We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
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We Are For Good is a storytelling, learning + activating community built for nonprofit professionals + everyday changemakers. Through our podcasts + media, purpose-driven activations + global gatherings, we equip for-good leaders with the connection, skills + inspiration to grow their impact. Because we believe community is everything—and together, we can create an Impact Uprising.
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We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
727. Working Session: The Automation Playbook That Added $200K at Year End - Rachel Bearbower
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One client reclaimed 15% of their lapsing donors and added $200,000 by year-end. No new campaigns. No bigger team. Just a stewardship system running quietly in the background. Rachel Bearbower built it.
As founder of the Nonprofit Automation Agency, Rachel has helped clients climb from 35% to 50% donor retention in a single year, recover nearly $20,000 in lapsed gifts in 90 days, and hand 20+ hours a month back to overstretched teams — all without losing the human touch. 🤖💛
In this episode, you'll hear:
- The exact case study behind the $200K: what a 15% retention lift looks like when you automate stewardship instead of scrambling to remember it
- The five stewardship automations that carry a new donor through their first 100 days — from the instant acknowledgement to the second-gift ask
- How to automate a thank-you draft straight into your inbox so it still sounds like you — exclamation points and emojis included
- Why your CRM should be your single source of truth, and the quiet data-cleanup mistake wrecking your list
- The one thing that has to happen before any AI tool works: clean data
You'll walk away with a first automation you can build this week — start with the highest-leverage thing you're not doing, test it on one or two donors, then scale. 💛
Episode Highlights:
- Meet Rachel and the Nonprofit Automation Agency (0:52)
- The two connected problems: retention and capacity (1:55)
- The five donor-stewardship automations (3:32)
- Thinking beyond week one: the first 100 days (7:17)
- Case study: a 15% retention lift worth $200K (8:09)
- Where to start + why your CRM is your source of truth (9:16)
- Keeping automation human (11:31)
- Tools: Zapier, native integrations, and using Claude (14:40)
- Your first automation today (15:38)
- One good thing: the DIKW pyramid and clean data (18:06)
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/727
Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/wsl#podcast
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