Caroline Oliveira (part 2): Tackling Factory Farming as a Christian Fundraiser
Summary:
In this continuation of our conversation with Caroline Oliveira, Finance and Development Director at Sinergia Animal, we discuss why the charity receives top marks. We also discuss the operational side of nonprofit fundraising and Caroline's insights on building impactful relationships with donors.
Some things we touch on:
Caroline’s role in managing movement-building efforts, including cultivating communities of volunteers and supporting grassroots organizations.
The importance of donor relations, from personalised thank-you messages to providing updates through newsletters and reports.
Tools like Stripe and DonorBox that help streamline donation tracking and communication.
How Sinergia Animal achieved a 160% growth in individual donations by improving transparency and donor engagement.
Practical advice for breaking into nonprofit fundraising, even without prior experience, and the skills that make a great fundraiser.
Career growth opportunities for fundraisers and how their expertise can lead to leadership roles within nonprofit organizations.
The profound impact of showing gratitude and keeping donors informed about their contributions’ effectiveness.
Articles, Organizations, and Other Media Discussed in This Episode:
World Bank ‘Recipe For A Liveable Planet’ Report – World Bank report outlining sustainable development and strategies.
Sinergia’s 2022 Successful Campaign – An overview of Sinergia Animal's impactful campaign against the transfer of a major loan to factory farming.
Banks For Animals – A movement aiming to align financial institutions with animal welfare objectives.
Humane League – An international organization focused on reducing animal suffering through campaigns and corporate outreach.
Mercy For Animals – A nonprofit dedicated to preventing cruelty to farmed animals and promoting plant-based eating.
Animal Charity Evaluators Sinergia Animal Report 2024 — A detailed analysis of Sinergia Animal’s impact and cost-effectiveness in advancing animal welfare.
Brazilian Vegetarian Society – An organization in Brazil working to promote vegetarianism and reduce animal suffering.
Hive – A recruitment platform connecting professionals in the nonprofit and social impact sectors.
Sinergia Animal’s Year In Review Reports – The annual report summarising their achievements and measurable impact throughout the year.
DonorBox – An online fundraising platform used by nonprofits to manage donations.
Our Fundraising Career Profile – A resource highlighting key strategies and career insights for those seeking a fundraising role, or those who want to maximise impact in a current role.
Episode Highlights:
Getting into a Fundraising Career
“Well, theory is a great way to start if you don’t have any positions in mind, volunteering to do some work in fundraising or participating in any activities of the organization that you admire or any organization that you like. It’s good for you to get to know the movement better if you’re not in the movement yet. So getting to know the priorities and the way things work and getting to know about the programs is a good start.”
Fundraising as an Entry Point into Nonprofit Careers
“Even if you don’t have direct experience in fundraising, don’t let that discourage you. Many organizations are open to training people with the right attitude and transferable skills. I didn’t start out with a fundraising background, but I was eager to learn and apply my existing skills. It was a great way to grow in this sector.”
Learning and Growing in Fundraising Roles
“If you have the passion and soft skills, you can thrive in fundraising. Many nonprofit organizations are willing to invest in your development, even if you don’t have experience. The most important thing is your ability to connect with others and your desire to learn.”
Fundraising Day-to-Day
"The best part of working in fundraising is the need that you have to be connected with everything that happens in the organization so you get to know everybody and to talk to them. And you get to like a very deep understanding of what the organization does. And each of our achievements, we get to celebrate with each team that we have. And being in a fully remote team, I think spreading 11, 12 countries now, this is a good opportunity. I can build my work around connecting and understanding what happens in the organization."
Challenges in Fundraising Day-to-Day
"I think the challenge is always to be prepared and to stay calm in conversations [with donors]. There’s always that sense of—it’s like a first date. I have this friend called Marcella, she’s a fundraiser too... she says that it’s like a first date every time because you have to share good things and to make yourself interesting, but at the same time, you can’t show too much or seem too needy, you know?"
Relationships with Donors as a Fundraiser
“It's essential for us to maintain a strong relationship with our donors. For example, if someone cancels their monthly donation or switches to a one-time donation, we always try to reach out. We want to understand the reason and see if there’s something we can clarify or improve. Keeping a donor is much cheaper than acquiring a new one, so we focus on sustaining and nurturing these relationships.” - Caroline Oliveira
Transparency in Fundraising
“We’ve set up systems like Stripe and DonorBox to track all of our donations. It helps us manage everything in a streamlined way, and we can ensure that donors are properly thanked for their support. It's important to show them that their contributions are valued, and this transparency helps build trust.”
The Crucial Role of Regular Communication
“Constant communication is key in nonprofit work. Whether it’s through weekly updates or annual reports, we make sure to inform our donors about the progress of our campaigns and the impact their donations are making. This ongoing relationship keeps people engaged and invested in the mission.”
Tracking and Reporting Donor Impact
“We’ve built a system where we can send out specific reports to our donors to show them the impact their contributions are having. Whether it's the number of animals we’ve helped or the progress on a particular campaign, giving them measurable results helps reinforce the importance of their donations.”
Careers Beyond Fundraising
“Fundraising isn’t just about securing money; it's also about developing leadership. If you prove yourself in fundraising, you can take on higher roles. It’s a great way to demonstrate your strategic thinking and build a solid understanding of the organization’s core needs and objectives.”
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JD (59:41)
This is part two of our conversation. We had such a good time last time discussing some of our shared Christian background and reasons for veganism, that we didn't get to go deeper into the weeds about the intricacies of the work you're doing at Sinergia Animal and also what it's like as a fundraiser, specifically in the animal welfare space, some of the challenges of being a fundraiser.
Part of what we discussed before was the corporate campaigns, pressure campaigns, as you put it. But that's not all that you do at Sinergia Animal. You also work on more institutional or systemic change. Could you walk me through some of the institutional projects you have.
Caroline Oliveira (1:00:23)
Okay, thank you for asking about this. I told you before, Nourishing Tomorrow is our dietary change program. It's one of my favorites in Sinergia. In that program, we approach institutions to convince them and to prepare them to change one day to be fully plant-based. So this program is in operation in Colombia, Argentina, Indonesia, and very soon we are resuming the program in Thailand.
And there we have amazing results as we reach out to schools, universities, so we do a change at institutional level. We can reach like millions of meals served, fully plant-based every year. So we go with our team of nutritionists and chefs and we work with the staff in each institution to prepare them to change using their ingredients and keeping their current budget.
Changing one day to be fully plant-based and the testimonials from people who have tried the food and because we do that with a lot of care, we get very good feedback and the most cute pictures of kids trying vegan food. And like some of them share that that's the best food they ever had so we understand that this program is very important. Not only has it been singled out as one very effective program because of the reach that it has, but also we evaluate a lot, especially in the countries where it happens. In the countries where we operate, as the income grows for people there, the consumption, the production of animal products grows too.
And that sometimes comes with some other side effects of this raised income. So, as people tend to eat more fast food or eat food that's more processed due to that increase in their income. And with that sometimes they choose more sugar or food with more sugar or food that's not as healthy, food that's more processed. So teaching people how to prepare that
in the institution sometimes is the first contact that they have with food that has been specifically designed respecting their cultural aspects but specifically designed to be healthy and food, fully nutritional not just like food for the sake of food. So with that we aim to reach more and more people through the diet change that we promote in the institutions so that they have contact with vegan food for the first time and we never know how far that can go.
JD (1:03:07)
Yeah, this seems really promising for long term changing institutions, not just a quick win. My past context with this has just been with someone named Rachel who worked in the New York City Mayor's office to get them to incorporate meatless Mondays across New York City. And this was something that took years to implement. And by the end of it, I think they were influencing over a million school lunches every Monday. So if you compound that yearly, you're talking like 50 million plus meals a year going meatless in a city like New York, New York, right? So that has knock on effects as well.
I imagine that's also a big part of the win from this is once you get one or two big universities or districts to incorporate this, others start to follow suit. What are you already seeing? Are universities resistant to this? Are they picking it up? What are some examples of success stories? Or is it still more experimental? Have you figured out what works just yet?
Caroline Oliveira (1:04:01)
Yeah.
The program is pretty well established right now. We have the most significant results in Argentina and Colombia. The program has been on for now, I think, since 2022 or 2021, if I'm not mistaken. But we got solid results. Also, reaching out to municipalities, especially in Argentina, we always get like a large reach of institutions that can implement the program. And then comes the second challenge, there is implementation. Because once we do get the institutions or the municipalities or the universities to agree with the program, then we have the second layer of work that is reaching out to them, checking what they have available, what are the resources that they have, and preparing people.
I can share some pictures with you and your audience if you want. We have some beautiful ones. Sure.
JD (1:05:08)
We can link in the description to some of what you're sharing.
Caroline Oliveira (1:05:14)
Yeah, and then we go through that very comprehensive work of understanding what resources they have available and making the implementation possible. And we also follow through after they implement to get feedback from people who are actually eating, how they receive the changes and how we can adjust so the program can run smoothly for one year in the agreement. We follow through with the institutions after that too.
JD (1:05:42)
Nice. So we talked about corporate campaigns. We talked about some of the institutional work. Are there other areas that Sinergia Animal works in that you're especially excited about or think listeners need to know about?
Caroline Oliveira (1:05:54)
We talked a little about investigations too, which is one of the pillars of our work. And we are part of a very exciting coalition called Stop Financing Factory Farming. In that organization, that coalition, we are partnering with other organizations like Friends of the Earth, some indigenous issues organizations, and some social groups too, to get the banks to improve their policies for animals and also to get the developing banks to stop financing factory farming. Because the World Bank has recognized that factory farming is a problematic issue and it's causing a lot of damage to the planet. But still, especially in our countries, most of the funding that comes to this to keep growing factory farming comes from these development banks without people being aware.
So you work with campaigns.
JD (1:06:53)
Really, so it's like the World Bank will offer a loan to some country to boost their agriculture output and they'll spend that on factory farms?
Caroline Oliveira (1:07:01)
Yeah, that happens a lot. And that's the reality of factory farming. People frequently ask why vegan products are so much more expensive or why they are not as available. And you have to remember that they have, in factory farming, the capability of growing things in scale, the production very much, so that lowers the cost of the product.
But also there's a lot of subsidies involved. We actually mentioned this when, this year we were invited to talk in the annual meetings in the World Bank. And I was there to discuss that in a panel to talk about this document that they brought together called, ‘For A Livable Planet’ in which they discussed the need for everybody to reduce the consumption of animal products. And we questioned why they still grant big loans. Last year, we conducted a very comprehensive investigation on dairy farms here in Brazil against Alvor. It's one of the largest milk producers in the world and one of the largest in Brazil. After the investigations, we have the material to go through a campaign and we campaigned against the loan and still they granted the loan. After that, we were deeply disappointed because that goes against what they are now saying as a fact that factories are very problematic to the world. So that still happens and that's still a big part of the cost, the lower cost of animal products that in the deep suffering animals go through. Yeah, due to all this practice they managed to, yeah.
It's an unfair competition with vegan products. They're just like starting now. So it's very important for us to work on that basis too, because some of the people don't know or they are not aware of the part that their bank plays in animal suffering. And through this program, we want to make them more aware.
JD (1:09:10)
Yeah, it sounds like a huge problem and a really hard one to surmount. Have there been results from advocacy and activism towards the World Bank and other multilateral institutions? Like, have there been any wins so far, or is this still in the land of theory about how we might influence them?
Caroline Oliveira (1:09:22)
Yeah.
We're happy to say that there are good results and you know those might come a little slower than other results that we get. But still there's a need to do this now to get people aware of the problem and to address a big problem as soon as we can. In 2022 we were able to stop a big loan with the coalition and through campaigning we stopped 2 million.
Maybe we shouldn't keep the amount here. I don't know if I have the precise number. But we stopped a big loan from a bank, through campaigning against the producer. And we also have this program where we rate the banks and get people to know what their banks are in their ranking of welfare issues or how much they care about the animals, their impact through their work. And this year we got 11 banks, more new banks to report on that. It's called Banks for Animals and I can also link this to you and you can take a look later. So it's an exciting program too, it's another one that we are very proud to work with. Still, yeah, one of our smaller programs but another that we are very excited about.
JD (1:10:51)
Right.
Right, because you're mostly corporate campaigns, and then most of the rest is the institutional work, and then everything else is projects like this. Makes sense if it's still growing. So I'd like to transition. I have a transitional question before asking about your career and work as a fundraiser. A question I had this season as I was thinking about where to give to for animal charities is, why Sinergia Animal over other really good effective animal charities. And you mentioned it yourself, a lot of people who care about effective animal cruelty, animal welfare organizations might have heard about the Humane League, might have heard about animal charity evaluators, or some others like Mercy For Animals. I don't know where they are in the rankings nowadays. But maybe not about Sinergia anymore. I suspect that's because you all are located in the Global South. Why, for a donor like me, why might I give to Sinergia Animal over the Humane League, or in addition to the Humane League? What's the competitive edge there? Of course, we're all friends here, but when people ask you that, what do you say?
Caroline Oliveira (1:12:00)
First, I'd like to say that I really, really like these organizations that you mentioned, the Humane League and MFA (Mercy For Animals), and there are so many others doing amazing work. Some are present in the countries that we are, but I think what makes Sinergia unique is our mission to work solely in the Global South. So we are born here in the Global South and we hire people from the Global South because we know there is a pressing issue.
As I told you, the consumption grows, the problem gets bigger and it's inevitable that as the population grows, and the income rises that this is going to be a big problem. In some discussions sometimes, some people mention that it's urgent for countries like developed countries in the global north to do something and that maybe there's no part for developing countries or developing countries to participate in that and I disagree. There's a lot that we can do and our people can be more aware of the realities of factory farming to participate in that decision and participate in that change because of the lower, still the lower standards that we have for animals in the Global South, many big companies from other countries come to explore those places that have extra space to work and to do things in a cheaper way, in a less expensive way. And that results in horrible practices for animals. And it leads to fighting the early fight that I think has been fought in other countries before. So I think why here? Because we are very effective. We get good results. And you can see that in our evaluation by ACE. And I think the fact that we have been evaluated all these years and it's our seventh recommendation in a row. It speaks a lot on our efficiency, but also because we are very bold and we are here fighting since there are very few organizations fighting. We are very aware of overlapping, so we do not do the work where it's been done greatly by other organizations. And we try to do the work as well as we can.
JD (1:14:21)
Transitioning into work as a fundraiser. So I want to start with the fun question, which is really, what's the best part about being a fundraiser for a nonprofit?
Caroline Oliveira (1:14:29)
Hey, that's a good one. Just to give you some context, as I told you, I didn't come from fundraising. This was an opportunity that came out of the need of the organization. I was there at the moment and then the position came to me. It's been amazing. I think the best part of working in fundraising is the need that you have to be connected with everything that happens in the organization so you get to know everybody and to talk to them.
And you get to like a very deep understanding of what the organization does. And each of our achievements, we get to celebrate with each team that we have. And being in a fully remote team, I think spreading 11, 12 countries now, this is a good opportunity. I can build my work around connecting and understanding what happens in the organization. And I think that's also a crucial part of the work, like moving your business as well.
JD (1:15:30)
What are some of the hardest parts or most challenging parts about being a nonprofit fundraiser?
Caroline Oliveira (1:15:35)
Um, okay, this is me. Uh, I think I get nervous every time I have to talk to a donor or to a potential donor. And this is because, um, there's always that sense of it's like a first date. I have this friend called, uh, Marcella. She's a fundraiser too. She does amazing work in Brazilian Vegetarian Society. And, uh, she says that it's like a first date every time because you have to share good things and to make yourself interesting, but at the same time, you can't show too much or seem too needy, you know? So that's challenging and also exciting in a way, but I think the challenge is always to be prepared and to be, to stay calm in this conversation.
JD (1:16:22)
Yeah, because some of these conversations are worth like tens of thousands of dollars, if you think, right? Now, of course, you don't view relationships in strictly monetary terms. But when I worked in sales, I used to have conversations with clients where I knew that sale would be make or break for a $5,000, $10,000 commission for the biggest leads. And for the biggest fundraisers or the largest potential gifts, right? They could be many times as large as that.
I can imagine that's really nerve-racking. You personally work mostly with a certain average gift size?
How do fundraisers work with different donors across the team of fundraisers at an organization? Do they kind of divide and conquer? Some people tackle the foundations, other people tackle the small gifts. Walk me through that.
Caroline Oliveira (1:17:13)
Okay, most of our funding, and that's pretty much the reality that I heard from many other animal protection organizations working with farmed animals, most of our funding comes from big foundations, and most of them in the global north. So we have been fortunate enough to encounter very good institutions that are willing to make change through our work and believe in us from the very beginning.
And that has made our work possible and as big as it is nowadays. We are a pretty young organization, but we have reached a lot of good results for animals. So that's most of our funding. I'm responsible for that along with Catalina, our executive director. The participation of the executive director in the fundraising efforts, especially with big foundations and big donors is very important. So it's not something that that they can be disconnected to. So the very crucial conversations about the work and the fact that the organization is following ahead is something that always interests those donors. So this is something that I share with Catalina. And we have the work to do among individual supporters. There are not big institutions or big foundations, just people that want to donate.
We have a lot of people who took the pledge to donate 10 % that come to us. A lot of people are enthusiasts of our work that comes from the effective altruism community. And with those, we have a different approach. We like to keep them informed. We keep them knowing how important their contribution to our work is. So we share at least once among newsletters about our work, biggest achievements, the things that we are doing, the things that we are working on and planning on doing. And that's, I think that part is even more exciting because they're talking to people and it's very interesting to connect with them on a more personal level. So we do that through newsletters, as I mentioned, but we have some regular meetings at least once every quarter. In those days, they get the opportunity to talk to our directors or our program leads and ask questions about the programs.
So that part's very exciting and interesting, is getting more people to know about the work. Because many people are not aware of what we do or why this is important, how this impacts animals. So it's very good to bring people in. It's some sort of movement building, too. And it's...
JD (1:19:49)
Right.
Caroline Oliveira (1:19:50)
Most of our individual donors also are in the Global North and we have this extra challenge of reaching out to people in our countries too, where the culture of donations is not that spread yet.
JD (1:19:55)
Yeah. So.
Yeah, I had some questions about that. What effects do you see that has on Sinergia Animal, both positive and negative?
Caroline Oliveira (1:20:06)
Yeah, I think because we have this clear mission of working in the Global South and we have been proving ourselves year through year with our results and our transparency, we rose to a position of trust with our donors. So most of the initiatives that we present or the challenges that we present, they are received with a lot of respect.
And I think we are somehow recognized as being specialists in doing the work the way we do. So even though most of our funding comes from the Global North, and I know there are organizations there, a way of working in a different context, we get a lot of respect and space to do things the way works better in our countries. I can say that that's a reality for all the other organizations fundraising in the Global North and working in the Global South.
But I can say that we have been very fortunate in that.
JD (1:21:02)
Yeah, what do you wish funders did differently? Do you wish they gave in more specific, maybe larger chunks as opposed to smaller chunks or more sustained over time? Do you wish they gave more unrestricted funds? Or just in general, as a fundraiser, what do you wish funders did differently?
Caroline Oliveira (1:21:19)
Yeah, it's interesting that you asked this because I've noticed this has been a question with some events that I attended and others are always looking for ways to do that work more effectively, get to know some of them do provide funds that are unrestricted. Those are good because the organization also needs to pay for the support roles, resources, training, and some other crucial resources that sometimes are not covered by a restricted rent. Some of them, as some of the funders, as they have a good relationship, we can include those. So all the donations are very welcome. If they are restricted, we are going to do a good thing with them. If they come unrestricted, they
JD (1:22:04)
If you weren't penalized for sharing what you wish your funders did differently, is there anything that just kind of aggravates fundraisers like yourself? Or you just wish they did this one or two things differently. It would just make the whole process run better, but you just can't share it? There's no non-awkward way to say it.
I welcome you to be even more direct in sharing anything that aggravates you or is slightly suboptimal or majorly suboptimal in the way that most funders do things.
Caroline Oliveira (1:22:27)
Okay, we have seen a shift of funding, not a shift still, but there's a movement of funding that goes a lot into insects and shrimp now and fish too. And those are very, very irrelevant causes to cover. And sometimes as a fundraiser funding for land animals like chickens and pigs, I worry a little about the future of fundraising for animals like pigs, for example. Pigs, they are smart creatures, they build connections, they are loving, are very much like a dog. People may be not aware of that. And they go through
JD (1:23:12)
Right, right.
Caroline Oliveira (1:23:16)
incredible amounts of suffering in the industry. But still, if you think of the number of animals infected, chickens, like laying hens, they outnumber them. And if you think of fish or shrimp or other animals like insects, they are going to outnumber those too. So if you think of the number of individuals, pigs are maybe not there anymore. And we wish there was a way to make it more clear, like, of a ratio of how much pain you endure through the process of being farmed versus the number of animals infected. Because I think if we have like a vision that could make that very clear, the pigs would be the highest, higher on the list. So that's a concern that I have sometimes when I see these new and amazing organizations coming to do work to impact them.
JD (1:24:01)
Right.
Caroline Oliveira (1:24:14)
largest number of individuals and that's so important. But
JD (1:24:17)
You have this kind of general, maybe confusion, where we're wondering if I can help one person or can help 1,000 pigs or I can help a million plus fish. It sounds like that uncertainty kind of ripples through the organizations too.
Caroline Oliveira (1:24:32)
Yeah, that's a thing.
When you go through, and that brought me back to the Christian thought around the mercy that we have for animals that we discussed in the first part. If we go back to doing the most good as a concept, how can you measure the amount of good that you do for an animal in deep suffering compared to another one in another kind of suffering? We now have the numbers and we have like science behind measuring the amount of suffering that chickens and pigs and cows go through the process, and there's a lot of scientific information around that. I can share that with you too, all the numbers that we provide to our donors and supporters are through scientific calculations. That's something that we value a lot. But if you think of doing the most good, sometimes I have to look into the individual aspect as well, not just the number.
I believe that there is doing the most good in avoiding the most suffering, and not just reaching out to the largest number of individuals possible.
But on a more personal level, that's something that I consider a loss, how much suffering I want to help avoid and not just how many animals I can impact. Taking that into consideration is already an important step.
JD (1:26:01)
Right.
But I imagine that message is tricky to land, right? Because some of the people you want to raise money from are going to give to help cats and dogs, right? And part of the reason they should give to something like Sinergia Animal is because you help so many animals, right? You help so many millions of chickens or pigs. And so the shrimp welfare comes along, and they want to say, well, we can help even millions, millions more, right? And at some point, it'll be self-defeating, but what I hear you saying is the suffering matters most. It's like how much these beings suffer and doing the most good by alleviating the most suffering, whether we're helping a pig or a chicken or something else as a nonprofit fundraiser, what are some of the most creative ways you've gotten people to give money?
Caroline Oliveira (1:26:46)
Creative. More on the individual level, I think we have more room to be creative. The foundations in general have such a structured way to be reached out by organizations that in those who don't have much space to do different stuff. But when we talk about individuals and people who really want to support our work on the individual level, we are always coming up with new things.
But going back to your question, I think one of the most fun problems that we have in Sinergia is an internal initiative. It's called Sinergia Day. And that was an initiative that we brought in the development department. And it's been on for almost two years now. Every semester, yeah.
JD (1:27:31)
Is it like a fundraising day? One day a year you go hard on, yeah.
Caroline Oliveira (1:27:36)
It's a grassroots fundraising and celebration day. We gather all the teams nationally and everybody engages in some sort of fundraising activities. So this year, it was the first time that we invited our teams to go to the streets and to do in-person fundraising because in other years we did some telephone fundraising. We shared messages of appreciation to our donors in video or emails and that was pretty much it. This was the first time that we had people on the streets doing stuff and people came up with very creative stuff. So we had people talking on like on parks and setting booths places to sell merch and they have very cool and cute t-shirts and other other merch in Synergia too. So bringing the world and leafletting and talking to people that was so energizing for most of our teams.
Everybody went out and you have these beautiful pictures of our teams in Indonesia, in Colombia, in Thailand. And that's a day for everybody to remember the efforts that we are putting for the animals, what we are doing together and why what we do as an organization is important and sharing that from a very true place in their hearts with the people who are willing to support us or just willing to listen to us.
So I think that's pretty creative and that also opens the Development department, it's under my responsibility, to learn about the specificities of fundraising in each country. So learning about what works better or not, or doesn't work at all in each country, what the rate is.
JD (1:29:17)
How many countries do you fundraise from?
Caroline Oliveira (1:29:19)
Among our countries, the only one that we can't fundraise at the moment is Indonesia because of some legislative issues. But we fundraise in all of our countries, a smaller scale compared to the supporters that we have in the Global North. The quarterly talks that we have, those are also pretty new and we've got good responses from them. So what we do is to invite all of our donors, and for that we don't have like a minimal amount. If you contribute, you are invited to come and talk about one of our programs. We had a very special one about investigations held with Carolina. Yeah, yeah, over Zoom. We invite all of our supporters to come. They just have a very quick subscription and they can come and ask questions directly to our
JD (1:29:56)
This is like over Zoom, you do this once every three months or so.
Caroline Oliveira (1:30:11)
program leads and in this one specifically about investigations, it was Carolina, our Executive Director. She started the work, working for animals in investigations. So she has this very deep background and very interesting stories. Yeah, and that was an occasion for people to just come and ask questions about the work and how we are progressing and what we aim for the future and how we are tackling our challenges.
And it's very good. We have interesting conversations in those cultures.
JD (1:30:39)
Yeah. So this might be a bit of a faux pas, but do fundraisers talk amongst each other about how much they fundraise? Is that kind of like a mark of effectiveness as a fundraiser? I imagine so. But is that something you're able to share about? So one way to think about this is if you're just starting off as a fundraiser, should you be expecting to hit certain benchmarks, like 50,000, 100,000 in new gifts, 200,000?
And I imagine if you're not hitting those targets, it's maybe not the best fit for you, or maybe it's more complicated than that. There's other factors too, like how healthy is the organization, is the organization the kind of organization that is worth giving money to, let alone the fundraiser. Do fundraisers talk about exactly how much they fundraise, and is that a mark of success, or even a distraction for you?
Caroline Oliveira (1:31:29)
about how much we don't. And this is something that I think could still be improved, is the communication among fundraisers in the organizations that do similar work. We are always open to talk and to discuss.
Some are very willing to share a lot of information.
JD (1:31:51)
But if you were applying for your next, no, you're not going anywhere, but let's say five years from now Sinergia Animal solves all of the world's animal problems, you're applying for your next fundraiser job, you'll probably share how much money you raise and what kinds of gifts you were able to secure and relationships you were able to build for Sinergia Animal, right?
Caroline Oliveira (1:32:12)
That makes sense. I never thought of having a resume for another position. Not yet. But it's good to think of us solving all the problems that are there for animals. yeah, I think to measure success, to be a little more pragmatic on how we measure success. So of course, the gross amount of what we fundraise is a good indicator of how the work's going and that's going to be when it comes to an organization as organized as Sinergia Animal and others that are there in the movement that will be held in a very transparent way. So you can go through our website, for example, go to our transparency page and you can see the list of all the amounts that we fundraised and who it came from. So that's going to be held in the most effective and the most transparent way. So that's a good thing. But I think having enough resources to reach the goals for our programs, I think is a more precise KPI for us to keep. For example, every time we are reaching a new donor that we have never talked to before, a new potential foundation that's probably possibly going to donate to Sinergia's work, we want to see what connects. So what do we do that connects to the priorities of that foundation? Are there similarities? Do you think they are good?
But then we decide on that. Once we build a proposal, we think of the work. So it's not just about getting the money, but having the amount that we need to support the work. Most of them actually ask for a budget breakdown to know exactly how much we need for each part of the work. And we have to explain that. But I think that's how we know that the money and how we make transparent that the money is going to be put to a good use.
So yeah, reaching out to new donors and bringing the resources that are needed for the goals that we have for the programs is another layer of a good way to measure success. And when you talk about individuals, as I told you, it's a movement building work. So it's about bringing more awareness about the organization. So in those initiatives, we prioritize how many people we can reach for. So...
How many people are getting our newsletters? How many people are opening our newsletters? How many people are engaging in coming to the meetings that we have where they can ask questions to the problem that's...
JD (1:34:48)
So it's not just how much money was raised this year, but it's also how many people did we reach? How many people were engaged? How many people were coming to events? How good were the conversations and how was the energy in the room and were people excited and keen to do more?
Caroline Oliveira (1:35:02)
Yeah, how many people are keen to talk to us? So those are all a little more like a qualitative indicator somehow. You can always put those in numbers, how many people, but we always think of the reach of that. And that's another cool thing about Sinergia. We are an organization that learns a lot. And we want to learn from the countries where we work. So getting people's responses, negative to all the initiatives is something that
JD (1:35:10)
Right.
Caroline Oliveira (1:35:32)
helps us grow. So learning through that and learning through people's responses to our initiatives is something that's already very rewarding even if it doesn't come through such numbers of donations.
JD (1:35:45)
That's good. How does somebody know they'd be a good fit as a fundraiser? So imagine I'm 22, just graduated university, maybe I want to be a fundraiser. How do I know I'll be a good fundraiser? What qualities should I look for in myself?
Caroline Oliveira (1:35:58)
Yeah, being resource-oriented is good. If you like numbers and you like reaching for specific goals, that's a good indicator that you have something necessary to be a fundraiser. You have to be resilient because fundraising is not always easy and you have to get some goals and you can take them personally.
Sometimes a negative response from a donor or from an individual from a foundation is not about you, not a comment on your work or the quality of results that your organization is bringing, but it's more a matter of priority for that donor at the moment of their own financial situation. Many, many, many reasons can come to a no, and you can think of them as being personal. So you have to be prepared and grow up a thick skin to deal with that. If you're talkative and you learn fast, that's a good thing too. If you really like to talk to people and you're excited about the work that you do and about sharing what is important to you, that's a good indicator too, because you need it. It's a very...
JD (1:37:10)
Do you think it helps to be extroverted or just enthusiastic? Enthusiasm is good.
Caroline Oliveira (1:37:15)
We like to kid around a little, Carol and I, our Executive Director, because she's more of an introvert and I’m more of an extrovert. And we have like this dual dynamic that works very well. She's been doing this work way before I joined the organization and she does amazingly. And I don't think it's necessary for you to be an extrovert. But you have to know how to handle conversations with people. You don't have to speak to a big crowd every time, but the conversations, one-on-one conversations, or with small groups, they also can bring very good results.
JD (1:37:54)
Yeah, and just about two more questions. So one, daily life as a fundraiser. What's that like as a nonprofit fundraiser? Is it writing people all day, writing potential donors, or talking to people, or going to fundraising events, or planning them? Walk me through the daily life of a nonprofit fundraiser.
Caroline Oliveira (1:38:14)
Can I share about my routine? I don't know if that's the reality for all fundraisers. I know there will be some similarities and some things are done differently. It's an idea. As the development director, I'm responsible for donations in general. So fundraising among the institutions being funders, but also as small individuals that donate to our organization.
JD (1:38:17)
Yeah, that's great.
Caroline Oliveira (1:38:40)
But we are also responsible in the Development Department for all the movement building work. So growing our communities of volunteers and supporters in all the countries where we work. So I oversee that part of the work too. And we have a fellowship work where we bring organizations that are starting similar work as ours in the countries that we operate. And we share resources, we share our learnings and findings through the years so they can thrive without having to go through the difficulties that we had. And that's also under the responsibility of the Development Department. We keep a close look into the calendar that we have for reports and applications. So there are those donors whom we have already built a relationship. They have been supporting our work for a while. So each of them might require different responses from us through the time that they are funding us. So they might want a quarterly conversation to get to know how their funding is going, or they might require a written report once a year, once every semester, once every two years, it depends on the foundation. So we have to be prepared for that. We will prepare at least bi-yearly reports on our overall purviews.
So in the middle of the year, we update our results and share that with donors so that that information goes to our individual donors and to the foundations. And now we are working on the end of the year reports too. It is a longer one with all the results that we got through the year in all departments. So we work on reports a lot too.
The communication, especially in newsletters,our supporters, if they agree with that, they get weekly updates on the most exciting things that we've done in that process in all countries. So that's also something that we keep updated. And I think that that's the part that keeps us the most busy, like organizing and keeping constant communication with our supporters.
JD (1:40:53)
So if you have five days a week as a fundraiser, maybe you spend, help me out here, maybe you one day a week writing newsletters, one day a week on internal communications and strategy and admin, maybe one day a week talking to donors or answering emails, and then maybe like two days a week for everything else, like maybe going to conferences, maybe.
Yeah, I'm not quite sure what else that would be, but is that more or less the right breakup? Or how would you adjust that time breakup?
Caroline Oliveira (1:41:29)
It's a little more fluid than that. I told you, a very important part of the work of a fundraiser is to stay informed about the developments of the organization, how things are going. So I have meetings, regular meetings with the managing directors in the countries to get to know the work and how that's going, especially focused on our movement building work. But that's how I get to know a little more about the achievements and the organizations that the overall work that the organization is doing. So you have to have that regularly, have conversations with people when checking so that people in our team, I have someone responsible for some more of the technical part and the written parts of the, how can I put this better? I have someone responsible for the work of individual donors. That's the person that's responsible for our digital marketing strategies and working with Facebook. That person is very busy with writing the newsletters, but also keeping communication with our donors. Sometimes they reach out with questions and other information that they want. Some of them want to know what's the most effective way to donate, how they can get tax deduction, or how they can reach out to us in some way. We are there to inform them. But this is all helped by someone in the team.
So that's one activity that we have. Yeah, keeping things organized. So keeping track of any amounts that come. We use tools like Stripe, we use DonorBox to keep track of the donations that are coming. So sending personal thank you notes to some donors. Reaching out to donors that have questions about the work, especially when you get a bigger donation from someone that we didn't have a connection with before.
We reach out to them and we offer for them to talk to me or sometimes to talk to Carolina to get to know more about their organization. We keep track of people who cancel donations or to move their donations into one-time donations instead of being monthly donors. So we always try to reach out to these people to understand what might have happened and if we can talk to the person to clarify anything. So that's also something that's important.
This is something that maybe you remember from your sales time and it's something that comes from my corporate time too. Like keeping a client that you already have is cheaper and easier than acquiring a new one. So we value a lot having a good relationship with our donors, the big foundations and the individual donors.
JD (1:44:00)
Yes, then finding new ones. Yes.
And that's primarily your job, is to stay in touch with those past owners.
Caroline Oliveira (1:44:12)
Yeah, so I have the support of someone in my team that is really, I think you met her.
JD (1:44:17)
So how do you, yeah, I mean, and these donors are all over the world, so is it like you just, you keep them updated with these newsletters, you keep them informed, you offer to have a call with them once or twice a year, and that's enough? It seems like there's a formula, there's some magic to it, but it's also, you also don't wanna be too overly calculated, but I imagine even that goes a long way, just receiving a personal message even just once a year.
Right. Instead of just some like anonymized mass marketed thank you message, like a personal note from someone at the organization would mean a lot.
Caroline Oliveira (1:44:55)
It does. I personally sign most of our fundraising emails when we call to action to donate. We try to make them specific. So we share specific projects that we have and things that we want or in the monthly campaign that we have the monthly newsletter for fundraising. We share the biggest resources and say like, this is how much we have achieved through your support. So if you can donate again, or this is the first time you can donate to this specific project that we are running. We are very excited about this work because ever since we started doing this more diligently and with more structure, we got our numbers to raise 160%. The number of individual donations coming. Yeah. I said that the first time that we are measuring this and we have specific KPIs to keep track of that.
I think this is also a response from our donors that they appreciate being in the loop about things that are happening. And we always think of ways for people to know how important they are. Being our activists, like coming to our communities to work with us and to do activism, being our supporters, our financial supporters, our donors, we couldn't do the things that we do without the support of people. And we want to raise that very much more.
So knowing that we can reach people and let them know how important they are to their organization, something that's at the top of our priorities. It seems to be working very well.
JD (1:46:32)
Yeah, nice, nice. So final question, and this has two parts, sorry. So first is, how does somebody get into fundraising? You were working in the private sector before you were recruited or applied and got this role, but if someone wants to be a nonprofit fundraiser, how do they get started?
Caroline Oliveira (1:46:48)
Well, theory is a great way to start if you don't have any positions in mind, volunteering to do some work in fundraising or to participate in any activities of the organization that you admire or any organization that you like. It's something good for you to get to know the movement better if you're not in the movement yet. So getting to know the priorities and the way things work and getting to know about the programs is a good start.
But also keep track of all the positions that are open. So if you are already in the movement, the Past List is a good source of information that are others, as is Hive. Hive is another one. They have this very good connection program called Slack and people can connect to know about those. So knowing about the positions and applying for them.
And this is something that we reinforce a lot in our positions. We prioritize hiring from our country. Most of our team is in our country. But knowing about the positions and applying for them, even if you're not completely according to the requirements for that position. So have the courage to go there and try to have a talk to someone. In many times, I have been maybe a little on the fence about someone who applied for a position, but in the conversation, it was like, OK.
This is a perfect person for this. And many organizations are willing to take people who maybe don't have the precise background or it's not like a fundraiser, very experienced fundraiser. I wasn't, I had like other skills and yeah, our people in the Operations department and the Active Director saw the potential talent that I had and that had been developed. So many organizations are willing to share resources and to prepare you.
JD (1:48:36)
Right, so you don't need a fundraising background to start in fundraising. Just general, the general skills you had in business, in organization, in being able to talk to people, being enthusiastic, being trusted by the director, that got you to a top fundraising position.
Caroline Oliveira (1:48:52)
Yeah!
Yeah, there are many, to what I know, there are many like very experienced fundraisers around in the market. In many organizations I've called many other fundraisers I've talked to they had like the first or the second experience in fundraising and they are doing amazing work. So we have to be willing to learn. If you are fast learner, that helps.
But if you think that you have the skills, the soft skills that will make you a good fundraiser, you shouldn't be discouraged to participate just because that will be your first experience doing that. If you find the right fit, the right organization that's willing to develop you, you might thrive in that position.
JD (1:49:38)
Great. And just final question, if someone's a nonprofit fundraiser, what can they do mid or late career? Do they just do more fundraising at a higher level, raise more money, or for bigger and better organizations? Or do they get promoted to other positions in the organization, maybe some other kind of executive position or partner's director? Yeah, what's sort of the end game for a lot of fundraisers? Or do they continue doing more of the same?
Caroline Oliveira (1:50:08)
I think all the options that you shared are valuable and that will depend on the organization where you are and your personal goals. So I think being in the development position, being a fundraiser, you have some advantage because you get to know so much about the movement and you get to learn and to talk to so many people that are willing to support your work or really to listen to you and you learn a lot through that.
So the connections you make are to make you a more interesting professional. And learning more about the work you do, learning more about the organization where you work, will show that you are prepared to take on other challenges and you'll be someone that, I think that makes you a good fit for higher positions in your organization too. Because you get to be an expert on the kind of work you do and knowing that the organization can be very strategic for you to apply for other positions that suits you.
JD (1:51:08)
Carolina, thanks so much for coming on. Any other final words you'd like to share, whether about Sinergia Animal, or about fundraising careers?
Caroline Oliveira (1:51:18)
Thank you for having me. This has been amazing. I think talking a little more about how much the compassion that we share for animals can connect with our first compassion that we try to raise in us was a very, very unique and very special opportunity for me personally.
But yeah, I'd like to address those who are listening to us and thank you too for caring about animals and caring enough to hear so far about our organization. If you are willing to learn a little more about Sinergia Animal or much more, if you want to discuss and to talk, we are always open to talk about the work and the kind of programs that we are holding. And yeah, please reach out and check our social media, our website to learn more. Stay tuned, we are about to release our end of the year report. And that's going to bring our results together and you learn a little more of the effect that we have in 2024.
JD (1:52:20)
All right, and listeners, if you enjoyed this, you can read more about Sinergia Animal in the links we're putting in the podcast description. You can also check out our Fundraising report on the Christians for Impact website with some guides for how to pursue a high impact career as a fundraiser, and we'll have some of the tips that Caroline mentioned there. Caroline, thanks so much for, sorry, Carolina, thanks so much for being with us and I hope you'll join us again in some future event or episode.
Caroline Oliveira (1:52:53)
Thank you. Thank you, JD. It was a pleasure.
