536. How It's Built: Tim Tebow Foundation's 19,000+ Monthly Giving Community - Kyle Roosen

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Overview

Meet Kyle. He’s helped steward the creation and growth of a recurring donor community made up of more than 19,300 monthly givers at the Tim Tebow Foundation🤯 With no formal marketing training, he was hungry for knowledge and figured out how to harness the power of data and storytelling to invite believers into their mission one person at a time. The best part? You can copy his exact strategy. In this How It’s Built episode, Kyle is sharing the importance of a donor experience that infuses joy and meaning into every contribution. Tune in to hear the lessons learned along the way including the delicate balance of growing a donor base while cultivating current supporters🎁

💡Learn

How the Tim Tebow Foundation grew to 19,300 monthly givers
How to Build a Scalable Monthly Giving Program
Pro Tips + Lessons Learned

Today’s Guest

Kyle Roosen, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Tim Tebow Foundation

“I want them to experience joy and I want them to know exactly what their giving is doing and as storytellers, that’s our responsibility to them.”

— Kyle Roosen, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Tim Tebow Foundation

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Kyle’s story and journey to where he is today (3:20)
Overview of the Tim Tebow Foundation's monthly giving campaign (4:50)
How It’s Built: A Recurring Giving Community (14:55)
- Develop + Implement your data layer (16:50)
- Create your branded product/community (18:45)
- Build your audience (24:40)
- Become elite storytellers (26:50)
Creating content that is authentic (34:40)
Pro Tips (37:00)
1. Don’t overlook data & tracking
2. Don’t forget immediate touch points
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Kyle’s life (41:05)
Kyle’s One Good Thing: It’s a grind, but it's also a really high calling. (46:55)
How to connect with Kyle (49:55)

Impactful Quotes

"We sell impact, we get to be a part of people's purpose, we get to help people feel that what they do on a day-to-day basis is meaningful because they get to be a part of our mission." -Kyle

"It started with the one person signing up and then the next day getting one more and hopefully one more after that." -Kyle

"I want them to experience joy and I want them to know exactly what their giving is doing and as storytellers, that's our responsibility to them." -Kyle

“We also have the opportunity with a recurring donor program to add meaning into people's lives.” -Kyle.

“You have to know why you're doing it. You have to know and communicate to your audience that there's power when we come together, that it's not about the amount that anyone gives, it's that they give, that they're a part of the mission.” -Kyle

“We make most of our decisions around does this help us tell more stories or better stories?”

“If you have the best, most impactful mission in the world, if no one knows about it, then they can't be a part of it.” -Kyle

“We set a ratio to 80% of the content, that when we produce it, we ask ourselves, is this going to add value to someone's life? Is it going to inspire them, encourage them, entertain them, educate them? Then 20% of the content that we produce, has the call to action, or the invitation to come alongside us.” -Kyle

"I think that nonprofits have such an important message to share. We should be the innovators in how content is created. We have the best stories of any business to share. We should be the best content creators." -Kyle

“We're going to focus on every sentence we write, every word that we write, so that always matches the heart of who we are, so that you can identify with us.” -Kyle

“Every word really does matter.” -Kyle

"We do feel called to this and the best definition that I've ever heard for calling is an urgent and divine invitation to accept responsibility for a particular task." -Kyle

"It is a grind and so what I want to leave with people is the grind is worth it." -Kyle

Tone-Setting + The Case for Monthly Giving Programs:

Only 20% of America has a high-level of trust in non-profits
Almost 60% of Americans ask themselves how they can find more meaning and purpose in life at least monthly
You have a majority of people who distrust nonprofits, and a majority of people who want to find more meaning. We have the opportunity to build a recurring giving program that establishes trust and transparency with donors so we can break through that gap. This program can add meaning to people’s lives.
Monthly giving programs are vehicles of transparency and ways to communicate impact to donors - NOT a transactional community. They’re based in relationship and shared mission.

How it’s Built: Scalable Monthly giving programs👇

Pro Tip: Always be acquiring, but equally focus on the experience. You have to be reaching new people, but also be loving the people that are apart of your community equally.

Develop + Implement your data layer.
- This will help you understand which tactics are the most important for your organization.
Create your branded product/community
Build your audience
- Build your email and text list, social media, email list - all take a different strategy
- Implement a website popup + leverage Meta ads
Become elite storytellers to share impact, build trust, authenticity and transparency
- See yourselves as a media team - we have the best stories and should be the best content creators
- Ask yourself - will this help us produce more stories or better stories?
- TTF’s ratio - 80% of all content they produce should add value to their audience’s life.
- Find a way to be valuable to your audience before they have given
- Go ahead of your audience and show that you care about them. Deposit into the relationship account and when that person is ready, invite them to be a part of it in a meaningful way. THEN produce an experience for them
Relentlessly build through campaigns, invitations, testing, analysis, creativity
- Relentlessly try to get one additional recurring donor a day

Experience

Have immediate touch points set up
- Anticipate questions, say thank you
- Set up an auto-email that sets expectations for what it means to be part of this community and what members can expect moving forward.
- Send out a welcome gift - TTF sends a t-shirt and welcome card
- The first story they receive is really important.
- Your initial trust will be built here
Map out the meaningful experience
Obsess over storytelling
Labor over the words, tone, and consistency of your message
- Every sentence you write should be invitational and relational. This is key to trust building with your giving community.
Add CRM technology to help you

Pro Tips:

Always be building your audience and never stop
Don’t overlook data attribution and effective tracking. Look at all of your systems and all of your tracking and understand consistencies over time - what moves the needle? This will help you make your next decision.
Some fundraisers focus on acquisition and some focus on experience. Sometimes it’s hard to be consistenet to sustain something. Be aware of what team members are good at acquisition and which are good at sustaining the experience.