Most nonprofit founders and leaders think DIYing their fundraising is the responsible choice. It feels like smart budgeting and being resourceful, but it quietly costs the organization more than any support ever would.

In this episode, I share why free fundraising advice, AI-generated campaigns, and trial-and-error in front of donors aren't savings; they're expenses that never appear on a budget line. I walk through what DIY fundraising actually costs in time, momentum, donor relationships, and delayed campaigns, and share stories from clients like Mary who went from raising just $3,000 in her year-end to multi-five-figures with one change. You’ll hear about Sophia and Jamie who canceled a gala and raised $20,000 in one simple online campaign, and why investing in a proven system is the fastest path to your first $250K, $500K, and beyond in unrestricted individual donations.

Topics:

• Why DIY fundraising costs more than it saves: in time, donor relationships, and revenue never raised
• The "we can't afford support" loop and why it keeps organizations stuck at the same funding level year after year
• Why AI is making it easier to produce more mediocre fundraising, not better fundraising
• Mary's story: from a $3K year-end campaign to $12K after joining The SPRINT Method™
• Why my clients canceled a gala, raised $20K in weeks, with less work, less overhead, and a lot more fun
• What investing in a fundraising system actually gives you: accountability, community, expert feedback, and a repeatable process

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Dina Besic started Maxwell's Toy Box because her two-year-old son Max wanted a train table in his oncology playroom. Three years later, while working a demanding full-time corporate job, raising two kids, and navigating Max's cancer treatment, she built an organization that has supported over 5,000 children, donated $9,100 directly to families, delivered 8,500 toys, and created 4,064 joy packages for children receiving chemotherapy… and she doubled her fundraising year over year with the support of The SPRINT Method™.

In this episode, Dina shares how she got out of her own way, moved from begging friends and family to running peer-to-peer campaigns and securing corporate sponsorships, and shifted her donors from giving physical toys to unrestricted cash donations. We also talk about the identity shift that changed everything, and what she would tell the version of herself who was terrified to ask.

Topics:

• How 108 donated toys grew into an organization serving thousands of children and families
• Moving supporters from donating physical toys to giving dollars the organization can put to work
• How peer-to-peer fundraising opened the door to corporate sponsorships and new donor acquisition
• Getting out of draft mode when you’re the founder, fundraiser, marketer, and decision-maker
• What doubling fundraising looks like when you have a full-time job, two kids, and a nonprofit to run

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Most nonprofit leaders don't have a strategy problem. They have a complexity problem.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the 5 signs your fundraising campaign has gotten too complicated to actually launch, and what to do instead. From planning that never ends, to waiting for the perfect story, to campaigns so exhausting that nobody wants to do them again, these are the patterns I see most often in small and solo-led organizations (and every single one of them is fixable!). If your campaigns feel like a production, if your board needs to approve every subject line, or if the last fundraiser left your team too tired to run another one, this episode will show you exactly what's getting in the way and how to get out of your own way before year-end arrives.

Topics:

• Why planning can quietly replace actual fundraising
• What happens when you build the graphics before the message is clear
• How too many opinions weaken the campaign
• Why waiting for the perfect story keeps you stuck
• The sign that your campaign is too exhausting to repeat

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

I recently spent a full day with one of the healthiest nonprofit boards I've ever seen, spread across the country, meeting mostly virtually, with 100% attendance, full fundraising participation, and zero circular conversations. And by the end of the day, I realized there was one thing this executive director never once did. It's probably the thing you're doing the most. In this episode, I share 7 lessons from that experience that every nonprofit leader needs to hear: from how great board meetings start weeks before anyone arrives, to why connection isn't a nice-to-have but actual infrastructure, to the most common mistake executive directors make that quietly turns their board into their managers. If your board is disengaged, inconsistent, or draining more than it's building, this episode will show you exactly why and what to change starting today.

Topics:

• Why great board meetings start weeks before the meeting, and what an impeccable board packet actually looks like
• How clear expectations create 100% attendance and real accountability, even across a fully virtual board
• The most expensive mistake executive directors make: training their board to manage them instead of leading with CEO energy
• Why not every board member's idea should become a strategy, and how to honor input without losing focus
• Why the connection between board members isn't a nice-to-have; it's the infrastructure that makes everything else work
• How fundraising becomes a culture, not a committee, and what "done" looks like on a high-performing board

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

What does it look like when a nonprofit team thinks like a business, not a charity?

In this episode, I sit down with the powerhouse team behind Kids Hub Child Advocacy Center: founder and CEO DiDi Ellis, Director of Development Erica Smith, and Donor Relations Manager Paige Thames. In 11 years, Kids Hub has grown from 1 paid employee to 21, from 1,300 square feet to nearly 7,000, and from grant-dependent to running one of the most creative individual donor programs I've heard of, including a Power of 100 Women giving circle that raised $149,000 this year alone. We dig into how they think about donor acquisition in a rural southern community, why the chicken plant became one of their sponsors, how they tell emotionally compelling stories without ever showing a child's face, and why Paige says fundraisers have the cushiest job in the building and should act like it. This conversation will change how you think about the ask. All of it.

Topics:

• The Power of 100 Women giving circle: from $0 to $149K and how peer-to-peer became their #1 donor acquisition pipeline
• Why a chicken plant, a yeast company, and a paper mill are now sponsors, and the mindset that made the ask possible
• How to tell emotionally compelling stories when you can never show a child's face or share specific details
• Building donor relationships that go beyond the gift: volunteer days, feedback conversations, and year-round connection
• The relay race model: splitting donor acquisition and donor retention between two people with different gifts
• Why DiDi paid cash for a $680K renovation while still raising the money, and what that business mindset means for any nonprofit

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Most nonprofit leaders play it too safe. In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on why a little “healthy delusion” might be the missing ingredient in your fundraising and leadership success. You’ll learn why being overly realistic can quietly cap your revenue potential, and how the right dose of ambitious, slightly unreasonable belief in your vision can get you into rooms, conversations, and opportunities you didn’t think were possible. This isn’t about ignoring reality. It’s about expanding it.

Topics:

• Defining “healthy delusion”: What it means and why it works for nonprofit leaders
• Breaking free from playing small: How being “too realistic” keeps you in the same lane year after year
• Why wait for evidence before acting slows your growth
• Real client wins sparked by leaning into healthy delusion
• How to test bigger asks, expand your network, and approach opportunities without self-disqualifying

This is part two of a two-part mindset series we're re-releasing.

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

Something is missing in your recipe for success. Not a tool. Not a strategy. But something deeper: your inner grit. This isn’t about hustling harder or pushing yourself until you burn out. It’s about the strength you draw on when you’re tired, when the campaign feels heavy, when the grant report is due, and when your to-do list is longer than your capacity.

In this episode, I’m sharing why grit matters just as much as skill in fundraising, the mindset shifts that make it sustainable, and how to build your own reserve of inner strength so you can lead with clarity, joy, and resilience, even when the work gets hard. If you’ve ever felt like you’re running on fumes or questioning if you’ve got what it takes, this episode will remind you: you do. You just need to reconnect with it.

Topics:

• Why inner grit is the missing ingredient in many nonprofit leaders’ success
• How grit differs from hustle culture (and why that matters)
• Practical ways to build mental and emotional resilience
• The connection between grit and long-term fundraising success
• Signs you’re running low on grit (and what to do about it)
• Why skill without grit leads to stalled progress
• How to rally yourself when you’re tired, overwhelmed, or uninspired

This is part one of a two-part mindset series we're re-releasing. Listen to this, then go straight to Episode 207.

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links

What does it look like when a 35-year-old organization that has never fundraised decides to go all in on individual donors?

In this special episode recorded live at GiveCon, I sit down with Penn Street, returning podcast guest, Development & Outreach Director at Aftersight, and host of The Blind Chick podcast. Penn walks us through Aftersight's transformation from a grant-only model to running successful sprint campaigns, including a $20K in 20 Days campaign that exceeded its goal and changed how the entire organization thinks about fundraising. We also dig into something most nonprofits completely overlook: accessibility as a revenue strategy. Penn makes the case that blind and low vision donors have money and want to give it to you, but your fundraising materials, events, and technology are making it impossible. Plus we talk about turning podcast audiences into email subscribers, using past guests as Social Street Team® members, and why your volunteer list might be the most underused donor pipeline in your organization.

Topics:

• How Aftersight went from zero individual fundraising to exceeding its first $20K in 20 Days campaign goal
• Why your podcast guests, volunteers, and past event attendees are untapped donor pipelines
• Using lead magnets to move podcast listeners into your email list, and why that matters for campaigns
• Accessibility as a revenue strategy: what nonprofit events and emails are missing and what it's costing them
• The Social Street Team® method is applied to an organization with a national and international audience
• Live Q&A: lapsed donor strategy, CRM migration, and alt text for inclusive email storytelling

For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.

Bloomerang is the complete donor, volunteer, and fundraising management solution that helps thousands of nonprofits like yours. Book your demo here. Read The 2026 Giving Signals Report here.

Enrollment is open now, and you can save $500 during this launch, get the Year-End Bonus Bundle, and ticket to our live fall planning workshop.

Go to splendidcourses.com/sprint and join us.

Resources:

• Easy Emails For Impact™: The $5K+ Fundraising Campaign System
• Purpose & Profit Club® Fundraising + Marketing Accelerator
• The SPRINT Method™: Your shortcut to 10K fundraisers
• Instagram, LinkedIn, website , weekly newsletter
• [FREE] The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide: Stop getting ignored. Start raising more.
  
  May contain affiliate links