Coram Deo —— Christ is King ————— Husband, Dad, learner, leader, HubSpot OG. Solutions Architect. Building GiftKeep - gift records for small nonprofits
Lancaster, PA
Joined October 2008
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There is nothing as good, as a good question.
I’m starting thread of good questions I find.
Friday afternoon is review day for my bots.
What ran, what broke, and what nobody should be doing anymore.
A gift entered wrong in Steward Ledger doesn't get deleted. It gets voided, with a reason, and the change history shows who did it.
Nothing disappears. That's the point of a ledger.
ALT Steward Ledger gift page for a $350.00 gift from Sofia Marchetti marked Voided, with the reason 'Duplicate entry: check was recorded twice' and a History list showing who voided and created it and when.
My goal for November isn't followers.
It's 10 small nonprofits that stop rebuilding their gift records in a spreadsheet every month.
That's what I'm building for.
B2B version: the AI answer quotes whoever wrote the clearest page about the customer's problem.
Write that page.
xitter.gq/tibo_maker/status/2116…
SaaS acquisition has drastically shifted
a few thoughts on how to navigate this:
organic traffic from Google goes to zero
but you need SEO to get mentioned by AI
UGC content and influencer marketing are more important than ever, pay influencers if you can
product needs to be incredibly good
people's tolerance for bugs is going to zero
branding matters more than ever
go stand for something
be where the AI goes:
- Reddit
- X articles
- blog listicles
ngl, it's tough but you can make it
"A CRM you built in a weekend" is forgivable.
A CRM nobody owns is the one the new VP actually inherits.
xitter.gq/jasonlk/status/2115936…
✅ Your VP Sales candidate will forgive you for:
- A comp package below their last job if the equity is real
- A pipeline that’s mostly founder-led deals so far
- No sales ops, no enablement, and a CRM you built in a weekend
- A 4-round process that actually moved fast
❌ Your VP Sales candidate will NOT forgive you for:
Friday HubSpot admin checklist:
- look at the workflows that errored this week
- merge the duplicates before Monday does
- log off
Year-end giving statements are about 2 months out.
If your nonprofit still builds them with a mail merge from a spreadsheet, that's exactly why I built Steward Ledger. Happy to show you how it works.
Love this!
Most donor segmentation is cosmetic.
Different ask amounts.
Different names on the letter.
Same message. Same mistake.
Here’s the truth:
A $25 donor isn’t a junior major donor.
They’re motivated by different things.
They need a different experience.
Here’s how smart fundraisers segment:
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁
They give because it feels good.
So show them what their gift did—fast.
𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱
They’ve said, “I’m with you.”
Now treat them like insiders.
𝗠𝗶𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻
They’re testing you with that gift.
What happens next decides everything.
𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱
They don’t fund programs.
They fund outcomes that match their values.
𝗟𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱
Not guilt-tripped.
Just reminded why they gave in the first place.
Segmentation isn’t about slicing a list.
It’s about shaping the experience.
The best fundraising strategies don’t just know who gave.
They know why.
How are you speaking differently to each type of giver?
Development directors, honest question:
when a donor calls or emails and asks what they gave last year, how long does it take you to answer?
Hiring 101 for AI agents:
- give it one job
- give it a named owner
- let it read before it writes
- check its work on Fridays
Junior admin: "can you build me a workflow?"
Senior admin: "what happens when this workflow doesn't run?"
Same. Mine run while I sleep.
Most of them just read and report. Honestly that's the part that pays.
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Want to feel what a nonprofit admin feels?
Reconcile one month of online gifts into HubSpot by hand.
That afternoon is why I'm building Steward Ledger.
xitter.gq/lennysan/status/211560…
Everyone gets the same Diet Coke.
What nobody can copy is knowing your customer's mess better than they do.
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Small nonprofit math:
one admin, a few giving tools, and one spreadsheet that's supposed to make them all agree.
Every month.
