Reimagining Nonprofit Growth: Mission, Money, and Meaningful Relationships

Year-end left many teams drained and second-guessing their playbook. We brought in Jeff Schreifels, principal at Veritus Group, to reframe the path forward: treat staff, donors, volunteers, and the community as the mission—and rebuild fundraising around real relationships that last through channel swings and economic shifts.

We start with leadership fundamentals: rest, clarity, and a broader definition of mission that includes the people who carry it. Jeff lays out four pillars—staff, donors, volunteers, community—and shows how culture becomes strategy when you reduce burnout, align teams, and make gratitude and impact reporting routine. From there, we get tactical. If Giving Tuesday underperformed or grants tightened, the lever you control is relationship-based fundraising. Jeff explains why mid-level programs are the missing bridge, how to tier a 500–700 donor mid-level portfolio, and why personalized outreach turns steady givers into passionate partners. We walk through defining thresholds that fit your size, setting goals for each donor in a major portfolio of up to 150, and measuring movement from mid to major at two to three times the usual rate.

If this conversation helps you think differently about fundraising in 2026, share it with a colleague, subscribe for more practical episodes, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. Your feedback shapes what we explore next.

Transcript

Sponsor & Welcome

Speaker 0:00

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Jeff’s Journey In Fundraising

Speaker 1 0:18

Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, joined today by Jeff Schreifels, who's the principal and owner at the Veritas Group. And we are, man, as we dig into this new year, I think digging into a really good conversation for everybody to get refocused, make sure that we're moving forward and excited about what's ahead for 2026. I am excited about this conversation. So, Jeff, welcome in.

Speaker 2 0:42

Thank you, Megan. It's great to be here.

Speaker 1 0:44

Yeah, absolutely. So tell the audience a little bit about yourself and kind of your background that brought us to the conversation today.

Speaker 2 0:50

Okay. Well, I've been in fundraising for 38 years. And I started out at two small nonprofits right out of college as development director. And I knew nothing about fundraising. And I had to learn it on the fly and made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot, and that was an incredible experience for the first eight years of my career. And then I got hired by a direct response agency out of Seattle called Domain Group and got to work with amazing nonprofits, large nonprofits all over the country, like Feeding America Arthritis Foundation, and really learn the whole craft of direct response fundraising.

Speaker 3 1:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:39

And then they sold that in 2005. And the former owner of Domain and I got together in 2009 and formed Veritas in my living room to really work specifically with nonprofits in major gifts. Because that was an area when we were on the nonprofit side, both of us, really loved. And we took the discipline of direct response, applied it to major gifts, and we saw incredible results of that. And so we started in 2009, really from that point, and we've been serving hundreds of nonprofits. Now we have 35 people around the world working with nonprofits directly. And we also have an online training program called Beardus Group Academy that's trained over 6,000 fundraisers all over the world in mid and major gifts. And so here I am today. And here we are with you.

Resetting After Year-End Burnout

Speaker 1 2:39

Fantastic. So as we kind of dig into this conversation, here we are sitting start of a new year.

Speaker 3 2:48

Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:49

I think it's fair to say that year end is a stressful time for fundraisers and nonprofit leadership folks because you are push, push, push that whole time.

Speaker 3 3:00

Yes.

Speaker 1 3:01

All the way through that 11th hour of New Year's Eve day, most of the time, right? So we're likely walking in to a new year with a team that's a little burned out. Right? We're likely walking into a new year with like a okay. Here we go. We're back at it. So let's talk about what it looks like to really bring some energy and passion back to the mission and to refocus that effort as a leader.

Speaker 3 3:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1 3:32

So I wanted to maybe start there with our leadership folks.

Speaker 3 3:37

Yeah.

Speaker 1 3:37

How are we making sure coming into this year that we are all starting on the same page, moving forward together, and excited about where we're headed for the new year?

The Four Pillars Of Mission

Speaker 2 3:48

So the first thing I would say is leaders get some rest between the end of the year and before you start thinking for the next year. Yeah. Because that is really important. Clear your minds, you know, just get some time so that you can recharge a bit. Now, let's say you've done that. This is a great time to start thinking about your mission and looking at your mission and looking at your staff and your donors and the community in which you're serving. And are all of those elements also part of your mission? In other words, most nonprofits look at their mission as the thing they're doing every day to help change the world, right? But the moment that nonprofit either asks a volunteer or brings on a staff person to help carry on that mission, that person also becomes part of the mission in the sense that that nonprofit is responsible for that volunteer or for that in that staff person to find joy in their work. Okay. Second is donors. The minute that you ask someone to help you fund that mission, they too become part of that mission. And that means what are we doing to help that donor find joy in their giving to us? What does that mean? And then finally, the last the last pillar of it, I call it. There's four pillars to a mission. That last pillar is to the community that we're serving, really looking at the community in which we're serving, have are they stakeholders in this nonprofit of ours? We seek out their their uh opinions. Do we have the people from the community on our boards? If we're a community base, you know, all of those kind of things. So those four areas are really important. And so at the beginning of this year, think about that. If those people, if all of those areas are part of your mission, then how do we treat our staff so that we don't have burnout? So that they do want to do this work with joy. And if we really think of our donors as part of our mission, what are we doing to help to make sure that we're thanking those donors properly? We're reporting back on the impact. Do we have the infrastructure set up properly? Do program people and the accounting people and do they see the value of donors as part of our mission? That's really important. So that's this is a great time right now, at the beginning of the year, to really think at about our mission and do we have all those areas covered? And if we don't, then and most nonprofits actually don't do this well, then they look at all of those areas as a means to get the mission done. So staff burnout doesn't matter. This is as long as the mission happens.

Speaker 1 7:03

No, yeah.

Speaker 2 7:05

So this is a great time to evaluate that.

Speaker 1 7:08

Yeah. I earlier in my career, I spent some time working for a radio group.

Speaker 3 7:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:14

And every year we would there, not even every year, all the time, there was this constant debate between the folks who were on air who assumed that they were the most important thing ever, because without them, there would be no nothing to listen to on said radio stations.

Speaker 3 7:30

Yeah.

Breaking Silos To Serve Donors

Speaker 1 7:30

And the folks in the sales office who were going, Yes, but without us selling things, you would have no station on which to be, right? And so that constant tension lived. And I was literally just talking with somebody yesterday about how this plays out in the nonprofit space as well. And I love that you called out that accounting and program and everyone has to be on board to the mission and how the impact, how that is being impacted. Because uh the woman I was talking with about this yesterday was talking about how she is a development director. And she it is tooth and nail for her to get stories and of impact or any sort of statistics from the program folks to be able to keep engaging those donors.

Speaker 3 8:15

Yes.

Speaker 1 8:16

Man, if there's one like if a nonprofit leader could do one thing to start this year off, it'd be to get rid of those silos.

Speaker 2 8:22

So much, yes, because that happens so much. So yeah, when you're when you don't view your donors as part of a mission, then you don't have that infrastructure set up. You don't, you don't bring together those teams. You do have all these silos because you're only interested in your area and not the full big picture, which would include, gosh, you're right. We do need to have impact reports, we do need to send photos and videos of the things that we're doing on the frontline because donors really want to see what's what their gifts are doing.

Speaker 1 8:55

Yeah. So absolutely.

Speaker 2 8:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:58

Absolutely. So I want to go back to something you said though, where you talked about um kind of the the volunteers being a piece of that as well.

Speaker 3 9:08

That's right.

Speaker 2 9:08

Because I think that might be a pillar we tend to forget about or at least like we're asking these, we're asking good people who want to make a difference and they want to do it through some act of service. And so they've said, yeah, I want to volunteer with you, and they do that work. We now as an organization, I believe, have an obligation to make sure that that experience is fruitful, that it gives them joy to come in and do this work, and that they actually feel part of that daily work that you're doing. And so, yes, you're going to have an infrastructure set up to really care for those people. I mean, if you're gonna ask for a volunteer, just like if you're gonna have staff, you're going to have a medical plan, hopefully. You're going to have time off, you're going to really care about their further education. And you're not going to make them do things that are not part of their job description. You know what you know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah. They need to be just as part of your mission as the thing you're doing every day that's making a difference in the world.

When Tactics Stall, Rebuild Strategy

Speaker 1 10:20

That's so good. Okay, so focusing on the fundraising side here for a moment. Uh obviously your background, so let's jump into that expertise. I have been talking to a lot of folks who were very frustrated with how their year-end stuff ended up. Maybe digital can't online campaigns didn't work as as well as they were hoping. Giving Tuesday wasn't as big as they were hoping for, that direct mail didn't, you know, didn't maybe achieve the same results that it has previously. They're just in kind of a like a regrouping phase of trying to figure out how we we need a better plan. I one of my least favorite phrases in the world is well, that's the way we've we've always done it, right? So if somebody is in that boat right now, as we as we realign the vision, you can't have the vision or the mission without the funds to do it, right? So if the things we have always done didn't work the way we had hoped they would at the end of the year, what should our focus be maybe for 26? Are there other strategies that you have been talking to your clients about? We're kind of how do we reimagine what works in fundraising?

Speaker 3 11:34

Yeah.

Speaker 1 11:34

And reinvigorate that side of the house this year as well.

Speaker 2 11:40

Well, I would urge everyone who has relied on certain fundraising strategies like you just talked about, and they may have not hit their mark like you hope they did.

Speaker 3 11:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:51

And especially there, you know, this year has been really rough for a lot of nonprofits who were relied on government funding.

Speaker 1 11:58

Yes. Oh my gosh, the grants for 2025 was a whole different ballgame.

Why Mid-Level Matters

Speaker 2 12:02

Yeah, so all of that. So that in that's included. We of course we would urge you to start developing a relationship-based fundraising program, both in mid-level and major gifts, because we've known through all the years that we've been doing this work that if you can build authentic relationships with donors, they will be with you in all of the hard times that are surrounding everything else that you can't control. The thing that you can control is how you develop those relationships with donors. And if you do that well, more often than not, they come through for you. And so let 2026 be the year if you haven't to really look at your relationship-based fundraising program. That program where you have mid-level officers who are working a portfolio of mid-level donors, a major gift portfolio where you have major gift officers really working with one-on-one with these donors. And we know from doing this so many years that if you can really focus on building those relationships, you're gonna be okay. Because it's amazing how major donors come through.

Speaker 1 13:20

It's interesting that you say that. Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because I feel like most organizations don't start thinking relationship until major.

Speaker 2 13:29

Yeah. Yes. Right. Like we have major gift officers and we're right.

Speaker 1 13:33

And we're historically that has been the model. But I like the idea of the fact that relationships should be the focus way further down the line.

Speaker 3 13:43

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 1 13:44

So let's talk about that particular piece, right? So because I would imagine, and I feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I would imagine somebody who's working a mid-level portfolio is gonna have a whole lot more people in their portfolio than somebody who's working major gifts and maybe only has 15 to 20 that they're really focused on, right? Is it is the tactic still the same? Is it still all these one-on-one meetings? Or is there what's the approach in mid-level?

Speaker 2 14:15

Let me tell you the difference between the major and the mid. Okay. So major gift, you're right, they're smaller, but no more than 150 donors in a portfolio.

Speaker 1 14:24

Yeah.

Defining Mid And Major For Your Size

Speaker 2 14:24

And you tier those donors, you have a you have a strategic plan attached and a revenue goal for every one of those donors so that you know exactly what you're doing with those donors. And quite frankly, if you have only 150 donors in your portfolio, that's the max, you should know what the story is for every one of those donors. That's just been a real good program. Mid-level, you have a mid-level officer who has somewhere between 500 and 700 donors in your portfolio. So let's just say 600 in a portfolio. You would tier those A, B, and C as well, with A level getting the highest level of personalization and down. But the beauty of mid-level is that you this is where you're introducing the donor to a new relationship with you. It before that, it's mostly been through direct response, fundraising, newsletters, uh appeals, all kinds of different ways, you know, online, all of those different ways. And that is all great stuff. But then donors start to give them more. They're telling you, oh, I'm actually really, really interested in this, and I have more resources. Well, you then, as the nonprofit, say, Well, we have more resources to devote towards you. And we're gonna change the relationship. Not only are we going to also include you in all the direct response, but we're going to reach out to you with a person and we're gonna find out why are you giving to us? What is it that you love about us? And you're trying to establish that relationship. And for the first time, what we hear often in mid-level programs, so the donors will say, Wow, I've been giving for 20 years, and this is the first time someone's ever reached out to me. Wow, and we hear that story quite often. And donors who are giving, let's say, 5,000 a year, all of a sudden give 10 and 15, just by because someone has reached out to them and said they love them, they're what's interested in what they have to say, and that's re so that relationship changes. The other beautiful thing about mid-level is that as you're cultivating them, some are giving start to give major gift level gifts, and as you know them well, they already are, in a sense, qualified into a portfolio, a major gift portfolio. So, what we've seen is when you don't have a mid-level program, donors go up into major gifts at a 0.2 to 1.2% of the mid-level area.

Speaker 1 17:06

Oh wow.

Speaker 2 17:07

But if you have a mid-level program, that changes to three and a half to four percent of those donors move into. That's a significant change.

Speaker 1 17:16

That's a lot.

Speaker 2 17:16

That's a lot, it's a lot of revenue. And the best thing for the major gift team is these donors are already qualified, they want a relationship with you, and that for the major gift team is gold. Yeah, that's what they're wanting. They want qualified donors, not just someone who may have given a gift that they have to qualify, but they've already come qualified from the mid-level program.

Handing Off Donors With Care

Speaker 17:45

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Speaker 1 18:30

Knowing our audience, we do have a lot of folks who are in startup to smaller organizations who are listening to this going, $5,000 sounds like a major gift to me. I don't help folks because there's no, you know, there AFP does not have some sort of guideline that says your mid-level has to start at $1,000 and your major gift has to start at whatever. How do you help folks figure out what that is within their organization to set those parameters and really set up the structure that you're talking about?

Speaker 2 19:04

Well, you first of all, you are correct that it really depends on the size of the organization, what a mid-level gift is versus a major gift. In some cases, a major gift could be a thousand Q in one year.

Speaker 1 19:16

Right.

Speaker 2 19:17

And then mid-level is somewhere between 250 and 999. So, and it could even be lower than that if you're just starting out. You know, a mid-level or a major gift could be $100. I mean, if you're that small, if you're really just starting. But let's just say it's a thousand above. What we typically do to determine where's the mid and major is when we always do a donor assessment before we engage with any organization. And that assessment does this pipeline report that basically shows by Q levels how many donors you have, and let's say the zero to 25, the 50 to 100, you know, all the way up to the top. And you look at the number of donors in those QM levels and the revenue associated with it. And from that, you can easily tell where the mid and the major gift is. So it could be low at a thousand plus as a major, it could be five thousand, ten thousand for universities, could be fifty or a hundred thousand. Sure. Mid-level, yeah. I mean, I've seen some it could be five hundred to nine hundred and ninety-nine. So it really depends on the size of the organization. Um, but yeah, that's usually how we figure it out. And typically, I would say that major gifts is some like 10,000 cum and above, and mid-level is a thousand to nine thousand nine nine nine.

unknown 20:45

Okay.

Do Future Donors Want Relationships

Speaker 2 20:49

But again, you can be really small startup and that could be smaller for you.

Speaker 1 20:54

I'm curious on the relationship building piece, right? So let's say I am that mid-level donor to an organization right now.

Speaker 3 21:04

Yeah.

Speaker 1 21:04

I am assigned mid-level a mid-level donor officer who's taking this relationship seriously, who's helping me grow my giving, really investing, and all of a sudden I cross that threshold.

Speaker 2 21:14

Yes.

Speaker 1 21:15

Do I retain my the like do you suggest that organizations that you leave that person with who they have a relationship? Or does that relationship get transferred to a major gift officer then who I don't know and don't have a relationship with? What does that look like?

Resources From Veritus Group

Speaker 2 21:32

Yeah. Well, typically you would transfer that relationship to a major gift officer. Okay. Before I get into why, the first part is always remember that the relationship manager, mid-level or major gift officer, realizes that the donor is connecting to the organization, not just you. Now, they yes, you do play a part, sure, and they'll connect with you, but that is always something you have to remember. So it's not about you, it's about the organization first. So that's number one. Yes. But yes, a mid-level, if they start now making a major gift, the reason you want to move them into a major gift is that the major gift officer will have more time and attention devoted to that donor. Yeah. And if you do that pass off well, which we've done hundreds and hundreds of pass-offs over the years, it's really well done. And the donor has always felt good about that process. Like the mid-level officer will introduce the major gift officer, hopefully, over a Zoom call or even in person or you know, through mail, you know, through uh email. There's always some kind of great transfer that's going on. And the reason is always that this they're gonna have more information about the programs that you're really concerned about. They want to come visit you, they want to, you know, bring you, you know, they have more time for that. And so the donors have been always really pretty good about it.

Speaker 1 23:09

Nice. That's great. I'm curious as you uh have been working on these programs for years and years.

Speaker 3 23:16

Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:16

I'm curious what your thoughts are. I have there's been some discussion and debate lately around, I don't want to call it the future of major gift officers because that sounds a little dramatic. But this idea that the people who want to come in and take a tour, who want to regularly be meeting with a major gift officer generationally, we're move like we're moving away from the people who want to invest that kind of time. You know, we're starting to see the the boomers and the gen Xers come into that wealth and that kind of disposable income where they could be more generous, but they're like, Yeah, please don't talk to me. I'll give you the money, but just leave me alone. Generationally, right? That's certainly a very broad brush. But I've heard some debate around how this is gonna play out over the the next couple of years. So I'm curious if you have any thoughts on that as you've seen this play out so far.

Book Inspiration & Closing

Speaker 2 24:10

Well, so far, yes, there will always be donors that don't want that type of relationship. Yeah, that's true. You know, they might give a major gift, but they don't want to interact with a person. That's fine. Just tell us how you would like to be communicated with. And as long as you're interested in our work, we're gonna communicate that way to you. So we always make sure that in every portfolio that we're working, helping a major gift officer work, these donors are qualified. These donors actually want a relationship. There aren't any donors in a portfolio, in a major gift portfolio that we work with that don't want that relationship. That's number one. And so what we've seen generationally, though, is as donors move up in their giving levels, there is a certain level of trust that they want to have with that organization and the person that's working with them in there. And so if somebody wants to make a six, seven, eight-figure gift, usually they want to connect with a human being. Whether they're, you know, coming up, you know, it's like, you know, what about these Gen Z donors? Well, they're doing fine in the direct response world and all of that. Sure. But as their giving goes up, as they move in their careers, what we have found every time is that that generation that wants to give those big gifts wants to connect in some way. And so that's why I always think there will be a role for a major gift officer because you know, donors need that that feel that trust there, that connection.

Speaker 1 25:52

Oh, that's so important. So important. Yeah. Um, okay. So, Jeff, if somebody wanted, they're intrigued by this conversation, they want to learn more about you or connect with you, or learn more about the work that you guys do. How do we best find you? How do we go about doing that?

Speaker 2 26:09

Sure. You can go to veritasgroup.com. It's V-E-R-I-T-U-Sgroup.com. And we have this tab, the resources tab. You should click on there. We have a number of free resources. We've always believed from the very beginning of Veritas that we should give away as much as we can free. And so we have all these resources. We have white papers, our blogs, our podcasts, all of those are webinars, our free webinars. We do all of that because we want people to have really good information about many major gifts. Because this is really tough work. Being a major gift officer, mid-level officer, it's one of the toughest in development because you've got to build these relationships, not only with donors, but internally. You've got to be friends with the program people and accounting people, everything. You know, it's not easy. And so we're there to help walk alongside of them. Uh, you can also see us on LinkedIn, you can find me on LinkedIn, Veritas Group on LinkedIn, and we always have all of those resources there available too.

Speaker 1 27:16

So good. Definitely check it out. I think one of the things I appreciate is companies that come with that same heart, right? That's obviously that's nonprofit hubs thing. We exist to make resources available. That's right. And so I always really appreciate when there are companies who share that same heart of like, no, we just want to make it better. We want to equip people to do it better. So uh definitely go check those out. As we move to close, the question that I've been kind of asking everybody as we start this new year, what's a book that you have read recently or or even years ago that has really inspired you? I'm hoping as we move into 2026 to help people build out a a just massive reading list of resources to inspire them. And that could be in the nonprofit work, in life, doesn't matter. What's one that you would say?

Speaker 2 28:11

Well, I guess this is a little unconventional because it's not just one book.

Speaker 1 28:15

Okay.

Speaker 2 28:16

But I love history and I particularly love Teddy Roosevelt.

Speaker 1 28:22

Okay.

Speaker 2 28:22

And I've read probably seven different biographies of Teddy Roosevelt. And I would recommend that if you want to be inspired by someone in history, and that you can carry over some of those ideals that he believed in justice, fairness for people, the beauty of the world, like all of our, like all of our parks today, our federal parks, national parks are all because he started that. Uh child labor laws. You know, yeah. I mean, we we don't even think about it now, but back then it was a big deal. All about justice and fairness for people. And he was just an incredible character in history. I've always been inspired by every one of those biographies, and it just lends itself today, especially. We need inspiration today.

Speaker 3 29:14

Yes.

Speaker 2 29:14

And if you look at his history, he's someone that bucked the trends. He fought up against, fought against, you know, the robber barons, the well the high wealthiest of wealthy people to bring justice to all people. And he himself obviously was incredibly wealthy, grew up in that family, the Roosevelt. But even though he did, he saw the need for all people. And so I think he just has an incredible story to tell.

Speaker 1 29:45

So good. I love that. I I'm thinking about all the biographies I've read, I don't think that his is one. So I'll have to add it to my own list for 26 as well. Awesome. So good. Jeff, thank you so much. This is a really good conversation, especially as folks are kind of reframing where they're headed for the year. I think this give us a lot of really good steps to take to make sure that we're moving in the right direction. So thank you.

Speaker 2 30:10

Thank you. I appreciate all the good work you're doing.

Speaker 1 30:13

Absolutely. This has been another episode of the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Spear, and we'll see you next time.