[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Welcome to the Rainmaker Fundraising podcast, where we bring you tips and insights to help you raise more money for your organization and lead more effectively. I'm your host, Andrew Olson.
Hey, everyone, this is Andrew Olson. Welcome to the Rainmaker Fundraising podcast. I am here today with a very special guest, someone that, like, I pass in airports and pass at conferences and we never actually get to sit down and, like, hang out. So I'm so glad that we're doing this. My guest today is Mallory Erickson, the CEO of Practivated. Mallory, welcome to the show.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. And I totally agree. I'm like, oh, my gosh, we get all this time to just chat, you and me. I'm so thrilled.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yep. No one's going to step in and be like, hey, I got to have this conversation with you here or your flight is leaving or whatever. So this is, this is great. So for those of you who don't know, Practivated is the first ever AI powered training platform that helps fundraisers master critical donor communication and conversations through realistic practice and actionable insights. It's such a cool concept.
A new company that Mallory recently launched. We're going to talk a lot about that, but she's also the host of the what The Fundraising podcast.
She is the author of a book by the very same name.
And Mallory, first of all, I want to thank you for being here. I am excited to get into this. Before we jump into formal questions, take a few minutes and give us more than the, the very 30,000 level background that I just gave our listeners.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. And thank you again for, for having me. So, I. I'm a fundraiser. I mean, I, I became an accidental fundraiser as I started to get promoted into nonprofit leadership roles. I really hated fundraising for a long time when I felt like everybody understood some secret that I just could. Couldn't wrap my head around or, you know, I didn't know about AFP or cf. I was running grassroots local organizations and, and just, you know, burning myself out, trying to make a difference in my community. And so much of my work comes from what got me out of that kind of rock bottom moment myself, which was getting certified as an executive coach and trained in habit and behavior design and design thinking. And, you know, truly, when I was dealing with all of those things, I thought I was the only one. Like, I was like, oh, I must be a bad fundraiser because I want to throw up before every major donor meeting. And I must be bad at this because. And what I found after I found these solutions for Myself, and I started to share them just with my friends and my peers was that actually so many fundraisers felt like I felt and were dealing with the challenges that I was dealing with. And so my work over the last five years has just been to, you know, share and support as many fundraisers as I can in whatever way I can to help them raise more and feel good doing it.
And so that my North Star, I always say, is improving the lives of fundraisers. And Practivated is my most recent solution towards that same North Star.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Awesome. So I. I think that a fundraiser that doesn't at least, like, get a little bit tied up in knots before a big ask, I think they must be a sociopath. Like, I don't think there are fundraisers who don't get nervous unless there's something really wrong with them.
But I'm sure someone will disagree with that. Right?
So, okay, practivated. When did you launch?
[00:03:36] Speaker A: So we.
We let in our first group of paying customers May 19th of 2025.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: 25.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: It's very new effort.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Very new.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Like you said, this is. This is not new territory for you.
Talk to us about, like, what was the thing that made you go, oh, I have to launch this company right.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Now, you know, So I started building it. So in August of 2024 was when I first had the idea for the tool.
And I didn't really know at the time, I was learning a lot about AI through my work with fundraising AI, but I didn't really know if the idea had, like, legs. And I wasn't thinking about it in terms of a start, like starting a new business or building a tech company. I was actually just trying to solve a problem for folks who were in my group coaching program who are in my course, power partners. I was always trying to think about different tools and had had a few other tools that used AI inside the program. And I was like, okay, this is this area that I feel like as a coach and a consultant, I haven't been able to fully resolve. Right. I can't be there the moment that a fundraiser is about to go into a donor meeting every time. I can't, like, there. I just couldn't figure out how to solve this in any other way. And as I watched Generative AI growing, I was like, maybe there's something here.
And so I started. I hired a team on upwork, and I started to build it at night from August to November. And then I started to show it to some friends, and people kept asking if they could invest in it. And literally the first three people, I said no. I was like, what are you talking about? I'm like, this is like my, like, little. I. What? Like, I'm. I'm just trying to solution around this thing. And the third person that I said no to was like, this is a big solution for the sector. Like, you.
You need to bring this to the market.
And I was like, what? Like, my book was just coming out, I have two little kids. I already felt so busy. I was like, I don't. What are you talking about? You know, And I live here in Silicon Valley, but have never touched, never worked at a technology company, so the whole thing felt kind of funny.
But I really started to sit with this fear that if I didn't, that this same technology could be used in ways that could be really harmful to the sector and really harmful to fundraisers, that there could be a way to build this type of tool that would lead to more transactional fundraising, that would measure the wrong things. That for sure.
Right. Like, what's magical about the system is not just that it simulates donor conversations, but it's that the feedback that you're getting about it, the coaching that it's doing around those conversations is about transformational relationship building and building connection.
And I think once that, like, idea seeped in, that, like, wait, somebody could build this in a way that could harm fundraisers. Like, and if I don't do it, what's going to happen? Who's going to do it? I was like, well, now I have to do it.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I. I could. I could see this for sure if it's not cultivated well. Right. And curated effectively turning into sort of the. The boiler room for fundraising. Right?
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Totally. Totally. Exactly. And this technology is, like, has some dangerous components to it. Right. Like, it can be addictive, as we. As we've seen with other tools. Like, you can. Right. And. And so if you were, like, building this with only the desire of usage, right. Like, for me, the goal is the action that fundraisers take after they use our system. That's my North Star. Right? Because I don't want them talking to my avatars all day and not talking to actual donors, that would be the opposite.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: That already happens. Right?
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Right. Yes. So. So it's a totally different orientation, right? Because, like, most people are building a technology company, they want people to spend as much time as humanly possible inside their tech tool. That's the whole thing. But. But that isn't my whole. That's not the point. And so, yeah, there's so Many areas where I think, like, it was really important for a fundraiser to build this and also for.
For, you know, somebody with maybe more of that, like, responsible AI orientation.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit. And maybe this is a drill down a bit, but, you know, with your. Your background as a coach as well. Right. Like, I'm curious to know, as you built this out and as you've started to roll it out to the marketplace, what are you seeing as it relates to, like, how this is changing the way a frightened fundraiser shows up? Like, how is what you've done here helping to relieve some of that anxiety and also to, I suspect, even start to help sort of rewire how fundraisers think about their work?
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. This is such a good question. And I hope I. I hope I kind of get to all the points. So I think one of the biggest surprises has been how fast somebody can build confidence with it. Like, how fast in a safe space they can get the courage to do something they've been putting off for a long time. So this woman posted on inst. On LinkedIn a few weeks ago that she had been putting off thank you calls for a long time. She was feeling really nervous about just picking up the phone, making thank you calls. She went into our tool for seven minutes. Seven minutes.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Seven minutes.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: And she did not say seven minutes, but immediately I went in and figured out what did she do? Because she wrote about going into the tool, it building her confidence, her starting to make her thank you calls. What came out of that first thank you call and what that taught her about relationship building and fundraising. And, And I was like, oh, my God, what did she do? Like, how long was she. And I was like, seven minutes. Like, it took seven minutes to overcome a barrier. Something she can. She had been kicking for six weeks, right. Like, and, and so I think, like. And we're hearing tons of stories like that. Like, we onboarded a higher ed institution. A week later, I get an email from the manager. We've already seen our. We've already had a fundraising success based on the system. One of our fundraisers used it when they were on their way to a donor meeting. Raised $5,000 at the meeting. So we're watching that, how their use is tied to the moment of stress, Right. Like, the fact that they're having that conversation on the way when they're probably feeling the most nervous, that they're having the courage to go in and practice the conversation or talk to our coach. Whichever one they're choosing, it's giving them that confidence boost, that affirmation to just feel more embodied in the meeting. And you know, you could say, oh, maybe that donor was going to give $5,000 anyways. Maybe. But the fundraiser thinks it's because of that practice. So to me, that tells me something about, like, how it changed how they felt in that meeting.
So I feel like that, that has been, that has been really cool to see.
And then when you originally asked the question, there was something else that I was like, I want to make sure to share this and of course I've forgotten it, but, but those are few of the, you know, a few of the things that come to mind.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I, I want to, I want to just talk a little bit. You mentioned that, you know, the person might have given the gift. Anyway, I think we've both probably been in enough rooms with donors or, or in enough rooms after the donor, after the donor meeting where the fundraiser showed up and you sort of thought that the donor was going to give and then it went really sideways. Right. So I, I suspect that even if, even if the donor was predisposed to give, like showing up like you belong there and showing up like, how do I say this and not be offensive?
Like you're on the same footing as the donor. Right. And not showing up to beg, if you will. Right.
That has to be pretty transformative in the conversation because you're no longer, I suspect, and I mean, I've not looked at data or anything like that from your platform, but I suspect that what's happening is you have people who are actually showing up in the room, like a partner versus like someone with their hand out, saying, oh, oh, could you please give? Right. You know, it's, it, it, it's got to be just so freeing for people who might not believe walking in the door that they belong even in the same room as some of those donors. Are. Are you seeing that in, in what you're looking at?
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we're seeing, we're seeing all different points. It's interesting. You know, when we first started to share the product, the initial reaction from a lot of people was, oh, this is great for new fundraisers. Right. And what, but what we found working with healthcare systems and higher ed institutions is that 20, 30 year fundraisers are getting tremendous value from the platform. And that's for a few different reasons. One is, I think for some people, yes, it's helping them reframe, you know, from an ask to an offer. You get scored in your donor simulation scenarios, how you improve donor sentiment during the, during the conversation across alignment, connection, empathy and belief that their donation would make an impact. So you know, like, are you moving the needle in those areas? And so they are, it is coaching them to, to move them towards focusing on those things in conversations.
The other, but the other thing is like we have, you know, one of our most popular practice scenarios in the platform is, is that we, it's called from friendly to Fundraising. So one of the biggest challenges that a lot of our veteran fundraisers have is that they kind of get stuck in the friend zone and don't know how to transition that into impact. And so they go, you know, when you were thinking about that meeting that goes sideways from the fundraiser, I was thinking about all the rooms I've been in where the fundraiser was supposed to ask for money and didn't. Right.
Because in the middle of the meeting they were like, now's not the right time, now is not the whatever. And so we, we I, what we've really been developing with these practice scenarios which our users are requesting, they're the ones that are like, I want a scenario like this, I want us. And we make them within 48 hours, get them up in the system for them. And so what we're finding is that whatever their like block is, whether it's transitioning from that casual conversation to talking impact and a gift, whether it's, you know, talking about unrestricted funding or a donor with budget concerns or whatever it is, we, we are helping them, I think kind of play all of it out ahead of time. So one, they know they can talk about it. So they don't avoid it in the conversation. They don't avoid the conversation completely because they're afraid of it coming.
So yeah, depending on sort of where they're at, we're seeing, we're seeing that big shift. But I think to your point, definitely we're seeing people feel, I don't know if this is the right word, but like more proud of what they do because they realize the offers that they're really making and what connection can feel like and what that like good, healthy fundraising conversation can be.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: At Dickerson Baker, we're committed to helping you discover a better way to fundraise. From activating first time major gifts to helping you recruit the best talent in the market.
From building your direct mail program, to launching and completing a successful capital campaign, from designing a best in class digital fundraising campaign, to developing your institutional fundraising strategy, Dickerson Baker is here to help you level up your fundraising and mission impact. Find us
[email protected] or contact me via LinkedIn.
So I'm going to, maybe this is a third rail question, but I'm going to just pretend like we're only talking to ourselves here.
I feel like part of what this solves, like anytime you roll something like this out in the marketplace and there's demand for it actually. Right. Then, you know, okay, I've, I've either filled a gap or I've solved a problem. Right.
Is, is the gap that you filled here one of just leaders not leading in coaching or is there something else that you're solving for?
[00:16:20] Speaker A: You know, in some organizations it might be that, but in so many organizations the leaders say the same thing that I said as a coach. Right. Which is like we work with some incredible like managers and fundraising leaders and.
But they're like, I don't have the capacity to meet with my 13 fundraisers every single day. And so it's similar to like what I was running into as a coach. Right. They can do those, the team training, the meetings, the one on ones. But the volume of questions that their fundraisers have, the volume of practice that they have is like what they're using practivated to help them fill. It's also then giving the managers insight into their fundraisers that allows them to be so much more effective in their coaching because it can tell them they're. We don't.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So we also probably have a little bit of a predisposition to great coaches. Like, great and coaches, because they're the ones who are really interested. I mean, the system is not big brothery in any way, but we do say like the highest indicators, the biggest challenges that they're having. They can see how many simulations they're doing and what kind of simulations they're doing. So they have some, some like context and information and to. And then they know that for each individual on their team, but also across their whole team. So, you know, I feel like, and I'm sure you've experienced this, organizations will call me up, they'll want me to come in and do a training and they're like picking the hottest topic that they heard about recently. Right. And they're. But they're not doing that based on any data about what their team really needs. And now we give them scoring on 16 indicators and their scores across their team, they can say, okay, like our team is really struggling with trust building effectiveness or our team is really struggling with short storytelling, concise storytelling.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: And so it allows these leaders, I think to just. Yeah, just be so much more effective.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: That's. That's brilliant. That makes a ton of sense to me. Okay, so if I'm the small shop fundraiser and listening to this, I'm also thinking, could it work with my board?
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: So have we put board members through it?
[00:18:39] Speaker A: We have, and we have.
You know, it's interesting. I think the biggest. The biggest way that we've seen requests for board members have been in trainings together. So we've done a lot of, like, I haven't done this live with a board, but I've had another organization do it with their board where they actually bring the board together for fundraising training. All the board members go and do simulations during the training and then come back and talk about some of the feedback that they got. So they're doing it concurrently, I think, with board members. That is a great use case in particular, just because sort of requires that level of engagement, you know, as opposed to a tool where fundraisers are really prioritizing it because they're doing this every single day and it's helping them in their work. But for board members, members, it can be really nice to bring them all together and do it together.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: That makes a lot of sense.
Talk to me a little bit about, as you design this and as you're refining it, what are some of the underlying sort of neuroscience data points that you're solving for? What are some of the things that you're seeing, maybe in the feedback even that you're getting from users that, that you and your team have said, like, okay, we have to figure out how to make this, you know, more comfortable for people or what, like, how did you. You said you measure on 16 different things. You didn't just stumble onto those. Like, how. How did you get to that solution?
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Yeah, so the. So the 16 indicators are. Are more like the fundraising indicators of success.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: So they're. They're like what makes a conversation successful between a. Between a fundraiser and a donor. So those are more things like ask effectiveness, delivery flow, that type of stuff. But what I'll say from. On the neuroscience, like, side of things, I mean, one, I think all of my, like, research around stress and what. What causes stress, what reduces stress?
Fear and fear.
So, you know, a lot of what. I interviewed this neuroscientist years ago who wrote the book called Afraid and leads the Fear Research lab up at Wayne State, and he was saying that, you know, two things actually can reduce fear inside our system. Knowledge and control, or the feeling of control.
And so as I'm saying that you can probably see. Exactly.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Makes a ton of sense. Yeah.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Why I designed what I designed because.
Because both in the actual simulation itself, but also in the feedback that they get. They're getting both. Right. And when you go into your feedback, you go into one of your 16 indicators, you'll get a page that says, you know, what we noticed, why it matters, and what to try next. And then you can actually bring Tivi, our coach, into the. You can click on her right there and she'll talk to you about that indicator, what you could have said differently that would have improved your score in that area. How. And she'll workshop the language with you right then and there. So it. So it's really designed to give fundraisers, you know, more clarity on what their next steps should be. More feelings of control. And I don't mean that in a manipulate, a manipulative way, but more of an empowered way in your conversations. We've heard a lot of fundraisers say, oh my gosh, like going through that simulation, that's what allowed me to figure out the structure of the actual meeting that I wanted to have and then have that be my agenda and my flow for the actual meeting. And wow, it was scary how similar it ended up being in real life to what the simulation like did. I think people have used the word creepy.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: I mean, I feel like anytime you get into things like this, right, anything AI right now, there's sort of this like, well, it's creepy.
Okay, yeah, sure. Just like donor research. Yeah, donor research is creepy too, right? Yeah, you sort of feel like the nsa, you know, when you do that. And then I always think like, well, if that's what they have on those people, what do they have on me? Right.
But at the same time, it's really freaking effective.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Totally. I mean, that's. That. Those are the other two things I'll say on the neuroscience front. One is that so much of my research also was about the way that our brain, you know, the, our reality is simulated based on our perceptions and beliefs and past experiences. And we know that things like visualization and, you know, creates muscle memory. It gives us the capacity something is so much more likely to happen if we've imagined it happening or if we've role played it happening. So there's so much neuroscience to suggest. And not just that it actually helps the conversation, but it helps all the steps that lead to the conversation. Like one of the things we've heard from one of the healthcare systems is, oh my gosh, our outreach has skyrocketed because people are stimulating conversations before they have them on their calendar. And it's giving them the confidence to send the outreach email. Right. To actually know I can have this.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: And when you say outreach, do you mean, like, as. As basic as. Like, getting that first call with a donor? Yeah, that makes a ton of sense to everything.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Right. It's like, because they. Because they've gone through those motions, it's giving them the confidence to do the steps to ultimately get that meeting. The other neuroscience piece that's really interesting is about, like, how we're thinking about goals and motivation.
So when you go into a donor simulation, you select the goals of the meeting. This is super important. And when I first started building this tool, a lot of folks were like, oh, there are sales tools out there that do this. Can't people just use that? And I was like, no. Yeah, because the goals. The goals of fundraising meetings are so much more complex because there's so many reasons we talk to people and how we want that, that, you know, relationship to move forward and how we're measuring connection and how we're measuring alignment. You can't just. The goal is not to sell every meeting.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: It's not like selling siding door to door. Come on.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: I know. It makes my head explode.
But. But. So the goal of the meeting has always been this really important component to me that the fundraiser is. Is selecting that at the beginning, that their whole conversation is really, like, framed around that. And then when you get to the feedback screen, you find out, did you achieve your goal of the meeting with the donor? So if you say, I want to.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Drill into this for a second, it is this a pick list, and it's either the goal is an ask, or the goal is to report back, or the goal is to whatever. Or is it like freeform, where the can very, like, in very detailed orientation describe what their goal is?
[00:25:43] Speaker A: It's a pick list. And probably as generative AI improves, it will be able to be more open form. But in order for us to be able to give a measure, like, to be able to say for sure they achieved it at the end of the conversation, we had to create some more rigidity. But there's, like, there's like, 15 different things. And you can select multiple also.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Like three or four goals. Right. So if it's to talk about legacy giving, but it's also to strengthen the relationship. And it's also, you know, like, you can have multiple things in there. And one of the. Really. I had a call with a customer a few weeks ago. And it was so interesting. I never expected this outcome. This goes back to your earlier question around, like, what are some of the things we're seeing?
Is that she said, when I'm in my meetings with donors in real life now, I'm thinking about what my goal of the meeting is. And she was like, it's totally changed my intentionality around touch points, not in a more transactional way, but I'm going into these meetings thinking about what my goal is and thinking about, am I achieving that goal during the actual fundraising meeting? And I was like, whoa.
So there's some neuroscience there that I've, like, yet to fully, like, unpack, but I'm like, okay, wow, that's so interesting. Like, that connection between, you know, our desire to achieve those goals and. And have clarity around those goals and our motivation levels. So there's. There's something really interesting there.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that is really interesting. And I mean, it's. At one level, this feels very basic, right?
Not. Not in a negative way, but, like, of course you need to be thinking about what the goal of the meeting is, right? But then you also think about human behavior, and you think about someone who is scared to death to sit in front of this donor, right? Doesn't want to fail, doesn't want to look like an idiot, doesn't want their boss to go, oh, she missed the mark again, or whatever it might be. And there are so many things rattling around in their brain when they actually sit down for that meeting that of course, they're not thinking about the goal, right? Because to your point, they don't feel safe. They don't feel like they have control, like, all those things, right? And so to have a tool like this that helps you get. Get in the right mindset so that when you show up, you're. You're actually managing the meeting effectively, right? I mean, it sounds. Like I said, it sounds like a basic thing, but there are so many layers of complexity to these conversations, to your earlier point. And I. I really feel like a lot of fundraising leaders and a lot of CEOs who've never sat in front of a donor and made an ask just totally missed the mark on it. Like, they just don't understand any disagreement or anything you'd add to that.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: I totally agree. And the other thing it made me think about, and I'm curious what you think about this is like, I also feel like so often people are told they just need a certain amount of touch points, right? They're like.
And so that's also why they don't have a goal because they're like, well, this is just like three of four, right? Like three or four. What?
[00:28:48] Speaker B: Like, I mean, after the fourth one, they're just going to give. Right. That's how it works.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: Yeah, right, exactly. So, like, for me, I think in this situation that was a little bit more of her. Like, she just knew how many touch points she was supposed to have as a part of this, like, you know, scientific nothing that we've created. And so, yeah.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: So much that we could probably say on that that would get us both in trouble.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Okay. I don't know if you have use cases for this yet, but I'm thinking about, like, obviously you can use this with individual donors. It makes sense to me in a corporate space.
What about that person who's a grant runs grants for an organization?
I firmly believe that grants have to be relational in addition to being technical. Right.
Do you have a use case around that? Are you testing it at this point? What are you seeing?
[00:29:43] Speaker A: Yeah, so we do. When you create a donor avatar, you select whether they're an individual, a corporate funder, or a foundation funder. So we. So we're doing all of it. And then the parameters that we give you following that answer change depending on whether you are talking to an individual. Like, the next questions that we ask are different. So we are. People are definitely using it to practice for foundation conversations. And you know, we do have, depending on what is publicly available about the foundation, the avatar might be able to completely like, act as if it works. That's cool.
And. And I have found that that has actually been really helpful for my. For my clients too, who I've gotten more of an intimate look at how they have been using the tool, both the corporate and the foundation, because the tool can do that. Sometimes it's allowed them to actually use it for prospecting in a really interesting way. Because I know for me, like, I have trouble reading corporate partner pages and like cutting through the noise sometimes, like, what is actually being said here? Like, what do you actually care about what is. And so some of them have really used it to have conversations to try to identify that alignment point that then they take and they work with Coach Tivi to create an outreach email that really kind of like lands on that alignment with a lot more precision.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: Very interesting.
Okay, I want to go back to the coaching, the fundraiser part. Right. Excuse me. So the, the reporting back that you do to. To the. The leader.
One of the other things that I hear a lot, particularly from new department leaders, is Like I'm not qualified to coach these people, right. Like I run into organizations all the time where the, the development manager, let's say, or the director, maybe they've got less time in the seat then they're frontline fundraisers, right. Or they've never actually done the work, they just have the leadership skill set.
Talk to me a little bit about how the, the, the coaching of the leader and, and, and what you're equipping them to do as far as coaching their team. Like how, how do you help solve some of those challenges or do you.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Well, it's really interesting because this has been coming up recently where you know, you could talk to our coach inside the platform, Tivi about anything. I mean it's, we have an open, we have some like customized flows. But a manager could go in and have conversations with Tivi about how to best coach a fundraiser around a particular challenge. So that knowledge is in there in terms of like supporting the managerial level to be able to better coach fundraisers. I also think it does allow for, especially for a manager, you know, without kind of that ego or power dynamics involved to really sit side by side with a fundraiser and learn with them. Right. So you know, that might be a place where you could say, and I've done this in my own coaching where I've said to a client or somebody in my group coaching program, use proactivated for this. It's better than me at this, you know, because I mean truly a human coach cannot listen to a 15 minute practice conversation, score you on 16 indicators without bias and then be able to go into each one and tell you exactly what you said, which is why you got that score. I mean it's just, it's not possible, right. So I, so I think it, it can give a coach in that type of scenario a tool that they can really incorporate into their own practice and incorporate into their own management of the individual. It's going to give them some insights into where they're excelling, where they're struggling. They can talk to Tivi about how to help them improve in those areas, what they could be doing as the coach. But then also I think they can say, hey, this is what practivated is really for. Like I want you to run these three simulations. I want you to particularly look at your feedback around X, Y and Z. And then I want you to talk to Tivi about how you improve in those areas and then bring that to your next one on one and let's talk through that and sort of what it takes for you to integrate that into your approach.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Awesome. Okay, so I think. I know we're getting a little bit short on time, so I'm gonna be respectful of your time. But I have one other question in the platform. You know, one of the things that I'm sure you hear all the time, I hear it a lot, is like, well, this donor is just a really difficult personality, right?
They're either like, there's no affect or they don't want to engage or whatever it might be, you know, all the way down to like, I think my donors are racist or a misogynist or whatever. How do I navigate that?
Does practivated help fundraisers navigate those kind of challenging personality? Is that built in as well?
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So when you go into our practice scenario library, you can select, because then you're really selecting, like a legacy giving conversation. You're not creating a custom avatar at that moment. You can select easy, medium, hard, and then you just. Just click start and you start the conversation in the custom avatar. You can make them whoever you want to.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Brilliant.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: So. And we have some personality characteristics that we prompt around, like, urgency, skepticism, persistence, some of the more like, you know, boldness, some of the more typical, maybe things that come up. But then we actually have an open text next field and. And people can create exactly the avatar that they want. So both in terms of, you know, their history with the organization, perhaps, but somebody recently put in something like, the donor was really has a big ego and was really upset about how they were not thanked properly at the last event because they felt like another donor got a little bit more air time or whatever the situation is, and the avatar will become the.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: The person. It was really scary for me at first. Like, the. The reason we added those personality characteristics in there was because the first round of beta feedback was, your avatars are way too nice. Because I was so worried about, you know, bullying fundraisers. And then, you know, I really had to be honest about the fact that preparing fundraisers means preparing them adequately for all the different types of interactions they're going to have. So we want them to feel a sense of choice in that, you know, that they're really choosing that identity of the avatar. But, yeah, you can. You can have whatever you want.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: I mean, I think that's so important, right? Because I want to believe that the majority of donors want to visit with fundraisers and want to have a, you know, meaningful conversation that's pleasant.
And at the same time, we've all heard the stories and we've probably been in the rooms, right? So I think it's critical to have that kind of flexibility. I think that's brilliant, man. This is.
I'm, I'm really pleased to have had this conversation. I'm so excited about what you built and I think that every fundraiser needs to use it. I mean, like, we would be stupid not to, right? If we're going to use ChatGPT to help us write an email, if we're going to use Claude to help us write a direct mail letter, like, there's no reason we shouldn't avail ourselves of practivated to help teach us and coach and guide us onto how to have the probably the most important and most challenging conversations of our careers. Right. Like, it's silly not to try it.
Thank you so much for being here.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. Thank you for those words and for having me and for asking me all these questions and giving me the opportunity to talk about it and for the work that you do to help fundraisers be the best versions of themselves and help managers be able to support them to do so. So I'm really grateful.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: No, absolutely. So how do people connect with you?
[00:37:44] Speaker A: Yeah, find me on LinkedIn. Mallory Erickson. Mallory Bressler Erickson. I can't remember if I. My maiden name is still in there.
You can check out my work around what the fundraisingallary erickson.com or you should definitely go to practivated.com and you can get a search sneak peek of what it looks like inside and connect with me there. We're on Instagram as well and our LinkedIn page and you'll get all the news and updates as we start to let in additional groups of folks.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: Awesome. Thanks again for being here today.
Have you read My Amazon Number One Best Selling Book, 101 Biggest Mistakes Nonprofits make and how you can avoid them yet?
It's the book that I wrote with expertise from over 20 nonprofit leaders and their 300 years of combined experience.
You can download it for free today. Just visit andrew olson.net and go to the free Resources tab on my site.
Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Rainmaker fundraising podcast. I have two favors to ask before I let you go. First, if you enjoyed this episode, please rate us and review us on whatever podcast platform you use to listen to this show. It'll help us reach more people with the tips and insights that you find most valuable. My second favor is a little bit of a favor to ask, but also a little bit of a gift to you. I write a daily substack newsletter called the Leadership Growth Newsletter. It's free to you and I write it to help people leave more effectively and in both life and at work. I'd love for you to click the link in the show notes and subscribe to that newsletter as well. Until next time, friends. I hope you make it a great day.
