Andrew Olsen, CFRE

DickersonBakker

Disrupting the fundraising industry to help ministries and nonprofits increase mission impact

Senior Vice President

Almost Southern Homestead

Building resilience one kid at a time through family farming and ranching. We raise cattle, pigs, goats, geese, chickens, ducks, guineas, and livestock guardian dogs. We provide high-quality, antibiotic-free, humanely raised meat & eggs, and pesticide-free produce for our community. Along the way we're creating opportunities for our three daughters to learn how to lead effectively, to love, trust, and rely on one another, and to deeply understand the value of a hard day's work.

Farm/Ranch Manager

The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast

I create content that delivers value for nonprofit C-suite leaders, board members, and fundraisers, and provide strategic guidance to a select group of nonprofit leaders through private coaching and consulting.

Wrote & self-published two books that achieved Amazon #1 Best Seller status in multiple categories. Created industry-leading podcast with 80K+ downloads, and monetized podcast through 3rd party sponsorships, co-marketing relationships, and referral revenue opportunities.

Clients Served (partial list):

• HOPE Mission 
• Funraise
• Minnesota Medical Foundation 
• Altus Marketing 
• Virtuous 
• New Story
• Aegis Processing Solutions 
• 7 Figure Fundraising 
• Velocity Strategy Solutions 
• Mom’s Haven of Hope

Author, Podcaster, Strategic Advisor

Forbes Business Council

As a member of Forbes Business Council I build relationships with growth-focused leaders across the globe, author leadership-focused content, and create connections that help others grow and succeed.

Member

Altus Marketing

I lead a professional services firm where we are dedicated to solving the world's biggest problems by empowering local and global nonprofits to increase their mission impact. In this capacity I'm responsible for finding and hiring the most talented people in the direct response marketing industry, and making sure they have the tools and resources to succeed for our nonprofit partners. I'm also responsible for leading the agency's growth strategy.

Manage a $40 million P&L, oversee all agency marketing and sales. Grew top line revenue by 50% YOY in 2022. 

Clients Served:

• Covenant House International 
• Museum of the Bible
• The Salvation Army Southern California 
• St Labre Indian School
• St Joseph’s Indian School
• CareNet
• Ducks Unlimited 
• Durham Rescue Mission 
• Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries 
• Feeding Westchester 
• Trout Unlimited 
• Troops Direct
• Cops Direct 
• Adventist Health
• Passionists of Holy Cross Province
• Volunteers of America

President

NEWPORT ONE

I built a professional services (direct response marketing) firm from $0 to $9 million in annual revenue over a three-year period. Built and led a team of 10 marketing leaders to deliver tens of millions of dollars in charitable giving for nonprofit partners.

Clients Served:

• CARE USA
• Jews For Jesus
• Mel Trotter Ministries 
• City Harvest 
• Light of Life Rescue Mission
• Fairview Health
• PKD Foundation 
• Palm Beach County Food Bank
• Channel One Regional Food Bank
• Panama City Rescue Mission

Partner/Senior Vice President

ViewSpark.org

I provided strategic insight and guidance to ViewSpark's Founder and CEO on the company's product roadmap, go-to-market strategy, customer persona development, and user experience. I also helped the company recruit key senior-level talent, and continue to support their growth through ongoing partnership and client referrals.

Strategic Advisor

University of St. Thomas - Opus College of Business

I taught the Annual Fundraising Strategy certificate course at University of St. Thomas' Opus College of Business.

Instructor

ONE HUNDRED Agency

I served as the lead fundraising strategist and oversaw the team of marketers and technicians that consolidated 13 divisions of a federated national nonprofit organization onto a single, fully integrated direct response platform, consolidated 18 unique CRM platforms to a single platform and territory-wide CRM instance, and stood up a new model for monthly sustainer, Mid-level, and Major donor integration across the organization.

Managed $15 million annual P&L, led team of 8, and oversaw new client acquisition, onboarding, and ongoing engagement.

Clients Served:

• The Salvation Army Eastern Territory

Vice President Account Management

Russ Reid Company

I led multiple teams across the U.S. and Canada to deliver strategic, integrated direct response marketing for global and local nonprofit organization. Led multiple long-term change initiatives.

Managed $20 million annual P&L, and oversaw $100+ million in annual client media and marketing spend.

Clients Served (partial list):

• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
• St Joseph’s Indian School
• Best Friends Animal Society
• Mercy Ships
• The Salvation Army Eastern Territory 
• Operation Smile
• Atlanta Mission 
• Boston Rescue Mission 
• Mel Trotter Ministries 
• Light of Life Rescue Mission
• Los Angeles Mission
• Helping Up Mission
• HOPE Mission
• Denver Rescue Mission
• UGM Portland 
• Miami Rescue Mission
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles 
• Miller Children’s Hospital 
• University of Tennessee Medical Center 
• Atlanta Community Food Bank
• The Greater Boston Food Bank
• San Diego Food Bank
• Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
• Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
• Phoenix Rescue Mission 
• New York City Rescue Mission 
• The Smile Train
• Second Harvest Heartland 
• Houston Food Bank
• Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano
• Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
• Catholic Charities of St Paul & Minneapolis 
• Catholic Charities of Houston 
• Toledo Catholic Charities 
• Union Gospel Mission Vancouver 
• Catholic Charities of Miami
• City Gospel Mission

I led a team of 40 people who were focused on delivering integrated direct response fundraising solutions for Rescue Missions, Food Banks, Catholic Charities, Children's Hospitals, and various other nonprofits.

Group Account Director

I built a successful sales operation that helped acquire more than 50 clients for a professional service firm, and delivered over $5 million in annualized revenue.

Senior Development Advisor

My personal mission is to help leaders increase mission impact by developing healthy cultures that accelerate revenue growth. Throughout my career, I'm proud to have helped worthy causes raise over half a billion dollars to change the world. 

I am a business leader with a passion to serve others, and to enable them to solve our world's most pressing problems. 

From serving on numerous nonprofit boards, advising a start-up at the intersection of tech and philanthropy, to running a major  division in a Fortune 500 advertising holding company and now leading a service firm, I am convinced that what matters more than anything is the quality and diversity of talent around the table. Talent, not strategy, sets the trajectory for your growth.

I'm a two-time best-selling author (check my books out at andrewolsen.net), host of a top-ranked nonprofit leadership podcast, and a Forbes.com contributor. 

LET'S STAY CONNECTED:
Follow me here on LinkedIn, or reach out to connect. 

Book a Meeting: https://meetings.hubspot.com/andrew-olsen2

Subscribe to The Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rainmaker-fundraising-podcast/id1441960250

Subscribe to The Rainmaker Newsletter at: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-rainmaker-6896800228541104129/

I create content that delivers value for nonprofit C-suite leaders, board members, and fundraisers, and provide strategic guidance to a select group of nonprofit leaders through private coaching and consulting.

Wrote & self-published two books that achieved Amazon #1 Best Seller status in multiple categories. Created industry-leading podcast with 80K+ downloads, and monetized podcast through 3rd party sponsorships, co-marketing relationships, and referral revenue opportunities.

Today is #FREE Friday!

When I wrote this book a few years ago it was because we observed that many organizations seemed to be falling into the same traps and making the same mistakes over and over again. 

This book is in the hands of more than 5,000 nonprofit and ministry leaders worldwide, and most of those copies have been given away for FREE. 

At it's release, the book hit #1 on #Amazon in three different categories, and became a #1 New Release on Amazon as well. 

There are three full sections on Leadership, Strategy, and Fundraising in the book, so whether you lead a ministry or nonprofit, work in finance, programs or administration, are a frontline fundraiser, or a board member, I'm sure you'll find value in the book.

You can grab a digital copy of the book for FREE right now:

https://lnkd.in/eywVMJC

#101BiggestMistakes #mistakes #nonprofit #fundraising #strategy #leadership #majorgifts #directresponse #grants #culture #boardmembers 

Trust is the currency of leadership. 

If you want to take your organization further faster, work on increasing trust. 

And if you’re the leader, understand that this starts with how you treat people.

#trust #peoplematter #culture #leadership #authenticity #abetterway 

People long for value and significance. 

Your role as a leader is to help them understand their value and significance in the world. 

#value #leadership #peoplematter #culture #abetterway 

** RESEARCH ALERT ** 

Less than 1/3 (28%) of all nonprofits surveyed believe that their organization is highly effective at building relationships with current major donors. 

Think about that for a minute.

In most cases, these are the supporters who are likely driving 50% - 80% of an organization's revenue. And only 28% of the organizations they are supporting can self report that they are really good at building relationships with these donors. 

My take on this?

I think it's because board and C-level leaders focus too much energy and time on chasing new and different. More new donors. More new campaigns. Different types of donors, different approaches to giving, etc., at the expense of deepening the relationships that are and will be most profitable for their organizations today and into the future. 

To all the nonprofit leaders out there...you get more of what you reward. If you want to maximize net revenue and mission impact, prioritize and reward building deep relationships with the donors who can drive the greatest amount of net revenue to your organization. 

That is how you create the financial margins to do great work in your communities. 

As our founder and president, Derric Bakker is fond of saying, "Big gifts just add up faster". And the path to those big gifts is directly tied to building deep and lasting major donor relationships.

Grab a copy of our research report for more on this and other key findings in the sector. 

https://lnkd.in/gDSHb9Vc

#abetterway #majorgifts #nonprofit #philanthropy #research 


Open article: A Better Way Research Study - DickersonBakker by pages.dickersonbakker.com

https://pages.dickersonbakker.com/a-better-way-research-study

As a leader one of your key roles and responsibilities is to make difficult decisions. These are the kind of decisions that can impact lives, change the direction of your career, and make or break your organization. 

How do you process information to make the best decision when only faced with hard choices? 

#hardchoices #decisions #decisionmaking #emotionalintelligence #leadership #impact #strategy #business #leader #abetterway 

Open article: Making Hard Decisions by Andrew Olsen, CFRE

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/making-hard-decisions-andrew-olsen-cfre?trackingId=mRwPrzm3oc7IhLBnvfWKtw%3D%3D

** RESEARCH ALERT **

At DickersonBakker we are focused on helping ministries and other nonprofits find a better way to fundraise. Much of what we're doing comes down to creating strategies that help nonprofits treat every donor like a major donor.

In our brand-new research study released just this week, the need for this new thinking became increasingly clear. 

Shockingly, only 8% of respondents rated their organizations as highly effective at building relationships with their mass market donors. 

This isn't surprising to me. The mechanization of fundraising, particularly for lower dollar givers (i.e., "mass market") has historically been focused on driving efficiencies instead of effectively building relationships. 

We reject that premise and have designed strategies to give better, more enjoyable experiences to all donors, regardless of their giving levels. Because we know that relationship changes everything, and that the only way to build true relationships is to start treating people like human beings, not just like human ATM's. 

Grab a copy of our new research to dig deeper into this issue and so much more. 

https://lnkd.in/gDSHb9Vc

#abetterway #fundraising #directresponse #philanthropy #donors #generosity #impact 

** RESEARCH ALERT **

Does your nonprofit organization have a unique strategy for engaging and treating major donors differently? 

I was surprised to see that almost 2/3 (58%) of all respondents to our (DickersonBakker) recent national survey of fundraisers and C-level nonprofit leaders reported that their organizations lacked a solid strategy for treating their major donors uniquely. 

This is a key learning for me, especially at a time when we are starting to see slight decreases in giving from high net worth individuals. Whether you like, agree with it, or not, people who give large sums of money expect to be treated a certain way. That's just reality. 

If your organization doesn't have a strategy for building deep, authentic relationships with high-net-worth individuals and treating them differently than you treat everyone else, you are likely going to be overlooked by the major donor class. 

Grab a copy of our research study findings to go deeper on this issue and many others impacting our sector today.

https://lnkd.in/gDSHb9Vc

#abetterway #philanthropy #majorgifts #nonprofit #leadership 

Taplio

Andrew Olsen, CFRE's Linkedin Analytics