Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast for Startup, Small, and Growing Nonprofits

Matt Stockman:

Welcome to the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startup small and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong foundation.

So every episode we give you frameworks and tools. And the personalized guidance that you need to be able to create lasting impact. My name is Matt Stockman. I'm your host. I'm a nonprofit growth coach. Thrilled you're here at Nonprofit Launch Plan. We believe that every nonprofit has to be operating at peak performance in six key areas in order to be successful.

And those six areas are leadership, fundraising, marketing programs and services, operations and finances. So every episode of the podcast, we talk about a topic that is core to one of those six areas. Today I'm taking a deep dive into a really well-known organization that I think we can all learn some things from.

The organization is called Charity Water. You might have heard of it. There are so many takeaways from how Charity Water does what they do for you and for me, even for a small nonprofit with a small budget, et cetera. There's just a lot to learn, especially in the area of gift transparency and donor communication.

And before we go any further. I can hear some podcast listeners saying under the breath, I'm not sure what I can learn from an organization that is 250 times the annual budget of our organization. Of course they can do all this cool stuff. They've got all kinds of support, and as your podcast host and coach, I'm calling BS on this kindly and lovingly and saying that there is a lot that we can learn from Charity Water.

We can adapt and then apply to what you and I are doing no matter the scale. And I'll help you do that in this episode. For example, what if you could tell your donors a hundred percent of your gift funds, the work, and then actually be able to prove it step by step the way you would track a package on Amazon?

That's exactly what Charity Water has been doing for years. They've built a new platform that they're just rolling out. They've built a whole brand. On radical transparency and showing proof. So in today's episode, we're gonna take a deep dive into their approach, specifically their 100% model. We'll talk about that, plus their brand new donor tracking experience called waterproof, and the way that they close the loop.

With proof of impact, and most importantly, and this is where you come in, I'll share practical ways that you as the leader of a small or startup nonprofit even can adapt these ideas for your own work without a giant staff, without a massive backend website and with a small budget. Now before we dive in, of course, fundraising is a core pain point for every nonprofit leader and for every nonprofit organization.

And as the a nonprofit leader, until you get to the point of your growth that you have another team member who's responsible for fundraising. Meaning you've hired a development director in your shop, 80% of your time should be spent on cultivating donors and building donor relationships. The number is not usually received all that well, and I get it.

You got into this work to serve and to fulfill the mission, not to have difficult conversations with strangers. About money, and yet the guy in the podcast is saying most of what you should be doing as the leader is having difficult conversations with people about money. That's why I've created the Fearless Fundraising framework.

It is a simple five step process that gives you clarity on your fundraising message. And a game plan on how to share your mission and vision. Invite people to partner with you. You can get the Fearless Fundraising workbook and the videos that go along with it. It's all free on my website right now@nonprofitlaunchplan.com.

Again, all one word, nonprofit launch plan.com. Now, if you're not familiar with Charity Water, here's the quick snapshot. They've tackled one of the world's biggest issues, nearly 700 million people that still don't have access to clean water since 2006. They have raised a lot of money. I mean hundreds of millions of dollars funded projects in dozens of countries.

And here's the key. They've earned the trust of everyday donors like you and me. By making transparency the centerpiece of their mission. They're not just saying, give to us and trust us. They're saying, here's exactly where your money went. Here's the village. Here's the GPS coordinates, and here's a photo of the project you funded when it was completed.

This is based on a core challenge that every nonprofit faces, including yours. The deep recesses of every giver's mind. There's this nagging question for a giver of what does my money really do and what is it actually being used for? That kind of transparency that charity water has set up, has set them apart, and it's something that every nonprofit, yours included, no matter the size.

Can learn from charity Water set out to answer that internal question in the donor's mind about where their money actually is going and what it's actually being used for. They set out to answer that as best as they could, and you can and should as well. So let's start with the most well-known part of their approach.

It's called the 100% Model, and here's how it works. Charity Water separates their funding into two completely different buckets. One bucket is for the projects, the wells, the piping, the local partner work, every single public donation. Mine yours. All the public donations go into that bucket. The other bucket is for operations.

That's staff salaries and rent and technology and fundraising costs, and all the stuff that it costs to operate the organization. That's covered by a private group of major donors and foundations and business partners too. And they separate those into two groups. One's called the Well, which I think is primarily major donors, and then the pool, another set of givers, primarily business partners.

So when you as a donor give $50, you can trust and believe that all $50 is digging wells, not paying for rental space or a utility bill or somebody's office furniture. It is a brilliant way to address one of the biggest concerns that donors have. Is my money really going where I think it's going? But here's the caveat.

This model works for Charity Water because they have a network of wealthy donors who love covering the overhead. They catch the vision of it. And if you're a small nonprofit, you probably don't have that luxury, and that's okay because there are some things you can copy. First is clarity. You've gotta be crystal clear about how your budget works.

Second is honesty. If 15% of what a donor gives goes to operations. Just say that donors don't expect zero overhead, but they just want to know that you're being responsible. So if it's 15%, if it's 18%, if it's 12%, just say that. So, clarity, honesty. Here's another thing you can copy from the charity. Water Model Creativity.

You could recruit a small group of local champions, maybe three or four business owners. In your area who could commit to covering your admin expenses for the first year or for a year, then you can tell the rest of your donors, because of our champion circle, for example, that's the name I gave them.

Every dollar you give goes straight to the programs. And here's another idea. If throughout the course of a fiscal year you raised the money to cover the annual operations. Of your nonprofit after that point, throughout the rest of the budget year, you can say that a hundred percent of any gift that you get goes directly to the work.

So for example, if your operations budget is $200,000 and in month seven of your fiscal year, you've raised over $200,000 in donations. Then you can responsibly say in your communication throughout the rest of the fiscal year, something to the effect of, because of the generosity of people who have already given our operational costs have been met for the year.

So when you give dollars right now, a hundred percent of your gift goes straight to providing meals for school kids or whatever it is that you do. The bottom line is you don't have to be charity water to practice radical clarity. It makes a difference for donors. Now let's talk about their newest innovation.

It's a platform called Waterproof. They've literally just rolled this out. I think it's technically in the beta version. As of the recording of this episode, I actually made a gift to Charity Water, just so I could see how the process works. Waterproof is basically like a donor dashboard. When you give, you don't just get a receipt and a thank you, you actually get to track your donation over time on their website, they literally compare it to tracking a package that you order from Amazon, for example, you can see the progress bars.

Updates from the field and a live tally of how your dollars are moving towards funding a specific project. They also have a map view where you can see the specific place in the world where your donation is being used. It's not instant because this all takes time, but it does create a sense of a journey for the donor.

Donors know, here's what's happening now, here's where we're headed, and here's when you can expect to see the results. Now, how can you as a small nonprofit copy some of this? You don't have to have the fancy software. You can build your own mini waterproof in just three simple steps. First one, set expectations in your receipt.

Like right after a gift comes in, you send an email that says, here's what happens next in the next six months. You'll get two updates and a final impact report or whatever it looks like for you, but just set an expectation for your donor of what their experience is gonna be like in the next few months.

Then number two, send some milestone updates. Doesn't have to be slick. It can just be a simple email with a couple of photos. We've launched the program. We're halfway there. Here's some results. Here's some progress we're making, just some milestone updates. And then three, make one public updates page. Put a blog page on your website somewhere where you post progress, and then share that link with donors so they can check in any time.

The idea here is we're creating a sense of visibility, and it doesn't have to be perfect, and here's where Charity water really shines. They close the loop. Every donor eventually receives what they call an impact report, and in that report it's just an email. There's photos of the completed project, there's the GPS coordinates of where the project is.

There's the number of people that have been served by that well, and the date of completion, it can take upwards of two years at times, but when that lands in a donor's inbox. It's really powerful. It says that gift you made, it didn't disappear. Here's the proof. And guess what people are inclined to do when they get that?

They see it. They can see the impact on the faces of real people who are benefiting from their generosity. They are very likely to give again. So for a small nonprofit like yours, your version of this could be an impact report light. It could be as simple as just one page. Couple of before and after photos, a short quote from somebody who's been impacted, and a bullet point list of just some of the results.

You send it by email, post it to your updates page, and even mail a printed version once a year to some of your top supporters. The point is, don't just tell stories when you need money. Tell stories when you spend money, close the loop for people, and to make this really practical, I've got three sample milestone emails that you can send to your donors.

You can adapt and copy these for your nonprofit. The first one is right after a project begins, it's kind of a kickoff email. The subject is, your gift is already at work, and it says something to the effect of, thanks to your generosity, we've officially launched the project name. Over the next couple of months, we'll be sharing updates as the work unfolds.

And here's a quick photo from day one. It's the beginning of something great. You'll hear from us again too. Then email number two, somewhere in the middle when you've hit a milestone. Maybe the subject says, we're halfway there, and then the body of the email is short and simple, says, exciting news. We're making great progress on the project.

Here's a sample of the work that's happening right now. Thank you to your support. And then some sort of specific number of people or tangible element that are already being impacted. A line or two about that. And then finally at the end, stay tuned for the final update when the project is complete. And then the third email is a completion email when everything's done.

And the subject is something you've made this possible. And then in the body, the email, you just say, Hey, we're thrilled to share that this project is complete because of your generosity. A hundred families now have safe water or meals or mentoring or whatever it is that you're doing attached, or some photos in a short story from one of the people impacted.

This is the difference your gift made. It's singular. It's focused on the giver. Even if you just start with these three, you've already created a donor experience that feels way more thoughtful than 90% of the nonprofits out there. One more quick note. Charity Water has even gone so far as to install sensors in their wells that track water flow and report back data in real time, which is super high attack and not realistic for most of us.

But you can copy the principle, create your own durability checks. I call 'em, for example, you follow up with the program participant. Three months after they've graduated to see how they're doing and report back to your donors. You send a short video update from the field six months after the project is launched that shows continued progress to your donors.

You share a one year anniversary story of an initiative to show how it's still bearing fruit. You get the idea, right? It's not just about the sensor, it's about showing donors that you care about lasting impact for years to come, not just one time quick hits. Okay, so let's land all this with something you can do starting this week.

I call it the 60 minute proof sprint. Here's how it works. Number one, you write a short promise statement about a project that you're working on. We'll show you exactly what your gift did start to finish. For example, your gift cover, the cost of one student named Donella to attend camp the week of July 18th.

Number two, you create a simple page on your website. Called project updates. This is where you're putting photos and stories from project workers or participants and status reports with a link to be able to share them with givers. Create that page and get it up and going on your site. Number three, this week, draft those three milestone emails, the kickoff, somewhere in the midpoint and a completion of the project.

And then number four, pick one project that's happening right now in your nonprofit. And start this process. Post a kickoff update with one photo. Even if you're in the middle of it already, it's starting for somebody. So imagine it's the kickoff for that one individual. That's it In like an hour, you've built the foundation for your own version of waterproof, and you've copied the principles that surety water has put into place in your nonprofit.

So here's the bottom line. You don't have to have a massive budget or a swanky dashboard on your website to build trust with donors. But what you do need is clarity, consistency, and proof, which you can deliver on no matter what size your organization is. Charity Water shows us what's possible at scale.

You can scale it down and still wow your donors. And if you want help building out your own donor communication system, something that's easy to read and repeatable and transparent, that's exactly what I do with nonprofit leaders through my coaching. If you want, head to nonprofit launch plan.com and click book a call, and let's talk about putting this in place.

For your nonprofit. Now, before we wrap up the episode, if you or somebody you know is still in the dreaming phase of launching a nonprofit, I've got a special freebie. It's a PDF resource called From Dream to Action, your nonprofit pre-launch checklist. 10 Essential Steps From Moving From Nonprofit Idea to Impact.

It's 10 things to think About. As you start to crystallize your dream for a nonprofit, this tool will take you through 10 easy first steps to move from dream toward a launch plan that gets your dream off the ground and walks you through your why. Considering your first teammates. In other words, your board honing in on your beneficiary, who's really gonna benefit from your work, choosing your nonprofit name, your IRS application and more, and there's an easy to do action step for each of the 10 things to consider.

That will bring your dream for a nonprofit into a whole lot clearer focus when you've completed it. If you want the free PDF from Dream to Action, your nonprofit pre-launch checklist, 10 essential steps from moving from Nonprofit Idea to Impact. You can either look for the pop-out on my website@nonprofitlaunchplan.com.

Again, nonprofit launch plan.com, or don't hesitate to email me. At matt@nonprofitlaunchplan.com. Don't forget about the other free resource too. That's the Fearless Fundraising mini course. It's a workbook and five short videos that go along with it that take the fear out of asking other people to partner with you financially.

You can go through the mini course, come out with a game plan. And a fundraising message script. It's free on the website for you@nonprofitlaunchplan.com. That is it for today's episode. I hope you found it helpful. Again, thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits.

Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. And if in some way you found this helpful, please share it with another nonprofit leader who you think might benefit. Until next time. Keep making a difference.