should be in other places, right? So that if that donor reads about your goes on your website or in subsequent things, there's going to be a connecting point, right? Or is it more unique to whatever the time and the tenor is of? No, I think that our organizations, we do, we do so many things. I use the example of a smorgasbord, or like a chequitory board, you know, we have like, you see your chequitory board, and you're like, Oh my gosh, like, this is amazing. But then, like, what do you choose? Do I want fruit? Or do I want meat? Or should I get the crackers? What about that dip? And you're just like, I get nervous. There's somebody behind me who also wants it. But they bring around the bacon or updates, you have one choice. And you're like, Oh, yeah, no, I want that. So think of that at like, when you explain your nonprofit, this is this kind of goes with like, when you ask like, Hey, what do you do? What does your organization do? You're like, Well, we do this and we do this and we do this. The donors like backing away slowly. But this, by getting really specific about what you do and finding that through line, even if you do a lot of different things, it helps your donor connect, connect more and be able to really, really understand it. Because like you said, we're in it, we know what we do. But they need to like, they can learn about all the things later, they need to know like the most important information first. Is this tantamount to the elevator speech that we've, you know, and I'm old school where we've been taught, you know, you've got to refine this down and, and just think you only have so many feet of it, unless you live in a big city, you know, um, you don't you don't have that long to share. I mean, yeah, the same through line. It's this. Yes, it's exactly that. And I teach how to how to write a one sentence impact statement that because because we aren't we're in a digital age right now, we aren't necessarily we aren't writing elevators all that often. But you're standing at the grocery store and you see somebody and they're like, Oh, you run that nonprofit. What do you do? You've got to be able to be like, here's what I do, right, and make it interesting. And you don't need like a, you know, a white board to explain what you do. Right. I love that you said that because it seems to me that this has got to be something that our boards know. I mean, our boards can do it our staff, not just people in development, but I mean, literally, you know, from the receptionist to, you know, the social worker and everything in between, they all need to be able to recite that and understand it, right? Totally. And what's really cool too is like, if you do it with your board of directors, every, everyone's gonna come up with a slightly different statement because your organization means something different to each person. Yeah, so that's a great comment. That's a great, great comment. I love that. And, and I have seen that. I think I've been part of that, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. Okay, so email number four and remembering that we started off on this journey talking about a five step process to welcome our donors. You say tell an impact story. So you, it seems like email number three is the general, this is what we do impact. And then you're saying, okay, now it's time to pick out one thing. Is that, is that right? Yeah. And I think telling a story telling us the best way to convey, convey what you do. And so a donor can really see that yes, you are providing books to a classroom, but really you are opening the doors of a child's imagination. Hello, let me just give you all of my money. You know, and, and so by, by telling a story by sharing just really what it looks like for someone in your organization who's been impacted by your organization, it just, it helps the donor connect on a different level. And I'd like to remain, remind organizations to talk about one person. So, okay, okay, interesting. You know, we can talk about like the entire classroom of kids, but if we talk about, you know, Jennifer, who started writing Harry Potter for the very first time. And it was during a time that was really tough for her. Her parents were going through a divorce and she needed a place to escape. So what's a better place to escape than Hogwarts? Yeah. You know, and so by sharing those pieces of the story, the donor could be like, oh my gosh, well one Harry Potter, obviously love it. But I mean, my parents are divorced too. I get that I get that need for like, I totally get why this kid out needed these books. And I'm so glad that I was able to provide a gift. And I know that there's other Jennifer's out there. So I'm going to give another gift to make sure that another kid has that, has access to those books. You know, I love what you said because for me that does draw a line. And it's an interesting thing. A viewer that's joined us, that's with us live, has written in and says, Rachel, there's an assumption here that the donor knows very little about the organization they're donating to. How common is this? Do we know what percentage of donors are fairly unfamiliar with the organization? This situation seems unlikely to me. That's an interesting question. That is a great question. Yeah. So I will say that donors are emotional. Okay. Yes. So when they make a gift, sometimes oftentimes it's because they saw something, heard something that sparked an emotion. It was like, I need to, I need to get right. And, and they don't necessarily do a ton of research. Now, if you are giving five, six figure gift, my guess is you know quite a bit about the organization. But if you are giving $25, $100, your research level is probably less. And I, I'm going to venture out there and say that most donors don't know exactly what you, they have an idea. They like, they like the, they have an idea. I will say that. Right. And as organizations, I think we then go in and like try to tell them all the things. But if we can get really, really clear on what it is that we do, because the number of decisions that people have to make in a day is huge. And so if a donor who knows enough about your organization, they like it, but you know you do the summer reading program, you do mentoring services, you do therapy, you do horseback writing. Okay. That's a lot of different ways that I could, you know, where I could put my money. But if you can just get really, really clear on the one thing that you are doing, it makes it a lot easier for a donor to quickly make the decision. Yep. And into that, I'm going to get that gift. Right. And then it's your job to continue to educate them, not all the education at one time, but educate them over time of like, Hey, I know that you were very into that summer reading program. But can I, can we have a conversation about the therapy program that we offer? Because I think, I think based on what I know about you, because of your answers in those previous emails, I think you might be interested in what we're doing over here. And so you're just taking this donor on a journey, on a path. So an answer to the question. I think they do, but I don't know that they know as much as we think they do. You know, and I would answer that in a little different way is because I agree with you. I think there's a lot of emotional giving. And I think a lot of times in current times, it's social. You know, I went to a small birthday party last night where it was a celebration of a 60th birthday party. And the gifts were asked to be a $60 donation to the specific organization. And which was great. And I made that. But you know, how well do I know that organization? No, how could I know that organization? Otherwise, it's going to be a one time gift. That's exactly. And so if we, if we're only doing a one get a one time gift, then that's okay. If you understand that in your churn and burn mentality. Okay. But if you want to develop a deeper relationship, then I think the stewardship concept has to be moved forward as part of the discussion. You know, because otherwise we're just letting these relationships walk. And they're going to somewhere else. Chances are next year. Yes. That $60 will go somewhere else, right? So what I think is fascinating is that 80% of new donors do not give a second gift. And that, that, that number has gone like, and everybody has their number, but that's the number that I like, based on the reports I've been looking at. That means for 10 donors, only two of them. Yeah. And so that's why this is so important. Because it's a lot harder to acquire a new donor than it is to keep one. And most often the reason that people don't give again is they didn't feel appreciated. Right. Right. Yeah. We're good at that. Non-profits like care a lot. I know we're good at that. So let's do that. Yeah. I love it. You're so right. And if, if we needed anything was to think about 10 donors and eight of them walk. Terrifying. I mean, that's just like, that literally gives me the chills. Okay. Before we wrap up, you've got one more thing that I think is really an interesting final piece to this five week process. Given next step, what does that mean? What is, what is the next thing in their journey? Okay. Oftentimes if it's a new donor, it's to give a second gift. Or if they have been giving for a while, maybe it's giving a joining beam, a monthly giving program. Okay. Maybe it's voluntary. Maybe it's attending an event. Like it could be a lot of different things. And like for a new donor welcome series, I would totally recommend making another ask. Because really the donors. Okay. The donors that you give and you're pumped and you're excited and you've just been welcomed into the club and you're like, yeah, I love this nonprofit. They're doing all the cool things. They talk about Harry Potter. I'm so into this. And then they have something cool that I can give more to that is going to create even more impact and hopefully more Harry Potter fans. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to give another gift, but you have to ask them. You have to ask them. And so the donors that are most likely to give are going to give in eight to 12 weeks after their second, after their first gift. Okay. So I'm like, my head is spinning and I have so many questions and we don't have that much more time. But when I think about this five-step process, can you help give me an idea? Are we talking like, I mean, obviously the first piece, you know, right away 24 to 48 hours, we got to be on this. But then as we leak out these steps, are we talking like five days, seven days, 10 days, two weeks? I mean, do you have a sense of where that flow goes? Yeah. So the most important part of your donor's journey is the first 100 days. So if you want a great little infographic graphic, I have it for you. So it's smallshopstrategies.com forward slash 100 days, 100 days with an S dash AMA. And it's this cool graph of the first 100 days. Now, this welcome series is like in the first month, month and five weeks. And what I want you to do is write these emails. Okay. Once you write the emails, I want you to take them. And if you have MailChimp or whatever you use, then put it back into your email system as a journey or a sequence or whatever your email service calls it, but do it automatically. So anytime a new donor comes onto that email list and blooming does it within their system, you can trigger that. And so they start receiving these emails without you doing a thing. Now as a small shop, that is huge. That is hours and hours and hours of your time done automatically for you and you are stewarding your donors. Yeah. And we just talked about why that was so important. So I love it. And I love that it's methodical, it's consistent, it's professional, it's meaningful, well-intentioned, and it communicates the spirit with which you want to treat your donors. I mean, I think it's amazing. Wow, you are like my hero. I so enjoyed having you back on the nonprofit show again today. It's been too long, my friend. We need to get you back on more often. Yes, please. Yeah, here's Rachel's information. Remember smallshop strategies.com. You can go to her website. She has an amazing amount of information and you can delve into the first 100 days even more. It's a powerful thing that you've done for our community. Rachel, I'm so excited and I love hearing your point of view because you've been there. You've been on the front lines as an ED and yeah, it's really awesome. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's great to be back and I have missed this community, so thank you. Yeah, let's go and just like give big virtual hugs to our donors. I know, I love it. I think that's fabulous. Well, hey, again, here's Rachel Bearbowers information. Check her out and see how smallshop strategies might be able to make your shop a little bit bigger. Hey, I'm Julia Patrick, Jared Ransom, my co-host will be back with me tomorrow. Again, we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors, Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller in the nonprofit nerd, Fundraising Academy, Staffing Boutique, and the nonprofit thought leader. Hey, Rachel, I'm good to go. I'm all excited. I want to get going on these five steps and I look forward to learning even more from you. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Hey, as we end every episode, we want to remind everyone, and I think we want to remind ourselves as well, stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone. Bye.