Changemaker Matt Bitzegaio,Co-Founder and CEO, DonorDock

What if the secret to fundraising success wasn't about doing more, but about focusing on what truly matters? Matt Bitzegaio, co-founder and CEO of DonorDock, challenges the "more is better" mindset that leaves so many nonprofit professionals exhausted and overwhelmed.

DonorDock, combines a powerful CRM platform with a methodology that helps organizations strengthen donor relationships without burning out their teams. Matt shares how he's witnessed countless nonprofits struggle with the same challenges: growing to-do lists, disconnected tools, and never enough time. His response wasn't just to build better technology, but to fundamentally rethink how nonprofits approach relationship building. 

Welcome to the Agency for Change podcast.

Chapters

• 0:00 Focus on What Truly Matters
• 3:32 Introduction to Matt and DonorDoc
• 8:31 The Smart Steward Method Explained
• 17:49 Working Smarter, Not Harder
• 22:14 Building Human Relationships with Technology
• 27:22 The Power of Unstructured Data
• 33:44 Otto the AI Assistant and Future Plans
• 40:42 Don't Let Perfect Be the Enemy

Transcript

Connect with Matt and Donor Dock at: 

·       Website – https://www.donordock.com/

·       Matt’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbitzegaio/

·       DonorDock’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/donordock-inc/

Matt Bitzegaio: 0:01

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Announcer: 0:12

Welcome to Agency for Change, a podcast from KidGlov that brings you the stories of changemakers who are actively working to improve our communities. In every episode, we'll meet with people who are making a lasting impact in the places we call home.

Lyn Wineman: 0:35

Hey everyone, this is Lyn Wineman, president and Chief Strategist at KidGlov. Welcome back to another episode of the Agency for Change podcast. So, for those of you who have listened for a while, you know that at KidGlov, we believe marketing should be used as a force for good, and today's guest shares a similar philosophy when it comes to technology. Matt Bitzegaio is the founder and CEO of DonorDock. This is a platform built specifically to help nonprofits strengthen their donor relationships and amplify their missions. So, after more than 20 years in the for-profit CRM world, matt made this big shift. He was driven by the belief that technology should empower change, and today he's using this expertise to support the people and organizations working to make the world a better place. Matt, welcome to the podcast.

Matt Bitzegaio: 1:42

Well, thank you so much, Lyn, for having me. I'm excited to be here with you.

Lyn Wineman: 1:52

Yeah, I am looking forward to talking to you. You and I met at AFP Icon this year in Seattle, which was a fun place to be and, for those of you that don't know, that's the Association of Fundraising Professionals, their large show that they have every year. But, matt, you guys had a great booth at the show. I loved learning more about what you do. Can you tell us more about DonorDock?

Matt Bitzegaio: 2:12

Yeah, happy to. So DonorDock's primarily a CRM and, we say, a fundraising productivity platform that we built from the ground up with small to mid-sized nonprofits in mind. It started back in 2017. My co-founder, Andrew, and I started writing code nights and weekends, to build a product, and we launched it in June of 2018. And, man, the product has changed a lot over the years.

Lyn Wineman: 2:42

Yeah, the world has changed a lot over the years, right? So it really makes sense.

Matt Bitzegaio: 2:46

Yeah, but the focus on trying to help small to mid-sized nonprofits focus on the right things with fundraising has kind of been there from the very beginning. And so we now we have our product, we have email text marketing, you know, the CRM, the online giving, kind of all in one platform. And then last year we started building out what we call our smart steward method, which is kind of our methodology for how to use the product, and so we're trying to kind of meld the technology with the how-to, because I think for a lot of small to mid-sized nonprofits, just providing a technology tool without the right way to use that, I think can almost be more challenging. And so that's something we've believed from the beginning and we've finally been able to kind of start pulling all that together.

Lyn Wineman: 3:38

Matt, I so love what you just said because, as an entrepreneur, I have purchased several software packages. I talk to nonprofit leaders all the time you like, as a non-tech person, you evaluate a software package, you go that's amazing. It can do so many things that I need. But I imagine you've seen so many organizations implement the software, not really understand how to use it because the processes that go around it are so important and so few tech companies that I have worked with are very good at explaining to you how to change your systems. So tell me more about the smart steward. I think that's really cool and it has to be born out of need.

Matt Bitzegaio: 4:28

Yeah, yeah, it is. You know we so we've talked to so many organizations over the last eight years around the country. We continually hear like the same set of challenges over and over again. You know it's like the should list keeps growing every day. All the things I should do but I don't necessarily have time to do the disconnected tools, the. You know. I've got my email over here. I've got my donor information here. Nothing talks to each other. And then kind of that universal truth in the nonprofit space that everyone needs more time, money and resources.

Lyn Wineman: 5:04

Yes, yes, for sure.

Matt Bitzegaio: 5:06

And, honestly, what that really kind of leads to that we've seen is there tends to be a disconnect between the kind of experience that a donor is expecting and then their expectations, and then the experience that we can provide don't always align like their expectations and then the experience that we can provide don't always align. That was really the goal behind the smart steward method was how can we help solve some of those challenges? And you know what I love about what we've done with the smart steward method it's a very iterative approach. So this idea of continuous improvement meaning it's not like here's your plan today and that's going to be how you should do this for the rest of time it's really broken out into what we call the three E's, which is the evaluate step, where we take a look at where is the organization actually at today, so asking hard questions, assessing kind of current process, current gaps and that evaluate process leads us to the establish phase where we then are saying, okay, here's what we need to build out to start to address some of these gaps that we found in the evaluate step.

A big part of that is defining stewardship journeys, so we can talk more about that. But like, how do we properly steward people through their entire life cycle as a donor to our organization, and so that established phase is really the planning phase. So this is where we're planning how we're going to operate for the next, you know, 12 months, and then we move into the execute phase, where it's now we're going to do the work. Now we're going to execute on the journeys that we've defined. We're going to meet weekly as a team to talk about the key metrics that are important, how we're doing on those things, and we work through that execute phase and then, let's say, 11 months in, we go back to the evaluate phase.

And we say did we learn in the last 11 months? Where are there gaps today that maybe have come up or what's not working about what we've been doing for the last 12 months? We establish our new plan for the upcoming year and then we start executing again. And so this smart steward method is really designed. You know, I come from the software world where this iterative approach to software is typically a really good way to do it, and so that kind of idea of continuous improvement like we all know that donor expectations change all the time. Every organization that we work with is constantly in a state of evolution. Nothing really stays the same. To come up with a plan and say we're not going to look at that again, we're just going to keep doing it that never has really resonated with me or with our team, and so this smart steward method kind of answers that. How can we make sure we're evolving, what we're helping our customers do as things are changing and as things are evolving?

Lyn Wineman: 8:08

Yeah, you know what strikes me about the three E's, so I wrote them down as evaluate, establish and execute. I think that in our busy world today, and particularly with nonprofits you and I both know nonprofits tend to be extremely busy. They've got more to do than they can handle. They wear a lot of hats. People want to jump straight to that execute phase and you can do that.

You can jump to that execute phase and it feels like a shortcut, but it's really not, because if you don't go back and really have a strong foundation and a strong strategy, your execution is not going to be as effective, it's not going to be as efficient and because of that it's not going to stick right. You're going to get into it and then you not going to stick right Like it's. You're gonna get into it and then you're gonna have some bad habits and then you're gonna be like doing it halfway and then you're gonna be frustrated. And so I think that that seems like a really great process and, of course, being a branding person, I love that you kind of called it the three E's. You've made it easy for us to remember and so forth. So I love all of what you just said.

I want to wind us back a little bit and talk just about donor doc in general, because we have referenced the fact that nonprofit leaders, marketers, communicators, development directors they are stretched thin. They need to work smarter, not harder, right now, because they've kind of hit the point where working harder isn't even possible anymore. Matt, why is the work that you're doing so meaningful for nonprofits today?

Matt Bitzegaio: 9:59

Well, I think you know, Lyn, you just touched on it actually, we always have to be doing more, more, more. I think we see it. I see it in my own business, we see it in our customers and just in our society. There's this push that it's all about just getting more done, this like push that it's all about just getting more done, and we hold this really strong belief at DonorDock that it's actually not about getting more done, it's about getting the most important things done every single day. And you know I struggle with this as an entrepreneur like the idea of letting things go that aren't that important, of letting things go that aren't that important.

Lyn Wineman: 10:44

It's so hard. I'm just going to tell you. You just saying that has sent a little shiver down my spine, right, but I know it's true, Like I know logically, it's true that you can't do it all, and I've often even heard of the theory that says make your to do list and just cut the bottom 30% off because you're not going to get there. It's just going to frustrate you.

Matt Bitzegaio: 11:05

For high performing people and which we see this in our customer base a lot like this feeling of it's okay to let things go that aren't moving the needle. That feels really counter to what we all kind of are. Just it's ingrained in us to get more done, and so why I think what we're doing is so meaningful is we're trying to help these nonprofit leaders around the country that we work with understand that it is OK to jettison things that aren't moving. We want to help you through our methodology and through our technology product. We want to help you make sure that you are getting the most important things done every single day. Every single day.

I believe, in a fundraising sense, that building human relationships with your donors is probably the most important thing that we can do as fundraisers. I think there's this big opportunity to help change that narrative around, like let's not just get more done for the sake of checking an item off a list, but let's really, really truly get focused on what is the most important set of things I need to get done today and I get to go home at night feeling confident that I did good work today, that I moved the needle and that I am impacting, whatever my mission is in a positive way as a nonprofit leader, so that's what really drives us and kind of the that's the drum we're trying to beat is that, you know, there's so many tools out there that it's, it's, it's, it is it's just like inundating with more and more and more to get done, and I just think we got to get the most important things done.

Lyn Wineman: 12:54

Yeah, you know, Matt, I appreciate the fact that you are a technology guy. You're selling a technology package, but what you're saying here is the most important thing is that human relationship. So I'm really curious how does DonorDock support that work of building human relationships?

Matt Bitzegaio: 13:14

Yeah, that's a great question. So I've always thought that from the very beginning it's one of the things that led us to start DonorDock is this idea that we wanted to have and build technology that actually enhanced the human relationships not replaced it, if that makes sense.

Lyn Wineman: 13:31

Yeah, right, right. I know everybody thinks AI is going to come take over, and I'm hoping what AI does is it frees up our time to have more human connection and relationship, and I'm hoping that's what you're going to tell me DonorDock does as well.

Matt Bitzegaio: 13:47

Yeah, yeah. So we you know, as we think about this, are you familiar with something called Dunbar's Law?

Lyn Wineman: 13:54

I am, but share it and don't make me share it, but yes, I generally know it.

Matt Bitzegaio: 13:59

Yeah, so Robin Dunbar was a British psychologist, I believe, and he came up with this idea that humans can only really manage about 150 meaningful relationships at any given time and that, you know, once we get above that it becomes really difficult for us to manage more human relations. Well, we all know that we have friends, we have family, we have all these kind of built-in relationships that we have to and need to manage. But now I'm a fundraiser and I've got a caseload of 300 donors that I'm supposed to have a relationship for and that's where I see technology as a way to scale that ability to manage the relationships.

And so we have something that we define called our human equation, which is essentially this idea that if you think of a math problem and you've got your root of your math problem and then you've got your exponent, the idea that is automation and technology can be that exponent, but if it starts with the human piece at the root, if that's at zero, it doesn't matter how much technology we put on it, the end result is zero. But if we start with a good foundation of the human relationship, the technology can help us scale that and it becomes an exponential force. We leverage things built into DonorDock, things like our action board, which is designed where every morning I come in as a fundraiser and there's what we call smart nudges on the action board.

Lyn Wineman: 15:35

Yeah, smart nudges. You know what that sounds, so friendly, right, Give me a smart nudge today. All right, I'm down for that.

Matt Bitzegaio: 15:44

Yeah, and it's this idea that you know we want to nudge these fundraisers on. This is a good time to engage with this donor on a personal level. So the idea is not like, oh, we want to automate everything with automated emails and things like that. There's a place for that but we want the action board and what we mentioned, our stewardship journeys that we can talk about. Those things come together to make sure that our customers, every day, are seeing the things that need their attention today at a personal, human level and that they can not have to be trying to keep track of all that on a spreadsheet or who am I supposed to talk to today? For whatever reason, this, this thing, happened three months ago and I need to follow up. We're handling all of that for them, and that's where we talk about. The action board is really your view into what are the most important things I need to get done every single day, and so that's where the technology comes in. There's a fine line between like the right level of automation and then over automating, and what I love about DonorDock is that we've tried to kind of thread that needle for our customers.

So we are handling certain things for them where it makes sense to do that. We have six donor journeys that we build in. They're pre-built inside DonorDock. They range from prospect journey all the way through to elapsed donor journey once somebody has stopped giving to your organization and really the areas in between that and those are kind of a combination of different automated things that the system does when it needs to, but also those really important nudges when there's a touch point that needs to happen with a human being and so it's really taking all of that. We've added AI. We released what we call Otto, which is a friendly octopus character that's built inside DonorDock.

Lyn Wineman: 17:47

I love it. Everyone loves a friendly octopus. I don't know anybody who would not love a friendly octopus.

Matt Bitzegaio: 17:54

I know they can't see it, but I've got a little plushie of Otto here with me today. But Otto's really designed to be that intelligent guide within the product that is putting things on their action board. It's taking care of certain tasks for them and handling those different things. But our whole premise around the use of AI is to enhance the human relationships, not to replace them.

Lyn Wineman: 18:19

And I think that's such a key thing at this point.

Lyn Wineman: 18:22

Yeah, you know, Matt, as you are going through this process, I know your software and your principles are specifically aligned for nonprofits. But I think these same principles apply to small and mid-sized businesses as well, and even large businesses. If you're in a sales role or an outreach role, kind of that blend of automation and human context and then understanding, hey, if you've got a list of 300 to 450 to 1,000 people, you're going to need some help managing that because technically your brain is not wired. As smart and wonderful as you are, your brain is not wired to handle more than that. So I'm really curious, Matt, I know you work with a lot of nonprofits. You've probably seen a little bit of everything. What do you wish most nonprofits understood about their donor relationships?

Matt Bitzegaio: 19:20

Well, I think that you know a lot of times people want kind of this like silver bullet, easy button.

Lyn Wineman: 19:25

I want to go straight to the execute. I want to have it perfect, and just by signing up for your product, I want to see a 10% lift in all my donations, right? What will the lift be,Matt.

Matt Bitzegaio: 19:38

But I think that the reality is that so much of like good relationship building is actually like talking to your donors, asking questions, listening to what they're telling you and then keeping that information somewhere where it becomes useful. And it's interesting, Lyn, I have you know I've spent 20 plus years in the CRM space, many of those years working with both for-profit and non-profit for the last about 10, just focused just on the non-profit space and my viewpoint on certain things has changed so much in the last two years. But specifically around like, if you think back to how we use CRMs both again for profit, nonprofit doesn't asking them to be archivists and document touch points and document notes and the value to that particular person may not have been very high Like they, you know, it always felt like you're putting data in just for the sake of putting data.

Lyn Wineman: 20:50

Right, because we don't want to lose it. I've been guilty of that as a business owner, with my team saying put that name, put that information into the CRM.

Matt Bitzegaio: 21:02

Yeah, and there probably was always some value to it, right, but what I have noticed or seen is, in the age of where we are now with the tools like AI, all of that unstructured data, the notes and the emails and the activities that is like a treasure trove of information that helps you understand that relationship so much better and the fact is used to it would be incumbent on us as users to go in and have to read through the notes or read through the activities to really understand what's going on.

Well now, like with Otto, for example, if an action board nudge pops up, a smart nudge on your action board, now in DonorDock you can click an ask Otto button and Otto goes out and he reviews all of that and he comes back and says this is what you should do today with this donor because of these reasons that I'm seeing based on the relationship, or can give that relationship summary.

And so when I think about what do I wish nonprofits could and we're doing more it's keeping track of this information really, because it really is going to truly help them better understand the overall relationship with that donor at an organizational level. And so you know, put the notes in, put the activities in. We're going to make it as easy as we can as technology providers for that. We're working on some really cool things around that voice dictation and some other stuff. But like I think that so much of where we, where we start to fall down in relationship building is because we haven't actually kept track of the important things in that relationship. So when it comes time to engage, we don't always have all of the need to really engage at the level we want to.

Lyn Wineman: 22:55

And what's funny is you think you're going to remember. I think I'm going to remember. I just had this beautiful conversation over coffee or at our booth. You think you're going to remember. Once again, we referenced AFP. I still have a business card on my desk where I scribbled a note on it at thinking I'm going to for sure remember this conversation. I probably had 200 conversations that day and this business card is still sitting on my desk and I finally reached out to the person and said hey, we met and we both had a lot of conversations. I'm going to be fully transparent. I can't remember what we talked about, but I know it was important, so we'll see. They haven't responded yet. So if you're out there and you're listening, respond. I really do want to help. I just can't read my handwriting.

Matt Bitzegaio: 23:42

I think there's a human component to that where you know we have good intentions, we think, but there's also the part of it too, Lyn, where it's like we know the reality in the nonprofit space is that there's a lot of turnover too. Yes, that is true, you know so, like you might remember, if you don't put it somewhere, guess what? The person who comes in and is in that role in the future?

Lyn Wineman: 24:05

Right, they're not going to know at all. All of that will be lost. It also reminds me, Matt, you and I have a mutual friend, Patrick Kirby, who wrote a book called, and he'll be tickled that we talked about him here. But wrote a book called and he'll be tickled that we talked about him here. But he wrote a book called how to Fundraise Like a Fifth Grader, and I know one of his pieces of advice is don't ask for the big gift until you know the donor's dog's name right, and so the dogs. Do you have a field for dog name in the software? That's what I want to know.

Matt Bitzegaio: 24:38

That's the beauty, is that with AI now we don't need a specific field for that. Data that goes into, like your general notes, which is where we say put things where there's nowhere else to put them.

Lyn Wineman: 24:50

Yeah, Otto can find it there.

Matt Bitzegaio: 24:54

Otto can find it, like I was just doing a demo the other day where there's, we had a demo donor and I said, Otto, I'm about to go to a coffee meeting with this particular person, give me some insight. And Otto looked through the notes and the activities and came back and said you know, this person generally likes to pay for coffee when you meet with her. She loves donuts from this particular donut shop. So maybe, like, but like if I had to go and just like look through her record and try and find this, some of those notes were from a long time ago. And so, again, just this idea that, like, there's, you know, there's structured data and there's unstructured data, and so, for people who don't know what I mean by that structured data is, those are the data points where there's a specific place to put them. You know, we, we need, we have the first name, the last name, you know all those things.

But then there's unstructured data where it's like there's no specific rhyme or reason, like we can put in anything we want in a note or in a that goes into an email body or from a meeting or whatever.

That's so much more useful now than I than I feel like it used to be, and that's where like continuing to drive that with our customers that it may not feel that important to you that Lynn likes to pay for coffee at meetings, but if you can go into that meeting with that piece of knowledge when you meet with her without having to do a lot of work, it just helps them feel like you're connected to them and you remember the things that they talked about or that are important to them, or what programs are they most interested that you're working on or that you're doing.

There's just a lot of value there when it comes to building relationships. So that's what I wish. I wish people and hope that people, as we continue to evolve and move forward, start to see the value in those things, like when it starts to help you. That's where, like when it starts to solve a problem for you. That's where the value starts to get created and you're, like it is putting this in, or her clicking to track this email in the system, so that I make sure that we have this context in the future.

Lyn Wineman: 27:07

Yeah, I love it. It feels to me like it's that unstructured data that's going to help fuel the relationship, right, yeah, fantastic. So you have done so much in a relatively short time, Matt, with DonorDock. What's on the horizon? What are the big, exciting things that are coming up?

Matt Bitzegaio: 27:29

Yeah, so we're going to continue to lean into building out the functionality around Otto. So we believe like AI can be kind of scary.

Lyn Wineman: 27:46

Oh absolutely, as a business owner, completely scary Like I want to use it. I want to have the shortcuts. I feel like I will be left behind if I don't use it. But it's a little bit of the Wild West, like what are the liabilities of using it?

Matt Bitzegaio: 27:55

Yeah, it's a little bit of the wild west, like what are the liabilities of using it? Yeah, yeah, so, so we're trying to take some of that complexity or that concern and we'll deal with that for our customers yeah.

Providing them with a fun character that is not scary and and in a lot of ways you know we're. If you think about AI and how people use it today, in a lot of cases we're using things like ChatGPT, where we go in and we have to kind of know what to ask it. And know how to formulate a prompt to get back what we're, what we're trying to do. Well, we have an auto chat feature in DonorDock where you can talk with auto and auto can actually access your data right through that to help you answer questions about donors, all those things. But we've also throughout the product where we've kind of pre-built the prompts where you can just click a button and it will kind of prompt auto for whatever you're trying to do without you having to write it or know what to ask it.

And so I think it's continuing to kind of lean into those tools. How can we help, how can we use these tools to help our customers know the next best steps to take with a donor, know how to prepare for that coffee meeting, how to have the right conversations. So those are things I'm excited about. I think there's also just this real opportunity. We talk a lot about innovation through simplicity, meaning that there are so many ways to actually innovate by just making things that are hard easier for people.

Lyn Wineman: 29:32

Yeah right, why do we make things so hard? I do appreciate that, Matt.

Matt Bitzegaio: 29:36

And so I think there's an opportunity there for us to continue to again take the brunt of the complexity for our customers and provide them the value without the complexity is something I get really kind of excited about is how can we do that for them so they don't have to worry about it and they can just get the value out of it? So those are things I'm excited about. Technology's changing so fast, as you know.

You know, trying to stay on the forefront of that, like we'll probably look back at this podcast a year from now and be, like oh my gosh, there's all these other things that have come out that we're doing or that we didn't even have like on our radar a year ago, which is exciting, it's also a little bit scary for people, even as a technologist. There's a lot of like, just like, wow you know it's tough to kind of be in that technology space and be able to take advantage of all these things that are happening and use them to help drive more good in the world, and I think that's what compels our team.

Lyn Wineman: 30:45

I like that and I know that using technology for good is important to you as well. Matt. As we're talking here, I've just had this very strange thought Do you remember the original Willy Wonka movie with Gene Wilder? And there's a scene where the goose who lays the goose is laying the golden egg and the girl I think her name is Veronica Beruth, but people can correct me if they think this is wrong but I,  Veronica, says Daddy, I want a golden goose and I want it now. Like as I hear you talk about Otto, I'm like, Matt, I want an Otto and I want it now.

Matt Bitzegaio: 31:25

It's funny because our team, you know, so you know we were a small team, so that's one of the things that we feel like we really have in common with our customers, Like we are all small, mighty teams doing good work, and we have several of our team members who are like how can we get Otto for ourselves to use? And so, yeah, so I totally get it. I like it's been so fun to see Otto come together and actually, interestingly, Lyn, Otto was conceptualized sitting in the booth at AFP with our leadership team. We were all there together and we were talking about how can we leverage and use these AI tools without making it scary for people, We had multiple different ideas around. Like we knew we wanted to personify it in some way and, you know, we, we, we had ideas around a little tugboat character, we but where we landed with Otto was this idea that Otto is octopus. They're very adaptable, they have eight legs. So a lot of work for you.

Lyn Wineman: 32:37

I love it Like there was all these things that octopuses are known for being highly intelligent.

Matt Bitzegaio: 32:43

Yeah, very yeah all of those things, and so it just kind of came together and we were all excited leaving AFP and that was what in late April is that, I think, was when AFP was.

Lyn Wineman: 32:56

I just assumed you meant last year's AFP. You went from late April brainstorming because I visited your booth and it was the last day and you guys were all a little tired and your feet hurt, so you must have come up with the idea before that.

Matt Bitzegaio: 33:11

Yeah, well, it was kind of the yeah, that second day there, and then we were all excited about it and we came home and we started working really hard on getting it out and we launched auto in June 18. So it was again, small and mighty teams can get a lot done when you're focused on the right, the most important things, and that's we always love to talk about that with customers, because we're like we're right in the same boat. We're doing different work, right, we feel the same things that you feel, and so, like while we are preaching to our customers, get the most important work done every single day, we are actioning that within our business too, because that's how we can help support them better is by us focusing on the most important things every day as well. So absolutely.

Lyn Wineman: 34:01

That is just wonderful. Matt, I really like the concept to have small to mid-sized organizations working with small to mid-sized partners, because you don't want to be that lost when you need help. You don't want to be that number on a ticket right that gets an automated response 48 hours later. You want them to actually, when you call, go, oh yes, I recognize the name of your organization and I imagine Otto could help when people call as well tell us a little bit about people too.

Matt Bitzegaio: 34:36

We have trained Otto on all of our help desk and all of those things but at the same time, like we don't really use Otto for support tickets or anything. Like we have human people here in Fargo-Moorhead, you know, in North Dakota, Minnesota, that are that, that manage our help desk. They manage all the tickets and, like our customers get to know those people.

Lyn Wineman: 34:59

Yeah, you know very nice people in North Dakota and Minnesota to very nice people yeah.

Matt Bitzegaio: 35:06

I think there's something really cool to that, where you know they'll talk to Carolyn, you know, on a daily basis. And like, Carolyn knows all of our customers, Bridget knows all of our customers, Caitlin knows all you know. It's like um and you know, as we grow that becomes harder and harder to maintain. But it really is a core value of ours of trying to make sure that we keep that customer relationship front and center, just like we are. Again, so many parallels, like we're telling our customers your donor relationships are the most important thing for your organization. Well, we consider our customer relationships to be the most important thing for our business, and so we don't just talk about it, we kind of try and live it the same way that we're asking our customers to do with their donors.

Lyn Wineman: 35:58

That's fantastic, you know. As a branding person, Matt, I want to ask you one branding question and I'm interested in hearing your perspective on how important brand clarity is when it comes to developing those strong relationships using your tools at DonorDock, I think it's enormously important.

Matt Bitzegaio: 36:20

I would say like almost table stakes important.

It's really foundational, fundamental, Like, I think, when you're thinking about that, you know having and it increases trust with the organization there's clarity that comes from making sure that you're on brand and that you're you know, when you're communicating you're on brand clarity cuts through noise. So I think it's very important really in all aspects of how nonprofits engage, whether it's a newsletter type, marketing email, or whether it's even a personalized kind of more personalized touch point, I think, trying to make sure that those things match the brand, match the brand voice, all those things. I think it's extremely important.

Lyn Wineman: 37:08

That's fantastic. Thanks for that. You know, one of the things we have heard at KidGlov because branding is very important to us and nonprofit branding is really a signature of our service is that not everyone has the funding to jump into a full agency experience, although we love that. But earlier this year we launched a book called Untangling Spaghetti, A Branding Fable which is really giving our signature branding process and the steps in that process to people, and we did it by writing a story about a nonprofit using the process.

So you know, I think it's an important way to level the playing field between small, mid-sized and large nonprofits or organizations of any kind. So I appreciate your perspective on that. Matt,  I'm going to ask you my favorite question next. I've asked it on every episode of the podcast. I've collected some amazing quotes from inspirational people just like yourself, but I'd love to hear a Matt Bitzagaio original quote to inspire our listeners.

Matt Bitzegaio: 38:23

Well, I think that one of the things that I have seen over my entire career is a it's very difficult to just start something Right, and I say this all the time, both with our customers, with our team. I just think that like there's something really powerful to the concept of don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, yeah, and, and I think, like so often, we don't want to do anything unless we think we can do something perfectly when good is actually great, right, and so it kind of drives how I think about our business, like we could wait and to get something to our customers until it's absolutely perfected. And guess what? We probably would never actually ever get it to our customers until it's absolutely perfected. And guess what?

Lyn Wineman: 39:16

Or it might even be outdated by the time you got it there.

Matt Bitzegaio: 39:22

Or we missed the mark, like we don't actually understand what they want until we get something in front of them and learn from it. And so it comes back to that idea of like continuous improvement that you know let's start with good and then we can continue to improve it from good, but at least good gets us a great starting point to get going, because I think the hardest thing is to just start, like start doing it. It's why we built the donor journeys pre-built in DonorDock is that I saw for so long where we had these tools where customers could build their own journeys, but they don't, because it's scary.

They don't want to start, whereas if you know, people will say to me well, we maybe have a slightly different process that we want to follow and I'm like great, then go change it. But if you got your starting point and you have no excuse not to start doing these things every single day, and so that that don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good is, is what I would say, is my quote that I would think would be hopefully helpful for listeners that are struggling to start.

Lyn Wineman: 40:31

Very good and it seems very fitting for a team that has completely built a new innovation since April and launched it in June. Like you guys are living that as well. So, Matt, for people who are listening, who wanna learn more, where can they find information about DonorDock?

Matt Bitzegaio: 40:54

Yeah, so DonorDock.com would be a great place to start. I'm also on LinkedIn and would love to connect with people there. DonorDock, we are also on LinkedIn. We have different social profiles for Instagram and, I think, even TikTok now. 

Lyn Wineman: 41:12

I want to see some auto animations on TikTok. I'm going to start following you just for the auto content.

Matt Bitzegaio: 41:19

Perfect, I love it, but I would say DonorDock.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn. Love to chat with people and connect.

Lyn Wineman: 41:26

Perfect and for everyone listening, we'll make sure to get those links in the show notes as well, so you have access to all of those things. But DonorDock.com is a pretty easy one to get to. I'm glad you got that URL, matt. I have loved this conversation today. It's been really great to get to know you a little bit better. But as we wrap up our time today for this very last question, I'd love to hear what is the most important thing you would like our listeners to remember about the work that you're doing.

Matt Bitzegaio: 41:57

I think what I would say is that it's not always about just doing more. It's about focusing and doing the most important things every single day.

Lyn Wineman: 42:08

Fantastic. That is great. Matt, I have loved this conversation. I fully believe the world needs more people like you, more companies like DonorDock helping our nonprofits out. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.

Matt Bitzegaio: 42:23

Well, I've enjoyed the conversation as well, Lyn. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share with your listeners, and likewise, I think the world needs more people like you and your team.

Announcer: 42:39

We hope you enjoyed today's Agency for Change podcast. To hear all our interviews with those who are making a positive change in our communities or to nominate a changemaker you'd love to hear from, visit kidglov.com at K-I-D-G-L-O-V.com to get in touch, as always. If you like what you've heard today, be sure to rate, review, subscribe and share. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.