Giving Good

Donor retention advice for people who are tired of donor retention advice.

For Executive Directors, Development Directors, fundraisers, and nonprofit communicators who want to raise more money without treating donors like ATMs with email addresses.

Your donors aren't spreadsheets.

They're humans with identities, emotions, memories, values, relationships, and approximately 47 other things competing for their attention.

And yet, we treat donor retention problems like a communication problem.

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• Send the thank-you.​
• Send the impact story.
• Send the newsletter.
• Hope they give again.

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Cool strategy. Except... it doesn't really explain why someone decides to become a donor and eventually, a donor who stays.

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Giving Good is where we rethink that.

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I'm digging into the psychology, strategy, storytelling, and communication behind the donor relationship with a particular obsession:

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The first 90 days after someone gives.

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Because that window is where a transaction can start becoming a relationship. And a relationship can start becoming part of someone's identity.

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You'll get ideas, observations, experiments, and the occasional fundraising hill I'll happily die on, all designed to help you create donor experiences that make people think:

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“Yep. This is the kind of organization I want to be part of.”

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meet your new nonprofit bestie

Hi, I'm Stephanie

I'm a marketer, consumer psychology nerd, and long-time nonprofit fundraiser who has spent 18+ years figuring out why people do what they do...and how that translates into giving.

I've worked across marketing, fundraising, brand, and communications, including with nonprofits and organizations operating across global markets. I've also spent years studying the psychology behind identity, behavior, relationships, and decision-making.

Basically, I spend an unreasonable amount of time thinking about why someone gives, why they don't give again, and what happens in the space between those two things.

That's why I'm less interested in another “best practices” list and much more interested in what actually makes a donor think:

“This organization gets me. This matters to me. I'm part of this.”

That's the stuff we'll be unpacking in Giving Good.