Notes
From the notebook.
Writing on the decisions behind the platform — security, data ownership, brand, and the details most vendors skip over.
Platform churn and the ceiling nobody talks about
A firsthand account of moving through three platforms over a decade — including serving as a reference client, design consultant, and podcast guest for two of them — and what it eventually made clear.
What a Manna migration actually looks like
How we move donor records, giving history, and campaign data off the major platforms — and the CLI tooling we built to make it clean.
Your donation form is a brand decision
The moment of giving is the most emotionally loaded touchpoint your brand has. Most orgs treat it like a utility.
What your donor data is actually telling you
The difference between having donor records and having donor intelligence — and how one informs a strategy the other can't.
What a fundraising campaign can learn from a product launch
The mechanics of narrative, momentum, and community activation applied to nonprofit fundraising. Most campaigns skip all three.
Designing for two audiences at once
Every nonprofit touchpoint has to work for the donor giving and reflect the identity of the organization asking. Most platforms optimize for one at the expense of the other.
The problem with drag-and-drop
When you configure a campaign instead of building one, you are making a trade you might not realize you are making.
How we protect donor data at checkout
Card testing, bot submissions, and credential attacks hit nonprofit donation forms every day. Here's how Manna stops them at every layer.
Why every Manna client gets their own database
Most SaaS platforms use row-level filters on a shared database. Here's why Manna uses isolated databases instead — and why it matters more than most platforms will admit.
