EPISODE 124
Episode 124 of Tales From the Trenches Tuesdays again features Penny Harris, a fundraising professional with over 35 years of experience. Before she ever held a professional fundraising title, she was a community volunteer with the League of Women Voters, producing candidate forums and statewide debates. It was there — in the unglamorous work of civic organizing — that she learned what fundraising is really about. Today, Penny coaches nonprofit leaders through her practice, Renewable Philanthropy, helping organizations renew donors and turn them into genuine community partners.
One of the first things Penny pushes back on is the instinct most fundraising shops have to jump straight to tactics. Where are we going to find donors? What’s the ask going to be? How do we hit this year’s number? She argues that none of that works sustainably unless you first clarify your mission — not as a tagline, but as a living document that your board can speak to confidently and consistently. When that clarity exists, the board doesn’t need a script. They can be flexible, pull out different parts of the story, and share it with conviction because they actually believe it.
That same philosophy extends to how Penny thinks about donor communications. Most organizations lead with themselves — their accomplishments, their programs, their impact numbers. Penny flips that entirely.
When you’ve got a donor, it’s thank you for enabling us to serve our community — not how great you are and all the things you’re doing.
Mining your own Database
She’s not interested in chasing new donors at the expense of the ones already in your database. Her benchmark is a 90% renewal rate among current donors. Not because it’s a feel-good metric, but because it’s the foundation of a real fundraising program. And yet, she’ll be the first to tell you that most organizations aren’t even tracking it. They want new donors. The technology is a result of acquisition. Renewal, she says, isn’t even a goal for most shops — and that’s exactly the problem.
What strikes me most about Penny is how personal her conviction is. She traces it all the way back to dropping a quarter into the church collection tray as a kid and feeling, for the first time, like she was part of something. That’s the feeling she’s spent her career trying to recreate — for donors at every level, in every kind of organization. It’s a community thing. And it always has been.
Just click on the picture of Penny below to hear our conversation.
L’chaim,
jack
