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How to Keep Donors Engaged When the Economy Tightens with Aarika Riddle

In this episode of The Responsive Lab, hosts Carly Berna and Scott Holthaus are joined by Aarika Riddle, Executive Director of Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream, for a conversation about leading through uncertainty, stewarding well in challenging moments, and grounding your work in mission when fatigue sets in.

Aarika shares lessons from navigating multiple economic downturns in her fundraising career, including the 2008 recession and recent years of uncertainty. She gets tactical about the basics that still work (thank-you notes, stewardship, donor storytelling), how to personalize at scale using simple tools, and why leadership energy makes or breaks team morale.

Links from the episode:

Learn more about Virtuous at virtuous.org/learnmore and download your free Nonprofit CRM Checklist at virtuous.org/crmchecklist

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The Responsive Lab is brought to you by Virtuous.

Virtuous is a software company committed to helping nonprofits grow generosity. Virtuous believes that generosity has the power to create profound change in the world and in the heart of the giver. With that in mind, it’s their mission to move the needle on global generosity by helping nonprofits better connect with and inspire their givers. Learn more about Virtuous and download your free Nonprofit CRM Checklist at virtuous.org/crmchecklist. 

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Riley Young

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Grow generosity with Virtuous

Virtuous is the responsive fundraising software platform proven to help nonprofit organizations increase generosity by serving all donors personally, no matter their gift size.

“Virtuous truly understands nonprofits and the importance of our mission. And their open access to data and built-in custom reports gave us access to the data we need.”
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Chief Information Officer