Send us a text In this short session with the Canadian Cancer Society and FundraiseUp, you’ll hear why people are less forgiving of nonprofits than they are consumer brands when they're letting go of their hard earned money. The nonprofit sector as a whole remains years, if not decades, behind ecommerce in their efforts to remove friction from the transaction. But new data shows that it's imperative to address this mindset shift with urgency. Don’t miss out on next year’s Build Good Summit. Get ...
Jul 23, 2025•20 min
Send us a text This fast-paced excerpt from a workshop at the Build Good Summit dives into journey mapping as a powerful strategy to cultivate donor relationships and build a supporter-centric organization. Designed for forward-thinking leaders in social impact, the session offers hands-on insights into using journey mapping to create a seamless, tech-enabled approach to engaging donors, advocates, and supporters. Participants will explore the essentials of 21st-century journey mapping, incorpor...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Send us a text Most fundraisers ask: Who do I send this appeal to? But the better question is, What appeal do I send to this person? We all recognize people are different—yet fundraising relies on a one-size-fits-all approach. Traditional segmentation—internal labels, past giving, or vague attitudinal groupings—fails to capture what truly drives a donor to give. And it’s not as simple as testing Issue A vs. Issue B to see which one "wins." That’s still a one-size-fits-all approach in disguise. D...
Jul 09, 2025•33 min
Send us a text Fundraising is at a crossroads. Donor trust is eroding, retention rates are plummeting, and yet, charities continue to rely on the same high-volume, bottom-of-the-funnel tactics—more asks, more urgency, more chasing. But what if the solution isn’t asking more, but becoming something donors want to say yes to? On today’s episode, we listen in to a recorded session from the Build Good Summit where we explored why trust is the most valuable (and perhaps only) asset fundraisers have l...
Jul 02, 2025•37 min
Send us a text The way we’ve been doing fundraising events might be all wrong. We often focus so much on what happens at the event that we miss the bigger picture: what happens before and after matters just as much—if not more. In this episode, we explore how to use the fundraising flywheel to make your events work harder for you and leave less money (and momentum) on the table. We get into: Why your event shouldn’t be a one-night stand (for your fundraising strategy). How to think about your ev...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Send us a text After longing for the kind of event we wanted to attend, we decided to create it ourselves. Today, Hannah and Mike walk through why we’re launching The Build Good Summit , an in-person fundraising summit in downtown Toronto happening May 22-23, 2025. The lack of world-class fundraising conferences in Canada has left fundraisers with two choices: spend thousands of dollars to attend conferences elsewhere, or miss out altogether. We’re putting an end to that. When you attend the Bui...
Jan 22, 2025•37 min
Send us a text Today we're celebrating our 100th episode! Come sit down for a fireside chat (complete with Diet Coke) to share the honest story of how this podcast started, where it's headed, and what that means for BuildGood—and for you. Mike gets real about why the original podcast strategy was completely wrong—and why that might’ve been the best thing that could’ve happened. In today’s chat you’ll also hear how BuildGood has grown from a solo consultant to a team of 15 passionate fundraisers....
Nov 27, 2024•43 min
Send us a text Today we’re launching the Build Good Summit, and introducing the first speaker—Nathan Hill from NextAfter. Nathan and the NextAfter team recently analyzed how the fundraising of 211 nonprofits impacts donor retention. And in today’s chat, he’s sharing 3 key things you can do to retain more donors—backed by research and actual donor data. If you want to get fresh ideas to grow your revenue—and get together with other fundraisers who are doing interesting and innovative things to dr...
Oct 30, 2024•40 min
Send us a text Today, BuildGood’s resident fundraising copywriter delivers a masterclass in how to craft fundraising copy that leads people toward greater generosity. Hannah Vermeer gets into simple, easy and effective ways you can change the words you use in your fundraising—and changing the words you use is free. It costs you nothing. Whether it’s making your donor feel like they have an important and meaningful role to play, or crafting copy that’s easy to read and emotionally resonant, you’l...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr
Send us a text If you’re tired of riding the revenue rollercoaster—where your nonprofit’s cash flow is always dependent on a few key fundraising campaigns during the year— your big opportunity is building a strong monthly giving program Growing recurring giving not only smoothes out your cash flow year round, it also increases the lifetime giving of your donors. And it’s a direct pipeline to mid-level, major and legacy gifts. But building a strong monthly giving program requires some thought and...
Jul 17, 2024•46 min
Send us a text “Always be testing”. That’s popular fundraising advice. After all, the only way to get new insights to grow your fundraising is to try new stuff, test, iterate and optimize. But how do you decide what to test? How do you set up a proper A/B test? And how do you make sure you learn something meaningful from it? That’s what we get into in today's chat with Ronen Tal, the Director of Integrated Marketing and Fundraising at Nature Conservancy of Canada. He stewards a donor file of 40,...
Jun 26, 2024•48 min
Send us a text Social media isn’t working for most nonprofits. If you’re watching your engagement drop while spending hours on content creation, you're likely about ready to give up on social media for good. And no one would blame you. That’s why we’re continuing our series on new donor acquisition by talking about these challenges head-on. We’re talking to Brynne Krispin from Cause Fokus about how to tap into the power of empathy to actually find supporters online through social media. In our c...
May 15, 2024•34 min
Send us a text In our ongoing series on new donor acquisition, we’re talking to one of Canada’s most sought after advertising specialists about how to use Google ads to boost your fundraising. Kevin Harwood manages more than $10m in ad spend for nonprofits across North America, and is at the forefront of what is working…and isn’t. On today’s show, we get into: How to think about online advertising (hint: it’s not about an immediate return on your investment) What options your nonprofit has when ...
May 08, 2024•45 min
Send us a text We’re continuing our series on new donor acquisition—and today we’re getting into the basics of how you can use the Google Ad Grant to attract potential donors through digital content offers. The truth is, most nonprofits aren’t taking full advantage of the Google Ad Grant because they don’t know it works, or because they don’t have a clear strategy on how to use it. In today’s chat, Chris Barlow gets into everything you need to know to get started with the grant—and he also share...
Apr 17, 2024•48 min
Send us a text Have you ever used paid Facebook and Instagram ads to support your fundraising? Ads can supercharge your donor acquisition strategy, but they can also be a little scary if you’re just starting out—and if you’re new to digital marketing. To continue our series on new donor acquisition, we’re chatting with Dana Snyder from Positive Equation, host of the Missions To Movements podcast and Creator of the Monthly Giving Mastermind. Her mission is to equip nonprofits with the knowledge o...
Apr 03, 2024•37 min
Send us a text So you want to find new donors online? Then this is a foundational podcast episode for you to listen to. We’re beginning our series on online new donor acquisition with a master of digital fundraising: Jeff Giddens from NextAfter. In our chat, we get into: Why sending prospective donors to a donation page might not be effective if you want to actually get a first gift from someone Why trying to understand donors is a better strategy than trying to get them to understand your cause...
Mar 20, 2024•54 min
Send us a text You need to retain donors if you want to grow sustainably—but you also need to find new donors. It seems simple enough, but we all want to skip to the “growing revenue” part without investing in both acquisition and retention. It doesn’t work. I’ve tried. You need to work on both, consistently and reliably. If you’re a listener of this show, you already know that listening to donors, engaging them, asking, celebrating and reporting is the best way to keep more of your donors conne...
Mar 06, 2024•38 min
Send us a text Many nonprofits want to see 10-20% growth (or more!) year over year—and are tasking their fundraising team to make it happen without a clear-eyed view of what it takes. It’s not that sustained growth is unrealistic, but it becomes harder to raise more money year after year without investing resources (read: money and time!) in the right things to support that growth. On today’s podcast, we’re going to do a bit of easy math together to see if you’re prepared to meet your growth goa...
Feb 08, 2024•30 min
Send us a text In today’s episode, we dive into the 5 key elements of crafting a winning and simple fundraising plan using the pre-loaded year methodology. It’s the same method we teach in the Fundraising Academy—and the same method we use with clients in our agency work. A lot of organizations struggle to create simple and actionable plans they can execute on. That’s because for most small-to-mid sized nonprofits, complicated plans are…well, too complex to actually want to take action on. But w...
Jan 24, 2024•35 min
Send us a text Do you feel like you have a focused fundraising strategy? Or does it feel like you’re being asked to do something else every few months? Have you—or your leadership—been so derailed by that shiny, new opportunity (looking at you, TikTok) that you lose sight of what's important? A strategic plan might help—if you approach it the right way. Now, let’s be honest, you might already have a plan in place. It might be sitting on a shelf. Gathering dust. It might just be a long list of lo...
Nov 15, 2023•44 min
Send us a text Today’s show is a special episode—a bit of a global journey of fundraising and discovery with one of Canada’s well known fundraisers. Fresh off a trip to Europe—including stops in Romania, Slovakia and Holland—Michael Johnston joins us to have a chat about what the social impact sector outside of North America looks like. And what we can learn from it. Michael was trained as a NATO analyst but ended up a direct mail fundraiser in 1987. Many books and clients later, he now works in...
Nov 01, 2023•41 min
Send us a text What if you could create content for your ads, emails and social media that reached more people than organizations that have 10X your budget? In our part 2 with Cameron Bartlett, we’ll into the formulas he’s used to reach over 125,000,000 people for social good. And the best part? These frameworks work to build an engaged following, whether you have a team of 20—or it's just you. Cameron has helped hundreds of charities like yours fundraise way more, by creating journeys that guid...
Sep 20, 2023•55 min
Send us a text More people would give to your organization, if they could only find you. We know ads, emails, and organic social are great ways to reach new potential donors. But some of the scrappiest, most creative nonprofits use SEO to attract new supporters to grow their cause. How? On this week’s BuildGood Live, we’re revealing the playbook you can use to optimize your nonprofit’s online content so you can start attracting new donors. Cameron Bartlett has helped hundreds of charities like y...
Aug 23, 2023•51 min
Send us a text We live in the golden age of digital fundraising—the most efficient ecosystem in which to test, learn and refine. Digital has immense power to drive strategies that scale and connect deeply with our donors. AND it plays nicely with so many other channels, including direct mail. Yet most organizations use it backwards. Instead of leading with digital, they’re bolting on digital strategies on the back end of other efforts, hoping to get a boost. So how can we learn to lead with digi...
Aug 09, 2023•51 min
Send us a text Can the way you lead internally make your fundraising more effective? On today’s podcast, we chat with Evan Wildstein about 10 core behaviours of servant leaders—and how they might just improve the way you fundraise. Behaviours like listening, empathy, healing, building community, and much more. We’ll also get into some super practical ways to activate servant-leadership in your own shop to boost philanthropy. For 20 years, Evan has been a nonprofiteer, raising funds and developin...
Jul 26, 2023•53 min
Send us a text You’ve likely heard that the donor should be the hero in your fundraising messaging. The phrase had a noble intent. It was meant to encourage us to shift our perspective away from meeting revenue targets, and toward finding alignment with our ideal donors’ goals and values. But over time, it became misunderstood. Misconstrued. And misapplied. The “donor as hero” metaphor turned into “the donor is always right”—causing some organizations to do real harm. So is it time to think abou...
Jul 13, 2023•47 min
Send us a text If you’ve ever tried running Facebook and Instagram ads to attract new donors, you may have realized it isn’t all that easy. Truth is, an effective paid ads strategy for nonprofits trying to attract new donors is a lot different than running ads for for-profits that are selling products. Yet most of the information you’ll find on running online ads is geared toward for-profits. On today’s BG Live, we’re getting into how you can start to acquire new donors with Meta ads—without was...
Jun 28, 2023•52 min
Send us a text Email remains one of the most effective digital fundraising channels—but how do you know you’re doing it right? How do you balance asking for money, showing gratitude, reporting back on impact and surveying your donors? How much email is too much…or too little? On this week’s BG Live, we’re helping you audit your email marketing strategy—and give you some surefire ways to increase donor engagement. We’re talking with Katelyn Baughan, the owner of KB Digital – a nonprofit email mar...
Jun 14, 2023•53 min
Send us a text How do you evaluate your email campaigns? If you’re a nonprofit—especially one that doesn’t raise tens of millions every year—you may have a hard time finding benchmarks from organizations like yours. Most of the data on benchmarks and proven practices comes from either very large organizations or from for-profit companies. Until now. On this week’s BuildGood Live, we’re talking to Tim Sarrantonio from Neon ONE about the new Nonprofit Email Report. Tim and his team analyzed key em...
May 03, 2023•1 hr
Send us a text As passionate fundraisers, we’re all pretty good at thinking about how to talk to donors. But sometimes, we're not the best listeners. On this week’s BG Live, we’re joined by Just McCord from RKD about a brand new donor study that listened to donors across a variety of causes. Turns out, donors need us to listen more. In our chat, we’ll talk about: 1. What donors say makes for strong relationships. 2. What donors say they want from their favourite causes. 3. Two key emotions that ...
Apr 19, 2023•55 min
