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Impact-centered fundraising flips the traditional model by focusing on engagement and relationship before ever making a financial request. When donors feel genuine connection to your mission, investment follows naturally.

What Is Impact-Centered Fundraising?

Impact-centered fundraising prioritizes authentic donor relationships over transactional asks. You lead with love, not dollar signs. You build connection before you ever make an ask.

The framework is simple: Engagement breeds affinity. Affinity breeds investment.

Bethany Hardwig, founder of Signal and Story Studio and author of the forthcoming book Impact-Centered Philanthropy, has spent her career proving this approach works. In a recent conversation on Tellwell: The Podcast, she laid out exactly how to implement it, drawing from her years building donor pipelines in higher education and nonprofit spaces.

Why Does Traditional Fundraising Feel So Transactional?

Let’s be honest about what happens in most nonprofit development offices.

There’s pressure from the board. There’s a campaign goal with a deadline. There’s a CRM full of names sorted by giving capacity. And there’s a team of people whose job performance gets measured by dollars raised.

So what happens? We optimize for the ask. We segment lists by wealth indicators. We treat every interaction as a step toward getting the gift.

Donors feel it.

Bethany puts it bluntly: “If I’m only looking at you with dollar signs, you know it. We all know. We can feel it. You’re looking at me and waiting to find out what I can give you that is valuable. And in that assessment, we’ve lost the relationship.”

This is the fundraising problem nobody talks about. When you lead with the ask, you’re telling people that the only thing valuable about them is what they can give you. You’re saying that if they can’t hit a certain threshold, they probably can’t really play here.

That’s not partnership. That’s extraction.

And extraction doesn’t build movements. It doesn’t create the kind of relationships where donors call you with ideas and ask how else they can help.

How Does the Engagement-Affinity-Investment Framework Work?

This framework should change how you think about every donor interaction.

Engagement means giving people access to something real. Not a gala where they sit politely while you talk at them. Real access to the work, the people, the mission.

Affinity is the emotional connection that grows from that engagement. The feeling of ownership. Of belonging. Of caring what happens next.

Investment comes naturally from affinity. Time, talent, treasure. It happens without arm-twisting because the person genuinely wants the mission to succeed.

The magic is in the sequence. Most fundraising strategies try to jump straight to investment. That’s why they feel pushy.

Bethany said it perfectly: “I actually don’t have to worry about the investment part. People put all of their emphasis on investment, and what you’re doing is actually telling everybody, can you give at this threshold? No? Then you probably can’t really play here.”

Notice what’s missing? You don’t chase the investment.

Your job is creating opportunities for people to engage. They engage, their affinity grows. Affinity grows, they invest.

What Does Donor Engagement Actually Look Like?

Here’s a real example from Bethany’s career that shows this framework in action.

When she was at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City housing costs were skyrocketing. The university had 30,000 students and only 5,000 beds. At community events, alumni kept asking: “How do we help with this problem?”

Most institutions would respond with a giving page. Bethany did something different. She launched a program allowing faculty, staff, and alumni to safely house students in their homes for a small stipend per semester.

The response was overwhelming. Way more hosts signed up than there were students who needed housing.

But here’s what made it transformative.

Those hosts got to know their students. They heard about public transportation issues. About parking availability. About how much textbooks cost. About what academic advising looked like and whether students felt supported. Their care for those specific things grew.

Bethany described the shift: “We ended up having about 17 students participate in that program. But those 34 connections were absolutely transformative for both the student and the host.”

Many hosts tried to give their stipend back to the university. They said, “I don’t need this. I’m not doing this for the small stipend you’re giving me. Can I get this back to the student? Can I get this back to the university?”

That’s what happens when engagement creates affinity. People move from asking how they can help to offering everything they’ve got.

Bethany said, “It is that partnership. This is a relationship. We’re invested now. It’s completely different than me saying, ‘Hey, can you write me a check?'”

This is the model. Bring people close to your mission. The giving follows.

What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Propaganda in Donor Communications?

Bethany said something that stopped me cold.

“There’s a fine line between marketing and engagement and propaganda. If I’m reminding you of something that isn’t true, I’m lying to you. And love cannot lie to you.”

We want donors to feel connected, so we send updates and impact stories. Sometimes those reminders don’t match reality. Sometimes we manufacture emotion instead of reporting what actually happened.

The solution: Know your donors well enough to remind them of what they actually love.

Bethany shared a specific example. Joanna Zelinsky is an alum of North Dakota State University. Her father passed away before she graduated. She would not have succeeded in finishing her degree without the community of people that surrounded her. That experience is vital to her relationship with the institution.

So if you’re trying to engage Joanna, what do you say?

“If I go up to Joanna and say, you remember all the fun times we had at some tabling event that you didn’t attend? That’s not gonna resonate with her. That’s not what she loves about this place. But when you know Joanna and you can say, students need mentoring support, that’s how they’re gonna cross the finish line, that’s gonna resonate with her. And it has.”

That’s the difference between marketing and propaganda. Marketing rooted in truth reminds people of what they actually care about. Propaganda tries to convince them to care about what you need them to care about.

“I don’t think you can over-remind,” Bethany says, “as long as you’re reminding in the right lane.”

What Happens When You Ignore Donor Hand-Raises?

One of Bethany’s most practical insights is about follow-up.

“At a certain point, when people raise their hand and you don’t call on them, they stop raising their hand.”

Someone fills out an interest form. Someone sends an email asking how to help. Someone mentions at an event they’d love to get involved. And then nothing happens.

You were busy. You assumed they didn’t really mean it. You were waiting for a bigger signal.

Meanwhile, that person decided you don’t actually want their help.

Bethany’s rule is simple: “When you say, we need help with this thing, but you don’t follow up with somebody who sends you that email or shoots that text or swings by the office, it’s my job to take you at your word.”

She follows up with everyone. Positive or negative.

When she sent out the email about the housing program, she followed up with every single person who responded. Every concern. Every interest. Every question.

“What are your concerns? Traffic? Let’s talk about that. Safety? Let’s talk about how many days I met with the Office of General Counsel and we’ll continue to do. How can I tell you I hear you? I’m talking to you, the person.”

This communicates respect. And respect is the foundation of every good relationship.

Your donors aren’t raising their hands to be sold. They’re raising their hands because they want you to take them seriously.

Take them seriously.

How Do You Build Engagement at Every Giving Level?

Here’s the myth: major gifts require major attention, and everyone else can get the newsletter.

Here’s the truth: every donor deserves a pathway to deeper engagement, and the donors who give $50 today might be the ones writing $50,000 checks in five years.

Bethany is vocal about building pipelines at every level. Not because it’s kind. Because it works.

She said, “To reduce your interest in this space to just dollars would be the cheapest thing I could do for you.”

So how do you create engagement opportunities that work at scale?

Start with access. Can donors see the impact of their giving? Not in a glossy annual report. In real time. With real people.

At the University of Utah, the housing program didn’t just serve students. It gave alumni a front-row seat to student life. Hosts saw what was working and what wasn’t. They heard about challenges firsthand. And that proximity changed everything.

Offer multiple entry points. Not everyone can house a student. But can they mentor one? Review a resume? Offer job shadowing? Hire an intern?

Bethany’s approach is to ask: “Does your company hire interns? Are you available to mentor? Can you look at someone’s resume? What does job shadowing look like in your space?”

When someone gives and sees the impact, they start asking, “How else can I give back?” And suddenly your phone won’t stop blowing up with ideas.

Get out of the way. Bethany said, “To live in a world where I think I have all the solutions is just a really deficit-based way to live and look at life. I don’t want to live in that space. My job is to actually scooch out of frame and let somebody else come into that space and say, ‘You know what we could do?’ And it’s gonna be way better than whatever idea I was gonna generate.”

You don’t have all the solutions. Create the space for people to bring theirs.

Why Does Authentic Media Outperform Polished Content?

Everyone’s inbox is full. Social feeds are crowded. How do you get attention?

Bethany’s answer: Stop polishing everything.

“I am big on authentic media,” she says. “This is my cell phone. I just want you to say what your name is, what your job is, why you love it, and why it matters.”

No studio. No script. No production budget. Just a real person talking about something they care about.

This works because it feels human in a world of manufactured content. It shows you’re not trying to manipulate anyone. Imperfect is endearing.

Bethany described using this approach in crowdfunding initiatives: “How do we let people’s voices ring above kind of everyone else’s pay attention to this, pay attention to this? We have to center voices in this space, almost raw. This might not be the most polished thing you’ve heard, but it’s endearing because I know you and I have room and grace for that.”

Your donors don’t want perfection. They want connection. They want to hear from the people doing the work.

And they want to know that when they raise their hand, you’ll take them seriously.

How Do You Teach Your Team to Lead with Love?

Here’s the hard part: none of this works if your team doesn’t believe it.

Bethany said, “You gotta teach love.”

She’s not serving at the institution where she got her undergraduate degree. Her whole family didn’t go there. She chose to work in North Dakota, and she chose to fall in love with it.

The soil. The wind. The winter. Ag tech and precision agriculture. She loves it all.

Why? “If I’m gonna convince you I love being here, I really need to love being here. Because if I only love it between the hours of nine to five, it’s gonna show.”

That’s the bar. You can’t fake it. You can’t phone it in. You can’t treat your work like a job and expect donors to treat your mission like their calling.

So how do you train a team to lead with love?

You model it. Bethany talks about her dad, who grew up on a farm in Winchester, Kansas. “That man cannot sell anything unless he absolutely believes in it. He didn’t bat an eye because he believed that it was the right thing. It was never salesy because he wasn’t trying to make a sale. He really wanted your life to be better.”

That’s the posture. That’s what your team needs to see from you.

You create space for it. Bethany told a story about a community garden in Orlando. Her husband was in youth ministry at a predominantly white, affluent church that neighbored extended-stay hotels with a very transient population.

What started as a solo activity for church members in their golf shorts and AirPods became something completely different when students from the hotels started showing up.

“We watched it become a large-scale transformative community ministry where students would come after school, play basketball, get a snack, learn how to work in the garden, planting, tending, caring, harvesting, preparing, and then that went into a meal prep function before a tutoring program.”

The adults who used to ignore everyone on their way in and out? “To watch the people who had historically been involved in this community garden go to a real life on your knees, hands in the dirt, I’m gonna teach you how to do this with so much love and sacrifice, that’s what nonprofits do, that’s what philanthropy does, that’s what education does, that’s what love does.”

When you create the conditions for love to grow, people surprise you. They rise. They become more than anyone thought they could be.

You make it non-negotiable. Bethany said, “The job is figuring this out. If people can see this happen here, this can be you too.”

Love isn’t soft. It’s the hardest, most strategic work you’ll ever do. And it’s the only thing that creates lasting transformation.

Your 2-Week Action Plan

You don’t need a new CRM or a capital campaign to start building better donor relationships. You just need to take the first step.

Week 1: Audit and identify (3 hours total)

Pull your last five donor emails. Read them as if you were the recipient. Does this feel like a relationship or a transaction? Then identify three ways donors could engage with your mission beyond giving money. Mentoring? Volunteering? Site visits? Resume reviews? Job shadowing?

Find everyone in the last six months who expressed interest and never got a response. Make a list. Be honest about how many you ignored.

Week 2: Follow up and create (3 hours total)

Send a personal follow-up to five people from your list. Not with an ask. With a real question. “You mentioned you wanted to help with X. I’d love to hear more about what that could look like.” Or, “You raised a concern about Y. Can we talk through how we’re addressing that?”

Then pull out your phone. Find someone whose life has been changed by your organization. Ask them to share their story in their own words. Keep it under 90 seconds. Don’t edit it to death. Post it.

The Bottom Line

Nonprofit fundraising doesn’t have to feel like begging. But it requires a fundamental shift in posture.

Lead with love, not the ask. Focus on engagement before investment. Get donors close to impact. Follow up when people raise their hand. Tell true stories that remind people why they care.

Bethany puts it simply: “Without a relationship, I’m not asking you for anything. What I really want to be doing is walking up to that person with my hand out to give before I’m asking to receive.”

Hand out to give first. Relationship before request. Love before the ask.

And when the hard moments come, when the work feels overwhelming, when you wonder if any of this matters, remember Bethany’s final piece of wisdom:

“Look up. There are so many things happening that are good, even despite the hard. You all know what they are. Look up.”

Your donors will feel the difference. And so will you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is impact-centered philanthropy?

Impact-centered philanthropy is a donor engagement approach that puts relationship and authentic connection before financial asks. It focuses on bringing donors close to real, tangible impact so that investment becomes a natural expression of affinity rather than a response to pressure.

How is impact-centered fundraising different from traditional fundraising?

Traditional fundraising often optimizes for the ask, segmenting donors by wealth capacity and treating interactions as steps toward a gift. Impact-centered fundraising optimizes for engagement first, building affinity through meaningful connection before any financial request.

What does “engagement breeds affinity breeds investment” mean?

This framework describes the natural progression of donor relationships. Engagement (interaction with your mission) creates affinity (emotional connection and ownership). Affinity then naturally leads to investment (time, talent, and treasure) without requiring high-pressure asks.

How do I create authentic donor content without a big budget?

Use your smartphone. Ask staff, volunteers, or beneficiaries to share in their own words what your organization means to them. Keep videos under 90 seconds. Don’t over-edit. Authenticity and imperfection signal trustworthiness.

Why should I follow up with donors who raise concerns?

Because respect is the foundation of every relationship. When someone raises a concern about traffic, safety, or any other issue, following up shows you take them seriously. It transforms potential objections into opportunities for deeper connection.

How do I build donor pipelines at every giving level?

Create multiple entry points for engagement: mentoring programs, resume reviews, job shadowing, internship partnerships, site visits. Don’t reserve meaningful connection for major gift prospects. The $50 donor today might become your $50,000 donor tomorrow.

Resources

Signal and Story Studio — Bethany’s consultancy helping organizations lead with love in fundraising. Visit https://www.signal-and-story.studio/

Impact-Centered Philanthropy — Bethany’s forthcoming book on building donor relationships rooted in authentic connection.

Tellwell Resources — Guides, templates, and tools for nonprofit storytelling. Visit wetellwell.com/resources