How a Public Media Organization Built a Mid-Level Program with The Veritus Way

There’s a moment in every fundraising shop when you can feel a shift. Conversations deepen. Meetings become easier to secure. Donors begin volunteering information that helps you serve them better. And revenue starts to climb in a way that no spreadsheet tweak or email cadence ever could.

That’s what happens when an organization fully commits to “The Veritus Way” and “Permission-Based Asking.”

At their core, these two concepts work hand in hand.
 
The Veritus Way gives fundraisers a structure to conquer: defined portfolios, a clear method to qualify donors who want deeper engagement (and disqualify those who don’t want personal contact), strategic plans for each tier group, revenue goals based on relationship, and consistent accountability. It creates focus and removes the guesswork from donor outreach.

Permission-Based Asking is the communication model that brings that structure to life. It’s rooted in curiosity, transparency, and respect. Instead of pushing donors toward predetermined outcomes, fundraisers ask for permission at every step, ensuring donors feel comfortable, understood, and in control.

When organizations embrace both, donors respond.

One Public Media system is a perfect example.

A Breakthrough Year

This organization’s Mid-Level team just closed out a remarkable year, finishing FY25 with 26% growth over FY24 from the same donors. And this wasn’t a one-time spike — it was the result of discipline, training, and a strategic shift that took root and grew over several years.

By early fall 2024, the newest members of the Mid-Level team completed the Veritus Introductory Series with their assigned donors. From there, they zeroed in on their Tier A and B donors, taking the time to revisit conversations and survey notes, dig deeper to understand each donor’s interests and craft Permission-Based Asking outlines for intentional, meaningful solicitation meetings.

The shift paid off. As the year progressed, the team secured more phone, Zoom, and in-person meetings, and those conversations naturally led to larger gifts and campaign commitments. They didn’t wait for year-end. They used the rolling Renewal process as a strategic opportunity — setting higher asks and working month by month to schedule meetings that aligned with donor readiness.

What Happened When Structure Met Strategy

The transformation didn’t happen overnight. This Public Media group started small, beginning in FY21 with a single national program and completing their first full year of the Veritus approach in FY22. They added additional team members in FY23. The early wins were clear enough that leadership made a pivotal choice to scale intentionally.

They hired four Mid-Level Officers all at once, later adding a regional MLO to support growing demand. Even as the team grew with one member stepping into a blended manager/fundraiser role, they continued working with Veritus to stay grounded in the structure, coaching, and accountability that had already proven successful.

What truly set them apart was how deeply they internalized the process. They didn’t treat the Veritus Way or Permission-Based Asking as a script. They treated them as a framework for how they wanted to operate long term. Leadership played an especially important role here, using the Veritus Donor Impact Portfolio process to support the work through approaching the program budget from a fundraising viewpoint and developing relevant cost equivalency messaging to make donor impact clear.

An additional major investment was building out a robust Salesforce dashboard. The team poured hours into getting it right. They wanted clarity on caseloads, donor tiers, ask amounts, goals, engagement types, the frequency of two-way contact, meeting requests, meaningful connections—all the things that so often disappear into the background of a typical CRM.

Structure met strategy, confidence followed, and the numbers show it:

• 674 donors have now exceeded the Mid-Level giving threshold, with gifts of $2,500 or more.
• 88 donors are giving $10,000 or more, a major lift from previous years.
• Across seven MLOs, the team conducted 1,885 donor meetings during the fiscal year — planned, thoughtful conversations designed to deepen relationships.
• Total revenue from the relationship managed donors grew from $4.59M in FY22 to $6.47M in FY25.
  

Stories Behind the Success

Within the team, several standout patterns emerged:

• One officer who manages a national donor group tied to specific programs and podcasts faced a tougher engagement environment because digital listeners don’t “tune in” as predictably as local radio audiences. Still, they secured several high-level gifts and regularly transitioned donors upward to a Major Gift Officer. Because those donors leave their portfolio, their year-end totals don’t fully reflect their impact, but their long-term contribution to the pipeline and the lifetime value of those donors is significant.
• Another officer, who began in March 2025, stepped into a new regional portfolio with some qualified donors already identified. They focused on getting out into the community, making trips for events and personal meetings, and began building trust with donors right away.
• A third officer worked a hybrid Mid/Major caseload and generated noticeably higher revenue per donor — an average of $2,698, compared to the teamwide average of $1,626. Their portfolio includes 152 donors giving at $2,500+, with 50 giving above $10,000, which reflects how effectively they’re using Permission-Based Asking with Tier A donors.

Why This Matters for Your Organization

What this Public Media organization has demonstrated is simple: When fundraisers are trained, supported, and given a structure that honors donors, extraordinary things happen.

Donors grow. Revenue grows. Confidence grows. And the organization’s mission becomes more sustainable.

The Veritus Way isn’t a quick fix. It’s a discipline. Permission-Based Asking isn’t a script. It’s a mindset. But when a team embraces both—and leadership clears the way—a mid-level program becomes a powerful engine for generosity.

If your organization is wondering what’s possible, this team’s story is your answer.