April 2, 2025 • 27 mins
Today’s episode is a peek behind the curtain of my recent virtual Monthly Giving Summit. The good, the surprising, and everything in between! With a team of 6 handling strategic planning and marketing, we ended up with 31 speakers and 4,693 registrants from 58 countries!
I’ll share what we paid in speaker fees, the secrets behind our marketing approach, why simple, no-frills video ads work, and how a $2,500 investment in paid ads generated 26% of our total registrations at just $2.04 per registration.
Plus, my combo of email marketing, influencer partnerships, speaker collabs, and strategic outreach that led to a 50% live show-up rate at the summit.
If you’ve ever dreamed of hosting a virtual event that truly moves the needle, this episode is your blueprint. You don't need a massive operation to create meaningful impact — just a genuine desire to serve your community.
Resources & Links
Thank you to our amazing partners who made the Monthly Giving Summit possible: Givebutter, FundraiseUp, MissionWired, Tatango, iDonate, and DonorPerfect.
I used LettrLabs to send thank you notes to speakers.
This show is brought to you by iDonate. Your donation page is leaking donors, and iDonate's new pop-up donation form is here to fix that. See it in action. Launch the interactive demo here and experience how a well-timed form captures donors in the moment they care most.
Let's Connect!
- Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!
- My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
- Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the most successful channels was our paid
social media strategy, so weinvested about $2,500 on meta
ads, which brought in 1,228registrations.
That ended up being 26% of ourtotal registrants, and what's
(00:21):
incredible is that we achievedan average cost per registration
of just $2.04.
I mean, that is phenomenallylow.
I'm Dana Snyder, your host ofthe Missions to Movements
podcast, and my path tophilanthropy has been anything
but traditional.
This show is your weeklymastermind, designed to give you
(00:44):
the ideas, insights and supportyou need to push the boundaries
of what's been done before innonprofit marketing and
fundraising.
Whether you're looking to builda magnetic monthly giving
program, elevate your personalbrand or create partnerships
that amplify your impact, thisspace is for you.
I'll bring you solo episodesand conversations with industry
(01:07):
leaders offering actionablestrategies and fresh
perspectives that will move youand your mission forward.
Let's turn your mission into amovement.
Welcome to Missions toMovements.
I'm your host, dana Snyder, andtoday I'm going to take you
behind the curtain of our recentmonthly giving summit the good,
(01:30):
the surprising, the everythingin between.
So if you have ever wonderedwhat it takes to put together,
if you've been consideringputting together a virtual event
that attracts thousands ofpeople from around the world or
in your local community.
You're in for a treat, becauseI'm going to just share the
behind the scenes, from ourmarketing approach to attendee
(01:52):
insights and everything welearned along the way.
I am sharing it all in hopesthat it can be beneficial to you
when you are putting on yournext event, or it will inspire
you to maybe think about puttingtogether an event around your
cause area.
So a little bit of context.
We had 4,693 nonprofitprofessionals from 58 countries
(02:15):
register for the Monthly GivingSummit, so a truly global reach.
The event was two half days.
It was on February 26th and27th from 1 to 4 pm Eastern time
.
We really love that format.
It allows for West Coast peopleto join and not be too early in
the morning.
It allows for people to get ahalf day of work done and I
(02:36):
found that it's a really goodtimeframe for people to commit
to.
For more context, just back inSeptember, we did the first
annual monthly giving summit.
So yes, we are slightly crazyand doing two back-to-back
events like six months apart,but hey, we had a really good
time.
So back in September, we had2,100 registrants from 47
(02:58):
countries, so that's a prettybig leap in growth, which was
incredible.
So let's start with ourmarketing approach, because,
honestly, the results blew meaway.
One of the most successfulchannels was our paid social
media strategy.
So we invested about $2,500 onmeta ads, which brought in 1,228
(03:23):
registrations.
That ended up being 26% of ourtotal registrants, and what's
incredible is that we achievedan average cost per registration
of just $2.04.
I mean, that is phenomenallylow for a specialized event like
this virtual.
(03:44):
The ad itself that performed thebest and I ended up running
across the board was supercasual.
It was a video.
It was just me talking directlyto camera with an immediate
hook.
I was actually sitting in myliving room on a chair, I had a
sweater on, it was so cash andthe immediate hook started with
60 new monthly donors in onenight.
(04:06):
So then, from there, I sharedsome teasers about the case
studies that attendees wouldhear at the event.
Seriously, no fancy production,just really authentic
excitement about what we wereoffering.
I was holding my phone in myhand.
There was no tripod, there wasno.
I don't even think I had aspecial mic like literally no
frills.
(04:26):
So that was the social ad part,and I will talk a little bit
later about the full circle ofthose specific attendees.
But we didn't rely solely onpaid ads.
15% of registrations came frommy own email list and LinkedIn
network, maybe even this podcast.
What was really interestingthis time around was the steady
(04:50):
flow of signups, so we wereseeing 50 to 100 plus new
registrations every single day.
I think that might have beenbecause how the ads were
performing, probably because wealso had buzz from the first
time of doing this event.
There was a little bit ofproven success that people
really enjoyed the firstexperience, so they were sharing
(05:10):
it with people.
I also tried something new withinfluencer partnerships, so I
talked about this in one of myearlier episodes in working with
content creators, and so I tooka little bit of my own advice
and I approached other nonprofitconsultants and offered them
either a flat rate based ontheir email list size or a cost
(05:32):
per lead of $4, which ishonestly where I projected our
meta ads would come in at waslike $4 to $6.
And so I sent those proposalsout before I realized that meta
would actually come in cheaper.
I sent those proposals outbefore I realized that meta
would actually come in cheaperand that strategy of influencer
partnerships accounted for about10% of our registrations, and
(05:59):
one of my favorite tactics wasactually partnering with
speakers to create mini teaservideos where they shared a bit
about their presentation topicand then I would jump in, so it
was like a split video to invitepeople to the summit, and these
videos worked really great forboth social media and ads.
So if you go on my Instagramaccount or LinkedIn, it's a
really great place to see kindof what I'm referring to, where
it's this speaker talking, firstthere's a hook and then it jump
(06:21):
cuts to me talking with theactual invite to the summit, and
then it jump cuts to me talkingwith the actual invite to the
summit and I almost forgot.
This is a simple but effectivetactic that can often be
overlooked.
I searched for top nonprofitconferences online and I saw
which blogs and websites werepublishing these lists and I
reached out to be added,especially at the beginning of
(06:43):
the year, since this event is inFebruary, so many people are
planning out their calendars andso they're looking at all of
these recommended lists, andsince this was only the second
annual monthly giving summit, weweren't automatically on
people's radar to be on theselists yet.
So I just found who the writerwas reached out on LinkedIn or
if I had a personal contact withthe organization and asked if
(07:06):
we could be added, sent them alittle blurb and the logo of the
event and they put it on, whichwas really cool.
So hopefully we will beconsidered for 2026.
Then we had our partnerspromotion, which accounted for
23% of registrations, whichreally shows the power of
strategic partnerships.
And when I'm talking aboutpartner promotion, these are the
(07:28):
official partners of themonthly giving summit.
So they had breakout sessionsand they were speaking during
the event and they wereincredible.
Last thing, on marketing, what'sparticularly impressive was the
live show up rate.
So overall, we had a live showup rate of 50%, which is
incredible.
I'll go into more of that in asecond.
(07:48):
But the live show up rate fromthe cold audience that came
through social ads was 33%.
30%, I think, is good.
On an overall event average,33% of these cold social leads
attended live, which is amazing,especially because it's a free
event.
It's a virtual event frompeople who have never heard of
(08:11):
me us this event before.
Now let's jump into attendeeinsights.
So people who actually showedup.
So again, we had 4,693 totalpeople register Truly incredible
.
When we asked registrants whattopics they were most interested
in learning about duringregistration.
The results were alsointeresting.
(08:33):
Over half 55.5% to be exactwanted to learn about acquiring
new monthly donors.
Starting a monthly givingprogram came in second, at 20%,
and then integrating monthlygiving with other fundraising
strategies was third, at 13.5%.
What I thought was reallyinteresting is that only 5% and
(08:55):
if you're one of these people,only 5% listed retaining
existing monthly donors as theirtop interest.
So I thought that wascompelling, because retention,
to me, is the most important,because you don't want to have a
whole bunch of new people comein and then not have them stick
with you.
So I would hope to see that goup further down the line.
But if a lot of organizationsare at the beginning of their
(09:17):
monthly giving journey, thenthat might be why that makes
sense.
If a lot of organizations areat the beginning of their
monthly giving journey, thenthat might be why that makes
sense.
The challenges that werereported aligned with these
interests as well.
Nearly 54% of their biggestchallenge was difficulty
attracting new monthly donors,followed by limited resources
for marketing their program at18.4% and integration challenges
at 13.7%.
So the alignment between whatpeople want to learn and the
(09:39):
challenges they're facing reallyvalidated our content strategy
and it revealed a lot oforganizations.
Many of you are still in earlystages of your monthly giving
journey and so really excited towork on new content for you
coming down the pipeline.
About 67% of registrantsreported annual online revenue
(10:00):
under $100K and 69% were juststarting their monthly giving
programs.
So lots of people in the entryspace to work.
And then 3% had more than10,000 monthly donors.
So this really tells us there'sa huge opportunity to help
organizations build and scalethese programs from the ground
(10:21):
up.
So lots of movement that canhappen there.
The event itself was a hugesuccess.
As I mentioned before, we had a50% live show up rate, which is
exceptional for a free virtualevent.
What's even more impressive wasthe engagement, so attendees
spent an average of four hoursand 24 minutes with us out of a
six-hour total event.
This is congruent with what wesaw in September.
(10:44):
So it was really cool for us todo it again and it wasn't just
a fluke.
We featured 31 incrediblespeakers across our various
sessions.
Of these, 18 were paid speakers.
The other ones were partners.
Our speaker investment strategyis really thoughtful.
Thank you to our partners.
(11:05):
We pay all of our speakers.
It doesn't matter if they havea 15, it's a 15 to 30 minute
panel session or a case study,and they get to choose.
Either it's sent as a donationto their organization or paid
directly, and so we pay $250 forthat, and then $750 for our
30-minute keynote, and this yearwe just had one, in September
(11:28):
we had three.
So in total we invested about$5,000 in speaker fees.
I think that's probably aboutright and so thrilled to do that
and we'll continue to do that.
After the event, we sentpersonalized thank you cards to
all of the speakers throughLetter Labs, which is a nice
personal touch that I like to doto make sure that they feel
seen and appreciated.
(11:49):
During the event, the chat wasfire.
Actually, at the end in thereport section, somebody said
the chat was moving so fast Icouldn't keep up.
That's a good thing for us,right?
This was an incredible sense ofcommunity really forming in
real time.
Organizations were sharingtheir experiences, they asked
(12:10):
questions, they connected witheach other.
I just wrapped a phone callwith one of the partners and
they were like there was just somuch joy, and that can be
really rare, also in a virtualevent presence.
To uplift joy, we loveincorporating giveaways
throughout the summit.
So with these giveaways we areeither covering shipping costs
or the full cost of items or wesplit 50% with partners.
(12:34):
So these moments of reallysurprise and delight keep
engagement high throughout theentire event, and I think our
email strategy played a big rolein the high attendance rate too
.
So we sent multiple remindersone hour before, another hour
after it started, on day one, aday one recap just to like get
the buzz in case they weren'tthere for day one, and then day
(12:56):
two reminders 30 minutes before.
And then day two reminders 30minutes before and then an after
the fact wrap up.
So the idea was that thissequence kept the event top of
mind without it also beingoverwhelming and just showcasing
the value.
And I don't have specificnumbers on this yet, but, like
immediately, we had anoverwhelming group of people
going to the replays.
(13:16):
Once we published the replays,day one went live like the night
, I think, after the event ended, and then day two recaps were
the following week.
So that was really exciting tosee.
People were going in andwatching full sessions back, and
none of this would be possiblewithout our amazing partners who
(13:38):
made this event possible.
So GiveButter, fundraiseup,missionwired, tatango, idonate
and DonorPerfect.
Now, these partners didn't justprovide their financial support
.
They really brought valuableexpertise to our attendees
throughout their sessions andtheir resources Many of them
they helped promote the event totheir networks, which
contributed to the amazing reach.
(13:58):
And one of the favorite areasof the event is actually our
Expo TED Talk-like sessions, andthese are 15-minute quickfire
thought leadership sessionsbrought by our partners and
continues to be a highlight ofthe event, and it's always about
genuine value to attendees, notpromotional content, but what
(14:19):
can they actually teach andprovide education on.
So these sessions areconsistently rated the most
helpful by attendees becausethey're focused on practical
solutions, and I think that's areally big difference about our
event.
So, speaking of attendeefeedback, I do want to share
some of the post-event surveyresults.
When asked how likely theywould be to recommend this event
(14:41):
to a friend or colleague, on ascale of 1 to 10, we received an
average score of 9.1.
So I will say that's incrediblyvalidating, especially for a
free event in its second year.
We asked attendees about whatwere their favorite parts of the
summit and the responses werewonderfully varied.
What were their favorite partsof the summit?
And the responses werewonderfully varied.
(15:01):
Many loved the case study roomsand the breakout sessions,
especially the ones that weresegmented by program size, which
allowed them to learn fromorganizations similar to their
own.
The pre-launch to 500 monthlydonor session with Lisa and
Courtney was specificallymentioned multiple times, so
shout out to you both.
If you are listening, youcrushed it.
(15:22):
Attendees consistently praisethe energy and the enthusiasm of
all of our speakers.
Liz Forkin Bohannon's keynoteon big dream energy was a hit, a
very popular highlight for many, and several attendees
mentioned that they appreciatedthe very practical, actionable
advice that could be implementedimmediately.
And then what really stood outon the feedback and this is
(15:46):
really quintessential to themonthly giving summit is how
much people valued the sense ofcommunity, and this is super
important to us.
The chat was described as onfire, with over 10,000 messages
exchanged.
Many smaller nonprofitsexpressed gratitude that the
event was free, saying theywouldn't have been able to
participate otherwise.
And then, of course, we askedfor suggestions on how to
(16:09):
improve for next year, and soseveral attendees actually
recommended having longerbreakout sessions.
There was just so manyquestions in the rooms that they
didn't want to feel rushed.
There have been requests formore networking opportunities
and ways to connect with otherattendees because the chat was
so fast moving and some wantedit even more content
(16:32):
specifically tailored to thedifferent organization sizes and
stages of monthly giving.
So amazing, wonderful feedbackfor us to take and work on and,
interestingly, several alsomanaged.
I'd love to see handouts ordownloadable resources to
accompany the presentations.
So, trust me, we are taking allof this feedback to heart as we
(16:52):
are working on planning fornext year's summit, and let this
be a fact that we actuallylisten and we read all of your
responses, so I wanted to shareall of that.
Could not happen an event atthis scale without an incredible
team working behind the scenes,and I want to give you a
glimpse into what this lookslike, because we are I said this
(17:14):
during the summit a lean andmean machine.
I think there can be thisperception sometimes when we
look at events like this, thatwow, they must have had a ton of
people doing all this stuff,and that is not true.
So what it looked like is acore team, including myself.
Kat, who's on my team, whomanaged most of our speaker and
partner relations she is mydirector of operations and
(17:37):
partnerships manager, julie, youmight know from we Are For Good
, came over and was amazing asour producer.
I hired Julie for both preptime and to run the actual event
, and her experience wasinvaluable in making that
seamless.
We also had our VA, who waspretty much completely dedicated
(17:57):
to the Monthly Giving Summitwork for a full month when she
started.
Plus, we had an intern Shoutout to UCF.
They both started literallylike weeks before the monthly
giving summit, so they werepretty much dedicated to that.
And then we also hired CaitlinWhitaker for additional event
support, which is incredible.
She helped us with the lastmonthly giving summit and so
(18:19):
that was our team.
So me, kat, julie, va, intern,caitlin so six, and I would say
it was basically Kat and I, ornot, basically it was.
It was Kat and I leading allthe way up to like the two weeks
beforehand, so you can do it,and we had 31 speakers.
(18:40):
So this was definitely a largechunk of our time was putting
all of this together and what Ilove to do.
So if you have obviously abunch of other stuff going on
that you have to manage withprograms, I would definitely
consider hiring somebodypart-time or contractor that can
help you build it all out andthen you have a bigger team to
(19:03):
make it all happen when you getto the main month or a couple
weeks out.
And one small but, I think,important detail is I love, love
, love and so value my team.
I sent them DoorDash gift cardsfor helping during those two
really intensive event days sothey could get lunch delivered
and not have to worry about it,and I think those little things
(19:24):
really matter when you're askingfor people to be like quote
unquote on for three hoursstraight for two days,
especially during kind of alunch hour.
So key takeaways what did welearn from putting together this
summit?
First, authenticity andmarketing works.
Our highest performing ads werenot slick, fancy productions,
(19:48):
it was a genuine me in my livingroom conversation that truly
connected with our audience'sreal needs.
Second, partnerships are sopowerful Between our sponsors
and our influencercollaborations.
We reached audiences we nevercould have on our own and I
(20:09):
wouldn't have been able toliterally do this.
I wouldn't have been able topay everybody, I wouldn't have
been able to have the content.
They brought.
So many valuable connections.
I cannot say enough enoughvalue of the partners for this
summit.
So please go visit all theirwebsites.
I'm going to link to all ofthem again in the show notes.
Third, there is clearly amassive need for education
(20:32):
around monthly giving programs,particularly in acquiring donors
and getting programs off theground.
The fact that so manyorganizations are just beginning
and you might be here yourmonthly giving journey just
shows the enormous potential inthis space.
Fourth, investing in quality,diverse speakers is worth it.
(20:57):
The ones doing the work.
Nearly everyone that wasfeatured is from a nonprofit and
doing the work on the groundand we wanted to showcase what
they were doing and I was sograteful that they were willing
to give us a sneak behind thescenes.
So this ensured we proactivelyreached out for diverse expert
(21:18):
voices sharing actionableinsights, rather than there
wasn't, I'm trying to think, anyconsultant voices, which I'm
not saying is a bad thing, butin this specific space and I
might like do more of a balancenext time, but I really love
having the peer element of likewhat they're doing on the ground
(21:38):
and then, finally, creating areally engaged community
experience, even virtually,leads to remarkable
participation.
The live show up rate, the timespent in the event.
This just demonstrated howhungry people were for
connection and practicalknowledge they could implement
(22:00):
immediately.
This is why I shout out to myteam we had significant
conversations about making surethat we were providing resources
in the chat, engaging withpeople, hyping them up, making
sure they felt seen.
(22:20):
That was a dedicated pre-eventdiscussion.
We wanted to make sure thateveryone that was there felt
heard, if they were sending adirect message or just
participating in the chat.
So, as we look ahead to nextyear's summit and maybe we'll do
something in the fall maybe,but I kind of want to do
something in person in Atlanta,if you're down for that, shoot
me a note and let me know we aretaking all of these insights to
(22:40):
make it even more valuable foryou, for the attendees.
I think I will stick withmaking this a 100% free event.
All of the registrants gotaccess to the recordings.
That was a decision that I wasreally proud of.
Thank you again to our partners.
Thank you again to GiveButter,fundraiser, missionwire, tatango
(23:00):
I Donate, donateperfect formaking that possible.
It allowed thousands ofnonprofits who might not have
had the budget for professionaldevelopment to access high
quality training.
So we are just building thisreally engaged community of now
5,000 plus nonprofitprofessionals who are hopefully
(23:21):
better equipped to launch andgrow and sustain their monthly
giving programs.
And, more importantly, I thinkwe've really created a space
that celebrates and elevatesmonthly giving as a really
crucial strategy for nonprofitsustainability.
So the energy, the enthusiasmand the collaborative spirit of
this community is something Icould not have predicted when we
(23:44):
first launched this summit.
So I just want to say thank youto everyone who participated.
I want to say thank you toeveryone who participated, our
incredible speakers, ourgenerous sponsors and, of course
, all of the nonprofitprofessionals who joined us.
If that is you, I'm giving youa high five, I'm giving you a
hug.
Thank you for being there.
Your engagement and yourenthusiasm truly made this event
(24:05):
special.
So that's a wrap on our monthlygiving summit behind the scenes
.
Look.
Wrap on our monthly givingsummit behind the scenes.
Look If you have any questionsabout putting together your own
virtual events or want to learnmore about monthly giving
strategies, shoot us a note,drop us a DM, reach out to me on
LinkedIn.
Head to our website.
So until next time, I hope thiswas helpful and keep creating
(24:29):
sustainable funding for theimportant, so important work
that you do.
Thank you so much for tuninginto today's episode of Missions
to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review wherever you're
listening.
Your feedback helps us reachmore change makers like you and
(24:51):
continue.
Thank you.
One of the most successful channels was our paid
social media strategy, so weinvested about $2,500 on meta
ads, which brought in 1,228registrations.
That ended up being 26% of ourtotal registrants, and what's
(00:21):
incredible is that we achievedan average cost per registration
of just $2.04.
I mean, that is phenomenallylow.
I'm Dana Snyder, your host ofthe Missions to Movements
podcast, and my path tophilanthropy has been anything
but traditional.
This show is your weeklymastermind, designed to give you
(00:44):
the ideas, insights and supportyou need to push the boundaries
of what's been done before innonprofit marketing and
fundraising.
Whether you're looking to builda magnetic monthly giving
program, elevate your personalbrand or create partnerships
that amplify your impact, thisspace is for you.
I'll bring you solo episodesand conversations with industry
(01:07):
leaders offering actionablestrategies and fresh
perspectives that will move youand your mission forward.
Let's turn your mission into amovement.
Welcome to Missions toMovements.
I'm your host, dana Snyder, andtoday I'm going to take you
behind the curtain of our recentmonthly giving summit the good,
(01:30):
the surprising, the everythingin between.
So if you have ever wonderedwhat it takes to put together,
if you've been consideringputting together a virtual event
that attracts thousands ofpeople from around the world or
in your local community.
You're in for a treat, becauseI'm going to just share the
behind the scenes, from ourmarketing approach to attendee
(01:52):
insights and everything welearned along the way.
I am sharing it all in hopesthat it can be beneficial to you
when you are putting on yournext event, or it will inspire
you to maybe think about puttingtogether an event around your
cause area.
So a little bit of context.
We had 4,693 nonprofitprofessionals from 58 countries
(02:15):
register for the Monthly GivingSummit, so a truly global reach.
The event was two half days.
It was on February 26th and27th from 1 to 4 pm Eastern time
.
We really love that format.
It allows for West Coast peopleto join and not be too early in
the morning.
It allows for people to get ahalf day of work done and I
(02:36):
found that it's a really goodtimeframe for people to commit
to.
For more context, just back inSeptember, we did the first
annual monthly giving summit.
So yes, we are slightly crazyand doing two back-to-back
events like six months apart,but hey, we had a really good
time.
So back in September, we had2,100 registrants from 47
(02:58):
countries, so that's a prettybig leap in growth, which was
incredible.
So let's start with ourmarketing approach, because,
honestly, the results blew meaway.
One of the most successfulchannels was our paid social
media strategy.
So we invested about $2,500 onmeta ads, which brought in 1,228
(03:23):
registrations.
That ended up being 26% of ourtotal registrants, and what's
incredible is that we achievedan average cost per registration
of just $2.04.
I mean, that is phenomenallylow for a specialized event like
this virtual.
(03:44):
The ad itself that performed thebest and I ended up running
across the board was supercasual.
It was a video.
It was just me talking directlyto camera with an immediate
hook.
I was actually sitting in myliving room on a chair, I had a
sweater on, it was so cash andthe immediate hook started with
60 new monthly donors in onenight.
(04:06):
So then, from there, I sharedsome teasers about the case
studies that attendees wouldhear at the event.
Seriously, no fancy production,just really authentic
excitement about what we wereoffering.
I was holding my phone in myhand.
There was no tripod, there wasno.
I don't even think I had aspecial mic like literally no
frills.
(04:26):
So that was the social ad part,and I will talk a little bit
later about the full circle ofthose specific attendees.
But we didn't rely solely onpaid ads.
15% of registrations came frommy own email list and LinkedIn
network, maybe even this podcast.
What was really interestingthis time around was the steady
(04:50):
flow of signups, so we wereseeing 50 to 100 plus new
registrations every single day.
I think that might have beenbecause how the ads were
performing, probably because wealso had buzz from the first
time of doing this event.
There was a little bit ofproven success that people
really enjoyed the firstexperience, so they were sharing
(05:10):
it with people.
I also tried something new withinfluencer partnerships, so I
talked about this in one of myearlier episodes in working with
content creators, and so I tooka little bit of my own advice
and I approached other nonprofitconsultants and offered them
either a flat rate based ontheir email list size or a cost
(05:32):
per lead of $4, which ishonestly where I projected our
meta ads would come in at waslike $4 to $6.
And so I sent those proposalsout before I realized that meta
would actually come in cheaper.
I sent those proposals outbefore I realized that meta
would actually come in cheaperand that strategy of influencer
partnerships accounted for about10% of our registrations, and
(05:59):
one of my favorite tactics wasactually partnering with
speakers to create mini teaservideos where they shared a bit
about their presentation topicand then I would jump in, so it
was like a split video to invitepeople to the summit, and these
videos worked really great forboth social media and ads.
So if you go on my Instagramaccount or LinkedIn, it's a
really great place to see kindof what I'm referring to, where
it's this speaker talking, firstthere's a hook and then it jump
(06:21):
cuts to me talking with theactual invite to the summit, and
then it jump cuts to me talkingwith the actual invite to the
summit and I almost forgot.
This is a simple but effectivetactic that can often be
overlooked.
I searched for top nonprofitconferences online and I saw
which blogs and websites werepublishing these lists and I
reached out to be added,especially at the beginning of
(06:43):
the year, since this event is inFebruary, so many people are
planning out their calendars andso they're looking at all of
these recommended lists, andsince this was only the second
annual monthly giving summit, weweren't automatically on
people's radar to be on theselists yet.
So I just found who the writerwas reached out on LinkedIn or
if I had a personal contact withthe organization and asked if
(07:06):
we could be added, sent them alittle blurb and the logo of the
event and they put it on, whichwas really cool.
So hopefully we will beconsidered for 2026.
Then we had our partnerspromotion, which accounted for
23% of registrations, whichreally shows the power of
strategic partnerships.
And when I'm talking aboutpartner promotion, these are the
(07:28):
official partners of themonthly giving summit.
So they had breakout sessionsand they were speaking during
the event and they wereincredible.
Last thing, on marketing, what'sparticularly impressive was the
live show up rate.
So overall, we had a live showup rate of 50%, which is
incredible.
I'll go into more of that in asecond.
(07:48):
But the live show up rate fromthe cold audience that came
through social ads was 33%.
30%, I think, is good.
On an overall event average,33% of these cold social leads
attended live, which is amazing,especially because it's a free
event.
It's a virtual event frompeople who have never heard of
(08:11):
me us this event before.
Now let's jump into attendeeinsights.
So people who actually showedup.
So again, we had 4,693 totalpeople register Truly incredible
.
When we asked registrants whattopics they were most interested
in learning about duringregistration.
The results were alsointeresting.
(08:33):
Over half 55.5% to be exactwanted to learn about acquiring
new monthly donors.
Starting a monthly givingprogram came in second, at 20%,
and then integrating monthlygiving with other fundraising
strategies was third, at 13.5%.
What I thought was reallyinteresting is that only 5% and
(08:55):
if you're one of these people,only 5% listed retaining
existing monthly donors as theirtop interest.
So I thought that wascompelling, because retention,
to me, is the most important,because you don't want to have a
whole bunch of new people comein and then not have them stick
with you.
So I would hope to see that goup further down the line.
But if a lot of organizationsare at the beginning of their
(09:17):
monthly giving journey, thenthat might be why that makes
sense.
If a lot of organizations areat the beginning of their
monthly giving journey, thenthat might be why that makes
sense.
The challenges that werereported aligned with these
interests as well.
Nearly 54% of their biggestchallenge was difficulty
attracting new monthly donors,followed by limited resources
for marketing their program at18.4% and integration challenges
at 13.7%.
So the alignment between whatpeople want to learn and the
(09:39):
challenges they're facing reallyvalidated our content strategy
and it revealed a lot oforganizations.
Many of you are still in earlystages of your monthly giving
journey and so really excited towork on new content for you
coming down the pipeline.
About 67% of registrantsreported annual online revenue
(10:00):
under $100K and 69% were juststarting their monthly giving
programs.
So lots of people in the entryspace to work.
And then 3% had more than10,000 monthly donors.
So this really tells us there'sa huge opportunity to help
organizations build and scalethese programs from the ground
(10:21):
up.
So lots of movement that canhappen there.
The event itself was a hugesuccess.
As I mentioned before, we had a50% live show up rate, which is
exceptional for a free virtualevent.
What's even more impressive wasthe engagement, so attendees
spent an average of four hoursand 24 minutes with us out of a
six-hour total event.
This is congruent with what wesaw in September.
(10:44):
So it was really cool for us todo it again and it wasn't just
a fluke.
We featured 31 incrediblespeakers across our various
sessions.
Of these, 18 were paid speakers.
The other ones were partners.
Our speaker investment strategyis really thoughtful.
Thank you to our partners.
(11:05):
We pay all of our speakers.
It doesn't matter if they havea 15, it's a 15 to 30 minute
panel session or a case study,and they get to choose.
Either it's sent as a donationto their organization or paid
directly, and so we pay $250 forthat, and then $750 for our
30-minute keynote, and this yearwe just had one, in September
(11:28):
we had three.
So in total we invested about$5,000 in speaker fees.
I think that's probably aboutright and so thrilled to do that
and we'll continue to do that.
After the event, we sentpersonalized thank you cards to
all of the speakers throughLetter Labs, which is a nice
personal touch that I like to doto make sure that they feel
seen and appreciated.
(11:49):
During the event, the chat wasfire.
Actually, at the end in thereport section, somebody said
the chat was moving so fast Icouldn't keep up.
That's a good thing for us,right?
This was an incredible sense ofcommunity really forming in
real time.
Organizations were sharingtheir experiences, they asked
(12:10):
questions, they connected witheach other.
I just wrapped a phone callwith one of the partners and
they were like there was just somuch joy, and that can be
really rare, also in a virtualevent presence.
To uplift joy, we loveincorporating giveaways
throughout the summit.
So with these giveaways we areeither covering shipping costs
or the full cost of items or wesplit 50% with partners.
(12:34):
So these moments of reallysurprise and delight keep
engagement high throughout theentire event, and I think our
email strategy played a big rolein the high attendance rate too
.
So we sent multiple remindersone hour before, another hour
after it started, on day one, aday one recap just to like get
the buzz in case they weren'tthere for day one, and then day
(12:56):
two reminders 30 minutes before.
And then day two reminders 30minutes before and then an after
the fact wrap up.
So the idea was that thissequence kept the event top of
mind without it also beingoverwhelming and just showcasing
the value.
And I don't have specificnumbers on this yet, but, like
immediately, we had anoverwhelming group of people
going to the replays.
(13:16):
Once we published the replays,day one went live like the night
, I think, after the event ended, and then day two recaps were
the following week.
So that was really exciting tosee.
People were going in andwatching full sessions back, and
none of this would be possiblewithout our amazing partners who
(13:38):
made this event possible.
So GiveButter, fundraiseup,missionwired, tatango, idonate
and DonorPerfect.
Now, these partners didn't justprovide their financial support
.
They really brought valuableexpertise to our attendees
throughout their sessions andtheir resources Many of them
they helped promote the event totheir networks, which
contributed to the amazing reach.
(13:58):
And one of the favorite areasof the event is actually our
Expo TED Talk-like sessions, andthese are 15-minute quickfire
thought leadership sessionsbrought by our partners and
continues to be a highlight ofthe event, and it's always about
genuine value to attendees, notpromotional content, but what
(14:19):
can they actually teach andprovide education on.
So these sessions areconsistently rated the most
helpful by attendees becausethey're focused on practical
solutions, and I think that's areally big difference about our
event.
So, speaking of attendeefeedback, I do want to share
some of the post-event surveyresults.
When asked how likely theywould be to recommend this event
(14:41):
to a friend or colleague, on ascale of 1 to 10, we received an
average score of 9.1.
So I will say that's incrediblyvalidating, especially for a
free event in its second year.
We asked attendees about whatwere their favorite parts of the
summit and the responses werewonderfully varied.
What were their favorite partsof the summit?
And the responses werewonderfully varied.
(15:01):
Many loved the case study roomsand the breakout sessions,
especially the ones that weresegmented by program size, which
allowed them to learn fromorganizations similar to their
own.
The pre-launch to 500 monthlydonor session with Lisa and
Courtney was specificallymentioned multiple times, so
shout out to you both.
If you are listening, youcrushed it.
(15:22):
Attendees consistently praisethe energy and the enthusiasm of
all of our speakers.
Liz Forkin Bohannon's keynoteon big dream energy was a hit, a
very popular highlight for many, and several attendees
mentioned that they appreciatedthe very practical, actionable
advice that could be implementedimmediately.
And then what really stood outon the feedback and this is
(15:46):
really quintessential to themonthly giving summit is how
much people valued the sense ofcommunity, and this is super
important to us.
The chat was described as onfire, with over 10,000 messages
exchanged.
Many smaller nonprofitsexpressed gratitude that the
event was free, saying theywouldn't have been able to
participate otherwise.
And then, of course, we askedfor suggestions on how to
(16:09):
improve for next year, and soseveral attendees actually
recommended having longerbreakout sessions.
There was just so manyquestions in the rooms that they
didn't want to feel rushed.
There have been requests formore networking opportunities
and ways to connect with otherattendees because the chat was
so fast moving and some wantedit even more content
(16:32):
specifically tailored to thedifferent organization sizes and
stages of monthly giving.
So amazing, wonderful feedbackfor us to take and work on and,
interestingly, several alsomanaged.
I'd love to see handouts ordownloadable resources to
accompany the presentations.
So, trust me, we are taking allof this feedback to heart as we
(16:52):
are working on planning fornext year's summit, and let this
be a fact that we actuallylisten and we read all of your
responses, so I wanted to shareall of that.
Could not happen an event atthis scale without an incredible
team working behind the scenes,and I want to give you a
glimpse into what this lookslike, because we are I said this
(17:14):
during the summit a lean andmean machine.
I think there can be thisperception sometimes when we
look at events like this, thatwow, they must have had a ton of
people doing all this stuff,and that is not true.
So what it looked like is acore team, including myself.
Kat, who's on my team, whomanaged most of our speaker and
partner relations she is mydirector of operations and
(17:37):
partnerships manager, julie, youmight know from we Are For Good
, came over and was amazing asour producer.
I hired Julie for both preptime and to run the actual event
, and her experience wasinvaluable in making that
seamless.
We also had our VA, who waspretty much completely dedicated
(17:57):
to the Monthly Giving Summitwork for a full month when she
started.
Plus, we had an intern Shoutout to UCF.
They both started literallylike weeks before the monthly
giving summit, so they werepretty much dedicated to that.
And then we also hired CaitlinWhitaker for additional event
support, which is incredible.
She helped us with the lastmonthly giving summit and so
(18:19):
that was our team.
So me, kat, julie, va, intern,caitlin so six, and I would say
it was basically Kat and I, ornot, basically it was.
It was Kat and I leading allthe way up to like the two weeks
beforehand, so you can do it,and we had 31 speakers.
(18:40):
So this was definitely a largechunk of our time was putting
all of this together and what Ilove to do.
So if you have obviously abunch of other stuff going on
that you have to manage withprograms, I would definitely
consider hiring somebodypart-time or contractor that can
help you build it all out andthen you have a bigger team to
(19:03):
make it all happen when you getto the main month or a couple
weeks out.
And one small but, I think,important detail is I love, love
, love and so value my team.
I sent them DoorDash gift cardsfor helping during those two
really intensive event days sothey could get lunch delivered
and not have to worry about it,and I think those little things
(19:24):
really matter when you're askingfor people to be like quote
unquote on for three hoursstraight for two days,
especially during kind of alunch hour.
So key takeaways what did welearn from putting together this
summit?
First, authenticity andmarketing works.
Our highest performing ads werenot slick, fancy productions,
(19:48):
it was a genuine me in my livingroom conversation that truly
connected with our audience'sreal needs.
Second, partnerships are sopowerful Between our sponsors
and our influencercollaborations.
We reached audiences we nevercould have on our own and I
(20:09):
wouldn't have been able toliterally do this.
I wouldn't have been able topay everybody, I wouldn't have
been able to have the content.
They brought.
So many valuable connections.
I cannot say enough enoughvalue of the partners for this
summit.
So please go visit all theirwebsites.
I'm going to link to all ofthem again in the show notes.
Third, there is clearly amassive need for education
(20:32):
around monthly giving programs,particularly in acquiring donors
and getting programs off theground.
The fact that so manyorganizations are just beginning
and you might be here yourmonthly giving journey just
shows the enormous potential inthis space.
Fourth, investing in quality,diverse speakers is worth it.
(20:57):
The ones doing the work.
Nearly everyone that wasfeatured is from a nonprofit and
doing the work on the groundand we wanted to showcase what
they were doing and I was sograteful that they were willing
to give us a sneak behind thescenes.
So this ensured we proactivelyreached out for diverse expert
(21:18):
voices sharing actionableinsights, rather than there
wasn't, I'm trying to think, anyconsultant voices, which I'm
not saying is a bad thing, butin this specific space and I
might like do more of a balancenext time, but I really love
having the peer element of likewhat they're doing on the ground
(21:38):
and then, finally, creating areally engaged community
experience, even virtually,leads to remarkable
participation.
The live show up rate, the timespent in the event.
This just demonstrated howhungry people were for
connection and practicalknowledge they could implement
(22:00):
immediately.
This is why I shout out to myteam we had significant
conversations about making surethat we were providing resources
in the chat, engaging withpeople, hyping them up, making
sure they felt seen.
(22:20):
That was a dedicated pre-eventdiscussion.
We wanted to make sure thateveryone that was there felt
heard, if they were sending adirect message or just
participating in the chat.
So, as we look ahead to nextyear's summit and maybe we'll do
something in the fall maybe,but I kind of want to do
something in person in Atlanta,if you're down for that, shoot
me a note and let me know we aretaking all of these insights to
(22:40):
make it even more valuable foryou, for the attendees.
I think I will stick withmaking this a 100% free event.
All of the registrants gotaccess to the recordings.
That was a decision that I wasreally proud of.
Thank you again to our partners.
Thank you again to GiveButter,fundraiser, missionwire, tatango
(23:00):
I Donate, donateperfect formaking that possible.
It allowed thousands ofnonprofits who might not have
had the budget for professionaldevelopment to access high
quality training.
So we are just building thisreally engaged community of now
5,000 plus nonprofitprofessionals who are hopefully
(23:21):
better equipped to launch andgrow and sustain their monthly
giving programs.
And, more importantly, I thinkwe've really created a space
that celebrates and elevatesmonthly giving as a really
crucial strategy for nonprofitsustainability.
So the energy, the enthusiasmand the collaborative spirit of
this community is something Icould not have predicted when we
(23:44):
first launched this summit.
So I just want to say thank youto everyone who participated.
I want to say thank you toeveryone who participated, our
incredible speakers, ourgenerous sponsors and, of course
, all of the nonprofitprofessionals who joined us.
If that is you, I'm giving youa high five, I'm giving you a
hug.
Thank you for being there.
Your engagement and yourenthusiasm truly made this event
(24:05):
special.
So that's a wrap on our monthlygiving summit behind the scenes
.
Look.
Wrap on our monthly givingsummit behind the scenes.
Look If you have any questionsabout putting together your own
virtual events or want to learnmore about monthly giving
strategies, shoot us a note,drop us a DM, reach out to me on
LinkedIn.
Head to our website.
So until next time, I hope thiswas helpful and keep creating
(24:29):
sustainable funding for theimportant, so important work
that you do.
Thank you so much for tuninginto today's episode of Missions
to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review wherever you're
listening.
Your feedback helps us reachmore change makers like you and
(24:51):
continue.
Thank you.
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