How Automations Can Save You Time + Increase Donor Relations with Rachel Bearbower

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This podcast is brought to you by LinkedIn for Nonprofits. We’re so grateful for their partnership. Explore their incredible suite of resources and discounts for nonprofit teams here.

How Automations Can Save You Time + Increase Donor Relations with Rachel Bearbower

Ever wish you had someone on your team who could wave a magic wand and make your donor thank-you notes, spreadsheets, and follow-ups happen automatically? 🎩✨

In this week’s episode, Rachel Bearbower, CEO of Small Shop Strategies and Founder of Nonprofit Automation Agency, shares how nonprofits can streamline their work without sacrificing connection.

If you’re a nonprofit leader juggling 97 to-dos, Rachel breaks down how automation can:

• Save you hours each week by eliminating repetitive tasks (hello, donor data entry 👋)

• Improve donor retention with personalized, timely communication

• Reduce burnout by freeing your team to focus on what actually matters: people and impact

And if you’ve ever attended the Monthly Giving Summit, you’re already familiar with Rachel’s behind-the-scenes wizardry. From automated personalized emails to Zapier-powered workflows, she’s helped streamline the complex into seamless.

Check out Rachel’s FREE Resources: 5 Ways to Automate Your Stewardship and Create a Remarkable Donor Experience.

What Can You Automate Right Now?

Rachel shares real-life examples of nonprofit workflows she’s built, like a “one-minute thank you” that sends a pre-drafted email straight to your inbox, ready for review and send-off. It feels personal (because it is), just without the mental load.

Other game-changing automations we explore:

• Board member reminders with donor phone numbers ready to go

• Triggered handwritten thank-you notes after a donor’s third gift

• Donor segmentation based on gift size, with tailored asks for each audience

• Airtable + Zapier workflows to manage podcast guests and summit registrations

• Customized tech platform referrals based on form responses

Oh, and if you think this sounds complicated, don’t worry. Rachel’s mantra is to start small. She recommends beginning with just five workflows, like those crucial first 100 days of a donor’s journey.

The Math That’ll Make You Rethink Your Systems

Rachel also shares a jaw-dropping breakdown of how inefficiencies could be quietly costing your nonprofit tens of thousands of dollars per year. (Spoiler: If you’re wasting 2 hours/day on tech messes, that’s $13,000+ annually in labor costs – and that’s before we even talk about donor attrition!)

Behind the Scenes: Summit Partner Emails

Rachel was crucial in setting up automation for the Monthly Giving Summit registration process and emails that we sent to attendees and partners. This created many benefits in a timely manner.

Just to show you how complicated the backend was for the 2024 Monthly Giving Summit, Rachel used:

• ThriveCart for registration
• Information was passed to Ring Central as the platform where we hosted the event
• Registration details were sent to Flodesk to send personalized emails using merge fields based if someone was a standard or VIP ticket holder
• We had an automation set up with LettrLabs to send out direct mail at three different points pre and post-event

…and I’m probably forgetting something, but we review all of this in the episode!

For the 2025 Monthly Giving Summit, Rachel took the personalization for our partners to the next level:

• Based on answers in registration, emails were pre-populated AND customized based on registration fields to introduce them to a partner’s platform.
• These emails would land in drafts in my inbox, and I’d then review and manually send them out

AMAZING, right!?

Results:

• 836 personalized emails sent to partners AND registrants introducing them to a donation platform that can help them grow their monthly giving platform without manual overload
• A polished, personal experience that drove engagement

Tune In + Take Action

If you’ve ever:

• Missed sending a thank-you note 😬

• Felt like your donor communications were falling flat

• Struggled to connect your CRM, email tool, and donation platform…

Then you cannot miss this episode.

Resources & Links

This show is presented by LinkedIn for Nonprofits. We’re so grateful for their partnership. Explore their incredible suite of resources and discounts for nonprofit teams here.

Through April 30th, LinkedIn is giving away 6 months FREE of Sales Navigator Core to the first 2,000 eligible nonprofit professionals! Click here to apply.

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn or Instagram or book a demo. You can also learn more about Nonprofit Automation Agency on her website.

Check out Rachel’s FREE Resources: 5 Ways to Automate Your Stewardship and Create a Remarkable Donor Experience.

My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.

Join The Sustainers, my Slack community for nonprofit professionals growing and scaling a recurring giving program.

Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.