LinkedIn for Fundraisers: Michelle Benson on Being Found by Funders

Michelle Benson spent 18 years chasing funders, then crossed to the other side of the desk and watched them go looking instead. Michelle Benson is the founder of Culture of Philanthropy, online training that teaches fundraisers, CEOs, communications staff and consultants how to be found on LinkedIn by the people they want to reach. She was a fundraiser for 18 years and has spent about ten on the funding side. She joins Sarah to explain what changed when she stopped chasing high value funders and started building a way for them to find her. She tells it from inside a trust fund. Two colleagues came in every morning to a flood of applications, most of which missed the criteria, and had to wade through the weak ones to reach the strong ones. So the fund closed its open application process. Those same two people were handed the giving criteria and, by her account, fifteen million pounds to place, and sent out to find charities themselves. The quality of the pipeline went up. So did the mood of the two people doing the work. If your whole pipeline runs on cold outreach, this is the second string. In this episode Why funders are closing open applications and going out to look instead The algorithm as a sniffer dog, and what your words and actions send it after Why a post with plenty of likes can still be a post that failed A few ideas to apply at your nonprofit Write the goal down before you touch LinkedIn. Something as specific as four new corporate funders at around $20,000 in the next 12 months. Describe your best supporter and your worst one, then write your profile for the best one. Your profile is what the algorithm reads. Give every post one job, then judge it against that job. If the job was clicks to your site, likes are not the score. Resources Mentioned Connect with Michelle Culture of Philanthropy: https://www.cultureofphilanthropy.co LinkedIn:   / michelle-benson-creates-digital-pipelines   Connect with Sarah Follow the show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcast.nonprofit411.org Nonprofit411: https://www.nonprofit411.org LinkedIn:   / nonprofit411   The Generosity Roadmap for Nonprofits, a free class to explore the systems that keep community at the heart of fundraising: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map Chapters 00:00 Introduction 04:20 Eighteen years of chasing 07:14 "My job is to be found" 14:33 The algorithm as a sniffer dog 25:18 When likes mean the post failed