727. Working Session: The Automation Playbook That Added $200K at Year End - Rachel Bearbower

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 itThe five stewardship automations that carry a new donor through their first 100 days — from the instant acknowledgement to the second-gift askHow to automate a thank-you draft straight into your inbox so it still sounds like you — exclamation points and emojis includedWhy your CRM should be your single source of truth, and the quiet data-cleanup mistake wrecking your listThe one thing that has to happen before any AI tool works: clean dataYou'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/727Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/wsl#podcast//Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter