Missions to Movements

During a funding crunch, Lucy Madden, CEO of Letters to a Pre-Scientist, recorded a video asking volunteers if they could spare $5 a month to help the organization finish the school year. That first ask brought in 300 monthly donors, and today, more than 90% of Stamp Squad members have also been penpal volunteers.
We get into why this worked so well, including how Lucy embedded the monthly giving ask directly into required volunteer training, and how their word-of-mouth momentum is now spilling into fundraising, too.
Recurring revenue changed Lucy’s mindset about what was possible. And her biggest lesson for anyone building a recurring program? Get your tech right!
Resources & Links
Connect with Lucy on LinkedIn, learn more about Letters to a Pre-Scientist, Stamp Squad, and follow them on Instagram.
Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you. 
This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder.  
With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 
Save the date for our next Monthly Giving Summit on February 25, 2027. Apply to speak here!
Applications are now open for the 2027 Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind and Retreat. If you have built a monthly giving program, join our high-touch peer coaching community for nonprofit leaders who are ready to break through.
Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!
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 even...

If you've ever wondered whether a membership model could work for grassroots organizing and not just traditional fundraising, today's guest is going to show you exactly how.
The African American Roundtable (AART) won this year’s Monthlies award for Strongest Sense of Community, and Executive Director Markasa Tucker-Harris is joining me to share how AART created a five-tier membership structure, inviting donors to “be the work.”
That shift has influenced EVERYTHING, from fundraising and staffing to storytelling and retention, including how they think about dedicated membership roles, relationship-building with donors, and creating pathways for members to organize more people into the movement.
Markasa also shares why AART’s churn stays low and what nonprofits considering a membership or recurring giving model should do first.
Resources & Links
Learn more about the African American Roundtable and their upcoming events.
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 make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.
This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder.  
With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 
Save the date for our next Monthly Giving Summit on February 25, 2027. Apply to speak here!
Applications are now open for the 2027 Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind and Retreat. If you have built a monthly giving program, join our high-touch peer coaching community for nonprofit leaders who are ready to break through.
Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!
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 even...

Recurring giving now makes up 27% of ALL online revenue, and for many nonprofits, 30-40% of total online revenue can arrive in the final three weeks of the year. Is your monthly giving program actually positioned to take advantage of all that attention and generosity?
Today’s episode is your front row seat into my Q3 State of Recurring Giving webinar, where I brought together the team from STella! alongside fundraising leaders from Habitat for Humanity Omaha and the Canadian Cancer Society to share what they’re doing heading into year end.
We also get tactical about the channels and tools driving that growth, including Google Performance Max, paid search, SMS, Fundraise Up, UTMs, and AI. Canadian Cancer Society generated an additional $171,000 from pre-donation upsells, while one recurring donor upgrade test produced an average increase of $14 per donor!
And if you’re wondering what to do before Q4, we end with four VERY practical actions.
Resources & Links
Learn more about STella!, Habitat for Humanity Omaha and Canadian Cancer Society.
Read the Neon One 2026 Recurring Donor Report and the M+R Benchmarks 2026.
This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder.  
With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 
Save the date for our next Monthly Giving Summit on February 25, 2027. Apply to speak here!
Applications are now open for the 2027 Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind and Retreat. If you have built a monthly giving program, join our high-touch peer coaching community for nonprofit leaders who are ready to break through.
Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!
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 even...

Your next donor may never visit your website!
Peter Byrnes, CEO of Fundraise Up, is joining me to explain agentic giving and the shift he sees happening RIGHT now from discovery, to recommendation, to delegation. 
Donors are already asking AI tools where they should give, and soon they may be asking those same tools to actually make the donation for them. We get into what nonprofits need to do now to become easier for AI to find, understand, and trust, including why consistency across your website, annual reports, financial information, and outside sources matters more than ever. 
We also talk about Fundraise Up’s free Agentic Giving Readiness Assessment, how to audit what AI is already saying about your organization, and why the goal isn’t to panic — it’s to prepare.
Resources & Links
Check out the Fundraise Up Agentic Giving Readiness Assessment.
Connect with Peter on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Peec.ai.
This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder.  
With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 
Save the date for our next Monthly Giving Summit on February 25, 2027. Apply to speak here!
Applications are now open for the 2027 Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind and Retreat. If you have built a monthly giving program, join our high-touch peer coaching community for nonprofit leaders who are ready to break through.
Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!
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 even...

Global Catalyst is on a mission to mentor girls around the world to become powerful advocates and confident leaders. They went from just 7 monthly donors in July 2025, to growing their Girls First community by 500% to 35 monthly donors.
As a girl mom, this episode with Courtney Stricklin Burgan hits deep to my heart. In her role as VP of Engagement and Communications, Courtney leads a passionate team of fundraising and storytelling professionals, and we're going to get into every single detail of how she did it.
You’ll discover why donors started choosing $20, $25, and even $33 a month, how they steward their community with birthday cards, anniversary emails, sticker packs, and personal outreach, and why Courtney sees monthly giving as “major giving in a different way.”
Resources & Links
Learn more about Global Catalyst, follow them on Instagram, and connect with Courtney at c.strickland@globalgirlsglow.org. 
Check out Courtney’s book recs, Dungeon Crawler Carl and I Am A Girl From Africa.
This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder.  
With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 
Save the date for our next Monthly Giving Summit on February 25, 2027. Apply to speak here!
Applications are now open for the 2027 Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind and Retreat. If you have built a monthly giving program, join our high-touch peer coaching community for nonprofit leaders who are ready to break through.
Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!
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 even...