Ask Allison

Losing a major donor over a skipped thank-you can sink a quarterly campaign. Veteran fundraiser Patrick Feeley brings 35 years of front-line experience to help operators shift from transactional asking to strategic matchmaking.

Stewardship requires more than mail-merged letters. It demands owning public oversights and navigating tight margins. Feeley outlines exact steps to save relationships after massive blunders, like omitting a top sponsor at a ribbon-cutting.

We examine tactics to stop post-gala ghosting and keep attendees engaged all year. You will learn to segment event lists, assign board members gratitude calls, and execute high-touch outreach on...

Over $320 billion currently sits in donor-advised funds waiting to be distributed. Jody Dilday from the Arkansas Community Foundation explains exactly how nonprofits can position themselves to receive these resources.

Navigating the mechanics of DAFs and community foundations doesn't require a massive development team. By simply adding tax ID numbers to websites and adjusting reply cards, organizations clear immediate administrative hurdles for their donors.

We break down the exact IRS constraints around tangible benefits, including why DAFs cannot fund gala tables or fulfill legally binding pledges. We also cover how small shops can establish a planned...

Individual donations keep the lights on, but pooled funds build sustainable financial engines. Gay Prescott and Alison Levin break down how their foundations implemented giving circles to drive major gifts.

Setting up a donor society requires heavy lifting on the front end, from establishing contribution tiers to securing board buy-in. You must align the pooled revenue directly with immediate operational needs or endowment growth. It takes administrative bandwidth to run allocation meetings and manage stewardship beyond standard acknowledgment letters. Yet, executing this model turns isolated contributors into a unified funding source for capital projects.

For...

Artificial personalization is quietly destroying donor trust across the nonprofit sector. Fundraisers are moving so fast with automated outreach that they are actively alienating the people funding their missions, making it critical to step back and evaluate how we actually build real connections. Andrea Kihlstedt joins the show to share her decades of capital campaign expertise and deep understanding of donor psychology.

We sit down to dissect exactly what has changed in the industry since the days of index cards and what absolutely remains the same. The conversation moves through the mechanics of modern stewardship, the inherent...

Treating donors like ATMs is a direct resource leak for nonprofits. With grant guidelines constantly shifting and donor retention requiring deeper attention, leaning into authentic human connection is a practical necessity right now. Today, certified fundraising executive Allison McElroy flies solo to share hard-earned lessons from over three decades of boots-on-the-ground nonprofit work.

We get into the exact mechanics of why an organization's database is a list of relationships rather than a ledger of transactions. Specifically, this episode breaks down time-blocking for stewardship, why board members should operate as connectors instead of professional fundraisers, and the hard...

With shifting economic landscapes and looming federal budget cuts, fundraising leaders must learn how to strategically leverage big opportunities before time runs out. In this episode, Allison McElroy sits down with Frankie Rankin, the CEO of the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas, to uncover how her organization successfully unlocked a major milestone under immense pressure.

We sit down to unpack the high-stakes world of challenge grants and the precise strategies required to execute them successfully. Frankie shares the behind-the-scenes realities of managing a massive capital campaign, detail by detail, including the specific rules governing structures...

Board member disengagement is a silent profit leak that keeps most nonprofits playing small. Many executive directors feel like they are pulling teeth just to get a board member to share a post or make an introduction, but the reality is that most members are simply intimidated by the "F" word: fundraising. If your board views their role as a monthly meeting rather than a mission-driven partnership, you are missing out on the organic growth that only peer-to-peer influence can provide. In this episode, I sit down with my long-time friend, mentor, and thirty-year fundraising veteran Linda Phillips to...

A lot of people think fundraising is just asking for money. That idea is not only wrong, it can quietly wreck your donor relationships. I’m joined by Amy McGovern, Director of Development for the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas and President of AFP Northwest Arkansas, for a real-world conversation about what actually moves giving: listening, trust, and inviting people into something they already care about.

Amy shares her unexpected career path into development, then breaks down how the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas works, from managing charitable funds and endowments to supporting communities through a robust nonprofit grants pr...

What if your marketing plan isn’t extra, it’s the engine? We sit down with Peyton Stewman, marketing strategist at the Children’s Safety Center of Washington County, to unpack how communications becomes core infrastructure for fundraising, trust, and long-term growth. Peyton shares how she helped launch and legitimize a $15M capital campaign, moved storytelling in-house, and built a steady cadence that turns casual followers into committed donors.

We dig into the mindset shift that changes everything: funding follows clarity and trust follows consistency. That means ditching throwaway holiday graphics and leaning into content that matters, preven...

Ever feel like you’re running at 95% capacity and one small hiccup sends the whole day sideways? We’ve been there. That’s why we sat down with meditation teacher and former publisher, Leslie Zanoff, to unpack how small, simple practices can restore your energy, sharpen your focus, and help you lead with calm, even when budgets are tight and event season is on fire.

We start by busting myths around mindfulness. You don’t need a cushion or a candle; you need a moment. Leslie explains why stillness can feel uncomfortable at first and shares science-backed practice...

What happens when the grant you’ve always counted on disappears? We sit down with Teresa Mills, CEO of Peace at Home Family Shelter, to unpack a calm, practical roadmap for nonprofits facing sudden funding cuts. From building a pet sanctuary that keeps survivors and their animals safe to rebuilding donor trust after tough seasons, Teresa offers clear steps leaders can use right now.

We start with radical transparency that steadies your inner circle, board, staff, and core donors, without alarming the people you serve. Teresa breaks down how to communicate early and often, frame the real ga...

The room goes quiet, the story lands, tears well up—and then the program shifts and the moment to give disappears. If you’ve ever watched donations evaporate in a 30-second transition, this conversation will feel like a masterclass in what to fix and how to do it fast.

I sit down with 3W Magazine founder Kasie Yokley to unpack the playbook that helped Northwest Arkansas stop stepping on its own toes. Years ago, galas stacked up on the same night, sponsors were stretched thin, and donors had to choose. Kasie's answer was deceptively simple: build a char...

If you’ve ever been told to keep “overhead” low, this conversation might change your entire fundraising playbook. Allison sits down with grant-writing powerhouse Melanie Palmer to unpack the long-standing myth that administrative costs should be separate from program costs, and reveals a better way to budget, report, and raise money that actually fuels impact.

We dig into how 990 categories and charity watchdogs nudged the sector into chasing ratios with no evidence behind them. Melanie shares a practical, test-anywhere definition: a program expense is anything your program cannot function well without. With that lens, leadership, accounting, audits, rent...