Do you really need to be on every social media platform to grow your nonprofit? In this episode of the Million Dollar Nonprofit Podcast, Tom Kelly sits down with LinkedIn fundraising expert Michelle Benson to break down why LinkedIn consistently outperforms other platforms when it comes to high-value donors, corporate partners, and trust fund decision-makers.

Michelle explains why cold emails, coffee requests, and trustee address books are becoming less effective and how nonprofits can instead position themselves to be found by funders who are already looking to give. Drawing on her experience as both a former fundraiser and trust fund director, Michelle shares how decision-makers actually use LinkedIn, why mindset matters on each platform, and how nonprofits can build an intentional digital presence that leads to real conversations and partnerships.

You’ll learn what nonprofits should have in place before funders reach out, why quality engagement matters more than likes, how commenting can be just as powerful as posting, and how to use LinkedIn without burning out or posting every day. Michelle Benson teaches nonprofits how to use LinkedIn to fundraise without cold calls or chasing the wrong donors.

With 47,000 followers, over 5 million impressions, and more than 100,000 likes and comments each year, she has built a fully inbound fundraising pipeline and helped thousands of nonprofits across 32 countries do the same.

If you want to reach companies, trust funds, and major donors more effectively, this episode will change how you think about LinkedIn and nonprofit fundraising. To work with Michelle, she offers year-round team training (direct message her on LinkedIn for details), as well as 4-week online LinkedIn training cohorts for fundraisers, CEOs, comms staff, and consultants running in January, May, and September 2026.

You can follow Michelle on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-benson-creates-digital-pipelines/

and learn more at https://www.cultureofphilanthropy.co/

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Have you ever looked at a large nonprofit’s website, emails, or campaigns and wondered how they manage to look so polished, professional, and organized? The truth is, it’s not about having a massive budget — it’s about having the right systems.

In this episode of The Million Dollar Nonprofit, Tom Kelly breaks down how small nonprofits can use AI to operate, communicate, and present themselves like million-dollar organizations — without hiring more staff or burning out their team. This isn’t about pretending to be bigger than you are. It’s about building smart systems that create credibility, consistency, and trust.

Tom introduces a simple three-part framework: Brand. Build. Broadcast. You’ll learn how AI can instantly upgrade your branding, create automated donor and volunteer systems that run in the background, and multiply your content so you show up everywhere without exhausting your team.

You’ll hear real examples of small nonprofits using AI to improve donor perception, increase recurring giving, streamline operations, and raise more money — all by replacing chaos with structure. If your nonprofit is doing meaningful work but struggling to look as professional as larger organizations, this episode will show you how AI levels the playing field.

What would happen if every donor who supported your nonprofit felt like they had a personal assistant dedicated just to them? Someone who remembered their birthday, their giving history, their interests, and their impact. Someone who responded warmly and accurately, every single time. Now imagine it happening automatically — without adding more to your workload.

In this episode of The Million Dollar Nonprofit, Tom Kelly shows nonprofit leaders how to use ChatGPT as a donor relations assistant — an AI teammate that keeps donors engaged, valued, and connected. Using the framework Remember. Respond. Reinforce., you’ll learn how to:

Remember: Use AI to track every donor’s history, preferences, and giving habits so you never miss a detail. Build donor profiles and communication rules that allow AI to act as the memory engine behind deeper relationships.

Respond: Draft warm, personalized replies instantly for emails, DMs, or texts. AI helps your team respond quickly while keeping tone, gratitude, and mission alignment consistent.

Reinforce: Maintain ongoing stewardship through automated check-ins, anniversary messages, personalized impact updates, event follow-ups, and upgrade invitations — all tailored to each donor’s journey.

You’ll hear a real example from a food bank in Ohio that created an AI donor assistant named “Harper.” Response time dropped from three days to thirty minutes, and donor retention jumped 18% in a single quarter. Donors said: “You always remember me.” “I feel connected.” “I’ve never been thanked this consistently.”

The episode includes plug-and-play prompts to help you: write warm donor follow-ups, personalize impact updates, send anniversary or birthday notes, and invite donors to upgrade or re-engage.

How many donor thank-yous are sitting on your to-do list right now? Five? Twelve? A hundred? Donor gratitude is one of the most important parts of fundraising — and one of the easiest things to fall behind on. Not because you don’t care, but because you’re busy.

In this episode of The Million Dollar Nonprofit, Tom Kelly shows nonprofit leaders how to automate up to 90% of donor thank-yous without losing the human touch. Using the framework Segment. Spark. Send., you’ll learn how to build a scalable gratitude system that feels warm, personal, and heartfelt — even when it’s automated.

Tom walks through how to segment donors properly, create AI-powered thank-you message banks, and add personalization layers that make donors feel truly seen. You’ll learn how to use donor data like gift amount, program supported, location, and past involvement to spark genuine gratitude inside automated emails, texts, videos, and handwritten notes.

This episode breaks down how to deliver thank-yous automatically across multiple channels — including email, SMS, personalized video, and handwritten cards — all triggered instantly through your CRM. The result is faster follow-up, stronger donor relationships, and higher retention, without overwhelming your team.

Who’s the best fundraiser on your team? The person who always knows what to say, who donors instantly trust, and who makes fundraising look effortless while everyone else overthinks a single email.

Now imagine if your entire team could fundraise like that.

In this episode of The Million Dollar Nonprofit, Tom Kelly shows nonprofit leaders how to clone their best fundraiser using AI — not by replacing people, but by capturing their instincts, phrasing, storytelling, and donor psychology and turning it into a system anyone can use. Using the framework Model. Mimic. Multiply., you’ll learn how to analyze high-performing fundraising messages, build an AI fundraising persona, and deploy that voice across emails, campaigns, donor calls, thank-yous, and follow-ups.

Tom walks through how to extract your top fundraiser’s “DNA” from real emails and asks, translate it into a reusable AI writing persona, and scale it across your entire fundraising operation. The result is faster campaign creation, more consistent donor messaging, higher engagement, and stronger fundraising results — without hiring more staff or burning out your A-players.

You’ll hear a real example from a children’s nonprofit that analyzed their development director’s writing, created an AI persona, and watched email open rates double while average gift size increased by 27%. In just six months, they raised an additional $118,000 — simply by cloning their best fundraiser’s voice.

This episode also includes plug-and-play prompts to help you analyze fundraising copy, build a persona, rewrite messages for major, lapsed, and new donors, add urgency without guilt, and generate follow-ups that still feel personal and human.

Writing a fundraising campaign shouldn’t take weeks—or drain your team’s energy.

In this episode, Tom Kelly breaks down the exact AI workflow nonprofits are using to create full fundraising campaigns in minutes, not months. From emails and social posts to landing pages, SMS, and video scripts, you’ll learn how to turn one powerful story into an entire multi-channel campaign—without sounding robotic or generic.

Tom walks through the Story. Structure. Scale. framework, shares real prompts you can use immediately, and highlights a real nonprofit that raised over $42,000 in just nine days using this system.

If your team is stretched thin and staring at a blank page, this episode is your shortcut.

When was the last time you had nothing on your to-do list? Exactly. You can’t even remember.

Nonprofit leaders don’t have one job — they have ten: Executive, Director, Marketer, HR, Development, Board liaison… and yes, somewhere in there, Janitor. And somewhere else, you’re supposed to sleep.

Imagine if your workweek only required four focused hours. Not because you slacked off. Not because you outsourced everything. But because you automated 80% of your job — the tasks that don’t need your creativity or leadership.

In this episode of The Million Dollar Nonprofit, Tom Kelly shows you how to design a leadership schedule that runs on automation, not exhaustion, where your high-impact hours are focused on strategy, vision, and mission-critical work. Using the framework Replace. Reduce. Reclaim., you’ll learn how to:

• Replace repetitive tasks with automation — emails, reports, meeting summaries, donor thank-yous, scheduling, social posts, and more
• Reduce unnecessary work — cut bloated meetings, approvals, and reports nobody reads
• Reclaim your time for the work that only you can do — vision, strategy, donors, and innovation

You’ll hear real examples from nonprofit leaders who went from drowning in meetings, inboxes, and manual reporting to structured productivity and leadership clarity. One housing nonprofit ED said: “I finally became the leader my organization needs, not its administrator.”

When was the last time someone on your team brought you an idea that made you stop and think, “Whoa… that could actually change everything”?

For most nonprofit leaders, it doesn’t happen often — not because their teams lack creativity, but because the day-to-day grind drains it. When everyone is stuck reacting, there’s no space to imagine. And without imagination, innovation dies.

In this episode of The Million Dollar Nonprofit, Tom Kelly shows you how to build a culture of innovation using AI-powered idea boards, so ideas don’t get lost in Slack threads or forgotten in someone’s Notes app.

Using the simple framework Capture. Collaborate. Curate., you’ll learn how to:

Capture ideas consistently across your team using a shared AI Idea Board

Collaborate with AI to strengthen, refine, and stress-test ideas

Curate ideas into a prioritized pipeline that actually leads to action

Tom walks through how to set up an idea board in tools like Notion, Google Sheets, Trello, ClickUp, or Airtable, and how to use ChatGPT to rewrite ideas clearly, generate variations, identify risks, and create low-cost pilot plans.

You’ll hear a real example from an animal rescue in North Carolina that collected 15 ideas in one week — two of which saved 22 hours a month and generated an extra $18,000. The insight? They never lacked ideas. They lacked a system that respected them.