Podcasts about nonprofits

Reflections from host Sarah Olivieri ... Is Your Budget Killing Your Major Gifts Program? Many nonprofit leaders I talk to about major gifts describe some version of the same wall. They know the money is out there. They have heard the statistics about wealth transfer and donor-advised funds. They have sat through the trainings. And still, nothing moves. So they go looking for the missing skill. Better scripts. A new CRM. A workshop on how to ask. Here's what I often find when I see an organization trying to do major gifts but struggling. They're actually operating with systems and processes that work against major gifts. Systems like: annual fundraising strategies a schedule of campaigns an annual budget that rewards short-term gifting, which often comes at the expense of building the proper long-term relationship that leads to true, significant, sustainable funding from major donors Relationships operate on systems as well, but these are not the systems that relationships run on. When the wrong systems are in place, people rarely call out the system. They compensate with effort instead. In fundraising, that effort goes into activity that can be measured this quarter. Events. Appeals. Data entry. All of it visible, all of it defensible, and very little of it building the thing that tends to produce seven-figure gifts. A version of this came up on almost every strategy call I had this spring, which is why I was glad to sit down with Bill Crouch and talk it through. Bill has spent more than forty years inside this work, first as a college president raising private money in the shadow of a state flagship, now advising nonprofits nationally. He has lived this work and he has taught it, which is a rarer combination than it sounds. What the conversation gave me was not a new idea. It was a sharper explanation of why the patient approach holds up and why so few organizations are structured to survive the wait. The Annual Budget Is the Clock Everything Else Runs On Start with the operating budget, because everything downstream inherits its timeline. A relationship with a high capacity donor takes eighteen months. Sometimes three years. Bill spent eighteen months getting the first million dollar commitment for a giving group at his own college. Six weeks after that, he had five more, because the first person made calls to friends. Eighteen months of nothing, then five gifts in six weeks. Now put that curve inside an organization that closes its books every twelve months and asks the development office what it brought in. The gap is rarely a matter of discipline. The organization has committed to a reporting cycle that cannot see the work until it is already finished. So the work does not get funded, does not get protected on anyone's calendar, and does not survive the first cash flow scare in month seven. I write and talk a lot about how the layout of your budget shapes the decisions you make, and this is the most expensive version of that. A twelve-month frame makes long horizon relationship work look like underperformance. Then leaders respond to the number in front of them, which is the only responsible thing to do with the information the system gives them. The Desk Always Wins Bill described development work as needing two different capabilities. The technical side, sitting in the office getting things done. And the relational side, out in the world with people. Two skill sets, often two different humans. In a small shop, one person holds both. Ask that person what they did last week and you will hear about the database, the appeal, the grant report, the reconciliation. Not the coffee that took ninety minutes and produced no measurable outcome. The desk wins because the desk has deadlines. The relationship has none. This is a design flaw with a simple mechanism. Every task in the office has a due date attached to it and a visible consequence for missing it. Relationship building has neither. Give one person both jobs and the work with a deadline tends to consume the work without one, week after week, however much that person believes in the relational side. Which means the fix is structural. Protect the time in a way the person cannot trade away, or separate the roles. Telling someone to prioritize relationships more is asking them to out-discipline their own job description. The Mechanism, Named One line from that conversation has stayed with me: "That forces nonprofits to make short-term decisions that hurt long-term strategies." What I appreciate about this framing is that it locates the problem in the design rather than in the people executing it. The short-term decision is the rational one given the reporting cycle. Change the cycle, or build a revenue floor that takes the pressure off it, and the same team will often behave differently. Not much had to change in anyone's character. The structure stopped charging them for patience. Turnover Is What the Design Produces Forty years ago, the number one problem in nonprofit fundraising was development staff turnover. It is still the number one problem. Bill named four causes, and the timeline inside them is the part worth sitting with. It takes about sixteen months for the wrong hire to realize they do not want this job. It takes the supervisor about sixteen months to accept the same thing. So roughly a year and a half of relationship equity walks out the door, and the next person starts from zero with donors who have now been handed off twice. Run that loop three times and you have a decade of fundraising with no compounding whatsoever. The organization has been paying for major gifts capacity the entire time and never accumulating any. And the third cause Bill listed is the one nonprofits could fix tomorrow. The only way to get a meaningful raise in this field is to leave. We hand out cost of living adjustments and call it compensation strategy. Then we act surprised when the person holding four years of donor history takes a call from a recruiter. The turnover looks to me like an output. The design tends to produce it, and hiring better rarely changes what the design produces. If you want to see the same mechanism from another angle, emotional intelligence functions as retention infrastructure inside these teams, not as a soft add-on. Relationship Building Is a Practice You Can Teach Here is the part that gets skipped. The long horizon only pays off if something real happens inside it, and most organizations treat what happens in the room as a matter of charm. Some people have it. Some people do not. Hire for it and hope. Bill asks every high capacity person he meets about their favorite childhood toy. That is the whole thing. A simple question about a toy, and within a couple of minutes he is hearing what someone actually cares about, in their own words, before any case statement enters the conversation. I have been collecting strategic questions for years, and I recently started a separate collection just for get to know you questions. His goes at the top of that list. I asked my next podcast guest the same thing, and it changed the shape of the whole interview. Which tells you something about the mechanism. A good question is repeatable. It can be written down, taught, practiced, and handed to a nervous program director who has never asked anyone for money. Charm cannot. So when an organization decides that relationship building is a talent rather than a practice, it has quietly made that work impossible to train, impossible to delegate, and impossible to sustain past the tenure of whoever happened to be good at it. Bill also brings brain science into how he approaches this, and that tracks. Relationship building, brain science, and psychology go hand in hand. People give when they feel seen, heard, and valued, and there is a physiological story underneath that, not just a sentimental one. Which means the patient work is doing something specific in those eighteen months. Those months are where the ask becomes possible. Skip them and you are asking a stranger. Titles Are Structure Bill told a story about interviewing a researcher at a large university. She had put the institution in her will. She had been there sixteen years. She had identified and researched a donor who eventually gave a million dollars. No major gift officer had ever walked into her office to thank her. Nobody, in sixteen years. She stayed because her children had a tuition waiver. His response to this pattern is to give every person in the development operation the same title: "Every person in the development shop should have the same title. Director of Major Gifts." This makes sense given the setup. A title describes what the organization believes a role is for. When the researcher's title says researcher and the gift officer's title says major gifts, the org chart has already suggested who is doing the real fundraising and who is doing support work. Most people read that correctly and behave accordingly. I coach clients on titles constantly, usually while helping them build a first development department, and my rule is that people should have whatever title helps them do their job best. Bill's version goes further, and I think he is right about it. It does two things at once. Inside the organization, it tells the researcher and the data entry person that they matter, which is the same thing every donor is trying to find out about themselves. Outside the organization, it gives every one of those people a title they can carry into a room and use to build a real relationship. Give everyone the title that names the actual goal, and you have used structure to say something that a values statement on the wall never manages to say. The Board Question That Is Easy to Sequence Wrong Then there is the board, where two incompatible jobs get stuffed into one body. Bill's framing came from a retired chamber of commerce CEO. Most nonprofit boards are made up of sparrows. Sparrows come to the quarterly meeting, sit through staff reports, argue about whether to spend two hundred dollars on a computer, write a thousand dollar check, and buy a seat at the gala. Most nonprofits could not operate without them. Plenty of boards also want an eagle. Someone who can write a seven-figure check. Eagles tend to hate meetings, do not care about the computer, and rarely sit through reports. Put one on your board and within a year they will often either turn into a sparrow or quit. So Bill builds his clients a separate group. Five or six people, all high capacity, meeting twice a year in each other's homes rather than at your facility, with a single agenda item. Which of our friends can we ask. I give the same advice and I get there differently. I do not want money, power, and decision-making consolidated into the same group of people. Your governing board should be the people who want to do the careful, unglamorous work of oversight, checking that nothing is going off the rails. Not the people with the biggest checkbooks, who are usually the furthest from the weeds and the least accountable for the outcome. So give the givers their own structure where giving is the actual job. Two groups, two purposes, no competition between them. This is also why the board chair and executive director relationship works better when the governance lane is clearly drawn. What a Built System Looks Like Build the plumbing first. Here that means a small number of specific things in place before anyone worries about scripts. The CEO carries a real portfolio, ten people or fewer, and treats it as a standing commitment rather than a fourth quarter push. The relational time is protected structurally, not aspirationally. Compensation is designed so that staying is financially rational. There is a revenue floor that does not depend on this year's major gift closing, which is what makes waiting affordable. And there is a group whose entire purpose is giving and opening doors, separate from the group that governs. Fully built or partially built matters enormously here. A partially built major gifts function has all the cost and none of the compounding. You are paying for the staff, the software, and the events, and you are still starting over every eighteen months. Diversifying and de-risking your revenue base is part of the same picture, which is why revenue design deserves attention before the ask does. What This Makes Possible When leaders see this clearly, the fear around major gifts usually drops several notches. The conversation stops being about whether anyone on the team is brave enough to ask a person for a million dollars and starts being about whether the organization can hold a relationship for three years without flinching. That is a design question, and design questions have answers. What can stop being so heavy is the self-blame. Chances are nobody failed at fundraising here. The organization was built with a twelve-month clock and then asked to do multi-year work, and it did roughly what that setup tends to produce. You are where you are, it is what it is. Once the structure changes, the same people, the same mission, and the same donor list start producing something entirely different, because the effort finally accumulates instead of resetting. Doing Work That Compounds This is not about asking bigger. It is about building an organization that can hold a relationship long enough for the ask to make sense. Nonprofits can raise transformational money.They can pay their fundraisers well enough to keep them.They can stop rebuilding donor relationships from scratch every eighteen months. Not by pushing harder, by building systems that hold. About the Guest Bill Crouch is the CEO of BrightDot Fundraising Advisors and has spent more than 40 years helping nonprofits transform fundraising into meaningful, lasting relationships with donors. A former college president, fundraising expert, author, and Honorary Fellow at Oxford University, Bill is the author of Mattership™: Making Donors Feel They Matter, where he shares practical strategies for building trust and inspiring generosity. Connect with Bill: Website: http://thebrightdot.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightdot LinkedIn personal: Bill Crouch LinkedIn Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Episode 381: What Leaders Must Know to Build Cross-Sector Power (Karen Riordan)Episode SummaryNonprofit leaders often assume advocacy, cross-sector partnerships, and funding diversification are someone else's job — but Karen Riordan, President & CEO of Together SC in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, argues that building real power for the sector starts with everyday relationship-building. Drawing on three decades of for-profit marketing experience before her move into nonprofit leadership, Riordan makes the case that nonprofits are businesses too, deserving of the same respect, visibility, and strategic rigor as any company in the community. She shares how to build relationships with lawmakers long before you ever need something from them, why chambers of commerce and civic groups are an underused bridge to the business community, and how to have hard budget conversations with your board before a funding crisis forces the issue. Listeners will walk away with concrete, low-lift ways to build cross-sector alliances, advocate for their organization without feeling like a lobbyist, and lead with pride even when the funding landscape feels shaky.About KarenKaren Riordan is President & CEO of Together SC (formerly the South Carolina Nonprofit Association), the statewide network that strengthens and champions the nonprofit sector across South Carolina, a role she stepped into in 2024. She spent three decades building brands in the for-profit world, first in the tourism industry and later in automotive marketing, where she managed teams of up to 1,200 employees, before moving into the nonprofit space by way of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, where she founded both Keep Myrtle Beach Beautiful and Partnership Grand Strand. A journalism graduate who has volunteered for nonprofits since high school - across subsectors from animal welfare to food insecurity - Riordan now channels that business rigor and marketing instinct into raising the visibility and respect of nonprofits statewide. She's an avowed re-reader of Jim Collins' Good to Great and a self-described “maniac” for a good thriller series in her downtime.ResourcesKaren's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/karen-riordan-72a88a2Together SC: TogetherSC.orgCheck out Together SC's “Nonprofits Get It Done” campaign (modeled on the National Council of Nonprofits) and their upcoming scenario-planning workshops for budget diversificationBook recommendation: Impact Networks by David EhrlichmanFollow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire:  ArmstrongMcGuire.com

With thousands of Idaho kids lacking access to after-school programs, one Boise nonprofit is creating a place where teens can find support.

Send us Fan MailA plan built by a few people at the top and handed down is just paperwork. Dr. Renee Rubin Ross argues real ownership comes from who's in the room while the goals get decided, not just who signs off on them.Dr. Ross is the founder of The Ross Collective and author of Inclusive Strategic Planning for Nonprofits. In this episode, she and Britt break down her five-step spiral planning process, including step zero: how to know your organization is actually ready to plan. They also talk about what happens when planning uncovers real dysfunction, and how to tell whether it's a planning problem or a leadership one.Grab Renee's free Strategic Planning Template, the Five-Step Spiral breakdown, and sample strategic plans in the links below.Inclusive Strategic Planning for Nonprofits (book) can be purchased here The Five-Step Spiral, explained here Get Your Free Strategic Planning Template here And, Sample nonprofit strategic plans here Chapters:00:00 - Why Traditional Strategic Planning Fails02:10 - Why Write Another Book on Strategic Planning?04:47 - The 5-Step Spiral Planning Framework07:26 - Balancing Visioning with Concrete Execution09:29 - Why 3-Year Strategic Plans Work Best10:50 - Step 0: Assessing Organizational Readiness12:51 - Navigating Internal Tension & Staff Culture15:45 - The 3 Circles of Participation (Deciders, Builders, Sharers)18:46 - Translating Your Plan into Action (Using RACI)22:13 - What You Lose by Excluding Frontline Staff23:35 - Where to Find Dr. Ross About Donorbox: Donorbox is a trusted fundraising platform used by more than 100,000 organizations to raise over $4 billion worldwide. Learn more at donorbox.org.Enjoying the show? Subscribe for more practical fundraising strategies, leadership insights, and tools to help your nonprofit grow sustainably.This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not legal or financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor for guidance specific to your organization.Support the show

If you've ever wondered what's possible with zero full-time paid staff and zero development budget, this episode is for you. Magical Creatures Sanctuary is a 100% volunteer-run farmed animal rescue on Hawaii Island that cares for more than 100 rescued animals, and today, 48% of their individual donor revenue comes from recurring gifts, with an 83% donor retention rate.Executive Director Jill Vanderhoef joins me to break down their Adopt a Magical Creature sponsorship program and how even a $5 monthly gift can create meaningful stability.Plus, Jill shares EXACTLY what's working for them on Instagram and TikTok and why emotional connection, before-and-after storytelling, and paying attention to the questions your audience is already asking can help create content that brings supporters closer to your mission.Resources & LinksLearn more about Magical Creatures Sanctuary and follow them on Instagram and TikTok. This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!Let's Connect!Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

What does it really take to grow a nonprofit without exhausting your team, overwhelming your board, or burning yourself out along the way?On this week's episode of Nonprofit Nation, Julia Campbell sits down with nonprofit consultant, fundraising strategist, and leadership expert Sarah Andrews for a conversation about sustainable growth, strong leadership, and building the capacity nonprofits need to thrive.With more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising, Sarah has helped organizations navigate strategic growth, fundraising campaigns, organizational capacity building, major gifts, grants, sponsorships, and donor engagement. Together, Julia and Sarah explore what separates nonprofits that continue to grow from those that feel stuck, and why building the right foundation before pursuing bigger fundraising goals is so important. They also dig into some of the fundraising and leadership misconceptions that can hold organizations back, how to know when an organization is truly ready for a major campaign, and practical ways to help nonprofit boards become more confident ambassadors and fundraisers. And in a conversation that goes beyond traditional nonprofit strategy, Sarah shares how her work as a yoga instructor has shaped her approach to leadership, resilience, mindfulness, and balance, lessons that can be especially valuable for nonprofit professionals navigating today's pressures. About Sarah AndrewsSarah Andrews is a nonprofit consultant, fundraising strategist, and leadership expert with more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising. As the Founder & Lead Consultant, she works with organizations on strategic growth planning, organizational capacity building, annual and capital campaigns, engagement and stewardship programs, sponsorships and promotions, grant writing, and major giving programs. Sarah is passionate about those “aha moments” when things click and turn into action. A native of Manchester, New Hampshire, she enjoys strong coffee, 90s throwbacks, and spending time outdoors with her family and friends. She is a proud mom of two daughters and is married to her husband, Justin. Sarah is also a yoga instructor at Humble Warrior Power Yoga. Learn more about Sarah and her work at sarahjandrews.com. In this episode, we discuss:✔ What sustainable nonprofit growth really looks like ✔ Common leadership mistakes that can limit organizational impact ✔ How to build organizational capacity before pursuing major growth or fundraising initiatives ✔ Fundraising misconceptions that may be holding nonprofits back ✔ How to determine whether your organization is ready for a capital campaign ✔ Warning signs that it may be time to pause before launching a major campaign ✔ Strategies for engaging boards in fundraising and philanthropy ✔ How nonprofits can balance annual giving, major gifts, grants, events, and corporate partnerships ✔ Emerging fundraising trends and where nonprofit leaders should focus their attention ✔ What nonprofit leaders can learn from yoga about resilience, mindfulness, and balance ✔ Practical ways to pursue ambitious goals without burning out your team—or yourself Don't forget!If you enjoyed this episode of Nonprofit Nation, subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share this conversation with a nonprofit leader, fundraiser, or board member who could use a little inspiration around sustainable growth and leadership.Because growing your nonprofit shouldn't mean burning out the people who make the mission possible.Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts

A mission can be extraordinary, and an organization can still fail. Not because the work wasn't needed, but because the infrastructure, leadership, systems, governance, and financial strategy weren't strong enough to support the work over time. Your mission deserves more than good intentions. It deserves an organization that's equipped to carry it for years, not just for today. If you've ever wondered why some nonprofits thrive while others quietly disappear, this conversation will help you see the difference. Because lasting impact isn't created by passion alone. It's created by building an organization that's worthy of sustaining the mission it was called to serve.

Send us Fan MailNonprofit donor segmentation strategy may matter far more than most fundraising teams realize. New donor behavior research reveals that geography, household income, gender, trust, and communication preferences can dramatically change what motivates someone to give!Mary Crogan, Vice President of Brand Marketing at Bloomerang, returns with a deeper look at Bloomerang's ‘Giving Signals' research with The Harris Poll. The original study surveyed more than 1,000 donors and several hundred fundraisers, then examined donor responses across demographic groups rather than treating supporters as one giant audience. The result challenges one of fundraising's most persistent habits.“There's no such thing as the donor,” Mary says. “And the data proves that.”Consider geography. Only 45% of Midwest respondents expected to give more, compared with 62% in the West. Midwest donors were also considerably less responsive to identity and belonging language, suggesting that messages emphasizing concrete needs, transparency, and measurable outcomes may perform better with that audience.Trust creates another major business implication. The West registered 86% trust in nonprofits' effective use of funds, while 62% expected to increase giving. As Mary puts it, “You need to treat transparency as a fundraising activity, not just a compliance moment.”The data also challenges assumptions about major gift messaging. Among households earning $150,000+, 41% looked to third-party ratings compared with 29% overall. These high-capacity donors behaved more like evidence-driven buyers, responding to ratings, audited outcomes, measured impact, and proof—not simply another moving story.And donor trust does not develop identically. Women reported stronger responses to transparency, matching gifts, and proof of gift impact—with 93% citing information about their gift's impact—while men showed greater responsiveness to peer recommendations and preferred communication channels.The operational takeaway: segment, survey, test, measure, and adjust before assuming one appeal speaks to everyone.Key Takeaways:Build fundraising segments around meaningful donor differences instead of relying on one universal appeal.Treat transparency and closed-loop impact reporting as revenue-building activities.Test concrete outcome messaging versus belonging-oriented messaging by geography.Give high-capacity donors evidence: ratings, audited results, ROI, and measurable impact.Use peer and ambassador voices where personal endorsement strengthens trust.Survey your own donor base before turning national demographic patterns into fundraising assumptions. 00:00:00 — Why There's No Such Thing As “The Donor” 00:01:46 — How Bloomerang Studies Donor Behavior 00:04:24 — What 1,000+ Donors Told Researchers 00:05:47 — Why Midwest Fundraising Messaging Is Different 00:09:48 — Trust Sits Upstream Of The Ask 00:12:16 — Income Changes What Motivates Donors 00:13:27 — The Ethical Edge Of Urgency Messaging 00:14:34 — The Problem With One-Size-Fits-All Appeals 00:16:31 — What High-Capacity Donors Actually Want 00:19:30 — Men, Women And Different Paths To Trust 00:23:10 — Turning Donors Into Trusted Ambassadors 00:25:15 — Survey Your Own Donor Community 00:27:02 — Segment And Test Before Your Next Appeal #NonprofitFundraising #DonorEngagement #TheNonprofitShowFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us  Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits!  12:30pm ET   11:30am CT  10:30am MT  9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

His Work Late Nights Were With Another Woman From His NonprofitBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cheat-stories-official--5689182/support.

Nonprofits don't have to overhaul their technology to begin using AI.They can build from the systems, data, and processes already in place.This is not about a full data cleanup or a major technology rollout. It is about finding a practical use case within the work your team is already doing.So what does that look like? How can nonprofits turn early wins into broader adoption, while using AI responsibly, protecting sensitive information, and making more room for the human work that matters most?Learn how nonprofits can use AI with the systems and data they already have to find practical opportunities, build team buy-in, and protect the people they serve with Erica Cox from Provisio.Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission.See the full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ai-how-to-startLearn more about Nonprofit Pulse: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.  Brad is first joined by CNN Military Analyst Col. Cedric Leighton (USAF-Ret.). The two discuss whether President Trump has already lost the Iran War. They also break down why the U.S. is running out of ammunition, and how the Iran and Ukraine-Russia wars are connected. Finally, they analyze Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's poor record during his time in charge of the U.S. military. Then, long time guest Edwith Theogene rejoins Brad on the show for the first time in a while. She is now Director of Policy and Advocacy at TSNE (Third Sector New England, Inc.), a capacity building organization that partners with nonprofit organizations to provide the services, programs, and resources they need to support their communities and ultimately, create a more equitable society. She and Brad discuss TSNE's work, as well as the Trump administration's attacks on progressive non-profits. Brad is on the National Journal's panel of political insiders, is an American political analyst for The Times of India TV, and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. Brad also writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.' You can read his new Substack called, 'The Bannon Ballot Blast,' at www.bradbannon.substack.com. His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.

What can a nonprofit with just 650 active donors—and a median gift of only $100—teach us about raising millions through a capital campaign?In this episode of All About Capital Campaigns, Andrea Kihlstedt speaks with Sister Marilyn Lacey, founder and executive director of Mercy Beyond Borders, about how her small international nonprofit raised more than 75% of its $8.5 million campaign goal in less than 11 months.Mercy Beyond Borders works in some of the world's most challenging environments, including South Sudan, Haiti, Malawi, and refugee camps in Uganda and Kenya. Its mission is to help women and girls living in extreme poverty learn, connect, and lead. After 18 years of demonstrating that its model works, the organization launched an ambitious growth campaign to reach more girls and expand the long-term impact of its programs.The campaign began with an unexpected $1.5 million anonymous gift, followed by a remarkable $3 million pledge from a donor whose first contribution—made roughly 20 years earlier—was just $125. Sister Marilyn explains how that relationship developed gradually through conversations, storytelling, coffee, ball games, and genuine friendship. Her experience is a powerful reminder that today's modest donor may become tomorrow's transformational campaign supporter.But this episode is not simply a story about securing large gifts. It is a practical and inspiring conversation about donor relationships, capital campaign planning, feasibility studies, storytelling, and the mindset nonprofit leaders bring to fundraising.Sister Marilyn shares why she prefers to frame fundraising asks as invitations rather than requests for money. Instead of emphasizing organizational need or approaching supporters from a place of anxiety, she invites donors to participate in work that is hopeful, effective, and transformational. Her guiding advice is refreshingly simple: exude joy and confidence. As she puts it, no one wants to join a sinking ship.You'll also hear how Mercy Beyond Borders uses a monthly email newsletter to deepen donor engagement without constantly asking for gifts. Each edition centers the story of one woman or girl and shows supporters what their generosity is accomplishing. Combined with personalized thank-you letters and thoughtful individual touches, this consistent stewardship has helped the organization achieve an impressive 59% donor-retention rate.Sister Marilyn also discusses the value of bringing structure to an ambitious campaign. Although she was confident in her ability to connect with donors, Capital Campaign Pro's feasibility study process, campaign framework, templates, and weekly advising sessions helped Mercy Beyond Borders test its plans, engage prospective donors, and move forward with greater confidence.This episode offers valuable capital campaign guidance for small nonprofits, international organizations, founders, executive directors, development professionals, and anyone wondering whether their donor base is large or wealthy enough to support a major fundraising initiative. Mercy Beyond Borders proves that a relatively small organization can pursue a bold campaign goal when it has a compelling mission, loyal supporters, authentic leadership, strong donor stewardship, and the courage to invite people into something meaningful.To ensure your campaign ends in a celebration, download our free Capital Campaign Step-by-Step Guide & Checklist - https://capitalcampaignpro.com/checklist/ - This intuitive guide breaks down each step of your campaign, and the timeline allows you to visualize your whole campaign, from start to finish!

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.  Brad is first joined by CNN Military Analyst Col. Cedric Leighton (USAF-Ret.). The two discuss whether President Trump has already lost the Iran War. They also break down why the U.S. is running out of ammunition, and how the Iran and Ukraine-Russia wars are connected. Finally, they analyze Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's poor record during his time in charge of the U.S. military. Then, long time guest Edwith Theogene rejoins Brad on the show for the first time in a while. She is now Director of Policy and Advocacy at TSNE (Third Sector New England, Inc.), a capacity building organization that partners with nonprofit organizations to provide the services, programs, and resources they need to support their communities and ultimately, create a more equitable society. She and Brad discuss TSNE's work, as well as the Trump administration's attacks on progressive non-profits. Brad is on the National Journal's panel of political insiders, is an American political analyst for The Times of India TV, and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. Brad also writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.' You can read his new Substack called, 'The Bannon Ballot Blast,' at www.bradbannon.substack.com. His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.

A Lowell man held in a Russian prison for the last four years is now free.

Being more strategic starts with changing the questions nonprofit leaders ask themselves. This episode brings together insights from a dozen previous conversations to show that effective leadership is built through everyday practices of curiosity, reflection, and intentional decision-making. Across topics ranging from crisis leadership and organizational design to evaluation, innovation, and nonprofit careers, a common thread emerges: leaders make better decisions when they: ·      slow down,  ·      challenge assumptions,  ·      seek diverse perspectives,  ·      remain grounded in both their mission and their humanity. For nonprofit leaders navigating uncertainty, these practical questions become strategic tools. They: ·      encourage leaders to care for themselves and their teams,  ·      resist the pull of constant urgency,  ·      test assumptions before acting,  ·      understand their organizational culture and design, and  ·      evaluate new opportunities through the lenses of alignment and capacity.  Together, these practices help organizations build greater clarity, resilience, and long-term impact rather than simply reacting to whatever comes next. Episode Highlights 00:00 – Strategy Begins with Better Questions 05:25 – Build Capacity by Taking Care of Basic Human Needs 09:40 – Don't Lead Alone 11:35 – Ask "What Am I Missing?" 12:38 – Examine Your Expectations 14:19 – Surface and Test Your Assumptions 15:39 – Keep Asking "So What?" 18:58 – Understand the Organization You Actually Have 20:06 – Look Honestly at Organizational Culture 21:42 – Evaluate New Opportunities Through Alignment and Capacity 22:49 – Choose Sustainability Over Constant Urgency 24:41 – Strategy Is Built Through Everyday Practice About your podcast host: Carol Hamilton, principal of Grace Social Sector Consulting, helps nonprofits become more strategic and effective through inclusive strategic planning, evaluation design, and organizational assessment. With over 30 years of experience, she brings a practical, human-centered approach that helps organizations align around clear priorities and take meaningful action toward their mission. Her Shared Action Strategic Planning Framework moves groups from shared language to shared understanding, shared vision, shared priorities to shared action. When she is not working with nonprofits to improve their strategy and alignment, you can find her reading a good book, making diary comics, having a dance party in the kitchen, swimming, biking or kayaking on the Anacostia River.   Be in Touch: ✉️ Subscribe to Carol's newsletter at Grace Social Sector Consulting and receive the Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make In Strategic Planning And How To Avoid Them

Nonprofits are facing unprecedented funding volatility, shrinking donor files, and increased pressure to prove impact, forcing them to rethink how they build trust with new and current donors. In today's episode, Kris Johns discusses how nonprofits can tap into television as a surprisingly accessible, highly trusted channel for donor acquisition and long-term relationship building — often at a cost lower than social media advertising. Tune in to learn how television amplifies every other channel in your mix, why evergreen efforts matter all year long, how small budgets can still succeed on the big screen, and how to measure results across an integrated fundraising campaign. Want to suggest a topic, guest, or nonprofit organization for an upcoming episode? Send an email with the subject "NPFX suggestion" to contact@ipmadvancement.com. Additional Resources AdGood's Ad Manager tool https://adgood.streamr.ai/ [NPFX] Authentic, Ethical, and Effective Messaging — From Theory to Practice https://www.ipmadvancement.com/npfx/authentic-ethical-and-effective-messaging-from-theory-to-practice Guest Kris Johns is the CEO and Founder of The AdGood Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to transforming unused advertising inventory into a powerful tool for social change. By leveraging global partnerships and advanced technology, AdGood empowers nonprofits with affordable and effective Connected TV (CTV) advertising solutions. With over 15 years of experience in media technology, Kris specializes in Streaming (FAST & AVOD), Monetization, and AdTech. His career has been driven by a commitment to innovation, growth, and impact, consistently achieving revenue growth and enhanced profitability through strong client relationships and strategic leadership. Founding AdGood was a natural evolution for Kris, uniting his passion for social impact with a deep understanding of streaming and AdTech. Under his leadership, AdGood continues to innovate and lead in the digital advertising industry, delivering effective solutions that meet the evolving needs of clients and consumers alike. https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjohns/ https://adgood.org/ Host Russ Phaneuf, a co-founder of IPM Advancement, has a background in higher education development, with positions at the University of Hartford, Northern Arizona University, and Thunderbird School of Global Management. As IPM's managing director & chief strategist, Russ serves as lead fundraising strategist, award-winning content creator, and program analyst specializing in applied system dynamics. https://www.linkedin.com/in/russphaneuf/ https://www.ipmadvancement.com/ Connect with NPFX LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/npfx/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/npfxpodcast Instagram https://www.instagram.com/npfx_podcast/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ipmadvancement

Send us Fan MailSearch engines were never built with equity in mind. The organizations that show up first are the ones with money for ads, not necessarily the ones doing the most impactful work. For small and grassroots nonprofits, that means decades of good work can go unseen by the donors, program officers, and advisors who'd want to support it if they only knew it existed. It's clear the playing field was uneven long before AI entered the picture. But AI is also changing who gets found, and not always in the direction people assume. On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, host Maria Rio sits down with Brandolon Barnett, Chief Innovation and Philanthropy Officer at Giving Compass, to unpack why small nonprofits struggle to be discovered and what it actually takes for donors to find you in a AI-first digital landscape. Nonprofit leaders will walk away understanding why "just post more on social media" isn't the fix it used to be and what steps they can take instead without needing a tech team or a big budget.Connect with Brandolon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandolon/Visit their website: https://givingcompass.org/ or https://gg.givingcompass.org/Learn more about how donors and funders find you in the age of AI: Free self-paced course hereSupport the show

What does it look like to launch an international nonprofit from lived experience — and build it to outlast its founder? In this episode, host Kristi Ackley of Growth By Design is joined by co-host Jeffrey Prottas of Nonprofit-360 Consulting for a conversation with Pablo Waissbluth, founder and chair of Vivo Crónico, a US-based 501(c)(3) dedicated to improving quality of life and advancing health equity for people living with chronic and complex health conditions across the Americas. Pablo brings a rare combination of 26 years of multinational business experience and a deeply personal journey as both a patient and caregiver to his work building an organization designed not just for today, but for long after he is at the helm.✨ In this episode, you'll learn: Why the founder's story is the most authentic reason a nonprofit exists — and when it's time to let the organization build its own identity How to think about succession and organizational sustainability from day one, especially when a founder's own health is part of the equation Why diversifying revenue streams matters just as much in nonprofits as in for-profit businessHow partnerships are the key to executing at a high level with a small team Why building a pipeline of connected believers matters more than chasing dollars directly Why the best-kept secret in your community is actually the worst place to be as a nonprofit

Carolyn Woodard covers four AI stories with real implications for nonprofits this week, starting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sprawling new manifesto on open source AI and the release of Muse Glimmer, a lightweight model anyone can run locally. Carolyn touches on why this matters for budget conscious nonprofits weighing vendor values, and why open source still requires more technical capacity than most organizations currently have on hand.From there, Carolyn digs into a story about Alaska Airlines using an AI tool called Flyways to suggest more efficient flight routes, saving fuel while keeping a human dispatcher in the loop on every final call. She uses it to revisit a three filter framework for thinking through AI's environmental tradeoffs: whether the benefit you are getting is worth the cost. It is a useful model for any nonprofit trying to weigh AI's real impact rather than just reacting for or against it.Next, a refresher on agentic AI, prompted by a listener question after last week's episode. Carolyn breaks down the difference between old school recommendation engines, generative AI, and agents that can take multi step actions on their own, plus what those tools are actually called inside Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic products. She also unpacks two recent incidents where AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic got loose due to human error, and what that means for how carefully nonprofits should scope permissions before saying yes to an agent, and urges you to check with your policy and your IT team if you are unsure about the parameters of anything you are allowing an AI tool to do.Finally, Carolyn pushes back a little on the popular advice that everyone should write their own first draft before bringing in AI. She argues it really depends on your task, your learning style, and how you think best.Resources Mentioned:Zuckerberg manifesto pushes an open source approach on AI as Meta releases its latest model – AP via ABC News – https://abcnews.com/Technology/wireStory/zuckerberg-manifesto-pushes-open-source-approach-ai-meta-135519669The FAA Wants to Reboot the Nation's Airspace. This Airline Shows How It Might Work – NPR – https://www.npr.org/2026/08/10/nx-s1-5872752/airspace-reboot-alaska-airlines-flywaysOpenAI's Hacking Debacle Was a Human Mistake – WIRED – https://www.wired.com/story/openais-hacking-debacle-was-a-human-mistake/OpenAI, Anthropic AI Hacking Sprees Illegal? – WIRED – https://www.wired.com/story/openai-anthropic-ai-hacking-sprees-illegal/Should You Really Use AI to Write That First Draft? (And What to Do Instead) – TechSoup – https://blog.techsoup.org/en-us/posts/should-you-really-use-ai-to-write-that-first-draft-and-what-to-do-insteadNew every Tuesday. _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening. 

Scott Curran has helped former presidents, Fortune 500 companies, and street-corner nonprofits turn good intentions into real impact. After a decade as general counsel of the Clinton Foundation and ten years building Beyond Advisors, he kept noticing the same thing: the world's most effective changemakers and the hometown hero nobody's heard of have the exact same nine things in common.So do you. That pattern became his new book, Better Good — a framework any organization can start using today with a Post-it note.

First up: PayPal Giving Fund and why its reported $60B acquisition interest from Stripe should have the nonprofit world paying closer attention. A quick teardown of who actually controls the money moving through it. Then: the politics of AI are getting contentious, and nonprofits are stuck in the crossfire. We dig into the cooling public mood, the two extremes pulling the debate apart, and the case for a transparent AI use policy that draws bright red lines, shows where AI drives impact, and admits where it does harm. Next: Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund put $200M behind saving 100 species from extinction, and why celebrity-and-billionaire-built operations earn a raised eyebrow. Closing out: the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Whole Child school in New Jersey shuts its doors after CZI pulls funding, and what it says about throwing money at problems instead of partnering with the people who already do the work.

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller, an international bestselling author, TEDx speaker, EQ and empathy coach, and leading voice on emotional intelligence. After a 30-year career as a professional musician working with legendary talent like Ray Charles, David Ogden Stiers, and Mannheim Steamroller, toxic leadership eventually robbed her of her career. However, that incident inspired Dr. Melissa to transform leadership as we know it by redefining the one element that most leaders miss: empathy.  Together, we explore how she transitioned from music to interdisciplinary leadership, why empathy is a strategic skill for better productivity and profit, and how self-empathy lays the foundation for all human-centric action    In this episode, we discuss: How a 30-year career in music playing alongside icons like Ray Charles shifted into leadership consulting after experiencing toxic workplace leadership Debunking the myth that empathy is "just about feelings" by exploring its 43 different definitions The three core types of empathy for leaders: emotional, cognitive, and self-empathy  The 4-step framework for self-empathy: self-observation, self-reflection, self-awareness, and self-compassion Why self-observation requires approaching your actions like a computer—critical, not caring, and without judgment Why empathy itself has no action, and how jumping straight into fixing things causes misplaced compassion The crucial difference between being "nice" as a social lubricant and being truly "kind"  How sympathy (looking through your own eyes) differs from true empathy (looking through another person's perspective) Why empathy must come first in your toolkit before applying emotional intelligence skills How leaders can build an empathetic workplace culture by modeling behavior from the top down Dr. Melissa's TEDx talk, her handbook The Empathic Leader, and her vision to launch a center for leadership and empathy innovation    About Dr. Melissa: As a professional musician, Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller worked with major talent such as Ray Charles, David Ogden Stiers, and Mannheim Steamroller. But cold and toxic leadership eventually robbed her of a career that was 30+ years in the making. However, that incident inspired Dr. Melissa to transform leadership as we know it by redefining the one element that most leaders miss: empathy. Today, she's an international bestselling author, Editor's Pick TEDx speaker, EQ and empathy coach, and leading voice on emotional intelligence and empathy. She's known for blending lived experience, academic depth, and a sharp, data-driven approach that not only makes sense but demystifies how empathy translates to better productivity, innovation, and profit. Her mission is to invite everyone to approach empathy as a strategic skill for every human-centric action, not only for others but also for ourselves, and to step up in the way the future of leadership demands. Book: The Empathic Leader: How EQ via Empathy Transforms Leadership for Better Profit, Productivity, and Innovationhttps://a.co/d/02aKjkUU TedX:https://youtu.be/IaoXSEWeILo?si=pgExDujvZt9oJ_Iy https://eqviaempathy.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-melissa-a-robinson-winemiller-author-speaker-trainer/https://www.instagram.com/empathyqueen.eq/https://www.youtube.com/@TheEmpathicLeaderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaoXSEWeILo&t=63shttps://geni.us/TheEmpathicLeader ----- Connect with Candice Snyder! Website: https://www.podpage.com/passion-purpose-and-possibilities-1/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candicebsnyder?_rdr Passion, Purpose, and Possibilities Community Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passionpurposeandpossibilitiescommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionpurposepossibilities/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicesnyder/ Shop For A Cause With Gifts That Give Back to Nonprofits: https://thekindnesscause.com/ Go to FusionaryFormulas.com and use code PASSION at checkout for 15% off your first order.  Fall In Love With Artists And Experience Joy And Calm: https://www.youtube.com/@movenartrelaxation

This Week:  Grants Fundraising Before You Start Writing  Byron Coke says there are four things that decide whether you should spend your limited time applying for a foundation grant: mission alignment; geographic eligibility; funding stage; and, award fit. If any … Continue reading →

Does your learning and development team spend more time responding to requests than shaping where your organization is headed?In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with L&D leaders Kamaria Scott, Rachel Platt, and  Yogi Mueller for a conversation on why nonprofit learning and development teams stay reactive and what it takes to build stronger learning and development strategies.Too many L&D functions have been reduced to a training factory instead of shaping where the organization is headed. We talk about why this happens even to skilled, well-intentioned professionals and the real cost of staying reactive instead of strategic.▶️ The Hidden Cost of Reactive Learning in Nonprofits▶️ Key Points:00:00:00 Reactive vs Strategic Learning and Development00:04:05 Understanding Reactive Learning 00:06:31 How the L&D Business Partner Role Got Lost00:15:25 Learning Becomes Strategic When...00:23:06 The Real Cost of Staying Reactive00:25:25 One Shift Every L&D Professional Can Make TodayResources from this episode:Past episodes on strategic learning:E195: Learning IS Strategy but Some Learning Teams Stay Stuck in Reactive Mode. Here's Why.E192: 10 Questions Strategic Learning Leaders AskE191: How Nonprofit Learning Leaders Can Show Up as a Strategic PartnerE186: The Mindset that Separates Strategic L&D Leaders from Order TakersE134: Being a Strategic Learning Partner & The Biggest Mistake You're MakingJoin the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collectiveConnect with guests from this episode: Yogi MeullerKamaria ScottRachel PlattConnect with HeatherLinkedIn: Heather BurrightWebsite: skillmastersmarket.comBook an interest call with Heather here.⭐Was this episode helpful? If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review!

In this episode, Tawalla Simmons shares her inspiring journey in nonprofit real estate development, focusing on community building, affordable housing, and empowering entrepreneurs. Discover how her innovative strategies are transforming lives and communities across multiple states.   Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

Audit ATX speaks with Auditor Ashley Rodriguez about how the City manages nonprofit contracts for family and social services.Transcript available on Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1419979/19616482-nonprofit-contract-performance-management/transcript

Is your nonprofit truly worthy of long-term investment? Not just because your mission matters, but because your organization is built to sustain that mission. Funders aren't simply looking for organizations doing good work. They're looking for organizations that have the leadership, systems, governance, and operational capacity to turn their investment into lasting impact. That's why I believe nonprofit leaders should stop asking, "How do I get more grants?" and start asking, "How do I build an organization that funders trust to invest in?" Answer my CAPACITY™ Readiness Assessment and discover how prepared your organization is for long-term investment and sustainable funding. bit.ly/orgassessmentform

First up: PayPal Giving Fund and why its reported $60B acquisition interest from Stripe should have the nonprofit world paying closer attention. A quick teardown of who actually controls the money moving through it. Then: the politics of AI are getting contentious, and nonprofits are stuck in the crossfire. We dig into the cooling public mood, the two extremes pulling the debate apart, and the case for a transparent AI use policy that draws bright red lines, shows where AI drives impact, and admits where it does harm. Next: Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund put $200M behind saving 100 species from extinction, and why celebrity-and-billionaire-built operations earn a raised eyebrow. Closing out: the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Whole Child school in New Jersey shuts its doors after CZI pulls funding, and what it says about throwing money at problems instead of partnering with the people who already do the work. -------- NonprofitNewsfeed.com Summary of hundreds of news sources.The post AI Politics Are Getting Ugly; Nonprofits Can't Sit It Out (news) first appeared on Nonprofit News Feed.

Ozawa Conducts Beethoven and Bartók by CSO Association

Welcome to EO Radio Show – Your Nonprofit Legal Resource. I'm Cynthia Rowland, and this is Episode 161 of the EO Radio Show. This episode is the second refresh of episode 19, titled "Five Tax Traps for Business Lawyers Advising Nonprofit Organizations." The original episode was released in October 2022 and was first refreshed in June 2025. Since then, the legal landscape has shifted enough to warrant another update.  The traps themselves have not changed. Rather, recent developments provide new illustrations of why these issues remain important. The original episode continues to serve as an excellent reminder of the issue-spotting skills that are essential to the competent representation of charitable organizations.  Show Notes: EO Radio Show #84: Nonprofit Book Review: ABA Guidebook for Directors of Nonprofit Corporations EO Radio Show #107: Nonprofit Basics: Unrelated Business Income Tax: Basic Rules for Charities – Part 1 EO Radio Show #108: Nonprofit Basics: Unrelated Business Income Tax: Modifications and Exceptions – Part 2 EO Radio Show #109: Nonprofit Basics: Unrelated Business Income Tax: Debt Financed Income – Part 3 EO Radio Show YouTube Playlist: Nonprofit Basics IRS Form 990 and Schedules A through R: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-990 IRS Form 990 EZ: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-990-ez IRS Form 990-N https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/annual-electronic-filing-requirement-for-small-exempt-organizations-form-990-n-e-postcard Description of Statutory Employees https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizations-who-is-a-statutory-employee EO Radio Show #6: Nonprofit Basics: Election Year Issues for Private Foundations and Public Charities Part 1: Candidate Campaign Intervention EO Radio Show #7: Nonprofit Basics: Election Year Issues for Private Foundations and Public Charities Part 2: Legislative Lobbying Activities by Public Charities EO Radio Show #8: Nonprofit Basics: Election Year Issues for Private Foundations and Public Charities Part 3: Private Foundation Approaches to Policy Advocacy Allowed by the Internal Revenue Code If you have suggestions for topics you would like us to discuss, please email us at eoradioshow@fbm.com. Additional episodes can be found at EORadioShowByFarella.com. DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, nor should it be interpreted as, legal advice or opinion.

Send us Fan MailNonprofit leadership transition planning should begin long before an executive announces a departure!  Erin Rodenbiker and Joan Brown of Third Sector Company explain why professional interim leadership can help nonprofits protect mission continuity, strengthen operations, and prepare for a better permanent hire.For many nonprofit boards, “interim” still sounds like emergency management — somebody brought in because something went wrong. Joan challenges that assumption with three remarkably simple words: “Everybody leaves.”  Leadership transition is not a possibility to avoid discussing. It is an eventual organizational reality worth planning for.  Instead of scrambling after a resignation, retirement, sabbatical, or founder departure, nonprofit leaders can determine in advance when an interim executive makes sense, who has decision-making responsibility, and what the organization needs during the transition.Erin adds another important reality: “In reality, these tools can only get you so far. You need a person.” Succession plans, guides, and policies matter, but someone must still lead staff, maintain direction, communicate with stakeholders, and move the plan into operation.The numbers discussed are revealing. Third Sector Company describes a network of approximately 800 people trained for transitional leadership, while Erin notes that an interim assignment may span roughly six to nine months, depending on the organization. Most importantly, the interim is not there simply to “keep the lights on.” Joan says a successful engagement should leave the nonprofit positioned to attract, hire, and retain the right permanent leader.  That begins with assessment: policies, HR records, organizational gaps, staff realities, board alignment, and the conditions the next executive will inherit.Key Takeaways: * Treat executive transition as a predictable governance responsibility, not an unexpected crisis.* Discuss interim leadership before a departure becomes imminent or emotionally charged.* Do not automatically assign already-stretched staff or board members to run the organization.* Begin an interim engagement with an organizational assessment before recruiting the permanent leader.* Measure interim success partly by the quality and retention of the organization's next executive hire.* Use leadership transitions to challenge “we've always done it that way” and prepare the organization for what comes next.00:00:00 Interim Leadership and Nonprofit Transition00:03:01 Why Interim Leadership Still Carries a Stigma00:06:30 Everybody Leaves: Planning Before the Crisis00:08:09 Giving Boards the Language for Succession00:10:03 When Leadership Transition Planning Should Begin00:15:25 How Boards Explore Interim Leadership00:16:16 Corporate vs. Nonprofit Interim Leadership00:18:34 Turning Succession Plans Into Action00:22:34 An Interim Is More Than a Caretaker00:23:53 Why Every Interim Engagement Needs Assessment00:25:19 The Advantage of an Outside Interim Leader00:29:10 Making Interim Leadership the Norm#NonprofitLeadership #NonprofitSuccessionPlanning #TheNonprofitShowFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us  Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits!  12:30pm ET   11:30am CT  10:30am MT  9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

As we wrap up Season 4 of this podcast, we're re-airing one episode from each of our nine series—a chance to revisit the foundational wisdom on capital campaigns, from navigating uncertainty to leading with integrity. Next season, we're turning our attention to the specific context of rural giving, exploring what makes small-town fundraising different, how deep relationships shape generosity, and how to build capital campaigns that honor the unique dynamics and constraints of rural communities.Episodes in Genuine Community Building:123: Genuine Community Building - Communities of Care124: Genuine Community Building - More than Asking and Thanking125: Genuine Community Building - Confidence in Generosity126: Genuine Community Building - Do Not Lose Courage127: Genuine Community Building - Expand the Horizons for DonorsWhat do you think? Send me a text. To explore small town capital campaign coaching deeper and to schedule an free explore coaching call, visit ServingNonprofits.com.Music credit: Woeisuhmebop

This Week:  Low-Lift Donor Retention  So many nonprofits have a leaky bucket problem: donors don't stay after their first gift. We all know retaining existing donors costs so much less than acquiring new ones. Chris Vaughan shares his thinking on … Continue reading →

Have you ever looked at another nonprofit and wondered: "What are they doing differently?" They seem to attract funding more consistently, grow with confidence, and build long-term partnerships while other organizations with equally important missions continue to struggle. I've learned that the difference is rarely the mission. It's rarely the passion. And it's rarely that they simply work harder. The difference is how they build and operate their organizations. In this video, I share what successful nonprofit organizations are doing right that many others may be overlooking.

Whether you're focused on it or not, the 2026 elections are just around the corner. This is a moment of golden opportunity to help make sure that every one of our clients who's eligible to vote is registered and has the opportunity to have their vote counted. There's a lot of moving parts to that, and a lot of opportunities for us as Nonprofit leaders to help our clients make sure their vote is counted. But today I'm focusing on one very critical technical detail, which is registration. The good news is there is a ton of voter enthusiasm this year. We're seeing it everywhere. There's been a whole series of special elections leading up to now. A lot of states have already held their primaries. And the turnout for all of those elections has been off the charts. That's really exciting news because it means that people do want to participate. They do want to make their voice heard. And they are really clear that the ballot box is one of the most critical places they can do that. Which is awesome because it means we don't have to spend a ton of time helping people understand why it's important to vote. They already know that. And what they want is to be able to vote and not have it be a hassle, to have it be safe, and to make sure that when they do vote, their vote is counted.  But the bottom line is you can't vote if you're not registered. And registration deadlines are coming up. We still have plenty of time, but quite a number of states have registration rules that say you have to have your registration submitted and approved at least a month before the election. We want to be able to support clients in ways that are easy for us - and for them - to make sure they are registered and that their registration is fully in order.  In this episode, we share:A quick breakdown of which states allow online registration and which do notThe two key requirements for online registration that you and our clients need to know aboutThe best one-click resource for the online registration rules for your stateThe best one-stop, state-specific resource to help you with paper registration for those who can't register onlineFour key actions to take between now and Sept 1 to prepare to help clients with their registration Links:Episode 147 – Why Your Clients are Most Likely to be Harmed by Attacks on Voting Rights and What to Do About It The best quick access resource for the online voter registration website for your state is https://www.rockthevote.org/online/  This page gives you a direct link to online voter registration in your state. The best source for info on how to get trained on how to help with paper registration, as well as all the info you need on the registration rules, etc. for your state, is https://www.nonprofitvote.org/voting-in-your-state/ If you found value in this episode, please share it with other progressive nonprofit leaders.  And I'd be grateful if you would leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts, which will help even more people find out about this podcast.Thanks!

Share your Field Stories!Laura and Nic interview Wasseem Emam, founder and head of research at Ethical Seafood Research, to explore fish welfare, ethical aquaculture, and what it takes to build a career around an emerging and often misunderstood cause. From shrimp sentience to sustainable seafood systems, this episode dives into how research, policy, and cultural perspectives can reshape the way we think about aquatic animals and the food on our plates.Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! Help us continue to create great content! If you'd like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.Connect with Wasseem Emam at wasseem@ethicalseafoodresearch.org and https://www.linkedin.com/in/wasseem-emam/. Guest Bio:Wasseem Emam is the founder and Executive Director of Ethical Seafood Research, a Scottish-, Spanish-, Kenyan- and Egyptian-registered nonprofit working to improve the welfare of aquatic animals across food systems of the Global South, with active programs in Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Spain. Originally from Egypt, but having spent most of his career in the UK, Canada and now Spain, he has built his career around a question the food and environmental sectors have long overlooked: whether the billions of aquatic animals caught up in the food system each year have lives worth living.Music CreditsIntro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace MesaOutro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs MullerSupport the showThanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players. 

Send us Fan MailHow do fundraisers become nonprofit leaders? Moving from development into executive leadership takes more than raising money—it requires understanding the entire business of the nonprofit and becoming someone who can lead across departments, relationships, strategy, and mission. On this Fundraisers Friday edition, co-hosts Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall examine how nonprofit professionals can deliberately increase their professional value and prepare themselves for broader leadership. Tony begins by pointing to one major advantage many development professionals already possess: relationships. Fundraisers work with donors, boards, community leaders, staff, and supporters, often developing credibility across an organization long before they enter the C-suite. But relationships alone are not enough. Future nonprofit leaders need to understand how the organization actually works: finance, operations, marketing, human resources, programs, and the processes that turn funding into outcomes. As Tony reminds us, “Your team members regardless of their job title come to you with a lot of lived experience.” The conversation also moves into communication, professional visibility, public speaking, LinkedIn, networking, body language, and thought leadership. Yet visibility comes with an important guardrail: “You have to maintain a level of humility in this work.”The bigger career question may not be, “How valuable do others think I am?” Instead, it may be: How am I becoming the strongest leader I can be for the work I want to accomplish?There is a fitting backdrop to the conversation: this marks the 1,600th edition of The Nonprofit Show, seven years into an ongoing exploration of the business decisions that make nonprofit missions possible! Key Takeaways:* Fundraising relationships can create a strong foundation for future nonprofit executive leadership.* C-suite readiness requires knowledge beyond development, including finance, operations, HR, marketing, and programs.* Understanding program delivery makes fundraisers stronger storytellers with donors and investors.* Leadership communication includes tone, timing, word choice, and nonverbal signals.* Public speaking and professional visibility can expand influence when paired with humility.* Professional value should be built around contribution and impact, not external validation.00:00:00 The Nonprofit Show Reaches 1,60000:01:21 Escalating Your Professional Value00:03:14 Why Fundraisers Can Become Nonprofit CEOs00:06:16 Learn the Business Beyond Fundraising00:10:25 Leadership Across Operations and Programs00:11:20 Understand How the Mission Actually Gets Delivered00:13:59 Communication as a Leadership Skill00:17:25 What Your Body Language Communicates00:18:45 Public Speaking and Professional Visibility00:20:05 Thought Leadership Without the Ego00:23:44 LinkedIn, Networking and Professional Presence00:26:16 Who Determines Your Professional Value?#NonprofitLeadership #FundraisingCareer #TheNonprofitShowFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us  Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits!  12:30pm ET   11:30am CT  10:30am MT  9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

Send us Fan MailOnly 26% of nonprofits tell donors when AI helped write to them. 76% of donors say they should be told. That's not small! It's a fifty-point trust gap that grows every time an organization reaches for a new tool without a plan for it.This week, Jena Lynch digs into what's actually pulling nonprofits toward AI right now (hint: it's burnout, not hype), why donors can tell when a human checked out of the process, and the socioeconomic costs that rarely make it into the fundraising conversation. She shares four practical moves any organization can put in place this week, no tech background required.What you'll learn:Why AI-governed organizations are pulling ahead while everyone else is improvisingThe three numbers behind nonprofit AI's donor trust problem, and why donors notice even when they can't name what feels offThe real cost behind the tools that never shows up in a donor letterFour moves to close the trust gap, starting with a policy you can write todayResources for you from this episode:Free nonprofit AI policy template download to get you started hereAn easy-read blog with a full breakdown on how to use AI responsibly as a nonprofit,  here.Donorbox is a trusted fundraising platform serving more than 100,000 organizations worldwide, helping them raise over $4 billion and counting. Learn more at donorbox.org.Enjoying the show? Subscribe for more practical fundraising strategies, leadership insights, and tools to help your nonprofit grow sustainably.This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as legal or financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor for guidance specific to your organization.Support the show

If a funder evaluated your organization today, what would they find? Would they find an organization that's prepared for long-term investment? Or would they find a passionate founder carrying the entire nonprofit on their back? Because the answer to that question often explains why funding comes or why it doesn't. The goal isn't simply to receive a grant. The goal is to build an organization that gives funders confidence to invest for years to come.

What if you could just... skip the whole "having a board of directors" part of running a nonprofit? Turns out, you're not the only one who've thought about it! We all know every nonprofit pro has quietly wondered at some point whether they really need a board at all. This week's listener question puts that quiet part out loud, and we dig into what's really going on when a board goes off the rails. Real Listener Question: "I work for a small business league and our whole board is useless. They do nothing to help us but keep finding random projects for us to do. The directors all say they're too busy for their normal board duties. My ED and I are wondering if there's a way to get all the board members to just sign away their roles so we don't have to have a board at all. Can we do that?" Meghan and I break down what a board is actually supposed to do, why some people join boards for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission, and why "let's just get rid of them" is a fantasy (even though the underlying frustration is very real). What You'll Learn: What the core job of every nonprofit board actually is Why some boards drift into micromanaging staff and how it happens Why "signing away" board roles isn't a legal option (sorry!) What to do when board members treat staff like their personal assistants Why board and staff relationships are hard for every nonprofit When it's time to bring in outside training for your board Bottom line: It's completely normal to be frustrated with your board. You're not alone. But the answer isn't getting rid of them. It's figuring out what your board is actually there to do and getting them back on track. Resources from this Episode Previous Episode: https://birkenlaw.com/charity-therapy-podcast/ct169-nonprofit-retirement-christopher-tipper/ Episode Transcript: https://birkenlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/CT_Ep170_Transcript.pdf Connect with Us Jess Birken: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessbirken/ Meghan Heitkamp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-heitkamp-829254115/ Listen & Engage Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon Music Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts: Click "Ratings and Reviews" then "Write a Review" Send us your nonprofit questions: https://birkenlaw.com/podcast/#podcast-story   Stay Connected Sign up for the Birken Law Email list: https://birkenlaw.com/signup/   Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Send us Fan MailHow do you scale a nonprofit internationally without imposing outside assumptions on the people and communities you serve? John Molineux, founder and CEO of Love Justice International, shares a global nonprofit operating model built around local leadership, measurable impact, technology, and organizational humility. Love Justice International works to prevent human trafficking at the moment when a person is in transit but has not yet been exploited. Through a strategy known as transit monitoring, locally led teams identify warning signs at bus stations, train stations, airports, and border crossings. The organization now operates in 18 countries and reports more than 115,000 trafficking interceptions. Even more striking is the organization's improvement in efficiency: its cost per interception declined from approximately $1,000 in 2021 to $112 today. That progress did not come from exporting a Western management system. John explains that Love Justice International learned, often through failed pilots, to identify trusted national champions, support locally selected leadership, adapt its tools to each context, and maintain clear operating standards. “Equip the right people for impact rather than command and control,” John says. He also describes humility as a formal management practice. “Admit your weaknesses is one of our values.” Teams are encouraged to criticize their own work, question reported impact, seek feedback, and remain alert to the possibility of unintended harm. This inspiring conversation also explores what John calls “impact engineering”: combining process improvement, data, artificial intelligence, social-media monitoring, and technology to produce more life-changing impact from every contributed dollar. Love Justice International now operates a technology team, a data-science team, and Searchlight, one of the world's largest human-trafficking databases.Key Takeaways: * Recruit credible local champions before establishing programs, leadership teams, or boards.* Separate locally adaptable practices from the standards required to preserve program effectiveness.* Measure unit cost to show donors how resources translate into life-changing outcomes.* Build continual improvement through stakeholder feedback, failed-pilot analysis, and honest self-evaluation.* Treat technology, data science, and AI as mission infrastructure rather than administrative extras.* Scale by equipping local leaders—not by directing every decision from headquarters.00:00:00 Global Nonprofit Leadership Across Borders00:01:51 Preventing Human Trafficking in Transit00:03:06 The Origin of Love Justice International00:05:38 Prevention Versus Post-Trafficking Response00:06:39 Scaling Transit Monitoring to 18 Countries00:09:32 Learning From Local Teams and Failed Pilots00:10:33 Government Cooperation and Staff Security00:12:17 Navigating Language and Cultural Complexity00:14:59 Institutionalizing Humility and “Do No Harm”00:16:34 Recruiting Local Champions for Expansion00:18:34 Reducing Cost per Interception to $11200:20:25 Impact Engineering, AI, Data, and Technology00:24:03 Donor Motivation and Life-Changing Impact00:25:08 Scaling the Mission and Deterring Trafficking#humantrafficking  #GlobalNonprofits #TheNonprofitShowFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us  Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits!  12:30pm ET   11:30am CT  10:30am MT  9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

Jacks joins us this week to begin our journey into Paris Is Always a Good Idea. ABOUT: PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (SEASON 1 EPISODES 1 & 2) Nonprofit executive Chelsea is in Paris to secure a major donor, but begins an unexpected journey across Europe to reconnect with her past loves. + Chelsea begins her journey to reconnect to her past and to find Colin, a sheep farmer in Ireland; Annabelle accompanies her and Knightly grows curious. AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR: PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (SEASON 1 EPISODES 1 & 2) July 31, 2026 | Hallmark+ CAST & CREW OF: PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (SEASON 1 EPISODES 1 & 2) Lacey Chabert as Chelsea Martin BRAN'S PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA (SEASON 1 EPISODES 1 & 2) SYNOPSIS Chelsea is talking into her phone, telling someone about her love story. It all takes place in Europe where she was on a gap year. What Chelsea wasn't expecting was that she'd fall in love with not 1, not 2, but 3 different men! That gap year ended suddenly when she finds out that her mom is dying. 10 years later, she walks into her office at the American Cancer Coalition to find her work rival, Jason Knightly, using her treadmill desk. Chelsea isn't having Jason's nonsense. She is working hard on trying to secure a big $50 million donation. The CEO of this skincare company is intrigued by this but wants to talk to her more in person...in Paris! She's very hesitant to go back to Paris. She goes over to her dad's house to have family dinner with her sister, Annabelle, and their dad Glenn. Oh and his new boo thang Sheri. Chelsea tells them about going to Paris and they all look at her like she's dying. Apparently they all went to Paris together after their mom passed to complete her bucket list but Chelsea broke down crying before they could do any of the things on their mom's list. Annabelle and Dad decide they're gonna come with to be her support system. But when they get there, Chelsea sees Annabelle brought their mom's itinerary and she gets really mad. She's not ready to say goodbye to mom. To make matters worse, she looks out the window of the hotel and Jason Knightly is there. She goes down there and he's like oh our boss didn't tell you? We're partners. I'm your closer. She opens up about why her family is there and he encourages her to do it. So she calls the family and off they go to start the journey. And it starts off ok but the fun quickly ends when the 2nd stop of the trip is closed down. It becomes clear in these audio messages that a lot has changed for them in the past 10 years. This is a mess. She and her sister make up and go out to dinner. Annabelle was surprised to hear their mom describe Chelsea as a romantic. Annabelle says she's never even seen her date. Chelsea tells her about the 3 guys she fell in love with. Annabelle tells her to go for it - try to find those guys. They go dancing and wouldn't you know it, Jason Knightly is there when he should be working on the pitch. She tells him she hates him but when she touches his chest, the sparks fly. I'm sure it's nothing. The next morning, Chelsea gets word that her meeting has been rescheduled. Classic power move. Chelsea decides not to get mad. Instead, she's going to try to find these 3 lovers. So off to Ireland she goes to try to find the first one. We get a bit of their story. She met this dude and fell for him when he sang a song for her. He handmade her a compass. They kissed looking over the water and she promised to come back. But she never did. So she heads back to Ireland with her sister to try to track this Colin down. In a crazy move, apparently Chelsea didn't tell Jason Knightly that she was going on a short vacay. She finally catches him up to speed but won't tell him why she's in Ireland, so he takes to some Instagram stalking. She makes it to the farm but runs off when she sees him walking up. She's freaking out. He's not just a guy. What if he's THE guy? She goes back into town to get a change of shoes and clothes and heads back to the farm. He's pumped to see her. He's busy shearing the sheep but they agree to go out for dinner. But shocker of the century, he shows up with his WIFE AND KIDS!!! So I guess that's not where she's supposed to be. She ends the day by calling Jason Knightly to talk about work...and anything else. The episode ends with her Paris beau emailing her back asking to meet. Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtubeInterested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do you walk into the end of the year with your monthly giving program finally built? More than HALF of the nonprofit professionals who joined my recent monthly giving webinars either had no recurring giving program or had started one and stalled. And after analyzing feedback and behavior from more than 1,000 nonprofit leaders, I found that there are three primary barriers keeping organizations from making recurring giving the front door to fundraising.I also take you behind the scenes of how I use Claude and MCP connectors to analyze webinar registrations, purchasing behavior, and participant feedback in a single afternoon. Plus, why another webinar, workbook, or framework won't solve the problem unless it helps your team produce the actual program name, landing page copy, email sequence, and board-ready plan.Resources & Links This episode is presented by The Monthly Giving Builder. If you are leaving real impact dollars on the table, sign up by August 12th for just $49.99/month and get FREE access to 3 LIVE sessions on August 17, 20, and 27 to help you stand up your monthly giving program.With the Monthly Giving Builder, you can generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. Supercharge your monthly giving program and apply for my Monthly Giving VIP Intensive session. Only 2 spots are available this fall!Let's Connect!Send a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what you think of the show!My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.Want to book Dana as a speaker for your event? Click here!

When tasked with charting a course forward, Dr. Traci Lester, the final president of The Opportunity Agenda (TOA), chose to lead the organization through a deliberate dissolution rather than let it persist in a weakened state. Farra Trompeter, co-director, talks with Dr. Lester about what leaders need to make difficult decisions, from embracing ambiguity to building collaborative decision-making processes. They explore how Traci communicated internally and externally through the crisis, the importance of vulnerability and support systems, and why emerging leaders should still lean into this work. Get honest insight into leadership, change management, and what it really takes to thrive.

Pamela Morrison grew up, as she puts it, "poor without knowing it". As far as she was concerned, she had plenty - friends of all ethnicities, two parents at home, and a supportive community. These strong bonds prompted her to give back to her community as a social worker, perhaps a common story, except for Pamela's distinct longevity. In a field known for burnout, her commitment to social work endured for 35 years, and after a brief retirement, she worked at a prominent nonprofit for another 12 years. Pamela tried again to retire, but "found it boring". She became CEO of Mercy Center of Arizona instead, a trauma‑informed reentry program offering IOP services, vocational development, on‑site medical care, and housing for individuals experiencing homelessness. Throughout this episode, Pamela shares the secrets behind her steadfastness as a person who is called to care for others. One secret in particular? Don't forget why you do what you do. Wisdom and encouragement abound in this episode, so bring an open heart and listen in.To learn more about Mercy Center: www.mercycenterofarizona.orgTo reach Pamela directly: pamela@mercycenteraz.com

When you decided to start your nonprofit, your goal was simple: you wanted to help people. You saw a need in your community, developed a program to address it, and stepped forward to make a difference. But somewhere along the way, you realized you had taken on something much bigger than a program. You had become responsible for an entire organization. I've seen this happen time and time again. Passionate leaders enter the nonprofit world with a heart to serve, only to discover they are suddenly responsible for governance, fundraising, financial management, compliance, operations, board development, strategic planning, and so much more. The challenge isn't that you lack passion. The challenge is that most nonprofit leaders were never prepared for the organizational responsibilities that come with leading a nonprofit.

Tosha lays out rule number one for nonprofit financial health: monthly reports, on a fixed schedule, every single time. At The Charity CFO, that means a strict 15-day reporting cycle — even when data is missing from a client's team, the report still goes out, flagging what's incomplete and what it could mean financially. Tosha shares a real example: an organization spent three to seven years' worth of planned capital improvements in just two years — the kind of overspend a proper budget-to-actual analysis would have caught early, before it became a crisis.#NonprofitFinance #BudgetToActual #FinancialReporting #NonprofitLeadership #CapitalPlanningFollow Us Online

The Portland-based organization Stone Soup hosts a twelve-week culinary education training for individuals that have had significant employment barriers, whether that be experiences with substance abuse, gaps in work experience, lack of access to resources or housing, or other systemic obstacles. The program works to equip those participants with skills to enter the food service industry.   The organization was founded in 2018, and its community kitchen program also provides meals to senior care communities, schools, mental health facilities and shelters, some of which are cooked by those participating in the culinary training program, and some of which are cooked by Stone Soup staff.    We’ll hear from the organization’s director, Ellen Damaschino, and one of the participants of the program, Mikey Barth, about the culinary training program, as well as the organization’s work to provide meals to community organizations.  

In this episode of Passion, Purpose, and Possibilities, I sit down with Nicole Zapoli, a professional fitness and wellness coach, owner of NZ Fitness, author of Live Fit From the Inside Out: The Six Shifts to Living Your Strongest, Healthiest, and Happiest Life, and mom of two.  With over 25 years of experience, a pro card in natural bodybuilding, and a background ranking among the top 5% of CrossFit Games Open athletes, Nicole breaks down what it truly takes to build holistic health from the ground up. Together, we explore how early childhood athletics built her lifelong discipline, why physical movement and mindset shifts are more powerful than just talking through problems, and how simple daily habits can transform your health and mindset.   In this episode, we discuss: How an eight-year-old Nicole dressed up for Career Day with a vision to become a coach and gym owner How childhood gymnastics built early resilience, body respect, and physical confidence Why early open conversations about eating disorders helped Nicole focus on sports nutrition and proper fueling Why gymnastics provides the ultimate physical and mental foundation for all sports and life skills How parents can teach discipline and consistency to kids, even on days they don't feel like showing up The SHIFTS acronym: Sleep, Hydration, Intake, Fitness, Thoughts, and Sunshine Why thoughts and mindset are the most essential shift for creating sustainable life change Why taking physical action and moving your body rewires the brain and eases anxiety far better than passive discussion The childhood stick-shift driving lesson from Nicole's dad that inspired her book's core philosophy Nicole's upcoming 2027 fitness and yoga retreat and her ultimate dream of opening a holistic wellness ranch   “You're not gonna stay in fourth or fifth gear forever. We've gotta be able to shift down, take rest, and be able to shift back depending on where we are and where we're going.” - Nicole Zapoli   About Nicole: Nicole Zapoli is a professional fitness and wellness coach, owner of NZ Fitness, and author of "Live FIT From the Inside Out: The 6 SHIFTS to Living Your Strongest, Healthiest, and Happiest Life." With over 25 years of experience, a Pro card in natural bodybuilding (Figure & Sports Model), and ranking among the top 5% CrossFit Games Open athletes, Nicole is a leading expert in holistic wellness, having trained thousands globally. Nicole's journey began at age eight, dreaming of owning her own gym and becoming a coach. The turning point came when, at 14, training at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, she witnessed peers struggling with eating disorders, which profoundly shifted her mission to help people live healthier, happier lives beyond competition. Later, overcoming personal anxiety and imposter syndrome as a single mom and gym owner further solidified her understanding of self-worth. Through her journey, Nicole developed a unique approach to help athletes, busy parents, and professionals achieve lifelong wellness through what she calls the SHIFTS Framework. Book: Live FIT from the Inside Out: The 6 SHIFTS to Living Your Strongest, Healthiest, and Happiest Lifehttps://a.co/d/0hl2NQT9 https://nicolezapoli.comhttps://www.instagram.com/nicolezapoli/https://www.instagram.com/_nz_fitness/ ----- Connect with Candice Snyder! Website: https://www.podpage.com/passion-purpose-and-possibilities-1/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candicebsnyder?_rdr Passion, Purpose, and Possibilities Community Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passionpurposeandpossibilitiescommunity/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionpurposepossibilities/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicesnyder/ Shop For A Cause With Gifts That Give Back to Nonprofits: https://thekindnesscause.com/ Go to FusionaryFormulas.com and use code PASSION at checkout for 15% off your first order.  Fall In Love With Artists And Experience Joy And Calm: https://www.youtube.com/@movenartrelaxation