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

Matt Stockman (00:00)
There's a moment in almost every nonprofit's early life when leaders feel the pressure to go bigger. More posts, more emails, direct mail, paid advertising, an expensive event, trying to widen the audience, make a bigger splash. And when that push...

actually produces little or no response, it's really easy to assume that something is wrong with the mission. But the truth is actually a lot simpler than that. This isn't actually the moment to go bigger, but it's the moment to go deeper early on. Early fundraising doesn't grow through reach, it grows through strong relationship development. And today,

to show you why one conversation at a time is still the most effective way to build real momentum before your nonprofit is ready to scale up.

Welcome to the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong, sustainable foundation by providing clear frameworks and practical tools and real-world guidance that you can actually put into practice. I'm your host, Matt Stockman. I'm a nonprofit growth coach. And here at Nonprofit Launch Plan,

We believe that every successful nonprofit has to be operating at peak performance across six key areas. leadership.

fundraising, marketing, programs and services, operations, and finances. So on every episode of the podcast, we focus on one of these core areas that helps you create lasting impact without unnecessary complexity. Now, before we dive in, I want to briefly remind you about a free resource that's especially important for today's conversation and for this whole three-part series. And we're in part three of a three-part series on the podcast.

Fundraising feels intimidating, unclear, generally just daunting. I've created this free Fearless Fundraising mini course. includes a PDF workbook and five short videos that go along with it that walk you through the five core steps of the fearless fundraising framework that I put together. Those steps are problem, solution, ask, urgency, and action.

And if you want to know what all that means and how to put it to use for you, you can get the mini course for free at NonprofitLaunchPlan.com just by clicking the pink banner at the top of the home page there. Now, let's start by naming something that can be really frustrating. At this stage of your nonprofit, if you've been following the last two episodes of this three-part series or you are at the place in the early days of your nonprofit where you've met with your family and friends to practice your fundraising appeal and hopefully,

of them have said yes, and you're in the process of exploring all the doors that your board can open for you, those are natural, logical, first places to look to secure funding. And in this moment, it's a very precarious position to be in right now. It can feel like

Hey, we're in business. We're doing our thing. The nonprofit train that we started is starting to pull out of the station. There's a few people that believe in us. It's time to go big or go home. I've been there. I've said all those same things. And I can just say that as a coach, the largest portion of my coaching is helping nonprofit leaders unwind mistakes that they make at this very point.

And honestly, I would much rather work with you as a coach and help you take these next steps wisely and properly rather than having you call me in 12 months or 18 months and say, Matt, I'm in a mess and I need your help to get this cleaned up. Here's what often happens in this moment. A lot of nonprofit leaders of brand new startups, they feel the proverbial train pulling out of the station and they just pour on the gas and start to launch marketing campaigns

and go big planning paid social media advertising and planning a big event to invite the whole community out to introduce them to the nonprofit. Now all of those things are actually make sense at some point.

They just don't really make a whole lot of sense right now at this point where you're at in your nonprofit growth. It feels like you should be able to easily scale up with the public relations efforts and that somehow or other the general public will magically hear about what you're doing and money will fly out of their wallets or the allure of foundation grants or big business gifts will cause you to spend a lot of time getting applications written, which is super time consuming, really complex.

and very labor intensive, but then they never really turn into anything because as it turns out, you find out that most foundations aren't making gifts to brand new nonprofits. It is this moment that you want to go big and make a broad sweeping appeal and they just don't work.

The general public does not know you yet. They do not owe you their attention and they certainly do not owe you their generosity.

This is why like posting donation links and running big social media campaigns or launching a large online appeal just leads oftentimes to disappointment early on. It's not because your mission is weak or off or you got into this and you should have never gotten into it to begin with. Although you may feel that at some point during this process. The real reason it doesn't work yet is because trust

has not been built yet. So let's talk about who your early believers actually are. Your early supporters.

are not random donors that click on a social media ad or somehow find your website and click the donate button. Rather, they are people who resonate deeply with the problem that you're trying to solve. In a lot of cases, they have lived it, either personally or through a family member.

In other words, they've somehow been impacted by the problem that your nonprofit is designed to solve personally. They may care about it because it's affected somebody that they love, and they may have been waiting for somebody like you to step into that space and provide a solution. These people already care about the problem. Your nonprofit simply becomes the vehicle through which they are able to act on solving the problem.

Long time ago, my family raised the funding to do an 18-month mission project in Spain. We were working with a Christian organization there. And like you, after we tapped out all the family and friends and church relationships that we had, we still needed to build more of a financial foundation. So we connected with a few Facebook groups at that time that were made up of people who lived in the United States, but their home country was Spain. We joined the groups, we made some connections,

And then we told people that we were raising support to go do Christian ministry work in the country of Spain. Many people from that group ended up being supporters of ours because they already had a heart for the nation of Spain and they wanted to see it changed by the gospel. In other words, they understood the problem that we were called to solve. They knew the brokenness and the challenges in that country. So they gave, even though they didn't know me particularly well, these people already cared about

the problem and your people will already care about the problem, your early believers. Your nonprofit just becomes the vehicle through which they are able to act on solving the problem. And that is a very different posture and perspective than trying to convince strangers to care about you and care about the work you're doing. Now hear me loud and clear when I say this. Your early believers and what your nonprofit is doing are going to be found

through conversations, not campaigns. It's depth over reach. One-to-one connection outperforms mass communication every single time at the beginning. Conversations allow you to listen. They allow you to understand motivation. They allow you to invite participation in a way that feels personal and specific and appropriate.

Campaigns, larger scale stuff, all gonna come later. At this stage, depth beats reach every time. So how do you actually find these people?

Often they come through the people you already know. Your inner circle who you've tapped into already, they introduce you to somebody who cares deeply about the issue. A board member makes a connection to somebody whose story aligns with the mission we talked about that in the last episode. A donor says to you, you really ought to talk to my friend. These introductions matter deeply and how you treat them matters deeply. Everything in you,

will feel the urge to think of these introductions and door opens that people provide you as a step closer to a transaction. In other words,

This person is going to introduce me to this other person and that person is going to give me a check at some point. But the introductions that these people, your inner circle, your board, your business friends make, these aren't transactions. They're trust transfers. Let me say that again. Those

that your inner circle, your board, your business friends make, they are not transactions, they are trust transfers. When an early believer introduces you to somebody they know, they are saying, I think this matters and I think you should meet this person. Couple of practical things, when this happens, and it will, respond in 24 hours.

Make an initial contact with that person that you've been introduced to within 24 hours. I alluded to this in the last episode, but if I'm going to open my contacts to you and share somebody who I think you should talk to, and I find out six weeks later that you've not done anything with that, that's the last you'll get from me. So also within the first 24 hours, once you've reached out to the

even if you've not actually spoken to them, reconnect with the person that made the introduction to say, hey, thanks again for connecting me with John. Just want to let you know, I shout him a text and I'm waiting to hear back from him. Saying thank you to the person who makes the introduction closes the loop, shows that you're treating the introduction with respect, it might just get you another introduction.

When you meet with potential early believers, the goal is not to lead with an ask. The goal is first, get to know them.

Let them get to know you and then introduce them to the problem that your nonprofit is designed to solve. Share why the issue matters. Share why it matters to you. Share why it matters now. And if you've walked through the fearless fundraising framework, this is really an expanded, more in-depth version of step one, the problem, and step two, the solution. Then listen. Early believers will often tell you,

how they want to engage. They'll tell you what specifically about the problem really connects with them. They may ask how they can help. They may ask how they can give. They may ask how they can introduce you to others. And they may not.

And that's okay. Your job in this moment is not to force the moment because then that means that you're trying to turn this into a transaction. And the linchpin of our fundraising framework is based on this moment, one day, maybe not today, but one day, becoming a partnership. Feel the difference? Your goal in these meetings is to walk out with people who understand what you do

and who you are beginning to grow a friendship with, not to walk out with a check. If that happens, that's great, but your goal is to network and build meaningful relationships for the future. Success in this moment is not about viral growth or getting tons of followers. It's not going big or going home. Success is finding people who say, matters to me. This is highly counterintuitive, but I've seen so many nonprofits and Christian ministries too,

flame out, overcoming on too aggressively potential donors that are virtually impossible to rebuild.

few other practical ways that you can network and start to grow these relationships. One simple, but go to any Chamber of Commerce networking events that you can or things like that and just talk to people. Practice telling people about the problem your nonprofit solves and how you solve it. Collect business cards and teach yourself how to follow up. You're laying foundational groundwork that you will build on in the future.

If you're a person of faith or your nonprofit's mission lines up with Christian values, offer to take a pastor to lunch from your town. There are often really great connectors who know a lot of mission-minded people.

Also, don't hesitate to connect with other nonprofit leaders, particularly of nonprofits that are mission adjacent to you, but not doing exactly what you're doing. The goal is to introduce yourself, learn from their experience, and simply just make them aware of your presence.

Another idea, host a name storming party. This is where you invite your board or your inner circle and their spouses to a dinner at your place. And for 30, 45 minutes, an hour, everybody just pulls out their contacts on their phone and scrolls simultaneously saying, you should talk to so and so, here's their info. Whatever you spend on food and drinks for a night like this will be well worth it if you come out with 20, 30, 40, 50 names of people that you should get in contact with.

Now that's just a few ways, there's plenty more. And again, the goal is to build relationships rather than collect checks. Even though internally you're going to be saying to yourself, but we really need some checks. In this moment, patience pays off and this is how sustainable funding begins.

Now, before we close out, let's zoom out and recap the full picture here. Part one of this three-part series we talked about starting with people who already believe in you. Your inner circle is where momentum begins. Part two, we talked about board giving and board networks. Board gifts validate the mission, create credibility for external asks. And then in part three, this episode, we talk about early believers beyond your immediate circle, people who connect and resonate deeply with the

problem you're solving and are found through conversations, not campaigns. These three groups form the foundation of early nonprofit funding. Not strangers, not big grants, not broad appeals, but individual people that you're making connections with, you're building trust with, and you're creating relationships with.

If you're at ground zero, which means zero names in the database, zero donors and zero dollars in the bank, or you're even just slightly past it, do not skip these steps. Each phase builds on the one before it. And when you focus on the right people at the right time,

Fundraising becomes clearer, becomes more confident, and you become more effective at it. Now, if you want help clarifying your message or building confidence and having these conversations, don't forget to download the Fearless Fundraising mini course. Get it today at NonprofitLaunchPlan.com. It's absolutely free. Just click the pink banner at the top of the homepage. That about wraps it up. Thank you so much for listening to this three-part series on securing your first nonprofit dollars.

found this series of episodes helpful, share it with another nonprofit leader who's just getting started

and who needs clarity more than they need hype. Again, my name is Matt. Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Launch Plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. Until next time, keep building wisely and keep making a difference.