90% of Crises in a nonprofit can be fixed with more money
Electrify Your Fundraising Strategies
Join the UMCRM Donorarc Fundraising Cohort:
- Increase Giving an Average of 15% in the First Year
- Grow the number of annual donors giving to your mission
- Decrease dependence on revenue sources that aren’t stable
- Implement a system that works for you and fits into your schedule
How It Works:
- Join a 1 to 2-hour Zoom call each month to learn a new step of the Donorarc system.
- Between calls, implement what you learned in the previous session.
- Need more support? Jump on Mitzie’s calendar for additional training as needed. There is no limit to the number of additional support sessions you may schedule.
- Can’t make a meeting? While it is best to be present to ask questions and learn from others in the cohort, all sessions are recorded and available for make up or to watch a second or third time to help the information stick.
All Meetings are held from 1 pm ET to 2 pm ET unless otherwise noted:
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Meet and Greet by Zoom to ask questions about the cohort before registering.
Zoom Link for April Meet-n-Greet session
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COHORT OFFICIALLY BEGINS
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at 1pm-3pm ET
Donorarc Training 1
This foundational training will ensure you use the summer to collect stories to help increase
giving. You will learn the Donor First principles, steps of fundraising, and how to gather and
write stories your donors can’t ignore.
Tuesday, August 12, 2025 at 1pm-3pm ET
Basecamp Training
Learn to edit the stories you collected over the summer and begin sharing them each month.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Newsletter Training
Learn to use your stories in a printed newsletter format that will help ensure your donors are
building an emotional connection to your mission.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
End-of-Year Appeal Letter Training
This is foundational to increasing giving to your organization. You can’t skip this step, but you also need to ask in a way that fosters engagement.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Best Practices for managing the end of the year in a nonprofit funds development office
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Database management best practices that will help ensure you have the right data to ask for the right gifts in the best ways.
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Gratitude Plan strategies and implementation
This is a huge step in funds development. Know your legal obligations and your relationship obligations.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Spring Appeal letter preparation including segmentation, timeline, and follow up.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Friend Raisers & Prospecting Training to ensure you aren’t wasting time of events that don’t
work and that you are maximizing your efforts when you do have an event.
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Board Development (Board Members invited)
Learn how to engage board members in your annual fundraising efforts and empower them to best use their gifts to help.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Major Donor Solicitation
We will cover how to identify, cultivate and ask for a major gift.
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Planned Giving Documents to explain what you need to have in place to best speak to your
legacy donors.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Planned Giving Solicitation/Workshop to help you learn how to approach a legacy donor and ask for a planned giving commitment.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Final Meeting Review the Calendar
About Mitzie Schafer, the Cohort Leader:
Mitzie is a full-time consultant with GSB Fundraising, helping nonprofits and churches tell their story in ways that increase engagement. She specializes in strategic planning, annual fund, planned giving, and the Donorarc story-based fundraising model training and coaching. She has over 15 years of experience in non-profit executive leadership and fundraising for organizations, including Epworth Children’s Home in Columbia, SC, the ELCA Foundation, and NovusWay Camps. Mitzie specializes in growing passion, engagement, and giving to non-profits. In her first 3 years at Epworth, she implemented a system she designed and titled “Donorarc Storytelling.” The annual fund grew from $1.4 million to $2.6 million. At NovusWay, using the same system, she grew giving 68% over 12 months ($1,078,000 to $1,809,000). In her last two years at the ELCA Foundation, she helped congregation members take the necessary steps to create charitable estate
plans that will gift more than $24 million to churches, church-related non-profits, and other
charities.
Mitzie serves on the board of The United Methodist Camp & Retreat Ministries Association
(UMCRM), which is committed to providing resources, advocacy, inspiration, and networks to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of camp and retreat ministries. Mitzie is an avid quilter, writing her own patterns in Newberry, SC where she lives with her husband, Pastor Jason. She is a mother of two. Ella is an engineering major at Clemson; Micah is a
business major at Winthrop.
The investment is only $1,000 per camp/retreat ministry. Additional sister sites from the same Conference or organization receive a 10% discount.
Registration Questions? Contact Jen Burch
Cohort Questions? Contact Mitzie Schafer
