What I Learned In 2024

I know what you're thinking: another one of those reflection posts #boring.

Or maybe you are like me and thinking: another one of those reflection posts #yippy!

Whichever camp you're in—I hope you are having a bright and prosperous New Year. 

2024 was a big, challenging, rewarding mess. I haven't met one nonprofit consultant who hasn't expressed some version of: WTF is going on this year?! If that sounds like you—you're not alone. 

Like all years, I got some things right and wrong. In no particular order....

I upped my prices by 60% and never looked back. 

At the end of 2023, I was tiiiiiired. I'd been working with several clients at the same price for years. I did some quick math and realized that if I increased my prices to be more inline with the market rates (yes, I was undercharging)—I could earn the same amount by working with half as many people. Not going to lie....it was a slow transition. It took nearly a full year to replace all of my client work, but now I'm working with a great group of 1:1 clients at a rate I feel good about and that gets them results. 

I leaned into what I'm best at: collaborating. 

In 2024, I took a break from hosting any virtual summits, but instead I hosted 3 bundles. The results? 1,267 email subscribers and $37,250 in profit (I happily paid out $22,000 in affiliate commissions). Launching a bundle combines a few things I'm good at: gathering people, marketing and selling a no-brainer product. I'll be hosting the next Freebie Extravaganza (see last year's sales page here)—a free bundle designed to help you grow your email list—in March 2025. If you're interested—click here.

I finally have a significant recurring revenue stream of income.

In 2023, 90% of my business was dependent on the hours I clocked working for clients. To run the business sustainably, that needed to change.

It took about 11 months, but today—25% of my income is now on autopilot. 😅 Over time, I'd love this to be 40%, or enough to cover my monthly operational expenses.

To do this, I plan to continue slowly growing Building Better Together—a community for Nonprofit Consultants and the Fundraising Template Membership—a weekly delivery of a fundraising template. Increase traffic and a reduction in churn is the name of the game.

LinkedIn is in and all other social media is out. 

At the start of 2024, I had 7,169 followers on LinkedIn. Today, I have nearly 13k. That's 81% in growth in 12 months and something I could have never achieved on Instagram. 

My playbook? I try to do two things per week. 

1. Tease my upcoming newsletter 24-hours before it goes out (in an effort to grow my email list)

2. Post something high-value related to email marketing designed to get engagement from my ideal audience (nonprofit fundraisers)

I very rarely sell on LinkedIn—and honestly I think that helps.

Unless I see a dramatic shift—I plan on doing more of the same in 2025.

I noticed nonprofit clients have very outdated email and mailing lists.

In 2020-2021—nonprofits saw an influx of new people with very little effort. Unfortunately, a vast majority of these folks were one and done supporters with the new data telling us that the retention rate for new, first time donors is only 13.8%. 😩 This makes my job as a conversion copywriter very difficult because I can write the most compelling emails on the planet, but if the list is stale—it won't matter.

For 2025, I need to figure out how to either 1) add list growth to my services OR only work with clients who have been making an effort to clean and grow their email lists. Otherwise—I won’t be able to help my clients see the success and ROI of investing in my services.

I tried and failed at an in-person event.

Or did I?

The failure comes out of losing five-figures producing the event. Which is something I’m intensly thinking about before hosting the next one (which will be soonest—2026).

The win comes out of the absolute ✨magic✨ that was in gathering in person, taking online connections to real life friendships and the side conversations that actually help move the needle in business.

The other day I was going through a happy folder I keep and caught this reflection:

Meeting up and learning with fellow nonprofit consultants has been one of the most impactful things I’ve done to grow my business and I look forward to figuring out how to make it work for my business AND the community soon.

That’s it for me.

Always curious to know what you learned in your business too!