The Nonprofit Science Podcast

Today we are joined by Nina M. Sooter. Nina is a neuroeconomics researcher at the University of Geneva. Her work focuses on moral and pro-social decision-making. During this conversation, we dive deep into her studies on how honesty is impacted by acute stress, whether virtual reality can be used as a fundraising tool, and how the B Corps label impacts consumer choices. She's a big fan of interdisciplinary research and what's great for us as practitioners is that Nina is particularly motivated to tackle questions that are relevant outside of academia. This makes her research and her advice very applicable to those of us who work in the nonprofit space.

This episode is the second part of our discussion on overhead aversion. In the last episode, we talked a bit about why overhead expenses evolved to become this standard against which nonprofits are compared to one another, and how it became a measure of nonprofit effectiveness. We also talked about how this thinking is majorly flawed and has led to poor outcomes for nonprofits. As it turns out, too little overhead and too much overhead is associated with poor outcomes for nonprofits, so we rounded out the episode by talking about an exercise or experiment you can do at your own organization to determine the ideal overhead expenditure for your specific nonprofit. In the last episode, we specified the problem. But still a question remains- how can we talk about overhead such that we don't turn away donors? That's the question we'll answer on today's episode.

Have you ever had a donor question why your nonprofit spends so much on salaries? Or have you ever had to report on fundraising and administrative costs, keeping them below that magical 20% mark? It's undeniable that nonprofits- much like any other business- need these overhead expenses in order to operate. These are not extraneous, but rather a core part of running a functioning business. And yet, the more nonprofits invest in the very infrastructure needed to operate, the less funding organizations receive. This has been a frustrating challenge for many of us in the sector, but what can we do about it? This is the problem we'll be tackling over the next two episodes.

When we hear that nonprofits should diversify their revenue streams, it sounds like common sense advice. For organizations that are heavily grant funded, growing a community of donors can help weather the ups and downs of grant funding. And, for organizations that rely solely on individual donor support trickling in throughout the year, getting grant support can be a catalyst for launching new programs or expanding current ones. We hear about the upside of revenue diversification so often that it can be easy to believe there is no downside to the strategy. But is it the right strategy for every organization? This is the problem we'll be tackling today: is revenue diversification a good strategy for your nonprofit?

If your organization serves communities who have experienced trauma, secondary traumatic stress disorder or as it's better known, compassion fatigue, could be a real issue. Compassion fatigue often shows up as high staff turnover. Anyone at your nonprofit who has direct contact working with people who have experienced trauma, is at risk of developing compassion fatigue. These symptoms may include feeling emotionally numb, increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, and even panic-like symptoms. So, if working with people who have experienced trauma is core to your mission, yet compassion fatigue is a byproduct of this work, what can you do? That's the problem we'll be tackling on this episode.

Have you ever experienced tension between your board of directors and yourself or your staff? I think it's safe to say that, especially for nonprofit leaders, navigating board relations is one of the tougher parts of the job. But, it's not just our relationships with board members that can create this tension. In our relationships with other volunteers who play mission critical roles, we can find that sometimes the boundary between staff and volunteer becomes a bit blurry. When that happens, tension may result. So, the challenge we'll be tackling today is: how can nonprofits navigate the blurry line between staff and volunteer?

Have you ever had the experience of starting a new initiative and desperately trying to find volunteers to help? Whether it was finding volunteers to help plan a fundraising event, volunteer mentors, or finding volunteers to sit on a board committee, sometimes it's like pulling teeth trying to find people who want to volunteer. If we're lucky, volunteers find us and fall into our organizations. More often than not, nonprofits need to proactively seek out volunteers to help us meet our needs. So, the problem we'll be addressing today is: how can nonprofits recruit volunteers?

It's undeniable that volunteers are a core part of nonprofit work. From serving on the board to helping us run programs, and fundraising events, even sealing and stamping our direct mail- we can depend on volunteers to do it all. Building an enthusiastic, reliable, committed community of volunteers is the dream but it's easier said than done. More often, volunteers enter our doors enthusiastic but fall off fairly quickly. Our reliance on volunteers raises a critical question and a problem that requires scientific thinking. So, the problem we'll be addressing today is, how can nonprofits retain volunteers?

While the majority of people working in the nonprofit sector identify as female, leadership tends to be male dominated. This huge disparity hurts people who identify as female, it's hurting every minority, it's hurting our nonprofits, and it's hurting the communities we serve. Research tells us women are more likely to exhibit transformational leadership, teams led by women collaborate better, and nonprofits led by women have higher operating margins. As Women's History Month comes to an end, the problem we'll be tackling today is: How can we get more women in nonprofit leadership positions?

If you're on the Nonprofit Science email list, you received a request for questions for an Ask Me Anything- style podcast episode. These could be questions could be about topics I've covered on previous podcast episodes or just questions about problems you're facing and want some research to help you work through them. So many great questions were submitted and on this episode, I'm going to answer five of them.

Today we are joined by Dr. Jamie Levine Daniel. Dr. Levine Daniel is an Associate Professor of Nonprofit Management and Public Service at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Her research focuses on nonprofit resource acquisition and service delivery within a context of power, policy, process, and practice. Not only is Dr. Levine Daniel involved in teaching and research but she is also the winner of several prestigious research awards. During our conversation, we talk about why it's important for nonprofits to think competitively, not just collaboratively. We delve into earned income, specifically how nonprofits can avoid the pitfalls of earned income. And, we get into organizational sense giving- what it is and why nonprofits need to think strategically about it.

Today we are going to dive into donor segmentation and discuss what the literature and latest research suggests are ways we can segment donors to effectively communicate with them and of course, raise more money. If you've been putting off targeted fundraising messages for your donors because segmenting your donors is such a big hurdle to climb, this episode is for you. And if you're currently segmenting your donors, but it isn't getting you the results you were hoping for, then this episode is for you as well. The problem we are going to tackle today is: How can nonprofits use donor segmentation to increase donations?

Today we are joined by Dr. Young Joo Park. Dr. Park is an assistant professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on financial management and how organizations can use sound financial management to achieve sustainability. During our conversation, we touch on many topics such as how to predict whether a nonprofit will dissolve or not, whether an earned income model makes sense for nonprofits, and we of course can't talk nonprofit finances without addressing research into the overhead myth.

Today we'll be discussing new research into a fundraising phenomenon that has captured headlines for the past several years (and I have a hunch we're going to be hearing about it a lot more in the coming year)- rage donations. What are rage donations and how can nonprofits mobilize this type of support? Find out on this episode.

Today, we're going to discuss research into why people resist change, even when it benefits them. Have you ever wondered why the very people who would most benefit from a change can be the most resistant to it? In the face of this resistance, how can nonprofits promote beneficial social change? Find out on this episode.

On this bonus episode, we are going to discuss research into how fundraisers can build authentic relationships with major donors. How do you go from meeting a donor to having a great relationship with them? Find out on this episode.

As you may know, I read a ton of peer-reviewed journal articles in preparation for my client work, in preparation for the podcast, and just for my own nonprofit science education. And, when I talk to my colleagues and clients, I often get asked to recommend some articles to read. Since it's the end of the year and you hopefully have time off for some leisurely reading, I thought it would be fun to share with you my top ten favorite articles that I read this year.

When I first started writing appeals, I was taught to follow three golden rules- make it personal, make it specific, and make it urgent. Each year, especially on December 31st, nonprofit emails are littered with phrases like- time is running out to make a difference, we need your help now more than ever, there's just a few hours left. With each of these messages, there tends to be a spike in donations. What is it about these urgent messages that spur action? Do urgent fundraising messages truly cause donors to give, or is it merely coincidental that donors happen to wait until the last minute to donate, which is also when we happen to send urgent emails? Find out what the latest research says.

Today we are joined by Dr. Crystal Fashant. She is an associate professor in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Metro State University and just a wealth of knowledge. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and draws upon that experience to investigate social justice and environmental sustainability issues as they relate to nonprofit work. In this conversation, we discuss why it's important for nonprofits to pay attention to environmental sustainability, how we can improve environmental performance. We get into what motivates volunteers, how stereotypes can impede mission advancement, and so much more.

For the tenth episode we are going to do things a little differently. One of the goals of the Nonprofit Science Institute and this podcast is to bring a scientific rigor to nonprofit work. With that in mind, today, we are going to tackle ten nonprofit myths that are holding organizations back. These are commonly held beliefs that have either been not proven or have been proven incorrect through peer-reviewed research.

When I first started fundraising years ago, the golden rule was to call donors to say thank you whenever gifts came in. At the end of each calendar year, I would spend hours on the phone, calling donors to either ask for a gift or thank them for a gift. But, times have changed. Does anyone pick up their phone anymore? So, should you continue to call donors? If not, who should you call and who should receive a thank you note? Moreover, does every donation require an acknowledgement? Find out what the latest research says.

The problem we are going to tackle today is one that I've personally struggled with as a fundraiser and one that I've seen my clients struggle with. With Giving Tuesday just around the corner, I thought this was a timely conversation. So the problem we'll be tackling today is, how can nonprofits retain online crowdfunding donors?

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Karl Besel. He is the Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Health and Science and a Professor of Public Health and Social Work at the University of Saint Joseph. In addition to teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses, he has written two books, authored over 20 peer reviewed journal articles, and was named a Distinguished William J. Clinton Lecturer. We do a deep dive into succession planning, discussing pitfalls, barriers, and opportunities for nonprofits to intentionally create a plan.

The problem we are going to tackle today is a big one. How can nonprofits prevent staff burnout? Burnout is a well defined syndrome characterized by exhaustion, disengagement, negativity, and reduced productivity. While burnout is not a medical condition, it can exacerbate medical conditions. Why is it that nonprofit professionals are particularly at risk for burnout and what can we do about it? Find out on this episode.

What happens when the values of the community you serve change, and they are no longer aligned with your nonprofit's values? As we know, donors have a choice to give to your nonprofit or not. And recent research indicates, unsurprisingly, that donors choose which organizations to support based on their values. But this doesn't stop at donors. Value congruence is also crucial for relationships with other stakeholders. If you find yourself in a situation of value incongruence with your community, what can you do? Find out on this episode.

We all use appeals to raise money- whether it's direct mail, email, or even social media posts. But, there are two ways to frame an ask- we can use positive messages that focus on how a community will be helped if a donor gives, or we can use negative messages that focus on how a community will be harmed if a donor does not give. The general idea is the same- these are essentially two sides of the same coin. But, is one message more effective than the other?

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Erica Harris. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Accounting at Florida International University. In addition to publishing dozens of peer-reviewed articles, she has also received many prestigious research awards, including a Fulbright Scholarship. In the Venn Diagram of nonprofit work, we discuss how administration and fundraising, while seen as two separate functions, actually overlap.

Today we are joined by Dr. Abhishek Bhati. He's an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bowling Green State University and he is just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to understanding how nonprofits generate resources and how they use those resources to tackle social, economic, and political inequalities.

Welcome to The Nonprofit Science Podcast! I'm Sheela Mahajan and I'm a scientist turned nonprofit expert who is on a mission to challenge nonprofits to think differently- namely, like scientists. What exactly is nonprofit science and how can it help you? Find out on this episode!

We often hear that leaders need to be resilient and need to build resilient nonprofits. But the way we typically approach organizational resilience is in hindsight. We can identify a resilient organization only after they have experienced a set back and we see how they responded. There hasn't been a framework that leaders could use to intentionally build organizational resilience. On this episode, we identify six characteristics that leaders can cultivate to build a resilient nonprofit in anticipation of disruption.

There is one major problem with the way we've been talking about evaluations. Through the evaluative process, we objectify the experiences of our participants, but what's lacking from the current discussion is inclusion of participants as the subject of the program. What has been their experience with your program? How can you improve it from their perspective? On this episode, we discuss research that takes a critical view of satisfaction surveys and discuss how we can use evaluations as a tool to facilitate a process in which nonprofits and communities come together to achieve a common goal.

Online fundraising is one of the fastest growing revenue streams for nonprofits. But when it comes to crafting a winning fundraising message, or framing the ask, there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. On this episode, we'll discuss research that guides us on how to craft social media messages that help us raise more money from both current and new donors.

Since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, almost every nonprofit organization has had to implement some sort of virtual work option. Even though many of the benefits and challenges of virtual work have been well documented, relatively little has been published about how virtual work has affected managerial behavior. On this episode, we'll discuss research into how managerial behavior has evolved with the switch to virtual work, and how organizations can overcome some of the challenges of virtual work to bring the best out of managers and teams.

Sometimes it seems like the people who would most benefit from a change are the most resistant to it. Think of anti-feminist women or students with loans who oppose canceling student debt. There are many examples of groups who exhibit this paradoxical behavior. Whether it's in advocacy or at the individual level working with participants, nonprofits face this opposition regularly. This presents a unique challenge for nonprofits- how can you advance your mission if the very people who would benefit from your work, resist it? On this episode we discuss research that offers insight into why people resist change and support a status quo that does not serve them, and how nonprofits can use this information to further their missions.

For as much as nonprofits utilize crowdfunding and rely on it as a source of revenue, avenues for retention of donors that are acquired through these sites is lacking. In fact, nonprofits only retain about 25% of the donors acquired through crowdfunding sites. On this episode, we discuss research into what factors influence donor donation and attrition behavior and how we can leverage this information to retain donors acquired through crowdfunding sites.

Nonprofits have been experiencing an increased demand for services, but that increased demand has not necessarily been matched with an increase in resources. How can nonprofit leaders achieve more with less? Research suggests the answer lies in developing the biggest resource you do have- your team. On this episode, we'll discuss a case study that demonstrates how nonprofit leaders can strategically use flexible leadership to develop their workforce and increase the organization's capacity.

Love them or hate them, many nonprofits use surveys in one form or another- whether it's for something as simple as a satisfaction survey or as complex as an evaluation. While we, understandably, spend a lot of time thinking about the content of surveys- the questions we want to ask- how we administer a survey gets less attention. However, it's possible that how we administer a survey could affect the data that we collect. On this episode, we'll discuss the differences between the various survey administration modes, as well as how these differences could inadvertently affect survey outcomes.

One tool that fundraisers often use on appeals is setting suggested donation amounts or default values. Recent research indicates that the values we set on these menus may have a big influence on a donor's decision give. On this episode, we'll discuss whether default donation values are a good idea and how they influence a donor's decision to give.

If it ever feels like the head and the heart of leadership are at odds with each other, you may not be wrong. New research merging the study of leadership with neuroscience indicates that different leadership roles activate opposing parts of the brain. This research gives us insight into how the most effective leaders balance the head and the heart of leadership.

Nonprofits are often tasked with drafting logic models to describe their programs, but increasingly logic models are also used for evaluation. For many programs, this is perfectly suitable. But for more complex interventions, such as advocacy, logic models are a poor evaluation tool for several reasons. On this episode, we'll discuss the pitfalls of using logic models to evaluate advocacy and how you can better capture your advocacy programs achievements.

Buy now, pay later is perhaps the best thing to happen to consumerism, but can nonprofits leverage this idea to our benefit? Research into intertemporal choices and charitable giving suggests that nonprofits can (and do) take advantage of this model. On this episode, we discuss what intertemporal choices are, how they influence charitable giving, and how nonprofits can implement a commit now, pay later model to raise more money.

Whether your nonprofit was formed decades ago or in the last year, the value system upon which the organization was founded may no longer align with the community the organization serves. This values mismatch can mean that, while there is still a need for the nonprofit to exist, the community is not being served. On part two of this two-part episode we discuss how leaders can identify leverage points and facilitate actions that take the organization from theoretical change to improved outcomes.

Whether your nonprofit was formed decades ago or in the last year, the value system upon which the organization was founded may no longer align with the community the organization serves. This values mismatch can mean that, while there is still a need for the nonprofit to exist, the community is not being served. On part one of this two-part episode, we explore how organizations can use a systems change framework to respond and adapt to the changing views of those they serve.

Although charitable crowdfunding is a fairly new fundraising mechanism, these days it's a very common tool. But, for as much as nonprofits utilize crowdfunding and rely on it as a source of revenue, avenues for donor retention of donors that are acquired through these sites is lacking. On this episode, we discuss research into what factors influence donor donation and attrition behavior and how we can leverage this information to retain donors acquired through crowdfunding sites.

Whether your nonprofit was formed decades ago or in the last year, the value system upon which the organization was founded may no longer align with the community the organization serves. This values mismatch can mean that, while there is still a need for the nonprofit to exist, the community is not being served. On part two of this two-part episode we discuss how leaders can identify leverage points and facilitate actions that take the organization from theoretical change to improved outcomes.

Whether your nonprofit was formed decades ago or in the last year, the value system upon which the organization was founded may no longer align with the community the organization serves. This values mismatch can mean that, while there is still a need for the nonprofit to exist, the community is not being served. On part one of this two-part episode, we explore how organizations can use a systems change framework to respond and adapt to the changing views of their constituency.

Many nonprofits send out regularly scheduled direct or email appeals throughout the year, as well as participate in “day of giving” fundraisers such as #GivingTuesday. We know that these campaigns differ in the content that gets created and how that information is delivered. But, as it turns out, donors may respond differently to these campaigns because of how asks are structured. On this episode, we'll discuss research that indicates how nonprofits can leverage two fundraising mechanisms- coordinated and independent- to raise more money.

The idea of nonprofit leadership succession planning can be a little touchy but unfortunately, we've got to do it. The disruption caused by the sudden departure of the chief executive could mean that the community served by the organization, isn't served as well. Even though nonprofits know that succession planning is important, why is it that so few actually lay down plans? On this episode, we discuss what barriers nonprofits face when it comes to succession planning and offer a new perspective on what it means to undertake succession planning.

Intervention mapping is a six-step framework for designing programs. It takes the daunting task of creating programs that advance your mission and breaks it down into easy to follow phases. On this episode, you'll learn what intervention mapping is and how to use this approach to design programs at your nonprofit.

Rage donating is a fundraising phenomenon that was catapulted to the mainstream during Donald Trump's election and presidency. We've witnessed organizations like Planned Parenthood, ACLU, and Black Lives Matter raise millions of dollars for their important work and maybe you're wondering if your nonprofit could mobilize such support as well. On this episode, you'll discover what drives rage donations and why some organizations are better suited to mobilize this support than others.

Most leadership advice and even leadership studies for that matter focus on the top level of leadership, but there has been considerably less focus on frontline managers. The team of staff that is managed by a frontline manager would be the staff members who are directly interacting with those the nonprofit serves. Because frontline managers are in a unique position, it's important to understand how this group of leaders view innovation and what they believe is their role in the innovation process. On this episode, we'll discuss three approaches to leadership innovation by frontline managers.