About This Episode
In this episode of Full Circle, we sit down with Mark, a philanthropy and fundraising leader whose career began in the 1980s as a theology teacher — until a school $300,000 in deficit handed him fundraising as a baptism by fire. Mark shares how fundraising has drifted toward a transactional, sales-driven model, and the cost of that shift: donor retention rates of just 42%, with 8 out of 10 new donors never giving again. He explains why the problem starts at the top — boards measuring only dollars raised while ignoring donor retention and lifetime value — and why understanding a donor's "moral biography" matters more than moving to the next gift. The conversation also covers fundraising across sectors, the danger of small organizations copying broken big-organization models, and how senior living communities like Mosaic structure philanthropy below the operating line to ensure residents never lose care, even when they can no longer pay.
