Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as a plate full of your favorite comfort food! As we reflect on the blessings in our lives, I hope your day was filled with moments of gratitude and warmth.

Did you ever read Choose Your Own Adventure books? I loved – and also hated – Choose Your Own Adventure books. The concept was simple – you as the reader are the protagonist, and you get to choose your own adventure (clever name, huh?).

I was so frustrated. Confused. Sad.

I was a few years into building the team, and we were growing like crazy. And “like crazy” is not an overstatement – the prior year, we had grown 277% (!). The following year, we grew another 267% (!!). Cumulatively, we had grown revenue 14X in just three years. 🤯

It was an exciting time. It was also about to be a frustrating time.

Black Friday.

Small Business Saturday.

Cyber Monday.

Giving Tuesday.

That’s a lot of made-up holidays.

For this week’s Wave Report, I thought I would resurrect and update a previous edition that I wrote last December, titled “A Case of the (Cyber) Mondays?”

The Subscription Economy has changed consumer attitudes towards monthly recurring goods and services, which has led to the transformation of donor behavior. Donors are more likely to give to nonprofits on a monthly basis than ever. Study after study (after study) shows that monthly giving is the fastest-growing type of giving today.

Subscription Philanthropy is here to stay, and the more nonprofits understand and embrace the new paradigm of monthly subscription giving, the better they can take advantage of this new wave of generosity.

I’ve been thinking about obsolescence lately. Becoming obsolete. Outdated. Outmoded. But more than anything, I’ve been thinking about how there is opportunity on the other side of obsolescence. Let me explain.

Last week, we began exploring how the Subscription Economy has reshaped consumer expectations, leading to increased comfort with and preference among donors for monthly recurring giving to charities.

We started with the first three of six key shifts that we can learn from the rise of the Subscription Economy, illustrated through my journey from Cassettes, CDs, and MP3s to Music-as-a-Service – specifically the service Pandora Radio and, later, Spotify. If you missed it or want a refresher, you can read part one here.

I’ve previously established that the rise of the Subscription Economy has been a key factor in reshaping consumer expectations, which has led to increased comfort with and preference among donors for monthly recurring giving to charities.

Donors are increasingly “subscribing” to giving monthly to causes they care about. This has led to the rise of a phenomenon that I call Subscription Philanthropy.

Today, let’s examine several key shifts that we can learn from the rise of the Subscription Economy and apply to the world of Subscription Philanthropy.

I’ve been speaking, studying, and using AI in marketing and fundraising for more than five years now.

I still remember the first time I gave a talk at a conference about how AI was transforming marketing and fundraising. The room was full. Talking to leaders, it was clear that AI evoked both a sense of curiosity, but also of fear. What does it mean that AI is transforming marketing?

At the time, AI was still synonymous with HAL 9000 or the Terminator or Mr. Smith, depending on your generation.

I used to think that I hated conflict.

When I first took the StrengthsFinder test in college, I remember being disappointed to find out that my number one “strength,” according to Gallup, was harmony.

Harmony - People exceptionally talented in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don’t enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement.

Wow, thanks StrengthsFinder. So my number one strength, my greatest asset, is avoiding conflict??

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately.

Recently I spent a day in Walt Disney World at EPCOT with a group of friends. It was a memorable day of connection, inspiration, and fun, and I got to wondering – how much of what I love about days like these is the result of the place itself – the rides, shows, food, etc. – and how much are the past memories I’ve made in that place?

This past couple of months, several annual fundraising benchmark studies have been released for nonprofit fundraising through 2022, and the picture is gloomy.

Online revenue is down, according to M+R

The long-running M+R Online Benchmarks 2023 study reported that overall online fundraising was down in 2022 by 4% - the first reported decline in online fundraising revenue in the entire history of the report, which has been running for more than a decade.

I was privileged to give a talk in Orlando this week called “How the Subscription Economy is Transforming Ministry Models.” In it, I unpacked how various nonprofits are adopting subscription models and shared ways for attendees to implement them in their organizations.

Today let’s continue our series on common, avoidable mistakes leaders make when leading innovation. Over the past couple of months, we’ve touched on several common mistakes or myths leaders buy into that hinder innovation.

So far, we’ve covered the following:

MYTH: Innovation is about ideas.

TRUTH: Innovation is about ideas, activation, and execution.

Today, we’ll continue our series on common, avoidable mistakes leaders make when leading innovation.

A couple of weeks ago, we unpacked the first of four mistakes – myths, really – around innovation.

That first mistake is to believe that innovation is all about ideas. The truth is that while ideation is essential to innovation, innovation requires activation and execution. I shared about a tool that I use to help clients identify and address issues that keep them from moving innovation forward, called the Six Types of Working Genius.

If you missed that article or want to review it, you can catch up on it here: Where Innovation Goes Wrong 🤦‍♂️.

This week, let’s talk about the next misconception that steers leaders wrong – assuming that innovation is new, and then I’d like to share three insights you can apply to your leadership today.

Last week, we talked about the ancient roots of innovation, covering three lessons we can learn from Martin Luther and the 16th century to apply to innovation today:

1. Innovation starts with purpose

2. Leverage your context.

3. Innovation requires collaboration.

I just wrapped up giving a talk at the Christian Leadership Alliance’s Outcomes 2023 conference in Chicago called “Where Innovation Goes Wrong.” Today, I thought I would briefly recap the first of four lessons I shared where innovation can go wrong.

I want to rewind the clock about 500 years and share three lessons we can learn from ancient history to apply to our leadership.

You see, I used to believe that innovation was about brand-new ideas. Original thinking. New concepts. Blue ocean strategies.

Then I spent a decade and a half leading innovation in one form or another. Starting new things. Building teams. After thousands of hours of leading and learning, I realized that many of my early assumptions about the nature of innovation were wrong.

One assumption I had made was that innovation was only about things that had never been done before. If it had been done, or if it was built on the work of someone else, was it really innovative?

I now believe that innovation is ancient.

Have you ever noticed that the more you know about any one thing, the less you realize you actually know?

This is a studied phenomenon, and it has a name - The Dunning-Kruger Effect:

Disney had a problem.

It was the year 2000, and Disney’s marquee hotel, the Disneyland Hotel, was separated from the theme park by more than half a mile of asphalt. Guests coming to California to visit the Happiest Place on Earth, staying at one of the most expensive properties in the area, would be wrenched out of the magic… Imagine walking from your classy hotel to the park across this asphalt parking lot on a sweltering summer day… not so magical!

I love conferences.

To be honest, the strong introvert in me is exhausted by them, but the community and connection outweigh the exhaustion. Meeting people who are passionate, who have different experiences than mine, and learning from each other.

I just returned from the Faith & Fundraising Conference in Myrtle Beach, where I gave a talk called “Subscription Philanthropy: Breakthroughs in Sustainable Giving” (I’ll cover this in a future edition).

But I’ve noticed something at conferences that has changed since 2020.