We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

536. How It's Built: Tim Tebow Foundation's 19,000+ Monthly Giving Community - Kyle Roosen

• We Are For Good • Season 9

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Meet Kyle. He’s helped steward the creation and growth of a recurring donor community made up of more than 19,300 monthly givers at the Tim Tebow Foundation🤯 With no formal marketing training, he was hungry for knowledge and figured out how to harness the power of data and storytelling to invite believers into their mission one person at a time. The best part? You can copy his exact strategy.  In this How It’s Built episode, Kyle is sharing the importance of a donor experience that infuses joy and meaning into every contribution.  Tune in to hear the lessons learned along the way including the delicate balance of growing a donor base while cultivating current supporters🎁

💡Learn

  • How the Tim Tebow Foundation grew to 19,300 monthly givers 
  • How to Build a Scalable Monthly Giving Program
  • Pro Tips + Lessons Learned 

Today’s Guest

Kyle Roosen, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Tim Tebow Foundation

Episode Highlights

  • Kyle’s story and journey to where he is today (3:20)
  • Overview of the Tim Tebow Foundation's monthly giving campaign (4:50)
  • How It’s Built: A Recurring Giving Community (14:55)
    • Develop + Implement your data layer (16:50)
    • Create your branded product/community (18:45)
    • Build your audience (24:40)
    • Become elite storytellers (26:50)
  • Creating content that is authentic (34:40)
  • Pro Tips (37:00)
    • Don’t overlook data & tracking
    • Don’t forget immediate touchpoints
  • A powerful moment of philanthropy in Kyle’s life (41:05)
  • Kyle’s One Good Thing: It’s a grind, but it's also a really high calling. (46:55)
  • How to connect with Kyle (49:55)

For more information + episode details visit: weareforgood.com/episode/536.

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Jon McCoy:

Hey, I'm John.

Becky Endicott:

And I'm Becky.

Jon McCoy:

And this is the we Are For Good podcast.

Becky Endicott:

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

Jon McCoy:

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

Becky Endicott:

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

Jon McCoy:

So let's get started. Becky, I feel like you've been talking about this convo for a long time, like literally months.

Becky Endicott:

I think so and I am so excited. Today we are in the middle of the how it's Built series and I hope you're coming here not just to hear about recurring donor programs and how to build those, because that is so singular. How do you create community? How do you create digital? First fundraising strategy that creates this massive community where people can really get into the lane that works best for them, and that is really about the evolution of recurring giving.

Becky Endicott:

So it is a complete joy to introduce you all to Kyle Rusin. He is the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at the Tim Tebow Foundation. You know the Tim Tebow Foundation. It is such a prolific organization and they're doing extraordinary things. And can I drop this little stat? John Kyle has built this from the ground up and this recurring donor community encompasses more than 19,300 monthly givers across all of their different monthly giving programs. Is that not unbelievable? And how good is this program? Y'all the Tim Tebow Foundation, kyle, the team they have built this recurring donor community that encompasses more than 19,300 monthly givers across five different monthly giving programs and it's an extraordinary story.

Becky Endicott:

We're going to break it down for you, and I want to give a special shout out to Michelle Boggs, our friend over at Classy, who's in the community, who recommended this conversation, and Kyle's just one of our people. He is this passionate, growth-minded and mission-driven marketing leader who's just felt this call to provide the fuel needed to reach the world's most vulnerable people, and so he's really implementing this digital first marketing strategy focused on donor experience and storytelling. And so, as he was sort of on this journey of building this recurring giving program, he realized it couldn't be singular, it couldn't be just one giving program. So we're going to unpack that for you. But we got to get to the humanity because Kyle is such a good dude. He is hailing from New Hampshire but living in Jacksonville, florida, with his wife, lauren, and we got to give a shout out to their two dogs, ellie and Clemson. Kyle, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited you're here.

Kyle Roosen:

Thank you guys. Thank you for having me and, yeah, just grateful for this conversation, humbled for the opportunity and I'm so glad you started saying it by Kyle and the team, because it's just such a team effort.

Becky Endicott:

Well, we're going to dive into this, we're going to unpack it step by step for you listeners, but first, you know, we've got to just get to know Kyle. Like, take us back, kyle. I want to hear about growing up and what led you to this work.

Kyle Roosen:

Well, that is a much longer story than we're probably going to have time for.

Becky Endicott:

Cliff notes.

Kyle Roosen:

But yeah, it's an encouraging one, because I didn't have any classical training in marketing or fundraising. I didn't grow up in the nonprofit world. I didn't grow up dreaming of being a marketer. I went to Clemson University. That's why my dog's name is Clemson for golf management.

Becky Endicott:

Go Tigers.

Kyle Roosen:

My dream was to become a teaching professional and to run the business side of a golf course. Long story short, god just led me to the Tim Tebow Foundation, and I've been here for almost nine and a half years, which is-.

Becky Endicott:

Employee number six right.

Kyle Roosen:

I think so, I think so. I say that it's either like six or seven. You know, early on, early on, I was able to to join the team and really just see how blessed this ministry has been and how much it's been favored.

Jon McCoy:

I mean my goodness.

Jon McCoy:

I mean there's like an audible pause when Becky even said the number in your bio, these 19,300 monthly givers. So we got to talk about that. But I mean, as you, you know, come into this conversation today, give us context, because we're going to have you share the playbook of like how to get there, Because a lot of people listening that number just seems impossible. You know, it's bigger than the town I grew up in 19,000 people. So like I'm just wrapping my head around this. But you know, give us an overview of what it looks like today and what the impact's been, and then we're going to have you reverse engineer it.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah, yeah, I'd love to you know why I shared, why I think that my story is a little bit encouraging, is because, again, I didn't have any classical training in marketing or fundraising, and so I think what I share today I hope't have any classical training in marketing or fundraising, and so I think what I share today I hope that every viewer or listener understands that they too can do it. When I started out the foundation, really I would say for the first 60 days, the executive director and my boss were just like just help us learn what we're not doing and what we can do. And I swear I sat and just Googled and watched YouTube videos all day long. I was an avid reader of the Classy blog, and so the foundation at that time was so young we were four years and we hadn't really had like a real big marketing strategy yet at that point and it was kind of my initial role to help craft that and because we weren't an older organization and we're really just trying to understand how we're going to reach donors and what our messaging is, I was able to learn all of these digital strategies and I had no idea what I was trying to implement. It just so happened to be. This was all of the things that I was reading and I was studying, so we launched our first recurring giving program in October of 2016.

Kyle Roosen:

But I really would say that it was in the spring of 2016 that the conversation started. We were just like many other organizations, where you would go to our donate page and it would give you the option of giving one time or giving monthly, and my boss at the time, jen. We were just brainstorming what could be, and she asked me a simple question that I think really changed the trajectory of the entire organization. It changed my trajectory and really opened my eyes to nonprofits can do this differently. And she asked what is our product? And it's not a complex question, but I think so many nonprofits don't approach their marketing with the idea that they're also entering into a relationship, just like any other business, with their donor. And so when she asked me what our product was like, what do we sell?

Kyle Roosen:

Well, immediately I thought and we thought well, we sell impact. We get to be a part of people's purpose. We get to help people feel that what they do on a day-to-day basis is meaningful, because they get to be a part of our mission. And when you thought about the idea of a product. We created the movement because we wanted we wanted something tangible around giving monthly. Uh, we wanted to build a trust with our audience, we wanted to build transparency and we wanted to give them something immediately that they could have in hand. We built it to be a vehicle of transparency and a vehicle to be able to communicate impact to donors not a transactional community, but a community based in relationship and in shared mission and so we launched it in October of 2016. And I think that the first email we sent, I want to say that we got about 250 recurring donors and a lot of work had gone into getting to that point.

Kyle Roosen:

It was amazing. It blew away my expectations. I was like, please just get us 10. Because, honestly, for so long, like 19,300 is amazing. I feel like we've been super blessed. The team has been amazing.

Kyle Roosen:

The whole organization has bought into the idea of recurring giving. So we would not be here without just the whole team really, really coming behind this idea. But I remember my first days at the foundation of first hooking up Google Analytics and coming into work and hoping and praying and trying to do as much as I can to bring in one more donor, one more and one more and one more, and I would go home and be like today was an awesome day. We got four donations. Uh, we got one more recurring donor. This was a great month. We got 25 recurring donors, um, and so it's cool to share that with the audience because, like 19,300 is, you know, it sounds like a big number, but it it started with the one person signing up and then the next day getting one more and hopefully, uh, you know, one more after that, and that's just one of the pieces that I love in this story.

Becky Endicott:

There's so many things I want to emote and talk about and what you just said, but first and foremost, I got to bring up trend number two of 2024 this year which is to grow the movement. You have to activate the one, and I love that you are such a long play example of when we start to celebrate one person joining, four person joining, that little crumb starts to get or the ripple, I would say, really starts to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think the mindset you're sharing is exactly the right one, which is having this humility and joy and the fact that we have someone who believes in us, that wants to come over, and I think you've done a couple things here that I want to highlight for the audience that are brilliant. One I love that you don't really talk about it as a recurring giving program, because the ones who are evolving call it a movement and they call it a community, and it's so much more than just sort of these little buckets that we put people in, because they're part of something much bigger. It's not just monthly giving, it's the mission, and when you can raise someone out of that, the belief gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Becky Endicott:

And I also just want to commend you and the team for proving that it is doable, it is learnable. You started with this beginner's mindset at the very beginning and very hungrily just sort of ingested all this content and I just think what you've built is beautiful, so let's get into it. I know our listeners are ready. They've got their pens in hand. We want to talk about how to build the scalable giving program. So give us the playbook, kyle. Walk us through some of the tactical steps of how you and the team built this program. We're ready with number one.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah, absolutely so.

Kyle Roosen:

Before we get into number one, there's two things I want to mention. I think, when we talk about a recurring donor community, there's two statistics that I've read recently that I think really highlight why a recurring giving program is so important and also the problem that it can solve in what we're seeing in society. I read a stat I think you can look at it a couple different ways, but it was only 20% of our population has a high trust in nonprofits and I think it was like 46% distrust nonprofits. And then, on the other end, 60% of people on average, according to this one stat that I read question if they have or how can they find more meaning and purpose in their life, at least on a monthly basis. So you have people who you have a majority of people who distrust nonprofits and you have a majority of people who are wanting to find more meaning, and I think that as marketers or fundraisers or honestly, there's really not a name for us anymore Us like digital fundraisers because like we're not either one, we're kind of, we're both.

Kyle Roosen:

It's hard not a name for us anymore Us like digital fundraisers and nonprofits, because, like we're not either one, we're kind of, we're both. It's hard to explain. We're also storytellers. We have the opportunity to build a recurring giving program that establishes trust and transparency with donors so that we can break through that gap, and we also have the opportunity with a recurring donor program to add meaning into people's lives.

Kyle Roosen:

You know, I think the vision that I always like to share with our team is that if we can create an experience for our giving community that when they see in their bank account that this amount went to the Tim Tebow Foundation, I want them to experience joy and I want them to know exactly what their giving is doing and, as storytellers, that's our responsibility to them. I want the Tim Tebow Foundation and what they give to us. I want them to feel that that is a part of the meaning in their lives. Now, we're never going to be able to answer their full purpose, but we can be a part of that. We can be that encouragement and inspiration to them that they might not feel like they're on the front lines, but they know that they're the fuel and the backbone to other people doing that, and I think that all of us are responsible for that. You're either in the mission field or you're helping people go to the mission field, and so that's kind of the spirit that we take with a lot of our, our donors.

Becky Endicott:

So Hold on, hold on. I know you can't just go into the playbook because we have to emote about that. Go ahead, John.

Jon McCoy:

Well, I'm like, if this is step zero, this is going to be so good.

Becky Endicott:

I love that.

Jon McCoy:

We talk about the issue of trust Like it's probably the hottest topic of just like. We talk about the issue of trust Like it's probably the hottest topic of just like how do we change the trajectory of that? And it's so disruptive to say we can do this at the smallest common denominator and that's how change happens, I mean the growing to one, so I love that you're putting those two pieces together Like. This is incredible, like I'm, so I'm so excited for the next steps.

Becky Endicott:

Yes, and thank you for breaking down the ethos, because it's not just one, two, three, four, five in these programs. You have to do, you know, ask the bigger question. And I think the product question is a really good one, because we want that experience to infuse joy and to infuse trust and to infuse all you know, confidence and and all the things people are looking for. So I thank you for stopping us and tone setting, because that is exactly the shift that we're trying to make. Okay, we're handing the mic back to you for playbook. Let's do this.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah and yeah. I think it's so important for the playbook to have the heart right. Have to have the heart right. You have to know why you're doing it. You have to know and communicate to your audience that there's power when we come together, that it's not about the amount that anyone gives, it's that they give, that they're a part of the mission, and so if you have the heart right, I think everything else falls into place after that. But what falls into place right? So I really had a good time kind of preparing for this, because I get to lead a team of 10 different people on the TTF side and then TTF has 25 nonprofits and I work with a few of them to help them also build their recurring giving community, and we are actually actively building two new ones right now.

Kyle Roosen:

So I kind of break it down into how you build it. I kind of break it down into two, into how you build it. I kind of break it down into two different ways. I think it's important to understand that you always have to be acquiring, but while you're focused on acquisition, you can't not focus on experience, and so to build a successful recurring giving community, you have to be reaching new people, but you also have to be loving the people that are a part of your community equally, because if you just love the people that are part of it, you're not going to really grow it, other than maybe by word of mouth and just by happenstance. But if you're only focused on acquisition which maybe is a little bit my fault I definitely love inspiring people to join us more than I think I'd love the consistency of the other end If you're not focused on acquisition, or if you're only focused on acquisition, you lose the experience and what you got into it in the first place, which is helping build trust and helping add meaning into their lives. And so I'll start with acquisition.

Kyle Roosen:

I think that I would say I'm sure that there's a lot of more experienced marketers and fundraisers than me listening to this podcast, but just in case there's one person who this could help stop listening right now and learn how to or add your data layer. It's so critical to building a recurring giving program. That means taking the pixel from Facebook or TikTok, putting it into your website, putting it into Classy, developing Google Analytics and understanding your data, I think, is so important before we even get into it, and I actually I'm not really a data-based marketer. I'm more intuitive, I'm more creative, but I like to look at the data to draw some intuitive conclusions, and so, early on, I was just eyeing Google Analytics all the time. If I did this, what happened If I did this social post? Did we see a spike in traffic? If I did this, what happened If I did this social post? Did we see a spike in traffic? If I did this email, did we see an abnormal amount of giving that day?

Kyle Roosen:

And I started to learn that there's so many different tactics that you can have, and as nonprofits, we don't have all of the resources or time to be able to go after all of them, and so developing that data layer allows you to understand which tactic is best for your organization. For us, it was social media and email marketing. Those were the two biggest needle movers in the beginning, and we went hard after those marketing tactics, coupled with incredible storytelling. But some other nonprofits have a really strong influencer network. Some have a really strong public relations strategy. So it's just about implementing that data layer and then measuring what actions produce what results, so that when you launch your recurring donor community, you know where you should place your focus in order to do the acquisition piece of this. And so, after you implement the data layer, step number two and I titled it create your branded product or your branded community.

Kyle Roosen:

I think that this is really important to not just have on your website give monthly or give one time but to build and name something that people can identify with. So the two that we have right now are the movement and defenders and our defenders. They're giving those specifically towards our anti-human trafficking and child exploitation ministry and I want them to see themselves as defenders, because they are. They are defending some of the most vulnerable children and people on planet earth and I think when you can help people identify with your program, they get much more excited to be a part of it than just like oh, I give monthly, no, I am a defender, I am a part of the movement, and so I think finding that brand that resonates with your mission and your organization and then also your community, I think is really important. And then building some let's just say we want to tap into the consumerism of America.

Kyle Roosen:

So for the foundation, we did a couple of things when we launched the movement To build trust and break down the walls of transparency, we did a yearly vision casting conference call with our leadership. We invited every single person that was a part of the movement. We invited them to ask questions, we shared what we've done, where we're going, what they're giving specifically goes to. We put faces on camera so that you know people could interact with us. They saw that you know this was a real organization and, honestly, with this data of 20% of people highly trust nonprofits, that means 80% of people are going to be a little bit critical when your brand first comes across them. So how can you build transparency? And then how can you build exclusivity? So we created just a simple t-shirt that every person got when they signed up for a minimum donation. Nothing revolutionary, but it helps someone tangibly have something in hand and then also wear and share with other people to inspire more conversations.

Kyle Roosen:

Um, and then we committed, we shared and we committed to monthly storytelling about what their impact was going to. And I think every person in this call can understand that that's a priority. But doing it in this call can understand that that's a priority. But doing it. Doing it is harder. It's hard Doing it, working with your program's team and you know them believing in this, and our team has been so amazing in helping us source the stories of impact so that we can consistently, month after month, for years now, bring that meaning to the lives of our community members through effective storytelling.

Kyle Roosen:

And also, I think what's important is putting yourselves in the shoes of the person. When they sign up for your recurring donor community, what do they think that they're giving to One? If they think they're giving to something, it's not what they're giving to. The messaging is probably off. But also, as nonprofits, we do a lot of work and some of our work is more in line with what the giving community thinks that we're doing, and so telling those stories so that when they see it, there's not confusion, there's immediate clarity. This is what my giving is going to and that's what I thought it was going to, if that makes sense.

Jon McCoy:

I mean, kyle, it doesn't just yeah this doesn't make sense, like I can validate this in our own experience, and this is kind of how the we are for good values. Our statements that are on our website came to be that it's we say. It's not about giving, it's about belief, because that's how you actually fundamentally build a movement when you have people that believe in what you're doing.

Jon McCoy:

But I want to call something out, because when you're talking about the branded product, some people are probably gonna like tune out and think that we're trying to be too businessy in the nonprofit space. But what y'all have done and I think that this is applicable to everybody is this idea of allowing people to embrace it as part of their identity.

Jon McCoy:

And by even naming it in a way that they can feel ownership of that. It connects to that purpose piece that you're talking about and it's just also your storytelling. They're part of that story too, they're part of the collective, and so I just think it's so smart and that's something that this is why we don't want you to have the benefactor society as the name of your club. Like, make it something that people want to feel ownership of and that they would be proud to have that as part of their identity and that's what they're giving. So so good.

Becky Endicott:

I just think the identity piece is so strong. And identity piece is so strong. And the other thing I just want to add to what Kyle's saying is when you bake in these stories and you push them out from the organization, pull them back in by asking the community to submit their stories, how are they seeing it play out? How is it impacting their life? And all of a sudden, when you start to see yourself in the story, it becomes that connective tissue to the organization is just strengthened. And I've seen you do this, kyle, on the back end when I watch your socials and I just think you all do this beautifully.

Kyle Roosen:

Thank you. It's actually we say that we have two major goals as a department, and number one is storytelling, and we make most of our decisions around. Does this help us tell more stories or better stories? And we've really I mean, this could be a whole nother conversation, honestly but we really see ourselves as a media team not just storytellers, but a media team in that at any given moment, we can rally and produce a huge amount of content with quality, or we can take a really long time to produce an amazing quality story. We can do both of them and there are seasons for both.

Kyle Roosen:

But you know what? Step number three it doesn't matter how good your storytelling is, it doesn't matter that you have a data layer, it doesn't matter that you have the really nice logo and branded community for your recurring giving program if no one knows about it. I think that this is one of the hardest things to do and it's the most important is that you always have to be building your audience. Always. It is a nonstop, constant effort to build your audience. And audience to me is you know, if you have the best, most impactful mission in the world, if no one knows about it, then they can't be a part of it, and so part of our role is we always have to be building our email list, our text list, our website traffic, our social, and each of those requires a different strategy, whether it's for creating a lead generator and running that lead generator on meta ads, or if it's implementing a website pop-up. Even though none of us like them None of us like them, but the stats are clear 3% to 4% of all visitors that visit your website will enter their information into your pop-up.

Kyle Roosen:

And I'm not just talking about join our newsletter. Like I, I really don't like that word newsletter. It bugs me, so make it make it more exciting. I actually really like what charity water calls. Theirs is this add impact to your inbox. There's a lot of different things that you can do with it. We're actually in the middle of building a branded email list called Mission Moment and that every week, we will share a moment from our ministry with you from around the world that we hope inspires and encourages you for the week. So it could be that it could just be adding impact to your inbox or join our community, Just making it more enticing than like subscribe to our newsletter. No one wants to do that.

Becky Endicott:

Well said. I mean, I don't know that I've ever been passionate about joining anybody's newsletter, but I think this is solid. So I mean we've gotten past the storytelling. Is that a step? Kyle Is number four, like the piece of meeting people where they are.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah, number four for acquisition is storytelling. So have to become elite storytellers, because everyone people aren't just going to automatically respond to the launch of your recurring donor community. There's going to be a lot of people that don't join it. There's going to be a lot of people that follow you on social media, especially as you continue to build your audience, creating valuable content. Have to become elite storytellers, and the ratio that we set at TTF is that 80% of all content that we produce should add value to our audience's life, and I think that that's the key to building audience is that, as a nonprofit, you have to find a way to be valuable to them before they've given. When they've given, you are valuable to them because they're giving you a part of their earnings. But before they give to you, why should they care about you? They might care about your mission and then that brings value to them. But for the most part, people aren't always looking to give and not always looking to join your email list or to follow your social, and so we set a ratio to 80% of the content that, when we produce it, we ask ourselves is this going to add value to someone's life? Is it going to inspire them, encourage them, entertain them, educate them, and then 20% of the content that we produce has the call to action or the invitation to come alongside us as a defender or the member of the movement.

Kyle Roosen:

And I think, really becoming good content creators and storytellers, it starts to build that relationship with someone. I like to say that you can't withdraw from a bank account that doesn't have anything in it, and so the content that we produce is we're going out ahead of our audience and saying we care about you, we want to be a valuable part of your life, and we're going to make deposits and deposits and deposits into this relationship account and maybe, when you're ready, we'll invite you to be a part of it in a really meaningful way. And then the relationship changes and we go more into producing experience for them. So yeah, becoming elite storytellers is step number four continuously sharing stories in an intriguing way through, you know, whether that's social media or email, and then, within social media, through really good creative, you know, really good video production, really good graphic design. It's hard to do, but you know, I think that nonprofits have such an important message to share. We should be the innovators in how content is created. We have the best stories of any business to share.

Becky Endicott:

Yeah, we do.

Kyle Roosen:

We should be the best content creators. So our last step we've launched. We have our data layer, we have our community. It's starting to grow. This is where, every day, the focus has to be how do we bring one more person in? And I'll quickly share that.

Kyle Roosen:

I think one of the most impactful ways that we've done it is that we've created unique campaigns throughout the year that really target recurring donors, that really target that invitation to bring people on, and we've started to learn that project-based recurring giving is really impactful. People have the opportunity to give towards what they're passionate about, not just the greatest area of need on a monthly basis, but they can do that, but they also can choose to give towards a specific project that's ongoing for your mission. For us, let's say, it's to care for children when we build a safe home, those 24 children in that safe home. They need a community of love, support and care from our recurring givers that they can step into that story, and now we have really, really personalized storytelling to do for a lot of our giving community. So I think that that's been really important to us.

Kyle Roosen:

So, yeah, step number five is just creating unique campaigns throughout the year, continuously testing what is working, what is working, and whether that's meta ads, whether that's Instagram, whether it's email marketing, text SEO if you're getting a lot of people just from Google organically. It's testing those things, analyzing why it's working and then just trying to get better and better and better based on those things that are working and just continuing to scale. So that's step number five is just relentlessly pursue one more recurring donor day after day, creating specific invitations for them to come alongside the organization, specific campaigns where you're not calling for a dollar number, but you're asking for a number of people who will step up and join this campaign. We need a thousand defenders to join us and this is what it will do. So that's been really, really impactful for us and I think how we really scaled from like maybe 6,000 recurring donors to the number that we're at now.

Jon McCoy:

I feel like this playbook is something that anybody can implement, but I want to give you a second to just I'm riffing on. Something I'm thinking over here is that you know y'all are based on a foundation with a person that's larger than life. That that I think someone listening could be like. Well, it's easy when you have a celebrity you know at the helm that everyone knows. But as I hear your story, I hear your steps, the movement that you're building is so separate from that Like how could you kind of like share how important that is to develop this messaging? That's more about their own personal transformation, what that matters, and it's less about, maybe, how they found you in the first place.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah, no, I think it's a good call out because a lot of people do. I mean, tim is an amazing communicator. Ttf is his heart. It's his the greatest calling that he has in life, and we're so blessed to have him be able to share the story of TTF and invite people in. But also we have to be good stewards of the momentum that he creates, and I think that's the answer to this is that every nonprofit has an amazing team of warriors that are creating a wave of impact and momentum.

Kyle Roosen:

We just have to steward that, package it and put it in front of people who are inspired to be a part of that and like yes, does Tim break down the barrier of trust for us? 100%, he's an amazing storyteller, but the practices work for everyone else too, and I've seen that with a lot of our partners and who we've helped, and so you know, just acting as that steward and finding those things that work for us. We chose social media because we were blessed to have a really great platform to start with. We don't do a lot of other things. We've never done direct mail. We don't do any PR. There's a lot of things that we don't do. We as a team, we just brought on our first kind of engagement person for higher level giving, and so all of these practices are really how we've built such an incredible engine of ministry over the last 10 years.

Becky Endicott:

I'm so proud of you and thank you for doing it organically, humanely, authentically. I celebrate the fact that you call this trust building a practice, because I don't think you need a celebrity or a public figure on your foundation necessarily to get that trust if you can show up consistently and build it and be the mission and the person and the impact deliverer that you say you are. So I want to get into some pro tips, kyle.

Kyle Roosen:

Can I add one thing there, Becky?

Becky Endicott:

Oh, yeah, go for it.

Kyle Roosen:

One thing that the Tim Tebow Foundation is amazing at and I've learned so much from the different members on my team and how we truly labor over the words that we use and the words that we share, because every sentence that we write should be invitational, it should be relational, and I think that that's really the key to the trust that we've been able to build with a lot of our giving community over the years is that we've consistently been true and authentic to ourselves.

Kyle Roosen:

Been able to build with a lot of our giving community over the years is that we've consistently been true and authentic to ourselves and we're a faith-based organization and we see it as our responsibility to just bring our best to the table and then everything else after that is up to the Lord and up to people making the generous decision to join us.

Kyle Roosen:

We don't feel like we can control that, and I think that that comes out in our messaging is that we just want to do our best job to invite you into this incredible story, and we're going to focus on every sentence we write, every word that we write, so that always matches the heart of who we are, so that you can identify with us the heart of who we are, so that you can identify with us, and if you've watched us for five years, we're no different today than we were five years ago.

Kyle Roosen:

Honestly, we probably might even be a little bit more authentic today than we were five years ago, just as we've kind of learned how to communicate and express our heart, and so, I think, to be able to build that trust long-term, every word really does matter. You know, when you use community, every time when you use your impact, and there is power when we come together, and that this mission is also yours, and we hope this story encourages you that your giving has meaning. When you consistently message that people start to believe it, and that's how we really feel, and so we always want to make sure that everything that we share publicly is in line with that heart posture.

Becky Endicott:

I value so much the fact that you just wanted to create pause on that. Talk to us a little bit about the pro tips that you have for our listeners. Like you've done so much research on this Kyle and we just want to know, like, what have you learned for our listeners? Like you've done so much research on this Kyle and we just want to know, like, what have you learned throughout this process? What would you go back and tell yourself, maybe don't do that and do this, like bring all the goods to us.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah. So I mean, I think you know the initial five steps were important. You know, I really believe that the biggest pro tip is always be building your audience and never stop, never forget it, but the ones that I wrote down, for this is something that I'm learning right now. For any marketer out there, any fundraiser, being really good at the data Attribution is great, but with all of the privacy laws it's not perfect. The privacy laws, it's not perfect. And so being able to kind of look at all of your systems and all of your tracking and start to understand consistencies and observe consistencies over time of what moves the needle for specifically recurring giving, it's going to help you make the next decision and help you build strategy for how to do it. So number one pro tip is don't overlook data attribution and effective tracking. Set up the tracking for specifically recurring giving and if you use Classy, it's super easy to do, I can track it in all of our different systems and it's game changing.

Kyle Roosen:

The second one I would say that I think fundraisers either fall into people who are focused on acquisition or people who are focused on experience. I didn't get to share some of the steps and experience, but this is one of my pro tips. I am definitely more of an acquisition type mind. I want to build it, I want to get people in, and I've learned that it's harder for me to be consistent and sustain something, for me to be consistent and sustain something, and so, having that self-awareness of my weaknesses, I'm able to bring on different team members who can balance the acquisition. And so my pro tip is don't forget the immediate touch points.

Kyle Roosen:

We like to say that there's four immediate touch points for a new recurring giver, and number one is the thank you page right when they sign up.

Kyle Roosen:

It's meaningful, it's meaningful and so is the receipt that they give, and so we don't go overboard and you know storytelling and stuff right there, but we're very like.

Kyle Roosen:

We share how to access their account, how to manage their own giving.

Kyle Roosen:

You know, trying to understand what questions they're going to have.

Kyle Roosen:

And then the second immediate touch point, after they get the receipt and the thank you page, is an automatic email from us that sets expectations for what it means to be a part of our community as a defender or a member of the movement, and then what to expect from us going forward monthly storytelling, how we see them as a family member, that there's power when we come together. The third touch point is when we send out the kind of the welcome gift that we create for everyone so that's their t-shirt and a little welcome card and so we try to make that immediate touch point as best as it can be. And then the last one of the immediate touch points and this is all within, I think, 15 to 15 to 30 days is the first story that they get really, really important, and so it's so fun to acquire, it's so fun to think long-term what's their experience going to be, but don't forget the immediate experience that they have with you, because that's where a lot of that initial trust is going to be built.

Jon McCoy:

I love that you're closing the loop on that. It's like tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them and then tell them.

Jon McCoy:

You told them kind of vibes of like, a speech of like just it's how you build the trust, how you deliver on the promise that they came in the door with such good pro tips. I mean, Kyle, this has been such a defining conversation for anyone looking to grow this part of their work. But you know we're storytellers around here too and we love to create space to just ask you about a moment of philanthropy that's moved you, that's stuck with you in this journey of your work.

Kyle Roosen:

Excited to hear there's been so many. Um, when I was first thinking about sending my resume to the tim tuba foundation, it was actually to be an event coordinator and thank god they didn't hire me as that because I would have lasted about six days.

Becky Endicott:

I mean you literally just cold called, you cold pitched them right. I mean, I think that's a cool story. I think that's a cool story, that's awesome.

Kyle Roosen:

One thing I learned in college was like make yourself so valuable to them on the initial thing that they can't help but think about their future with you. But when I was going through the application, one thing that terrified me was that we were just starting. Night to Shine. It's our worldwide prom for people with special needs. It started out as like a five-year celebration for the foundation and now it's turned into something we could way more than we could have ever imagined. It's in, I think, 46 countries around the world. It was hosted in 725 churches. This past February we just celebrated 10 years of it. But when I saw that I was like, oh gosh, I can't plan that event. But you know what? Thankfully I didn't get that role. That's not the role God had for me, but I got to be a part of the storytelling of Night to Shine. I've been able to watch it grow over the last 10 years and there's so many amazing moments at TTF that have inspired me. But if you don't mind, I'd like to just read this one poem from a mom of an honored guest. So her daughter went to Night to Shine and she wrote this poem for her daughter, hayden, and shared it with us, and it's called For.

Kyle Roosen:

One Night. Short purple hair was partially pulled back into a braid, while her fresh curls fell onto her shoulders, showing off her perfect smile topped by her big brown eyes. For one night, she slipped into a dress fit for a princess it was long, flowy, blue and topped with glitter, and as she spun around, you could hear her giggles echo in the halls. For one night, she climbed into the backseat and rode to church, staring out the window as the world passed by. Butterflies filled her stomach. As the excitement of the evening filled her thoughts, she sang along to her favorite tunes as she made her way closer and closer. For one night, she stepped out of the car to be greeted by strangers smiling and waving, so eager to see her. Black, white and blue balloons encompassed the door she entered. She looked in awe.

Kyle Roosen:

For one night, she picked a beautiful pink rose corsage to wear and smiled as her mommy slid it onto her wrist. She leaned in, closed her eyes and inhaled the aromatic floral scent. For one night, she walked the red carpet while they cheered, they shouted her name and the cameras flashed. Palm palms waved in the air and signs swayed reading you are amazing. This was all for her. For one night, the music played loud and she danced to songs she had never heard before. She waved a flashing light above her head and giggled as she watched the other guests breakdance in front of her. For one night, she had a crown placed onto her head and she was a queen.

Kyle Roosen:

For one night, my sweet girl twirled the dance floor without a care in the world. She had no insecurities, no fears. She felt as beautiful as she was, carefree, perfect For one night. There was not a diagnosis, her IEP didn't matter. There were no thoughts of math strategies or coping skills. There were no worries about tomorrow's speech therapy session. She is God's perfect creation. I know it, you know it, and for one night she could see it too. And that's from Nicole, written for her Sweet Hayden.

Kyle Roosen:

And I think why it's so impactful to me and to us is that people with special needs are so often overlooked and forgotten within our society, and Night to Shine, for some reason, has been this opportunity for them to be celebrated and cheered and for them to know that they're loved and to know that they're special and that they're worthy.

Kyle Roosen:

And so many of them maybe, that time that they walked down the red carpet that every Night to Shine has, they're experiencing that worth and value for the very first time, and so when I hear Nicole's words about Hayden that that night she knew that she was loved, that's what I want all of our giving community to experience, that they're a part of, and as a marketer and a fundraiser, I think what a blessing it is that not only do we get to help fuel ministry but we get to help add meaning to people's lives, because they get to be a part of that through our mission. And what an opportunity that is, what a calling that is to be able to sit on both sides and release our ministry team to just focus on loving and reaching people and also helping donors in our giving community feel that they have meaning and that this is a part of their meaning.

Becky Endicott:

I'm literally trying to recover. Thank you for sharing that. I just think when we bring story back, it's about Hayden. I felt like I could see her. I felt like I could see her spinning and as a mom, I just know what her mother's feeling in that moment, when there is no judgment, there is only joy. And I just think about this juxtaposition of mindset, of what if we weren't selling and grinding and pushing? What if we took that energy and we put it into this authentic engagement of loving and connecting and inspiring and reminding people why this is so important? And I love that you've built that in your culture. I just want to manifest that that could go into everyone's culture and I just think you're a really good dude, kyle, and I'm glad you got to where you are. I want to talk about a one good thing. How are we going to round this out, kyle? Give us some one good thing about. Maybe it's a piece of advice, about recurring giving. Maybe it's just something that's on your heart, that you're feeling right now. We'd love to hear it.

Kyle Roosen:

You know, as people who work for nonprofits, who are mission-driven, they've given up so much. You know we sacrifice so much and we have so many jobs to do, and building a recurring giving community is one of those critical jobs. It is the backbone for ministry. It allows us to be able to grow as a recurring giving community grows. It's sustainable. But you know that it's a grind, and so what I want to leave with people is the grind is worth it, and I want to share an encouragement.

Kyle Roosen:

Something that we say a lot here at the Tim Tebow Foundation is that we do feel called to this, and the best definition that I've ever heard for calling is an urgent and divine invitation to accept responsibility for a particular task, and every word in that matters. Because it is urgent, because if you don't accept the responsibility for the task of helping provide fuel for your ministry, you can't get to people who are in desperation and chaos and crisis. You can't accept responsibility for it later on. So, as marketers and fundraisers, we get the opportunity to say yes to that invitation to accept the responsibility for taking the burden of providing the fuel for the ministry, and what a joy it is when our programs team, our frontline warriors don't have to focus on dollars. Every single thing is worth it for them to be able to focus fully on doing the work that they're called to, which is bringing for us bringing faith, hope and love, and the people that we get to serve experiencing their life being changed.

Kyle Roosen:

And so I just want to encourage people that it is a grind, but it's also a really, really high calling and it's a burden, but there's also so much. There's so much joy in being able to take that off of the shoulders of our team and that's what we get the opportunity to do. We get the blessing of that to be that fuel to help make the mission possible. So anyone listening who might feel tired or discouraged I just want to share that definition again is that we get the opportunity to accept the urgent invitation to accept responsibility for the task of fundraising, and so just hope that's encouraging everyone. Keep going, keep fighting, because there's people around the world who are desperate in need of what you're doing.

Jon McCoy:

Kyle, just love the way you rounded up this conversation. I mean, I think it's a reminder for all of us of this sacred space we get to sit in in this work and just the beauty of it, even on the hard days, and why we need each other in this journey. We need community. So thank you for everything you shared today. I think of your open-handedness and no ego in this. It's just a beautiful thing, and so I want the people listening today. Our community around this podcast. How can people connect with you? How can they find TTF? Where do you hang out online? How can they reach out to you?

Kyle Roosen:

It's a good question, cause I'm in the foxhole just like they are. We're getting ready. We're building two new recurring donor communities right now, and so I'm everything that I'm sharing today. I'm also learning, and so I don't have like a huge public profile. I have, you know, linkedin and I definitely connect with people on there and and then also just email kyle at timtebofoundationorg Happy to, if I can ever help, answer any questions, bounce ideas back and forth. I'd be happy to, and maybe I can come back on later and share how the launch of these two new ones went. There's one, becky. I told you that I'm really excited about yeah, you did.

Becky Endicott:

Do you want to tease it? Really excited about.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah, I'll tease it. We're going deep on inviting people into their own mission. I think so many nonprofits have widened the gap in between the donor and who they serve, and so what we hope to build is a community that breaks that down. So what we hope to build is a community that breaks that down and brings the donor and their impact closer than it's ever been, and so that is the goal of it, and I'm really excited to hopefully launch it in the fall.

Becky Endicott:

Nice, You're a pioneer and we can't wait to hear how it all unfolds. And we may be coming back in five years.

Becky Endicott:

and the Tim Tebow Foundation has 20, you know monthly giving programs and you don't have any gray hair, so I feel like you know that it's going well and it's manageable. So thank you for just breaking it down for us, my friend. I think there's just so many questions and there's so much noise right now about diversifying your pipeline with recurring giving and these monthly models, and I think this is the human way to do it. So appreciate you so much and rooting for the Tim Tebow Foundation and absolutely everything that you do.

Kyle Roosen:

Yeah, thank you guys. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm super grateful and humbled to be a part of it.

Jon McCoy:

Thanks so much for being here. Friends, and you probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before.

Becky Endicott:

We'd love for you to come join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. Sign up today at weareforgoodcom. Backslash hello.

Jon McCoy:

And one more thing If you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast writing interview? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find this community. Thanks so much, friends. Can't wait to our next conversation.