The fundraising newsletter that turned $36K into $100K

Rachel Muir: we as fundraisers have the best job in the whole world because we get to find out how people want to be significant and how they want to make the world a better place. And then we get to bring them opportunities to do exactly that.

Ann Fellman: Bloomerang presents Fuel Impact, the podcast that powers your next fundraising breakthrough. This is where we have real conversations with fundraising leaders, technology innovators, and fundraising experts.

In this episode of Fuel Impact, I spoke with Rachel Muir, fundraising coach, speaker, former executive director, about deeper donor relationships. We talked about the one question to ask a donor after the gift. We also talked about the League of Extraordinary Fundraisers, and we talked about newsletters that are raising more than $100,000 annually for an organization. Yes, you heard it newsletters.

So if you work with nonprofits or fundraising teams or you're a fundraiser yourself, this conversation matters because it's worth investing in yourself. Here's my conversation with Rachel Muir.

Welcome to Fuel Impact, where I sit down with the people helping nonprofits push their fundraising impact higher. I'm Ann Fellman, the Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, and today we're joined by Rachel Muir, known as a fundraising BFF, which I'm really excited about. Rachel helps nonprofits literally fundraise and fundraise really well. Rachel, thanks for being here.

Rachel Muir: I'm excited to be with you today.

Ann Fellman: And we have Max. Max is joining

us too, a little cameo appearance with Max. let's jump in. So Rachel, in one sentence, let's say I meet you at a conference for the first time, right? You're walking around. It's like, okay, who are you and what do you do?

Rachel Muir: I love this question. So I am a recovering executive director who started a nonprofit called Girlstart to empower girls and STEM. I love helping people fundraise and love fundraising, and I do that as a fundraising consultant and coach and trainer and speaker.

Ann Fellman: truly a fundraising BFF. And Rachel, we've known each other for a long time. So it's always a joy to to chat with you. if you're thinking about some of the organizations that you're supporting right now or you're helping right now, what are the top three pieces of advice you give to a nonprofit right now?

Rachel Muir: Love this question. I would remind all fundraisers and all boards that the one thing that's responsible for fundraising profit is good donor relations. And donors make a decision whether not to give to you again in the downtime in between your appeals.

So it's extremely important that nonprofits be thinking about how am I communicating with my donors in between asking them for money? Am I picking up the phone? Am I calling them to thank them? Am I texting them or leaving them a message to tell them I'm thinking about them or give them credit for some win that they made possible? Or just tell them how grateful you are to have them in your donor family. the second piece of advice would be to report.

Back to your donors. we know from the research that you've done, nonprofits are doing a really good job thanking their donors, but that's only a part of it. We have to report back and tell them how their gift had an impact. and then the last thing I would say is to invest in yourself. And you know, I do a lot of training for fundraisers, and a lot of the fundraisers that are in my training program, it's called the League of Extraordinary Fundraisers.

A lot of them are paying for it themselves. And you know, money's always tight for a nonprofit, but even if you have to pay for professional development yourself, invest, whether it's going to GiveCon or taking part in a webinar or coaching program like I run, there's only one you everybody else is taken, and it takes so much to

Give back to this world and you've got to give to yourself. So my last piece of advice is invest in professional development because you're worth it. And it's gonna make you a better fundraiser. It's gonna help you love your job and it's gonna help you raise more money from your donors, but it's gonna help you raise more money for yourself in your career. There's no better investment than investing in yourself.

Ann Fellman: Well, that's really good advice. So a lot of times, We talk, talk, talk about all the techniques, techniques. But you know what? You have to fill your tank too, right? And I think that's a really good piece of advice to share with our listeners. So let's take the contrarian point of view now.

What is something about this work that you believe that not everybody agrees with?

Rachel Muir: there's lots of contrarian stuff and polarizing stuff in our industry. There's community-centric fundraising versus donor-centric fundraising. There's using AI, not using AI, there's having a give or get policy for your board. I've got lots of opinions on everything related to that. I will start with

Community-centered fundraising versus donor-centered fundraising. I fundamentally believe that we should celebrate our donors and celebrate who they are and the kind and generous person that they are when they make a gift. And I don't believe that that takes away from anything else or hurts anyone in the process.

Ann Fellman: That's a great point of view it is relationship. It is, you know, supporting and taking care of our communities. And at the end of the day, someone believes in your organization and you wanna invest and take care of that supporter, cultivate, bring them along just with some of the advice that you just gave.

Rachel Muir: Yeah, there

Ann Fellman: Thank you.

Rachel Muir: are beautiful, generous people out there who refuse to accept the troubled world as it is and they wanna make a difference. and I think supporting them and celebrating them and the person they are when they give I don't think there's anything controversial about that. And I think sometimes we as fundraisers really beat ourselves up when we make things really hard on ourselves and we're kind of policing ourselves too much.

And we need to be gentle with ourselves.

Ann Fellman: So speaking of, celebrating a supporter, you know, think about somebody that's been giving consistently, right? how do you identify those that are ready to move from maybe annual giving to now it's time to start making an ask for a major gift? Like how do you identify that?

Rachel Muir: you look at most non-profits and their donor files, they have a lot of donors giving small amounts and a few donors giving mega large amounts. And it's a problem in our sector and one that we need to address. And we see this like perfect isosceles triangle at fundraising conferences, and that's not what our donor files look like.

It looks much more like a sombrero and where a lot of people are giving small amounts and some people are giving big amounts. But the truth is it's our behavior that makes it look that way. And we have to be thoughtful and intentional about how are we inviting people to be more engaged? How are we identifying these people? And you know, it can be

Just looking at your file and evaluating your file, and those people who are giving to you loyally over time are golden nuggets that we need to invite to have a deeper relationship. It can be everything from just like analyzing your file, using wealth overlays to look at your file,

To giving donors across the board more opportunities to interact with you. And that can be as simple as surveying your donors. It can be as simple as asking a question on your thank you landing page after they make a gift that says what inspired your gift today. It can be as simple as calling to thank donors, putting your business card in your thank you letter, invite reaching out to donors, inviting them to

Have behind the scenes opportunities with your organization. It's really the end of the day, it's about inviting people to have a deeper relationship with you. And if you think about our sector and the for profit sector, which has a much better customer retention rate than we do, for profits survey their customers constantly and they're always asking.

how was your experience? How was the hotel? And how were the pillows? How is the Wi-Fi? And we as nonprofits, we don't do that. and those are micro opportunities to have a deeper relationship with your donors.

Ann Fellman: You know, that's a really interesting take. And it's one simple, I would say, open-ended question that invites a connection, right? What inspired your gift today? Something moved you today. And that is such a beautiful open ended question where we can go down a lot of paths. It's hard for some people to ask those really open ended questions. And so that's a great way to

give them a chance to give that feedback, create other opportunities as you're thanking and following up. What inspired your gift? Pick up the phone. That's really good advice, So, that's kind of on the donor health spectrum, right? So we're cultivating, we're shaping, we're investing in these relationships. What do you look for in donor health? And

What are some of those early warning signs we should be looking for as fundraisers that maybe a donor's about to leave or they're disengaging? What are some warning signs that you would recommend a nonprofit take a look at?

Rachel Muir: obviously retention. Like how good of a job are we doing retaining our donors? look at when do our donors drop off? are they dropping off between the first gift and the second gift? Is it between the second gift and the third gift? Like, is it after three gifts? test

How good of a job you're doing with your donor health by becoming a donor yourself. You can think that you've got everything set up and then it's running like a well-oiled machine, and it may not be. So mystery shop your organization and make a donation to yourself. But I would look at, when are people dropping off and engineer your communication touch points around those drop-off points? Because a lot of times,

things are going great. They've got a good welcome series. You've got a good stewardship program for new donors. And then all of a sudden I make a monthly gift and I don't hear anything. It is like complete crickets. And I don't hear anything from you until I've been giving to you monthly for an entire year. And then you're celebrating me and my one year anniversary.

It's important that you look at it across the board based on who your donors are, not just monthly donors, not just first gift to second gift, but also laps donors, major gift donors, legacy donors. If I'm thoughtful and compassionate enough to make that important decision and name you in my will or estate, do I hear from you on a regular basis? Or is it just complete crickets? Because

all of those donors are important.

Ann Fellman: I I think that's really interesting. speaking of identifying drop-off, how do we do that? And you know, one recommendation or something that we always talk about in the sector is segmentation, segmentation, segmentation, right? Understanding these points or groups or how you want to group your donors. Have you ever seen it where can donor segmentation go too far? We make ourselves just a little too intense on the segmentation. What's your advice on

How granular should a non profit really go when it comes to segmentation?

Rachel Muir: I have never seen a nonprofit go overboard with segmentation. And I've never seen a nonprofit go overboard with stewardship. I've never been thanked too much. I've never met anyone who was thanked too much. But I do think, sure, as humans, like we can overcomplicate anything. I would say in general, when it comes to segmentation,

We want to segment some of those groups that I just mentioned. We want to segment monthly donors. We want to segment bereaved donors. We want to segment lapse donors. I say this phrase a lot. It's one of my favorite phrases. The greatest gift we can give our donors is the gift of feeling known by us. And good segmentation does just that. And every piece of

Communications that we send out every single piece from our newsletter to an appeal to a direct mail piece to an annual report, every single thing our donors are looking at it and it's a mirror and they need to see themselves in it. And if they don't see themselves in it, and we're just talking about ourselves and how great our nonprofit is and all the great things that we've done.

They don't have a problem to solve, they don't have anything to do, they don't feel like they're part of your organization and they're part of your mission. So it's really important that we show our donors we know who they are, we know what they care about, and reflect that back to them.

Ann Fellman: That's really interesting advice. And I always think back to an experience I had where I was compelled to make a first-time gift from an event, a world event. And I was so compelled to make a gift. And I knew in those first two or three months that I was like, I was really, really, really moved and really excited about what the organization did. And I eventually connected with the executive director, but I was like, had they just come out and asked what inspired your gift?

And look for signals for a monthly gift because I was ready right away, even to do a monthly gift. because this is a need that's never gonna end. And so having that cultivation, making that donor feel known and really kind of reaching out and cultivating that relationship is

So important because I did. I have been a monthly giver now to the organization for at least four years. So

Rachel Muir: Awesome.

Ann Fellman: and I haven't changed, from that perspective. So speaking of helping nonprofits, Rachel, you've

You've done quite a lot. Like you've had a really interesting career. So at some point everyone should check out rachelmuir.com. But I want to hear from you about a nonprofit that you've helped that you're really proud of. What was the situation, what you did, and what changed for them?

Rachel Muir: I love helping fundraisers be better at their fundraising. And I have the opportunity to do a lot of coaching with nonprofit professionals. I have this awesome mastermind. I have a group called the League of Extraordinary Fundraisers, and I have a VIP version of it where we meet every week, and it's an incredible group of female fundraisers. And one of my clients in the group had

a printed newsletter and the audience wasn't really clear. they were trying to reach everybody with this newsletter. It talked ad nauseam about the organization, the programs. They were trying to reach anyone who would read it basically, but it didn't speak to a clear audience as in it didn't speak specifically to donors.

And we gave it a makeover. And when we started this makeover, it didn't have a clear audience and we intentionally made it over to be very donor centric and to be a printed donor newsletter. And when we started, they were raising thirty-six thousand dollars a year.

With this printed newsletter, and their average gift was about $100. and over several years of revamping this and restructuring this, she was able to take this printed donor newsletter to raising just under $100,000 and an average gift of over $200.

this was an organization that was helping youth in crisis. So story after story of client wins, and this is all because of you, because of your generous heart, because of your compassionate gift. these are the lives that you're changing.

when when we think about kind of unexpected ways to dramatically increase fundraising revenue, I feel like donor newsletters are one of those examples because people aren't really thinking about the economic potential, the donor revenue potential that you have doing a printed donor newsletter well, but

it's also a vehicle for you to advertise other opportunities like legacy giving, monthly giving. and to go back to the first question that you asked me is, you know, it's good donor relations and that's where fundraising profit comes from. a great donor newsletter is the backbone of good donor relations.

Ann Fellman: Well, I've seen a lot of newsletters and there's a definite market and need, I think, for nonprofits to put some energy and time into that and getting it, like you said, clear audience, really crisp on its purpose and making it about the donor and telling those great stories because you can truly inspire people to give through a newsletter, which is fun. I wanna shift gears for a second.

Because there's another nonprofit that's pretty fascinating. You founded Girl Start at the youthful age of twenty-six

Rachel Muir: Mm.

Ann Fellman: with five hundred dollars and a credit card and had wild success. So I just would love for listeners to just hear your story on this and how that experienced really shaped you as a fundraiser and who you are today. So can you tell us your amazing story of Girl Start?

Rachel Muir: Yes, I'd be happy to. I was always like discouraged in math and science when I was growing up. And gender-based discrimination in math and science is not like a noisy problem. it's a pretty subtle one. but it cost me a lot of opportunities. And I'm from Austin, Texas, that's my hometown. And when I started Girl Start, we were really having a huge, huge tech boom.

And this sounds crazy to talk about now, but kids were literally getting recruited out of high school to go work at tech companies, like not even finishing high school, which sounds crazy. And girls were definitely being left out of the equation. I was volunteering with middle school girls and I saw that these girls were having the same experience that I had.

As a middle school girl where they were having a total crisis of confidence in math and science. And I wanted to do something to change it. So I started Girl Start in the living room of my apartment with $500 and a credit card. We raised over $10 million. We were featured on Oprah, seen in the Today Show, Girl Start still exists, it's still thriving, it's still serving girls. It's expanded to serve girls all over Texas and even all over the country. It's a fantastic organization.

And so everything I know and love about fundraising, I learned in the trenches starting Girl Start. And the way that it shaped me the most is how much I love fundraising. I think that we as fundraisers have the best job in the whole world because we get to find out how people want to be significant and how they want to make the world a better place. And then we get to bring them opportunities to do exactly that.

My favorite thing about fundraising is the relationship part. And I still think today that it is the most important part. And fundraising has changed and it hasn't changed since I was 26 years old. There's a lot more channels and a lot more opportunities, but the thing that hasn't changed at all is the importance of relationships.

Building and investing and maintaining and deepening human relationships.

Ann Fellman: I couldn't agree more. it's changed, but it hasn't changed. So speaking of change and speaking of tech and innovations and advancement, let's hit on the hot topic right now on fundraisers and how we should think about AI, using AI, AI tools for nonprofits. what's some advice that you can give to our listeners?

Rachel Muir: Yes, this is a great question. And I think it's one that we're really trying to wrap our arms around it. my advice, and this was actually one of our core values at Girl Start. It was to always be learning and always be growing. And that is my advice for everyone when it comes to AI. It can be tempting

If you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling frustrated, you may want to just like stick your head in the sand and and think this is gonna blow over. It's not gonna blow over. It's here and it's not going anywhere. And so I would say always be learning, always be growing, and stay really curious and experiment and tinker

great fundraisers are intensely curious people So always be learning and growing. my other two pieces of advice would be to proceed with caution. And when I say that, it's not just caution around like how am I using this? of course using it ethically, responsibly, safely, but also

if you're using it because it's saving you time, what are you doing with that extra time? Are you genuinely taking that extra time and using it to pick up the phone and call donors? Because if it's saving you time, I want you to use that extra time to be more human and be more authentic and deepen your relationships. And my last thing that I would say which fits in with proceeding with caution is

Are you sharpening your skills or are you becoming overly dependent? Because it can be really easy to become overly dependent. you and I both talk about this sometimes, how much AI has exploded and advanced and grown. And I've seen

a decrease in fundraisers investing in training for themselves. And that concerns me a lot because I don't want people becoming overdependent. and I want everyone to keep their skills really sharp. so yeah, I would say stay curious, be responsible and be mindful.

Ann Fellman: as fundraisers, we're the ones with the expertise. AI can do some really great things, help you generate, give you some new ideas, fresh perspective, but you're the one with the taste. We talk about this in marketing too, that it's still our job to then layer in and be discerning

So you'd really truly have to continue to invest in your skills and developing and deepening your craft so that you can train that technology on the side that might help you do things. Back to the beginning, what we talked about, invest in yourself, invest in yourself as a fundraiser. So thinking about 2027 and beyond,

with fundraising, what kind of shifts are you, anticipating or how donors give or how nonprofits need to ask for a gift?

Rachel Muir: I think we're gonna continue to see nonprofits being increasingly dependent on these mega donors, which means we have to be constantly upgrading, we have to be working on retention, working on great donor relations, great stewardship, so those are some things, and I would say

smart nonprofits are doing a lot of legacy marketing right now, marketing donors naming you in their will or estate. We are sitting on a massive generational shift in terms of the great wealth transfer. And the average age of donors in everyone's file is an older donor. And

I believe that the actual number is like 65 or 67 if we dug into the data and researched it. And those are donors who are going to be naming a nonprofit in their will or estate. And if they don't name you, they're gonna name someone else. And this is considering this massive generational shift in wealth and considering the size of this baby boomer population and considering that they are the back.

Bone of your donor file right now. You really have to be looking at how am I marketing legacy giving? Because legacy giving, it's different than all other types of fundraising. It's not something that I'm just gonna be like stop everything and work on my will. I'm gonna do it later. And so that's the enemy of legacy marketing, is like.

People are gonna put this off. the biggest obstacle is that donors don't know this is a way that they can support you. And so you have to have a steady drumbeat of making this easy and obvious and also

A lot of legacy marketing focuses on the different vehicles you can choose to make a legacy gift. It's not about that. Your donor's gonna figure out how to do that with their financial advisor. It's just letting them know that this is one of the ways that they can choose to give to you and letting them know that people just like them are choosing to do this.

Ann Fellman: initiate that conversation and continue to initiate that conversation versus back off and not do it. this is a really good piece of advice because the wealth transfer is happening. It's happening right now. And there's a lot of generosity out there. so we've got to be front and center.

especially now there's the boomer population, the aging populations, right? there's a lot of gifts to go get and put yourself out there, but you've gotta make the ask,

Rachel Muir: Yeah,

and it's not about death. It's about life. It's about how you want to be remembered.

Ann Fellman: Yeah. Telling the story.

Rachel Muir: and we're not marketing death. We're marketing life.

Ann Fellman: No. yeah,

something that can keep going. I think this is a really important call out is making sure that you've got steady cadence of how you're communicating your legacy and making it really easy for your supporters to understand how they can connect with you on this topic.

So Rachel, we've talked a lot, but like for the fundraisers and nonprofits listening, for the work that you do who do you best work with?

Rachel Muir: if you want help with your fundraising, if you want to sharpen your skills as a fundraiser, if you want to get your board fundraising, if you've got an AFP chapter and you're looking for a dynamic speaker, then I'm your person. I work with small, medium, large nonprofits.

Check out rachelmuir dot com, you can book a call with me, you can also check out League of Extraordinary Fundraisers, which is where I do my coaching program too.

Ann Fellman: So if you think about some of the challenges that a nonprofit might have and they're kind of on the fence, is there a trigger or moment where you're like, they shouldn't wait. they should reach out right now.

Rachel Muir: If you need fundraising inspiration, if you're not seeing the fundraising results that you wanna see, you're feeling pressure from your executive director, you're feeling pressure from your board, then yeah, don't waste any time. there's no time like the present,

Ann Fellman: So, Rachel, you've talked a lot about how much you just absolutely love fundraising. But what keeps you doing this work? Because it's not easy.

Rachel Muir: It isn't easy and you know this sector in particular, I feel like we work so hard, we accomplish so much, and we just have to go raise more money the next year. But what keeps me inspired is all the amazing professionals out there doing the work. And the thing that really

gets me the most jazz about my work is I fundamentally believe that donors deserve a better experience and the experiences that we give them. And I'm just on a mission to give them a better experience and do everything I can to help the nonprofits that I have the pleasure of working with make their donors feel loved, needed, supported, seen, and valued by them.

Ann Fellman: You definitely have a gift when it comes to helping other fundraisers create that environment of making a donor feel appreciated and recognized and loved. Rachel, thank you so much for everything. But before I let you go, we're gonna do rapid fire.

first question for you is what is most underrated fundraising tactic?

Rachel Muir: Thank you calls.

Ann Fellman: Most important fundraising skill.

Rachel Muir: Vulnerability.

Ann Fellman: One word for the future of fundraising.

Rachel Muir: Personalization.

Ann Fellman: The non profit sector needs more.

Rachel Muir: Authenticity.

Ann Fellman: Coffee or tea?

Rachel Muir: Coffee.

Ann Fellman: One word your team or your clients would use to describe you.

Rachel Muir: Enthusiastic.

Ann Fellman: Well, there you have it. that's Rachel Meir fundraising consultant, fundraising BFF and Max. If you're a nonprofit wrestling with raise more outcomes, Rachel's exactly the kind of partner worth a conversation. And if you want to be a part of the League of Extraordinary Fundraisers go find out more at rachelmeir.com. So that's R-A-C-H-E-L-M-U-I-R.

RachelMir.com. Thanks for watching Fuel Impact. We're going to be back soon with another incredible fundraising partner doing remarkable work for the sector. Until then, keep fueling higher. And we want to hear about your next fundraising breakthrough.

Thanks for watching Fuel Impact. Subscribe for more real conversations with leaders shaping the nonprofit sector. Learn more at Bloomerang.com.

‍