Empowering Nonprofits: Jeremy Stern on Strategic Fundraising and Overcoming Challenges

Tasha: [00:00:00] Good morning. Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your nonprofit journey?

Jeremy: Sure. Hi I’m Jeremy Stern. I am the director of partnerships at cause match.

Jeremy: I am a career non profit fundraiser, so for almost 20 years now, I’ve been working in the non profit sector. I’ve been at CauseMatch for four years now, working with non profits and non profit consultants in digital fundraising campaigns. For 15 years before that, I worked in non profits. I was the executive director of a small shop for many years and after that as a director of development for some mid sized organizations.

Jeremy: So Decade and a half in house and now four years working with organizations and scaling up their fundraising.

Tasha: I love that because I find that’s the interesting thing about non profit tech is the majority of people I know who end up working in it. It’s because they were in a non profit first, which I don’t see that same mirror in the for profit tech space in the same way.

Tasha: So I love that.

Jeremy: [00:01:00] That’s really interesting. And actually, the way I got to Cosmatch, I was a client for several years. I was a Cosmatch client for five years. I actually was an early adopter. I was client number 40 of Cosmatch in something like early 2016. And and I ran several crowdfunding, peer to peer campaigns with them, and I loved working with them.

Jeremy: And the way I joined, I got to the company was, it was part of the the great, what do they call it? The the great, not recession, the great oh, I just blanked on the term. At the end of 2020, everyone is leaving their jobs. Yeah. Resignation. That’s what it was. Resignation. Resignation. The Great Resignation end of 2020.

Jeremy: Everyone’s burnt out from from the pandemic. And I was burnt out from the organization that I was working at. It was a very old school organization and I was looking, you know, for a place that was forward thinking about philanthropy and fundraising. And I reached out to the founder and CEO of CauseMatch and I said, Hey, we’ve been working together for five years now in a client [00:02:00] service provider relationship.

Jeremy: I love to explore working more closely together. And that was January, 2021. And shortly thereafter, I had a job. So that’s how I got to the company. Yeah,

Tasha: I think to the people behind so much nonprofit tech, like the tech is the tech and it’s a tool, right? It’s a tool. And we build tools and we use them, but it’s the customers, like the customer service, the people behind the team.

Tasha: I think that’s the stickiness when we talk about in the sector, the right tools, it’s often the teams behind it, because There’s a lot of similar tools on the market nowadays and more and more coming on the scene. So I always say to nonprofits, like work with people that you really like, like where you go, yeah, this person is looking out for me as taking care of me is, you know, has my best interests at heart too.

Tasha: And the technology will support, you know, those individuals on the team.

Jeremy: 100%. And that’s actually something that I loved about cause match when I was a client and what really brought [00:03:00] me to their team was that we’re not just a tech platform. And in fact, I actually like, you know, get a little uncomfortable.

Jeremy: People just refer to us as a tech platform because that’s one piece of what we do. But the support and the strategy that we provide our clients is a huge element. It’s really like the second major piece of what we offer. And I work specifically with it. non profit consultants whom we train in our strategic approach to peer campaigns.

Jeremy: And so they can coach their clients in strategic peer to peer campaigns through CauseMatch. So for me, it’s like all about the strategy built on top of the the technology.

Tasha: That’s fantastic. I love that so much. I very much too. Every once in a while, someone will be like, you’re a tech founder about the nonprofit hive.

Tasha: And I’m like, not like I don’t resonate. That doesn’t resonate with me at all. And I understand there’s technology behind it. But that’s, you know, you’re a

Jeremy: community builder, right? That’s what you’ve been building. It’s not just the technology of the platform, right? [00:04:00] It’s what you’re creating with the people that you’re connecting.

Jeremy: Okay.

Tasha: Exactly. So favorite part of working in non profit in this sector? What’s your favorite part?

Jeremy: Oh the mission driven meaning behind the work that, that we do where I am now, it’s interesting because Cosmatch is, we’re a for profit company, but we’re a social enterprise. So we’re mission driven.

Jeremy: We’re about making a difference in the world and for our clients specifically for the organizations we work with, and we’re working with nonprofits. So we have that business mindset and and that that tech startup kind of element to us as a company, but we’re mission driven and what’s so meaningful about the work that we do is we work with these amazing organizations that are changing the world and making such a difference and to be able to advance their missions and enable them to scale up and succeed.

Jeremy: Raise multiples of what they raised before so that now they can do so much more. It’s just so gratifying.

Tasha: [00:05:00] And, you know, you’ve been in this beautiful sector for a long time.

Jeremy: Yeah.

Tasha: What do you feel are the challenges of this work or what’s the primary challenges in house and now in your work with cause match?

Tasha: What do you think?

Jeremy: Challenges in the nonprofit sector? What do you mean? Right. Weird. What I come across all the time and it’s. It’s a challenge and it’s frustrating and it’s really what we’re working to change is the scarcity mindset of the non profit world. The, and especially for, and it’s often not as much the professional leadership within the organization, but often from the boards and sometimes from donors as well who say like, keep overhead as low as possible.

Jeremy: Don’t invest in your growth. And and I just want to advance the work that you’re doing. So I’m giving you 10, 000 as a board member every year to pay for the food kitchen the soup kitchen that that we run in order to pay for the [00:06:00] food. And the thing is that You it’s not just overhead, right?

Jeremy: It’s what enables the organization to do the work that they do. So that overhead, quote unquote, might be their facilities. It might be their professional staff. It might be them being able to do the work that they do so much more efficiently and effectively with the limited resources that they have.

Jeremy: So the scarcity mindset of we can’t invest in growth is such a challenge and value. Cue Dan Pallotta, right, if anyone hasn’t seen his famous Ted Talk and now his movie. It’s so good, right? Something like everything we know about charity is dead wrong. I think it’s something along those lines.

Jeremy: Take the 15 minutes to watch that Ted Talk. I love it and it’s so great. It’s so, so great.

Tasha: It hits the nail on the head. I’ve seen it a couple of times. I made my kids watch it with me. My kids are now, my kids are being slowly, like, I’m sure they’re going to grow up and go, well, what did we talk around the dinner table?

Tasha: But well, it was all about nonprofit. Yeah, [00:07:00]

Jeremy: exactly.

Tasha: But that scarcity mindset for sure. And it’s kind of funny. And maybe you’ve experienced this because. Fundraisers are always being pushed to bring in more money. Like, you know, like I had someone recently go, I’ve been told I need to increase by 15 percent and how much we’re bringing in next year.

Tasha: Well, how are you going to do that? Right? Like if you’ve got the exact same tools, exact same resources, an increase of 15 percent is like, that’s pretty frigging ambitious. Like, and a for profit would go, well, how are we going to get there? Well, we’re going to have to get all of this underlying foundation in place, whether it’s tech, whether it’s humans.

Tasha: We need that in order to get to this next growth space.

Jeremy: Yeah, 100%. And these are the conversations that I’m often having with organizations with fundraisers, where they’re conveying these sentiments that they hear from their boards, from other leaders within the organization. And look, CauseMatch is a premium product and service, right?

Jeremy: We’re [00:08:00] absolutely not the cheapest out there. I do believe we’re the most effective. And so what I’ll often say to prospective clients is, sure, you can spend 1, 000 on some marketing and Google ads and things like that and raise 10, 000. And now you’ve netted 9, 000 and your overhead is relatively low. It’s only 1, 000.

Jeremy: Or you could spend 10, 000 and raise 100, 000, right? And yes, oh my God, 10 times as much cost. Yes, but 10 times as much net revenue from the campaign as well. And so your board member who is writing a check for 10, 000 is going to say, Why did you spend my 10, 000 annual gift just on, you know, some technology and coaching?

Jeremy: Whereas the beneficiary of your life saving work is going to say, wow, you’re able to help me in 10 times as many more people because you’ve done this, that’s, we have to [00:09:00] keep our eye on the ball about what is our impact, right? What’s the impact of the work that we’re doing, donor impact, organizational impact and just driving your mission forward.

Jeremy: I love that. We’re actually talking, our LinkedIn live later today is about Success beyond the fundraising dollars, right? Because conveying impact it’s way, it’s more about that. And just want to part of the conversation is like, how do we talk about nonprofit staff retention as an impact measurement?

Jeremy: Because that is a real thing, right? Like that is a sign of health at this point in the nonprofit sector. When somebody says to me. Oh, I’ve been with this org for 10 years and I love it. Well, that’s pretty interesting. I think that’s a really, yeah, that’s unique.

Jeremy: And I experienced myself as a professional fundraiser.

Jeremy: I, I experienced the revolving door of being a development director in one place for a year and a half, and then another place for a year and a half. And I was done with that. And that’s when I joined the cause match team. I’ve been here for four years and I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. [00:10:00] So yeah, you need to be in a place.

Jeremy: That’s. Investing in you, right? Investing in you as a key asset of the growth of the organization or the company.

Tasha: Yeah, for sure. So peer support, this is always a question I ask, you know, how has peer support factored into your success in this sector?

Jeremy: Peer support. That’s a great question. I mean, for me.

Jeremy: It’s basically everything that I do, right? I’m the director of partnerships. So, I network and I’m the point person for nonprofit professionals who get involved in our work. They might be marketing professionals who simply refer clients to us. You know, they’ll do the marketing side of the campaign.

Jeremy: We’re doing the the technology and fundraising strategy side of the campaign or working with with fundraising coaches, right? Non profit fundraising coaches and consultants who really get involved as implementation partners in our campaigns. Why do I mention all of that? Because up until [00:11:00] now, it’s been all of these individuals have kind of been like silos unto themselves.

Jeremy: And actually next week for the first time ever, we’re doing our first in person gathering. We’re calling it a partner summit for our most active fundraising coaches and referral partners so that they could meet each other and learn from each other and learn best practices. It’s so important because so many of these people are doing amazing work individually.

Jeremy: And to learn from each other and support one another is critical. We’ve had a WhatsApp group where people post questions all the time, like, Hey, this is a challenge I’m experiencing in a campaign. What do you suggest? How do you coach a client on this issue or that issue? It’s so important not to be siloed and not just to be in a onto an island of your own, but really to learn from one another and support one another.

Tasha: I think that’s fantastic. Yeah. Peer support. Yeah. It just. Whether I’ve been in marketing roles in the past in sales roles, part of the inspiration for the nonprofit hive came from being [00:12:00] part of this sales community where every time, sometimes I was coming in and I ended up being surprised where I was like, I’m a mentor in this case, because I’ve been doing this for much longer than this person who I’m chatting with.

Tasha: But then sometimes you get in a role with somebody who has like 20 years experience on you. And they are telling you things that. We just can’t learn it all by ourselves, right? And sometimes being in that immersion with other people at different stages, but you all have some sort of value alignment in what your discussion is really it forwards both yourself and potentially that other person at the same time, which is exciting.

Tasha: 100%. 100%. And you’ve been a Hive member for a really long time. I think I looked up the other day. I think you’re at like called like 28 or something like that. I’d have to look it up because I do have the exact number. Wow. You have the data. I do have the data. Yeah, no, I have the data. I keep track of these things.

Tasha: So you’ve been a member for quite a long time. What have you gotten out of being part of the nonprofit

Jeremy: [00:13:00] community? Oh, I love it. I look forward to my call every week. For me, I’ve done other types of online networking platforms and have started them and stopped them. And with the non profit Hive, I’ve started and I’m not stopping.

Jeremy: Because it’s been so valuable for me, number one, just to connect with different types of people from different backgrounds and to learn from them and and, you know, see how we can support one another. But even just from a biz dev perspective there have been other. Nonprofit fundraising consultants who I’ve met on the hive and we’re now doing work together and we’re supporting nonprofits and in amazing ways just from having connected through the hive.

Jeremy: So it’s great. Like, I really enjoy it.

Tasha: That’s awesome. I, yeah, I always enjoy meeting new people. That thing, you know, to like the backgrounds may be wildly different. You’re all over the world doing different things, but sometimes you just. Have a spark in a conversation with someone and go, yeah, we got to figure out how to do more things [00:14:00] together.

Tasha: This is really fun.

Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah. It’s been great. It’s been awesome.

Tasha: Jeremy, this was great. How can people get ahold of you? What’s the best way to reach out and connect?

Jeremy: LinkedIn spent a lot of time on LinkedIn. Get every notification that pops up on my phone connect with me there and we can we can take it from there.

Tasha: Okay. That’s awesome. Thank you so much for doing this with me today. It was wonderful. It was

Jeremy: such a pleasure. And thank you for everything that you’re doing in building this community.