BUSINESS SUPERFANS® ADVANTAGE • EPISODE 212
Customer Experience
Revenue Reactor Discipline
Customer Experience
Revenue Leak Addressed
The primary revenue leak is underdeveloped relationships with donors and customers already inside the database, which suppresses retention, major-gift or major-account growth, and referrals that are otherwise within easy reach.
Primary Stakeholder
Customers
Additional Stakeholders
Employees, Complementary Partners
Primary Topic
Building major donor and customer relationships through personal appreciation and follow-through
DIRECT ANSWER
To turn everyday supporters into major, long-term backers, stop treating them as one-time transactions and start building real relationships: identify who's already capable of giving or spending more, ask them directly, and follow through with personal acknowledgment — handwritten notes, calls, invitations — after they say yes.
Why This Guest’s Perspective Matters
Jeff Schreifels has spent more than three decades in fundraising and co-founded Veritus Group in 2009, growing it into a 40-person global firm that has helped nonprofits — including four major public media stations and the U.S. office of Doctors Without Borders — add tens of millions of dollars in revenue by rebuilding donor relationships.
Key Discoveries From This Conversation
The database already has the answer. Most nonprofits — and most businesses — don't need new prospects. Their current database already contains people capable of giving or spending far more than they currently do; the problem is no one has asked.
The cost of a generic thank-you. A donor who gave $1.5 million to his university received only a form thank-you letter and an unguided tour of the building he funded. He pulled his entire estate gift and redirected it. The same $1.5 million gift to a veterans organization, met with handwritten letters, a grand-opening invitation, and monthly check-in calls, turned into an even larger estate commitment.
Give away everything, then get hired. Veritus grew by publishing free blogs, white papers, and webinars for years before ever pitching services — betting correctly that most people wouldn't have the capacity to implement it themselves, which created inbound demand instead of cold outreach.
Small pilot, national scale. A two-year pilot with four public media stations doubled their revenue. That result led the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to fund training for 300+ fundraisers nationwide, generating $74 million in additional revenue in 18 months.
Recognition extends to the front line. Frederick's parallel story — personally thanking every shop-floor operator involved in a manufacturing software deal, not just the decision-maker — closed deals because appreciation reached the people who'd otherwise be overlooked.
Your next major gift (or account) is already in your database. Before spending on new-lead generation, audit who you already have — a $5,000-a-year donor or a modest recurring customer may be capable of giving or spending ten times more if someone simply asked.
A form letter can cost you a fortune. The $1.5 million donor who got a generic thank-you and an unguided tour pulled his entire estate gift; treat every major supporter's follow-through like it determines whether they ever come back.
Personal follow-up beats big-budget follow-up. Handwritten letters, a grand-opening invite, and a monthly check-in call cost almost nothing — and they were the difference between losing a donor and gaining an even bigger estate commitment.
Give away your expertise before you sell it. Publishing blogs, white papers, and free webinars for years built enough trust that prospects called Veritus first, because most people who read the free content still wanted help implementing it.
A successful small pilot can become the whole strategy. Four stations became a $74 million, 300-fundraiser national training program because the pilot's results made the case on their own.
Thank the whole room, not just the decision-maker. Sending personalized thank-you letters to every technician in a sales meeting — not just the buyer — turned overlooked employees into deal-closing advocates.
Asking for help is a gift, not an imposition. Denying someone the chance to contribute denies them joy; directly asking donors, customers, or partners for help is often the most respectful thing you can do.
00:00 — How Jeff fell into fundraising by accident — Why career "accidents" can turn into 40-person global firms.
03:47 — Why relationships outperform transactions everywhere — The universal principle behind Frederick's Japan and Australia deals.
08:12 — The donors are already in your database — Why nonprofits (and businesses) don't need new prospects, just better outreach.
11:17 — The $1.5 million story that changes everything — Why a generic thank-you letter can cost you a legacy gift.
19:16 — Turning four pilot stations into a $74 million national program — How a small proof-of-concept scales into a movement.
24:26 — Why Veritus gives away everything it knows — The content strategy that replaced cold outreach with inbound demand.
28:00 — From domestic pilot to Doctors Without Borders worldwide — How superfans became global champions.
33:00 — Why not asking for help denies people joy — The mindset shift that gets nonprofit leaders comfortable fundraising face to face.
PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE
This week, pull your customer or donor list and flag the five people who are clearly capable of giving or spending more than they currently do but haven't been personally asked. Call or write two of them, thank them specifically for something they've already done, and ask directly how you can serve them better. If you want a structured way to spot where relationships — not leads — are actually costing you revenue, the free Revenue Leak Score at RevenueReactor.AI is a quick next step.
Jeff Schreifels didn't set out to build a $400-million-plus fundraising engine — he fell into it, then discovered the same truth I learned selling manufacturing software and cracking into international markets: people fund people, not pitches. The $1.5 million university story is the clearest revenue-leak diagnosis I've heard on this show. Two identical gifts, two wildly different outcomes, and the only variable was whether anyone bothered to say thank you like they meant it. That's not a nonprofit problem — that's every business with a database full of underappreciated customers sitting one phone call away from being superfans.
What stands out most is Veritus's patience: giving away their best thinking for years before anyone hired them, trusting that most people won't implement it themselves. That's a long game most founders won't play, and it's exactly why it worked. If you run a service business, a sales team, or a donor program, the action here isn't complicated — it's just uncomfortable enough that most people skip it. Don't.
How do you build trust with a major donor? You build trust by treating the relationship as personal rather than transactional — learning what the donor cares about, matching it to your organization's work, and following through with genuine, specific appreciation (handwritten notes, calls, invitations) after they give, not just a form thank-you receipt.
Why do major donors stop giving? Major donors most often stop giving after being met with generic, impersonal follow-up — a form letter instead of a real thank-you — which signals their gift didn't matter. Jeff Schreifels describes a donor who redirected an entire estate gift away from a university for exactly this reason.
How can nonprofits find more major donors? Most nonprofits don't need to find new donors. Jeff Schreifels explains they usually already have capable major donors inside their existing database who are under-asked; identifying them through the data and building a real relationship plan is the fastest path to major gifts.
What is a mid-level or major-gift fundraising program? A major-gift fundraising program shifts an organization from mass, transactional asks — direct mail, membership drives — toward one-to-one relationship-building with donors capable of larger, transformational gifts, the approach Jeff Schreifels and Veritus Group have used to help nonprofits add tens of millions in revenue.
Veritus Group (veritusgroup.com) — Jeff's global consultancy helping nonprofits build mid- and major-gift fundraising programs.
Passionate Giving Blog — Veritus's long-running blog, referenced as part of its free-content growth strategy.
Veritus online training platform / Major Gift Academy — referenced as the 13-week training program used with 300+ public media fundraisers.
Mailbox Power is one of my favorite relationship-building tools. It makes it easy to automate personalized cards, gifts, and direct mail that help you cultivate stronger relationships, create Business Superfans®, and turn customers, employees, partners, and prospects into Mailbox Superfans™. Ready to create memorable experiences that drive loyalty, referrals, and repeat business? Get started today.
Veritus Group
Guest Offer
Jeff invites listeners to visit Veritus Group's website and use its free Resources tab — white papers, spreadsheets, templates, and blog posts on mid- and major-gift fundraising — no purchase required to access.
Topic Tags
Donor Relationships, Customer Retention, Employee Recognition, Referrals, Relationship Selling, Content Marketing, Founder Story