Mars Sailors joined my coaching program, The Purpose & Profit Club®, as a graphic designer and marketing manager, not a fundraiser. The work already included telling the story of The Source LGBT+ Center across communications, social media, and email. What changed was learning how to connect those dots to donors.
In this conversation, Mars shares how that mindset shift turned into a first full SPRINT™ campaign: a Give Out Day fundraiser that raised $16,000, exceeded a $15K goal, included a $5,000 match, and brought in 100+ donors.
Mars also shares the story behind the Build to Belong capital campaign, which has raised nearly $700,000 toward a $1 million Phase One goal to secure a permanent home for LGBTQ+ people in California’s Central Valley.
This one is for every communicator, designer, or marketing manager who’s been handed fundraising responsibilities and isn’t sure they belong there. You do.
Topics:
- How Mars reframed fundraising as a communications discipline, and why the stories he was already telling were halfway to a donor ask
- The Give Out Day campaign: a $5K match, 100+ donors, and exceeding a $15K goal with a campaign built around "Pride doesn't end in June"
- What it felt like to send that last email and have two donors independently close the $1,000 gap at the same time
- The Build to Belong capital campaign: $700K raised, a campus purchased, and belonging framed as infrastructure
- Fundraising in a politically turbulent climate, and why The Source doubles down instead of going dark
- Being named a PR Daily finalist alongside Make-A-Wish, Guide Dogs for the Blind, and MD Anderson
For a full list of links and resources mentioned in this episode, click here.
It's not too early to start developing a strategy for the end of 2026! Snag Bloomerang's 12 Year-End Fundraising Checklists here.
Got a fundraising question you want Christina to answer?
Send the campaign problem, donor situation, email question, board issue, or fundraising advice you want a straight answer on. Christina is answering listener questions on upcoming episodes of The Purpose & Profit Club® Podcast.
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