One Letter at a Time: Building a Community That Sustains the Mission

What becomes possible when the people closest to a mission are invited not just to participate in it, but to sustain it?When Lucy nervously asked her volunteers to chip in $5 a month, she braced for a "no." Instead, 300 people said "yes"—and the Stamp Squad was born. In this episode, host Dave Raley sits down with Lucy Madden, Founding CEO of Letters to a Pre-Scientist, to trace how a scrappy, pandemic-era experiment grew into a thriving recurring-giving community that now powers a meaningful slice of the organization's budget.Letters to a Pre-Scientist connects middle schoolers in under-resourced schools with real STEM professionals for a year-long, snail-mail pen pal exchange. Lucy shares how the mission, the team, and the funding model all grew up together, and what she's learned about building something that lasts, one letter (and one stamp) at a time.Key Topics:1. From educator to founder — How a science teacher and mom who saw STEM sidelined for reading and math scores inherited a pen pal program through a Facebook post, then left the classroom to found the nonprofit in 2019.2. Growing from one to a team of five — Scaling from ~850 students to 4,500, and Lucy's hard-won lesson that the founder's passion couldn't be outsourced, so she hired a program director and kept the fundraising herself.3. The funding inflection point — A one-year foundation grant for her salary that clearly wasn't permanent, and the decision to make recurring giving the foundation of the org, not a nice-to-have.4. The story of the Stamp Squad — Launched in 2020 to survive the pandemic (her husband's idea!), a low-budget ask video that landed 300 monthly donors, growing past 500 members, moving from $5 to $8/month—roughly the cost of one student's participation—now covering ~15% of operating costs.5. When volunteers become sustainers — Why 90%+ of Stamp Squad members are former pen pals, and why mandatory volunteer training turned out to be the single best moment to invite recurring gifts.Also in this episode:- Keeping donors close with student-written thank-you notes, stickers, and virtual letter-opening parties- A live coaching moment: Dave's 5 ways to grow donor value, plus lessons from Lucy's first upgrade campaign- Building real community around a "democratized funding model"- Dave's #1 tip for small orgs: invest in the right recurring-giving tech before you start asking-The surprising link between monthly donors and future legacy giftsWhat could your mission look like if you gave ordinary people a clear, meaningful way to belong, and let that commitment compound? Key Resources:- Letters to a Pre-Scientist — Join the Stamp Squad: https://prescientist.org/stamp-squad/- Lucy's original "join the Stamp Squad" invite video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVCFGDDXrHA- Student thank-you letters (see the snail-mail magic): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BEOm9UnWc4NhsVf94uPSngwlI5nqpnvL- The Rise of Sustainable Giving by Dave Raley: https://www.sustainablegiving.org/book- The Center for Sustainable Giving — workshops, assessments & roadmaps: https://www.sustainablegiving.org/Special thanks to our team at Sustainable Giving: Tom, Michelle, Victoria, Kirsten and Abigail.