Transform Your Story Podcast

For many in the nonprofit sector, Beth Kanter's Blog is a go-to resource for inspiration, tips and tools on how to connect and leverage your organization for real social change. Beth's new book, The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit is all about how to increase wellness in the nonprofit sector as a means to achieve mission. We were so pleased to have her join us on the podcast!  In this episode, we talk about: How leaders can develop wellness on their teams, be they at the top or in middle management Cultural changes that need to occur to promote wellness Using technology to actually increase wellness vs. decrease wellness (see app suggestions below) What to do if you're an average employee trying to pitch wellness in the workplace Developing your younger leaders And more! Resources that Beth discussed include: The Philanthropy University  Coach Me App Happy Healthy Nonprofit G-Board app Forest App The Emerging Leaders Playbook - FREE! Listen to this podcast on Podbean, Apple Podcasts or Google Play.

If you don't know about Wellspring, you need to! Wellspring is a network of community-based support centres offering programs and services that meet the emotional, social, practical and restorative needs of people living with cancer and those who care for them.  Given their national network, we invited Wellspring CEO, Christina Smith, to join us in a conversation about how to develop and maintain a strong culture across multiple locations with independent Executive Directors. In this discussion we talk about: The Wellspring model and the Wellspring Way Culture and how it affects turnover How to engage your locations across Canada and maintain consistency while allowing for individuality Engaging the expertise of your board and your staff Christina's experience as both a provincial ED vs a national CEO Christina's perspective on leadership Resources that we discussed include: The Potential Project The WE Movement Listen to this podcast on Podbean, Apple Podcasts or Google Play.  For full shownotes or more information head to www.propellus.org/podcast

Shownotes can be found at www.propellus.org/podcast Big thanks to Andrew Taylor for joining us on the podcast today. Andrew works with the Ontario Nonprofit Network supporting their evaluations work, as well as running his own consulting firm. On today's episode we talk about: Creating a shared understanding with funders about how they're going to use data, etc.  How to estimate the percentage of your granting budget that could cover evaluations Focusing on intended use at the outcome Starting with a modest evaluation, master it, then scale up your ambition Creating a culture of evaluations Trends in evaluation Resources that we discussed include: The State of Evaluation Tamarack - Collective Impact 3.0 Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres Listen to the podcast on Podbean, Apple Podcasts or Google Play.

Shownotes can be found at www.propellus.org/podcast Today on the podcast we're joined by Matt Blough from the Calgary Foundation. We're undertaking a 2-part series on how to make evaluations more useful.  Matt Blough is a Grant Impact Associate from The Calgary Foundation. In this position, Matt enjoys building relationships with charities, sharing their successes and digging into the difference that Calgary Foundation support is making in the Calgary area. Matt also works closely with other organizations in the charitable sector to identify current trends in impact and evaluation methods. With Matt we talk: How to work with funders on reasonable evaluation reporting How to make evaluations fit for purpose The costs associated with evaluations What outcomes harvesting is and how to try and make it work Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or Podbean.  Resources: Evaluations Community of Practice - to sign up for the contact list, send an email to info@propellus.org  Betterevaluation.org  Outcome Harvesting  Participatory Action Research Tech Soup Data for Good Calgary Join us in two weeks for the second part of How to Make Evaluations More Useful with Andrew Taylor from the Ontario Nonprofit Network. 

Today on the podcast we're joined by ACFRE and internationally-known nonprofit consultant, Simone Joyaux. Shownotes can be found at propellus.org/podcast Simone talks to us first and foremost about how to deal with the challenges of creating and managing a board. We discuss her book Firing Lousy Board Members, but the episode is really about all the things you can do to make firing a board member a last resort. We talk: Board recruitment Board policies (I swear we make this interesting!) Creating board diversity Advice for ED's who are supporting their board moving from an operational to a governance board Strategic planning to the highest probability Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or Podbean.  Resources: Simone Joyaux's Free Download Library Firing Lousy Board Members by Simone Joyaux The Loudest Duck by Laura Liswood Simone is most impressed by Planned Parenthood of Southern New England The Nonprofit Quarterly and the Stanford Social Innovation Review Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy

Shaun Loney, the author of An Army of Problem Solvers, is joining the TYS podcast today to talk about some of the case studies from his book. We highly recommend that you grab a copy as he demonstrates how individuals and small organizations are truly capable of making change that perhaps government may not be. We also recommend you check out Shaun's TEDxTalk. In this episode we talk about: why a town named Garden Hill has no gardens how even the smallest of projects can revitalize communities the policies that will allow more people to launch social enterprises how economic factors play into missing Indigenous women the three poverty myths  how many is being spent on problems vs. problem solvers Shownotes for today can be found at www.propellus.org/podcast Resources discussed: Canadian Community Economic Development Network An Army of Problem Solvers Diversity Foods at the University of Winnipeg

Today on the podcast we're joined by consultant, partnership broker and author, Jocelyne Daw. Jocelyne is an institution in the Calgary non-profit consulting scene, and we're pleased to have her join us to talk about: - Cause Marketing, what it is and why it's so important - How to build successful partnerships, partnership brokering, etc. - Her experience as an Executive Director, and what she wishes she'd known prior to her first ED role.  Shownotes for today can be found at propellus.org/podcast 

Today we're joined by organizational change and development expert, Bill Brandon, to talk about the subject that few of us in the nonprofit sector talk about with gusto - governance! While it may not be the sexy conversation starter at a gala, without strong governance, we're unable to lead our organizations to achieve our ambitious missions.  Together Bill and Victoria talk about: what does good governance look like what are the common mistakes people often make in governance is there/should there be a difference between a board and a governance committee how do you successfully transition from an operational board to a governance board what skills should potential board members come to the table with how do you balance the ambitious mission and your fiduciary duties as a board member and so much more! For shownotes, please go to www.propellus.org/podcast As always, we'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague, tweet it, or subscribe/rate/review the podcast in Apple Podcasts. 

Today on the podcast we're joined by international donor communications expert, Tom Ahern. Tom opens his expert toolkit and shares his advice on: how to ask for restricted funds how to communicate challening news how to make annual reports more interesting how to maximize your newsletter (and who is doing it well!) how to tell your story if you don't have the easy sell story  and so much more... Shownotes with links to Tom's books, resources discussed, etc. can be found at www.propellus.org/podcast As always, we'd love it if you'd tell a colleague about our podcast and subscribe/rate/review us in Apple Podcasts. 

Whether it comes from your organization, your sector or a funder, collaboration is something that we're all thinking about, yet most of us struggle with. Why? Because it's so hard to do! In order to collaborate you often have to bring parties to the table that have different needs, interests, beliefs, budgets, timelines, you name it. In this episode we talk to Blythe Butler from the First 2000 Days Network about how they've tackled collaboration in order to measure and achieve early childhood development outcomes. For shownotes, head to www.propellus.org/podcast As always, we'd love if you'd share this episode with a colleague and rate/review/subscribe in Apple Podcasts. 

Today on the podcast we're joined by social entrepreneurship expert, Liam Black. Liam talks to us about how you know if social enterprise is right for your organization, the key ingredients to make it work, the importance of knowing and living out your values, how to build resilience as a social entrepreneur and so much more.  Shownotes can be found at www.propellus.org/podcast 

Today on the TYS podcast we're joined by Propellus team member, Sheena Swierenga. As the Volunteer and Capacity Building Centre of Calgary, if there's one thing we know well, it's volunteerism. Sheena's here to give you the best tips on how to recruit, retain and recognize volunteers AND we talk about what the future of volunteerism looks like. How can you ensure that your volunteers are getting the kind of roles that they're craving? How can you set your organization up for success in engaging with volunteers? All that and more on today's episode.  Shownotes can be found at www.propellus.org/podcast 

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Transform Your Story podcast, an accessible way to build your capacity in all aspects of non-profit management.  For our first episode, we're joined by Director of Development for the National Music Centre, Jeni Piepgrass, as she walks us through her experience managin a $190 million capital campaign.  For shownotes and resources, head to www.propellus.org/podcast