EP 69: Mid-Level Matters: Turning Overlooked Donors Into Loyal Supporters with Kel Haney

In this episode of The Responsive Lab, co-hosts Carly Berna and Scott Holthaus sit down with fundraising strategist Kel Haney, who has made more than twenty thousand asks by phone and helped nonprofits generate over twenty million dollars in mid-level giving.

Kel shares how she went from directing theater in New York to discovering the power of a well-structured donor conversation, and why a simple five-minute call can be one of the most effective tools a fundraiser has.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

How Kel’s theater background shaped her approach to authentic donor conversations

Why mid-level donors sit in the “messy middle” and need their own strategy

The four tent poles of Kel’s five-minute fundraising ask

Why scripts fail, and conversational structure succeeds

How fundraisers can “hold for the silence” and build confidence over time

Ways tools like Virtuous and Virtuous Momentum support personal outreach at scale

How organizations can segment, prioritize, and even outsource outbound donor calls

Links from the episode:

Connect with Kel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kel-haney/

Learn more about Kel’s work and schedule a convo: https://www.kelhaney.com/

Learn more about Virtuous at virtuous.org/learnmore and download your free Nonprofit CRM Checklist at virtuous.org/crmchecklist