You don't have programs without fundraising

Lauren Tudor: We love AI on our team. It’s helped us think bigger. My piece of advice, I think, for anyone listening, is use the tools, but never let them do the thing that actually matters, which is build the relationship. Be the human in the center. Use the tools to make your life easier in a digitally connected world. I think that demands more of a human touch, not less. But the second we start letting that slip, I think is where we’ve lost the plot.

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 Lauren Tudor, CEO and fundraising and strategy consultant at Architect Philanthropic Collective. We talked about investing in your people, yes, professional development for fundraisers, you don’t have programs without fundraising. Lauren and I talked about investment in people and capacity building, ideas to convince leadership to truly invest in fundraising, and that means the people, the infrastructure, and the culture of the organization. If you work with nonprofits or fundraising teams, this episode matters because you are worth investing in. Here’s my conversation with Lauren Tudor. Welcome to Fuel Impact, where I sit down with people helping nonprofits push fundraising higher. I’m Ann Fellman, the Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, and in this episode I’m joined by Lauren Tudor, CEO and Fundraising and Strategic Consultant at Architect Philanthropic Collective. They help nonprofits focus on fundraising, integrated philanthropy, and talent development. Lauren, thank you for being here.

Lauren Tudor: Ann, it’s so wonderful to see you again. Thanks for having me here.

Ann Fellman: We’ve gone way back and always have great conversations around fundraising, so I’m really excited to chat with you today. In one sentence, who are you and what do you do?

Lauren Tudor: I’m Lauren Tudor. I’m the CEO and founder of Architect Philanthropic Collective. In a nutshell, we help small and midsized nonprofits build the muscle to fund their missions so that they’re not depending on anyone, including us.

Ann Fellman: Build the muscle to fund your mission, I love that. So you’ve obviously done a lot of fundraising work, you’ve helped a number of nonprofit organizations build that muscle. But right now, kind of a hot topic, what are your top three pieces of advice for nonprofits right now?

Lauren Tudor: Three really quick ones. One, it’s so obvious, but say thank you like your mission depends on it, because it always does. Nothing new there. However, stewardship is the most skipped step in this whole field, and that means there’s a lot of room to grow. It has the highest return. So always say thank you like your mission depends on it, because again, it really does. Number two would be a personal favorite of ours, since we care about infrastructure building: build the systems before you get desperate. I know we’re busy, we’re trying to do so much more with so much less in a very hostile funding environment, but before things get really scary, build the system before you get desperate. Don’t wait for the funding cliff to get organized, because it’s the infrastructure that carries you through the lean seasons. We’re seeing that with so many clients right now who, through no fault of their own, have just gotten into a rhythm that served them until it didn’t, and we get to come in and help build out some of that infrastructure that really supports them. My third piece of advice would be invest in your people wherever possible. Your fundraiser’s tenure can be time-bound, especially in a climate like this, and it’s what determines the future and vitality of your donor relationships. So invest in your people, develop your people, give them a pathway forward, at least show them that you care to keep them around. Otherwise you will spend your time, resources, and energy rebuilding your donor base every year and a half, and we quite frankly just don’t have time for that.

Ann Fellman: Right, that’s developing that long-term muscle, and in furthering a mission with turnover like that, it’s really tough to do. I was talking with someone the other day and they said their organization, not intentionally, but never supported professional development, and that was something that was really, really tough. So I love that that’s a piece of advice.

Lauren Tudor: I mean, that’s a microcosm of a really, really large issue. I think the stat is that on average only 1% of capacity-building dollars go to professional development, which leaves a lot to be desired. When we’re thinking about retention and hiring, with the turnover rate being as high as it is, we really could stand to invest more as a sector in professional development.

Ann Fellman: Yeah, we could talk about this for hours, we’ve gotta change that, only what percent of capacity-building dollars is going back into professional development. Maybe on this thread, I’m curious what your thoughts are about something about this work that you believe that maybe not everyone necessarily agrees with.

Lauren Tudor: What I believe is that people shouldn’t fall into fundraising by accident. Almost every peer I know in this field fell into it by happenstance, you’ll hear the same story at conferences over and over again, folks who said, I volunteered for X, Y, and Z organization and I just never left. Or they asked me to support them at this food drive and I just fell in love and never left. On its face, we treat that like a charming little origin story, and it is that. What it really means is that the knowledge it takes to fund a mission is sometimes locked away from the people who are closest to it. One thing we’ve become really stubborn about at our firm is that knowledge should be accessible, open, and findable for anybody who’s even slightly curious about this field of fundraising over there. So we’ve built some pathways that create access to it. We really believe that people shouldn’t fall into the field, we should intentionally seek out this vocational field of interest that has changed so many lives, including mine and the organizations we serve.

Ann Fellman: Yeah, it’s more than just passion, this is a profession. So thinking about that and fundraisers, we’re interacting with donors and donor behavior, there’s just been a lot of change I’d say over the last five, six years, we’ve seen quite a bit in this sector. But from your point of view, how has donor behavior changed in the last, let’s call it three years, and what do you think that means for nonprofits and how they turn around and ask for money, ask for support?

Lauren Tudor: Donors have gotten much more intentional over the last, call it a decade even. The old way of giving through obligation is slowly sunsetting, and so donors who are growing younger, more diverse in every way possible, in assets and ethnicity, in environment, etc., they want to see proof. They want to see that their dollar is going to work, and they also want to belong to something. Bloomerang’s own research names it really well, purpose, proof, and belonging, and that’s applicable for the donors of today but also the donors of the future. What it means for your ask is that you can’t necessarily lead with the need in a guilt way any further, the way the sector has become accustomed to. You lead with impact that can actually be felt and seen, and the community where their voices showed up, where we co-created solutions together, where we ask them to really be a part of the future so that uncertainty is less scary. The ask stops being “we’re desperate” and becomes more “here’s what we’re building together, we’d love to invite you into it as well.”

Ann Fellman: Exactly, we have seen that impact, tell me and show me how my support has furthered the organization, the mission, and some of the programs, but also show me that I belong and that I did choose an organization that sees my identity as a donor. Donor identity is a real big theme from a philanthropic culture perspective, of how you strengthen and cultivate those relationships, because with these next generations of donors too, that identity with the organization and sense of belonging is becoming even stronger. So thinking about fostering that donor identity, what do you see? A lot of times it’s ask, ask, ask, we’ve gotta get more new donors, more new donors, there’s this element of kind of a transactional essence. I’m curious, from your point of view, what’s the difference between a transactional fundraising culture and what you’ve seen in organizations, and a relational one, and how do you build towards relational-based fundraising?

Lauren Tudor: Mm-hmm. We talk about this in our client work all the time. It’s an easy thing to do, you don’t mean to fall into a transactional relationship, it’s just by virtue of the speed of work, it lends itself to that pretty naturally. So we try to pause our clients and explain the difference like this: we consider a transactional culture one where we treat the donor like an ATM, which really sucks for everybody involved, you show up when you need money, you disappear once you’ve got it. That feels so gross. In a relational culture, which is what we coach and train our clients on, we treat donors like a partner in the mission, meaning we’re asking them for advice, considering their perspective, and telling them what happens after we receive their gift, further inviting them into relationship that way, because that’s how relationships are naturally built. We keep inviting each other into each other’s spaces, and hopefully we’re galvanizing in a direction under a common agenda. In a transactional shop, we’re probably considering thank-yous as an afterthought. In a relational one, we’re starting with thank you, thank you for your time, thank you for taking this meeting, it’s truly the beginning. How you build it really starts at the top, leadership has to adopt it, mid-level leaders have to adopt it, it has to be a culture throughout the organization. And then you build the systems that support it by default, not as an afterthought, with consistent gratitude, really honest reporting on the impact, what happened after we made an ask or did a thing, and listening more than you ask. Those are the great elements of what creates a culture of relational fundraising and philanthropy as a whole. It’s a little bit slower, I know, it takes more time, I know, but only in the beginning, because once that culture is embedded through the skeleton of your organization, it’s there, and that kind of behavior builds momentum and compounds on top of itself.

Ann Fellman: And it builds trust, right? Speaking of systems, you talked about culturally moving the organization, but one of the things is inviting people in, just like you make a new friend and you actually have to go beyond and invite them to a thing, that takes a little bit of work. But underneath it all is a system and an infrastructure. So I’m curious, as you’re advising this shift from transactional to relational, how do you work with organizations in terms of making the case to invest more in fundraising infrastructure, when maybe leadership is really focused on program delivery versus the fundraising component of it? How do you make that case to invest, to help fundraising teams really develop relationships with donors?

Lauren Tudor: It’s a false choice that our team fights all the time, programs versus fundraising, almost like David versus Goliath. The truth is, you don’t have programs without fundraising. It would behoove you to actually invest in fundraising at the same caliber that you do in programs. They’re not competing for the same oxygen, they’re not competing for anything, they feed each other. Without reliable money coming into the organization, there is no organization, period. So what we tell leaders is, every dollar you don’t invest in fundraising capacity, you definitely pay for later, and we see how that manifests into staff turnover, which manifests into deeper revenue deficits, which manifests into low yields year over year. And with that 1% of capacity-building dollars going into professional development, we have to get really creative about finding ways to build, train, and coach the next generation of fundraisers for your organization. But consider having your program staff understand what the culture of fundraising is too, so the two fields aren’t at odds and are working together.

Ann Fellman: They can be really complementary and kind of feed each other in terms of successful outcomes. I love your phrase, you don’t have programs without fundraising, I think that’s an amazing takeaway and view of the world. It’s so important, especially when the first-time donor retention rate across the sector is like 18%. We’ve gotta invest in it on all facets, from a technology and infrastructure perspective, from a professional development perspective, from a culture perspective, how that’s all working together as systems is really important. Lauren, we’ve gotta talk about AI, everybody’s talking about it, hot topic. I’m asking everybody, what’s your take on how fundraisers should think about AI for nonprofits, how should we think about AI for fundraising from your perspective?

Lauren Tudor: I’ll be honest, we love AI on our team, it’s helped us think bigger. My piece of advice for anyone listening is, use the tools, but never let them do the thing that actually matters, which is build the relationship. There’s the term “human in the center,” which I think is a tech term, but I’m going to use it here, be the human in the center. Use the tools to make your life easier, ethically and pragmatically, where that makes sense. AI is great at the stuff that drains us, the admin of life, the drafting, the data hygiene, the “who should I call today,” the getting-organized elements of what it takes to be great at your job. Let AI have all of that, within reason, so that frees you up to be even more human. In a digitally connected world, I think that demands more of a human touch, not less, but the second we start letting that slip is where we’ve lost the plot. I know you all have such fantastic tools with Penny and the principles you’ve used to adopt that, and our team uses and refers out specific AI-enabled efficiency tools where it makes sense too. As long as we keep the mission as the metric, AI can be a really great sidekick, the Robin to the Batman. If the tool helps you raise more money for the mission, then great, use it. The world is getting faster and we’ve gotta keep up with that speed of work, and the fundamentals will never change: people give to people. Keep that in mind.

Ann Fellman: Yep, people give to people. Continuing on the thread of innovation, we’ve known each other for a couple of years, but in the last year, year and a half, you’ve been doing some really cool innovating. Talk to us about what problem you saw and what you’ve been building.

Lauren Tudor: Architect’s been a firm and consultancy for six years, and it took us a really long time to get specific about how we wanted to serve our nonprofit partners and clients. One thing we noticed, in the close to 60 nonprofits we’ve serviced across the country, is that we cannot continue to consult one-on-one. So how could we build a vehicle that would share knowledge at scale? We built two products to support that. Genesis is our flagship product, a 16-week cohort-based workforce development initiative where capacity builders like community foundations and United Ways bring it to their grantees. Instead of just cutting them a check, they’re actually building real fundraising capability at scale for their organizations. It’s been accredited by CFRE for 11.25 credits, and we run it now in two markets in the Midwest and Southeast. Just this past spring, we graduated 42 organizations out of Charlotte, North Carolina using this Genesis framework, bringing them real practitioners talking about their experiences in the field. It covers the gamut of fundraising fundamentals, everything from prospect research to planned giving and everything in between. We built the second product off of that initiative and workforce development program, it’s called Access, a curated slice of the Genesis program. It’s for everyone else, because we know some nonprofits aren’t even connected to regional capacity builders and community foundations, so who’s thinking about those folks in the middle of America trying to get funding for their mission but need to know a little more than what they currently have? Access is three self-paced modules focused on what this work is, how it came to be, and their specific role in it. It’s truly built for board members, community folks, even donors, if they’re curious about it, anyone standing at the edge of fundraising thinking they should understand this a little more but don’t know where to start. Both of those products live on our website, architectyourambition.com, we’d welcome anyone to find us if they’re curious about either one.

Ann Fellman: Any highlights from the curriculum, or aha moments as you’ve seen people go through the program?

Lauren Tudor: A lot of the participants who’ve completed the program say, “my gosh, fundraising used to terrify me and now I understand it.” I think partially because folks don’t really know what it is, so they’re thinking constantly, I can’t ask people for money. But if you’re doing fundraising correctly, the ask is such a small part. We’ve spent the bulk of this call just talking about the strengths and assets in relationship building, and that’s really what we’re training on. You have the inherent strengths and assets of your community in relationship building, let’s just talk about that, and the ask will come naturally after. So we get testimonials all the time from people who say, I used to think this, but now I think this, and a lot of it is rooted in, you helped me understand the ecosystem of relationship building.

Ann Fellman: Changing the framing of how you look at it, that we inherently can do that. Talking to so many different fundraisers, I’ve thought, what you do is really hard, because you’re selling a mission and convincing people to give money. But when you do it really well, it’s relationship building and storytelling and inspiring people around a mission. I love that you’re putting a framework around that and professionalizing it further, making it accessible to so many more people. Lauren, you’ve had a ton of experience, is there a nonprofit organization you can think of that you’re particularly proud of, who you’ve helped over the years? Tell us about that story.

Lauren Tudor: We partnered with a regional capacity builder in the Southeast, that one was a special one. They came to us kind of tired of cutting their grantees these checks and funding the same problem over and over again, essentially. They knew that money alone wasn’t going to be sustainable, they could see the horizon, the cuts at the federal level trickling down to the state and local levels, and they wanted to do more. So when they came to our firm, they were thinking, we have to equip these organizations, we have 50-plus grantees in our pool, how can we give them more? And we were ready, our firm was excited to share Genesis with them, and put their grantees through that four-month teaching program with the real principles. It was a mutually beneficial relationship too, because that capacity builder could report back, here’s something different we’re doing in our region, in our metropolitan area. Those 42 organizations are now better equipped than when they started, they have stronger boards, stronger revenue-generation systems, new contacts from people in their city and across the country now. The platform we use cultivates continuous learning, that’s a value of our firm, so when there are questions in the future from other like-minded organizations, they can call so-and-so in Texas and ask how they tackled a problem, and get a real response from a real practitioner. So we’re really proud of helping to amplify capacity and stretch that dollar even further for our nonprofit clients.

Ann Fellman: So leaning into the community, building the community, and then also fostering that community. I’m really excited to see how that program continues to build. I was just talking earlier today about educating fundraisers internally here at Bloomerang, and we were talking about community foundations as a really important element, because sometimes professional development is a hard thing to get support for, and community foundations can be a great vehicle to see if they can support your professional development. So you connected the two to make that happen. For nonprofits and fundraisers listening to this, who should be reaching out to you to say, hey, I need some help?

Lauren Tudor: The best fit for us is small to mid-sized nonprofits, and right after that, the capacity builders behind them. Our best two client profiles are really those nonprofits and then United Ways and community foundations, because they tend to care about the same type of things, and we want to help their people become self-sufficient, not dependent on another consultant forever. So we do our best work alongside teams, not ahead of them, we co-collaborate, we help you build the infrastructure, we help you execute to a degree. For folks who are just discovering this field, we’ve really become kind of a talent-development ecosystem that’s built products just for them too. So we really focus on those two arenas, and we’re really focused on not being a savior who swoops in to fix anything, but one that helps them build the muscle so they can fix whatever’s plaguing them.

Ann Fellman: No heroics really, it’s developing the talent and the skills so they can continue the mission, it’s a tough job, there’s a lot to be done. But what keeps you doing this work?

Lauren Tudor: I’m in Chicago at the moment, and at the risk of sounding like Barack Obama, the hope, and the people, to be honest with you, it’s the people. I have loved this field for close to 20 years now, and I’m always so enamored with the many different types of folks I get to come across. Before I was a fundraiser, I really was a community organizer, and while those principles aren’t different, we just call them different things, I have always loved folks’ stories. I have always loved learning about where people come from, how they got here, how they ended up there. I have always met really incredible, brilliant folks who are doing really interesting things, who were never handed a playbook either, they’re just figuring it out, and I think that’s astonishing. It makes me believe in the future of the sector, it makes me believe anything is possible, even for folks who maybe feel like outsiders, knowing there could be a way in. And if I have a hand in helping usher that in, that gets me excited, pretty jazzed. So it’s always coming back to people, their stories, and the opportunity to hope for something better.

Ann Fellman: Thank you, Lauren. But before I let you go, I have a fun game to play with you. We’re going to go lightning round, rapid fire, I have a couple of questions for you. So my first question for you, Lauren, is what’s the most underrated fundraising tactic?

Lauren Tudor: Stewardship. Keep them donors coming back.

Ann Fellman: Most important fundraising skill.

Lauren Tudor: Truly listening. Hear it and understand it.

Ann Fellman: One word for the future of fundraising.

Lauren Tudor: Accessibility, creating pathways into it that are intentional, specific, and funded.

Ann Fellman: Okay, this is fill in the blank, the nonprofit sector needs more.

Lauren Tudor: On-ramps.

Ann Fellman: Coffee or tea?

Lauren Tudor: Coffee. Easily.

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

Lauren Tudor: Delightful.

Ann Fellman: I have to agree, it’s always a delight talking with you. Well, you heard it here first, this is Lauren Tudor, CEO and fundraising and strategy consultant at Architect Philanthropic Collective. If you’re a nonprofit wrestling with raising more, professionalizing your work, and really having that long-term plan and path to success, Lauren is exactly the type of partner worthy of a conversation with you. So you can learn more at architectyourambition.com. Well, thank you for listening to Fuel Impact by Bloomerang. We’ll be back soon with another fundraiser doing remarkable work for the sector. So until then, keep fueling your impact higher. Thanks for watching Fuel Impact. Subscribe for more real conversations with leaders shaping the nonprofit sector. Learn more at Bloomerang.com.