Lucy Madden’s husband asked her a simple question: why don’t you ask your volunteers for money? Her first reaction was that it was a crazy idea. Her organization’s volunteers, STEM professionals writing letters to middle school students, were already giving their time. Asking them for money on top of that felt like too much.

She made the ask anyway. During the organization’s first year as a formal nonprofit, facing a real funding gap heading into the school year, Lucy recorded a short, low-production video explaining the situation directly and asking supporters to give as little as $5 a month. That single video brought in 300 monthly donors almost immediately.

In this episode of Missions to Movements, I sat down with Lucy Madden, CEO of Letters to a Pre-Scientist, to talk about Stamp Squad, the monthly giving campaign for nonprofits that grew out of that one video and went on to win this year’s Monthlies award for Most Creative Campaign.

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Who Is Lucy Madden?

Lucy Madden started Letters to a Pre-Scientist while working as a middle school science teacher, running it as a volunteer-driven passion project before eventually leaving the classroom to build it into a formal nonprofit. The organization’s legal name is Pre-Scientist Inc., a deliberate choice that left room for future programming beyond the flagship pen pal exchange, even though the team has stayed intentionally focused on a single core program for most of its history.

What makes Lucy’s perspective distinct is that she came to fundraising without a traditional development background. Her early strategy for Stamp Squad grew out of a moment of genuine financial pressure and a willingness to ask a question she initially thought was inappropriate.

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The Accidental Origin of Stamp Squad

Letters to a Pre-Scientist pairs middle school students in under-resourced communities with real STEM professionals for a year-long, snail mail pen pal exchange during science class. The program costs schools nothing, which means every dollar behind postage, letters, and matching has to come from fundraising.

In the organization’s first formal year, that funding gap became urgent. Lucy had one small grant to get started and little donor pipeline behind it. Her husband’s suggestion to ask the volunteer pen pals directly initially struck her as unreasonable, since those same people were already donating their time. She changed her mind, recorded a short video laying out the situation honestly, and asked people to consider giving $5 a month to help the program make it through the school year. The response surprised her. “I was really shocked by how many people resonated with that messaging,” she said. “It really was a mindset shift for me that these are the champions of the work.” I hear some version of that same surprise from almost every guest who finally makes this ask.

Why Lucy Asks Volunteers for Money

Before that first video, Lucy operated under an assumption common across the nonprofit sector: if someone is already volunteering their time, asking them for money on top of it feels like too much. Stamp Squad’s early success reshaped that belief entirely. Over 90 percent of Stamp Squad’s members have been pen pal volunteers, and pen pals as a group turn out to be the organization’s most likely donors during its year-end campaign as well.

Lucy treats a small number of complaints as useful data rather than a signal to change course, since the volume of people who stay engaged and keep giving outweighs a handful of objections. That distinction, between listening to feedback and letting a small vocal minority set organizational strategy, has let her set increasingly ambitious fundraising goals with real confidence.

Built Directly Into the Volunteer Pipeline

The Stamp Squad ask now lives inside the required training every STEM professional completes before being matched with a student. It appears early in that training, right after an overview of the organization’s mission, as a short video followed by the option to give on the spot. The suggested monthly gift has grown from $5 to $8 over time, still positioned as a genuinely accessible amount rather than a major commitment.

Lucy is candid that her original donation platform wasn’t built for this kind of growth. Early donors couldn’t update their gift amount or cancel on their own, which eventually forced a difficult migration of hundreds of existing donors to a new system. I hear this exact regret constantly from nonprofits who scaled a program before their tech could support it. She considers getting real recurring giving functionality in place from the start one of the most important lessons for any organization attempting something similar.

From 300 to 500 Members

Stamp Squad has grown from its original 300 monthly donors to more than 500, and the number of students supported has grown alongside it, from roughly 150 in the program’s early years to 788 this past year. That growth is exactly what makes Stamp Squad such a compelling example of a monthly giving campaign for nonprofits built primarily on word of mouth rather than paid acquisition. Roughly 60 percent of new pen pal volunteers hear about the program from someone who previously participated, and the organization has shifted its social media focus to Instagram and LinkedIn, platforms where it can reach early-career STEM professionals directly, after seeing engagement on X decline sharply.

Underneath that organic growth sits a 98 percent volunteer retention rate, which Lucy credits to years spent building a genuinely well-run program before trying to scale it further. Satisfied volunteers are the ones willing to share the opportunity with their own networks, and Letters to a Pre-Scientist makes that easy by providing shareable posts, blurbs, and website pages designed to be forwarded along.

What Stewardship Looks Like for Stamp Squad Members

Once someone joins Stamp Squad, their primary experience is simply the pen pal relationship itself: writing letters to their matched student throughout the school year. Once a year, Letters to a Pre-Scientist adds a second touchpoint, a branded postcard featuring a note written by a student explaining why the program mattered to them. Teachers volunteer their classes for this project, and it gives students a concrete understanding of who is funding their supplies and program costs.

That single annual touchpoint, paired with the ongoing letter exchange, has been enough to sustain strong retention without requiring an elaborate donor communications calendar.

Scaling Leadership as the Organization Grows

Letters to a Pre-Scientist recently grew from two full-time staff members to five, adding a program director and additional program managers. Lucy has spent the past year deliberately shifting responsibility for day-to-day program management to that new director, a transition she describes as emotionally difficult given how closely she had been involved in building the program herself. That shift freed her to focus on what only she can do: telling the organization’s story and sustaining relationships with roughly 1,000 annual donors and a growing base of 12 to 15 corporate partners.

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What This Means for Your Organization Right Now

If your organization is sitting on a strong volunteer base, Lucy’s experience suggests those volunteers may already be your best fundraising prospects. Consider building a giving ask directly into an existing touchpoint your organization already has, whether that’s a training, an onboarding sequence, or a recurring event, rather than treating fundraising as a separate initiative competing for attention.

Before scaling any recurring giving program, confirm your donation platform can actually support donors updating or canceling their own gifts. Lucy’s early tooling gap turned into a difficult migration later, and getting that right from the outset will save real time as the program grows.

Learn more about Letters to a Pre-Scientist and Stamp Squad at prescientist.org.

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FAQ: Monthly Giving Campaigns for Nonprofits

How did Stamp Squad start? Lucy Madden, CEO of Letters to a Pre-Scientist, launched Stamp Squad by recording a short video asking her organization’s volunteer STEM professionals to consider giving $5 a month during a period of financial uncertainty. That single video generated 300 monthly donors almost immediately.

Is it appropriate to ask nonprofit volunteers for monthly donations? Yes. At Letters to a Pre-Scientist, over 90 percent of Stamp Squad’s monthly donors are current or former volunteer pen pals, and this group is also the organization’s most likely to give during year-end campaigns. Lucy Madden found that volunteers who understand a program’s impact firsthand are often willing to support it financially as well.

How has Stamp Squad grown since it launched? Stamp Squad has grown from 300 monthly donors to more than 500, with the suggested monthly gift rising from $5 to $8 over time. The number of students supported by the program has grown from roughly 150 to 788 in the past year alone.

What should nonprofits prioritize before launching a recurring giving campaign? Lucy Madden recommends confirming that a donation platform supports full donor portal functionality, including the ability for donors to update or cancel their own recurring gifts, before launching. Letters to a Pre-Scientist had to migrate hundreds of existing donors to a new platform after discovering this gap.

How does Letters to a Pre-Scientist steward its Stamp Squad donors? Stamp Squad members receive an annual branded postcard featuring a handwritten note from a student explaining why the program matters to them, in addition to their ongoing experience as a matched pen pal. Lucy Madden said this single touchpoint, combined with the pen pal relationship itself, has been enough to sustain strong donor retention.