83: The People Behind the Products: Modernizing Your Fundraising in a Flexible Way with Funraise’s Justin Wheeler

Want to build trust with donors at first glance? That’s what happens when you have a solid, user-friendly platform like the one my guest, Justin Wheeler, has developed. As he shares in this episode of What the Fundraising, years of field experience are baked into Funraise, a digital ecosystem that streamlines nonprofit messaging and fundraising. Their state-of-the-art tool is designed to help nonprofits acquire donors at scale by tapping all the traditional and new fundraising channels available with amazing results. The more efficiently we fundraise, the more deeply our organizations can focus on the core mission! You’ll learn all about what Funraise’s platform has to offer, including everything from event ticketing and management to recurring giving, online campaigns, email automation, CRM, automated workflows, data mining, and dashboard/reporting. Justin shares insights from his experience building up multi-million-dollar philanthropic organizations (Invisible Children Uganda and Liberty in North Korea), busts some fundraising myths and reminds us of the importance of maintaining a positive mindset. In wrapping up, Justin reflects on things he knows now that he wishes he knew earlier in his fundraising journey as well as the essence of Funraise’s top priority: Modernizing giving through a powerful platform maintained at a price point accessible to nonprofits with budgets of any size. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (00:30) How an "Invisible Children" documentary changed the course of Justin’s life.  (01:32) Justin’s work with Liberty in North Korea. (03:02) The myth of fundraising ratios. (05:20) How to inspire donor trust by ensuring a user-friendly experience. (08:00) What it looks like to establish digital trust and remove donor doubt. (09:09) Trends that Funraise is monitoring. (10:10) Mallory and Justin reflect on the important influence that narratives – positive and negative – have on donor behavior.  (14:00) Why it’s so important to incorporate clear, repeated “asks” without fear of overstepping.  (16:26) What Justin wishes he’d known during his early days in the trenches. (18:00) Funraise’s core mission.  Get all the resources from today’s episode here.  Follow along on Instagram  Connect with Mallory on LinkedIn Ready to streamline and modernize your organization’s fundraising strategy? Smash through stumbling blocks with my VIP Day, an intensive one-to-one executive coaching experience. You can also click here to learn how I can work with you to pinpoint problems, develop a clear plan, and create content and design habits to support your nonprofit in achieving its goals. Please note: This episode is a part of a very special series called The People Behind the Products. More than ever, nonprofits care about the company behind their technology and service providers. What’s the underlying mission and vision of the company? What do they stand for? And how are they thinking about the sector and serving nonprofits? This series is an opportunity to get to know some of my favorite nonprofit technology companies so that the next time you’re making a tech decision, you can understand a little bit more about the people behind the product. There is no sponsorship or industry money behind the production of this series and the editorial content was at the sole discretion of the What the Fundraising team.