One client reclaimed 15% of their lapsing donors and added $200,000 by year-end. No new campaigns. No bigger team. Just a stewardship system running quietly in the background. Rachel Bearbower built it.

As founder of the Nonprofit Automation Agency, Rachel has helped clients climb from 35% to 50% donor retention in a single year, recover nearly $20,000 in lapsed gifts in 90 days, and hand 20+ hours a month back to overstretched teams — all without losing the human touch. 🤖💛

In this episode, you'll hear:

The exact case study behind the $200K: what a 15% retention lift looks like when you automate stewardship instead of scrambling to remember it
The five stewardship automations that carry a new donor through their first 100 days — from the instant acknowledgement to the second-gift ask
How to automate a thank-you draft straight into your inbox so it still sounds like you — exclamation points and emojis included
Why your CRM should be your single source of truth, and the quiet data-cleanup mistake wrecking your list
The one thing that has to happen before any AI tool works: clean data

You'll walk away with a first automation you can build this week — start with the highest-leverage thing you're not doing, test it on one or two donors, then scale. 💛

Episode Highlights:

Meet Rachel and the Nonprofit Automation Agency (0:52)
The two connected problems: retention and capacity (1:55)
The five donor-stewardship automations (3:32)
Thinking beyond week one: the first 100 days (7:17)
Case study: a 15% retention lift worth $200K (8:09)
Where to start + why your CRM is your source of truth (9:16)
Keeping automation human (11:31)
Tools: Zapier, native integrations, and using Claude (14:40)
Your first automation today (15:38)
One good thing: the DIKW pyramid and clean data (18:06)

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/727

Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/wsl#podcast

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727. Working Session: The Automation Playbook That Added $200K at Year End - Rachel Bearbower

We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

727. Working Session: The Automation Playbook That Added $200K at Year End - Rachel Bearbower