If you're an executive director still learning fundraising, and managing a fundraiser on top of it, this episode is for you. Sue Frost lays out what any CEO can do starting now: set clear fundraising priorities, share your short-, medium-, and long-term goals, and put a concrete number of donor contacts on your calendar each week. She adds one more that's harder than it sounds: be willing to say what you don't know.

For new fundraisers, Sue's first piece of advice is to learn why people give to your organization. Tom explains why that one question has opened more donor relationships for him than anything else. Sue also makes the case for building a peer cohort of fundraising leaders in your community, for giving your fundraiser access to the board, and for dropping the assumption that what worked in one sector will work in another.

The episode closes with a look at Mid-Ohio Food Collective's work: the Eastland Prosperity Center, two working farms, and more than 600 partner agencies.

This is Part 3 of a three-part conversation with Sue Frost.

Learn more about Mid-Ohio Food Collective at www.mofc.org [http://www.mofc.org/]

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

How Nonprofit Leaders Set Fundraisers Up to Succeed w/ Sue Frost

Fundraiser turnover costs organizations money, momentum, and donor relationships. Sue Frost set out to study it through graduate research on onboarding, and she found two distinct reasons fundraisers walk away. Early-career fundraisers leave when they feel disconnected from the mission. More experienced fundraisers leave when they lack support from their manager or the resources to do the job.

You'll learn why onboarding should run on a 12-month cycle, and why helping new hires build relationships outside the development office keeps them around longer. Sue explains why a new fundraiser needs to understand how decisions actually get made, and how a simple three-way check-in at 30 and 60 days catches problems early. She also shares why a ride-along on a delivery route can teach more than a week of orientation.

Tom and Sue also talk through the biggest mistake organizations make when hiring a gift officer, the moment a routine offer of "coaching" made a new employee freeze, and how to tell whether onboarding actually worked.

This is Part 2 of a three-part conversation with Sue Frost.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Why Fundraisers Leave and How Quality Onboarding Keeps Them w/ Sue Frost

The average fundraiser changes jobs every two to three years. Sue Frost stayed at Ohio State for 25 of them, working across athletics, the health sciences, professional schools, and the arts before making the jump to lead fundraising at Ohio's largest food bank.

In this episode, you'll hear how a champion Girl Scout cookie seller found her way into development, and what made Bowling Green's graduate program such a reliable launching pad for fundraising leaders. Sue explains how she built a varied career inside a single institution, and why working alongside strong leaders mattered as much as any title.

Then the conversation turns to her move from higher ed to social services: a faster pace, more room to experiment with text messaging and micro-influencers, and a donor base that includes neighbors who give $10 alongside seven-figure corporate partners. Tom also shares why food banks are personal for him, going back to his early days working for minimum wage.

This is Part 1 of a three-part conversation with Sue Frost.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Building a Fundraising Career That Lasts w/ Sue Frost

Tom picks up where the last episode left off and gets specific about what's working in his own shop. He walks through the report that used to eat six hours and three people's time and now takes fifteen minutes, how he builds a data room to train AI on his organization's voice for grant writing, and why he switched from ChatGPT to Claude for anything that needs to sound human. He also gets honest about what he hasn't tried yet, including agentic AI and virtual engagement officers, and closes with his take on where all of this is actually headed for small shops without big budgets.

Looking for fundraising coaching?  Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

From 6 Hours to 15 Minutes: The AI Workflows Actually Saving Fundraisers Time

Thirty years ago Tom was working off a printed list of donor names and mail merges felt cutting edge. Today he's using Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini every week. In this episode he walks through how he actually thinks about AI in fundraising: where it earns trust, where it breaks it, and the two questions he asks himself before using it on anything donor facing. He covers the real risk of feeding sensitive donor data into free AI tools, why a chatbot should never be the one thanking a first time donor, and the simple gut check that tells him when AI belongs in the room and when it doesn't.

Looking for fundraising coaching?  Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

AI Won't Build Your Donor Relationships. Here's What It Should Do Instead

This is it. In the final installment of Abundant Vision Academy, Tom walks you through the moment every fundraiser has been building toward: making the ask, sitting in the silence, and knowing exactly what to do whether the donor says yes or no.

You'll hear why you should never fill the silence after you make the ask, how to negotiate when a donor pushes back on the amount, and how to structure a gift across multiple years to make a large commitment feel accessible. Tom also covers the two pockets every donor has, one liquid and one not, and why tapping only one of them means you're leaving money on the table.

Then Tom gets into the work that happens after the gift: the handwritten note, the CRM entry, the gift agreement, and the stewardship touches that make a donor feel known rather than managed. You'll hear the cautionary tale of the overzealous development officer who offered to take a donor grocery shopping, and why once a quarter is the right cadence for staying in touch without crossing a line.

The series closes with a reminder of why all of this matters. There are 22 million millionaires in the United States. The number one reason major donors give is that someone asked. The number one reason they don't is that nobody did. Now you know how to ask.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Abundant Vision Academy, Parts 9 & 10: Making the Ask, Closing the Gift & Stewarding Donors for Life

You got the meeting. Now what? In this installment of Abundant Vision Academy, Tom walks through exactly how to run a donor meeting from start to finish, and why the first 15 minutes have nothing to do with money.

You'll learn why you must be upfront about your role as a fundraiser from the very first meeting, how to transition from rapport building to your presentation without it feeling awkward, and what to do when a donor shows up angry. Spoiler: an angry donor is almost always better than an indifferent one. Tom shares the story of a disgruntled dental alum who turned his frustration into tens of thousands of dollars in gifts, and why that outcome was completely predictable.

Then Tom gets into the pre-solicitation, the often-skipped step that separates fundraisers who close gifts from those who get surprised by a no. You'll hear how to ask for permission to have the gift conversation, how to read a donor's response when they push back on a number, and why Tom almost always goes in at double what he's hoping to close.

This is Parts 6, 7, and 8 of a 10-part series releasing every two weeks. Catch up on earlier installments before tuning in.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Abundant Vision Academy, Parts 6, 7 & 8: Running the Donor Meeting, Handling Objections & the Pre-Solicitation

Getting the meeting is half the battle. In this installment of Abundant Vision Academy, Tom gets practical and tactical on exactly how to reach out to donors, what to say when you do, and how to keep the conversation moving when they push back.

You'll hear Tom's actual phone script, why you should never ask if it's a good time to talk, how to use a referral to get past a gatekeeper, and why meeting in a donor's home or office will tell you more than any wealth screening tool ever could. Tom also walks through how to handle the most common donor objections to meeting, including "I already gave this year" and "I support another organization that does the same thing you do," with word-for-word responses you can use immediately.

Plus, the story of an oral surgeon on Fifth Avenue across from Central Park, a missing receptionist, and how showing up unannounced with a gift turned into one of the best donor relationships Tom ever built.

This is Parts 4 and 5 of a 10-part series releasing every two weeks. Catch up on earlier installments before tuning in.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Abundant Vision Academy, Parts 4 & 5: How to Contact Donors, Handle Objections & Get the Meeting

You can't close a major gift you weren't ready for. In this installment of Abundant Vision Academy, Tom gets into the mechanics of preparation: what has to be in place before you ever schedule a meeting with a donor.

This episode covers the full donor cultivation cycle from suspect to steward, why your vision has to be fundable before it's compelling, and how to build a major gift portfolio that actually works. Tom breaks down the difference between affinity and capacity, why 100 names in a portfolio is a setup for failure, and exactly how to mine your donor database to identify your best prospects before you ever pick up the phone.

This is Parts 2 and 3 of a 10-part series releasing every two weeks. If you missed Part 1, go back and start there.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Abundant Vision Academy, Part 2 & 3: Meeting Prep, the Cultivation Cycle & Building Your Portfolio

Before you ever sit across from a donor and make an ask, there's work to do in your own head. In this episode, Tom opens the vault on Abundant Vision Academy, a major gift training program he built from 25+ years of frontline fundraising experience at places like Ohio State and OhioHealth, and he's giving it to you free, one part at a time.

Part 1 is called "First Things," and it covers the mindset foundations that separate fundraisers who close gifts from those who stall out. Tom walks through why rejection by a donor is never a rejection of you, what real commitment to fundraising actually looks like, how confidence in your organization's mission changes everything about how you show up in a donor meeting, and why the scarcity mindset is quietly killing your results.

This is the first installment in a 10-part series releasing every two weeks. Tune in, take notes, and come back for part 2.

Looking for fundraising coaching? Check out www.abundantvision.net [http://www.abundantvision.net/]

Abundant Vision Academy, Part 1: First Things (Mindset, Confidence & the Abundance Philosophy)

Spend 20 minutes each week with host Tom Dauber as he shares insights, tips and expert interviews to help you on your journey to #majorgiftmastery.  

Abundant Vision Fundraising Podcast