Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Dot Org: How Nonprofits Tell Their Stories

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

If you’re a loyal listener of this podcast, or if you’ve followed me in any context – social media, my workshops about nonprofit storytelling – you’ve probably heard me talk about Lekotek of Georgia. For nearly 15 years I have been on the board at this terrific nonprofit in the Atlanta area. In that time, we have built up a culture of storytelling that I always reference as a model for other nonprofits of a similar size: meaning, relatively small. It’s only fitting that I’d devote a full episode of DOT ORG to interviewing the woman at the heart of the organization, Helene Prokesch. She’s been the executive director of Lekotek ever since she founded it in 1983.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

We’re 16 episodes in, and we’re breaking new ground: two guests! It's a special moment for a special subject: ethical storytelling, and how nonprofits protect our clients while advocating and fundraising for our organizations. My guests do exactly this through their work with YWCA Southern Arizona. Magdalena Verdugo is the Y's CEO. Frank Velásquez is the founder of 4 Da Hood. They join me on DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

This is an episode I’ve been anticipating for months, because it’s about a project I haven’t really said much about publicly. But it’s a project that means so much to me, and it’s a project that I think could be of such great use for nonprofits nationwide looking to, quite simply, change the conversation.

I was approached early last year by Candice Jordan, the Chief Development Officer for Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. She was interested in video beyond the ample video they already do. She was looking for a project of major scope that would change the conversation around affordable housing and place homeownership in the center of that. The result is a 15-minute documentary called Rooted that is rolling out publicly this spring.

Jordan is my guest for this episode of DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

Let me take you back almost five years. I had just accepted a job with Scripps Media to be a national correspondent. Scripps owns more than 60 local TV news stations. I would travel the country, putting together stories to air on all of those stations. The subject? The issues the news didn’t cover enough, and the people, groups, and communities bringing solutions. My first task was to become as well-read on as many issues as possible facing our towns and cities.

That’s when I discovered Next City, a nonprofit news outlet telling those very stories in print form.

Over the next few years, the perspective and insights I gathered from groups like Next City guided my own storytelling in so many ways. I’m a regular listener to their podcast. I’m happy to have their executive director, Lucas Grindley, on mine. He’s here to talk about storytelling from a nonprofit news model … and storytelling tips any nonprofit can use.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

This interview is not only going to be insightful for you; it’s a personal one for me. In fall 2025 I produced an impact video for Community Farmers Markets in Atlanta. It was a true pleasure, because I’ve been going to their different markets for years. Working on their video, I was so impressed with CFM’s approach, in a few ways that I think will be illuminating for your organization: (1) having a brand and brand strategy that informs your storytelling goals; and (2) trusting your community with the challenges you face. My guest is Ana Maria Páramo, co-executive director and creative director of Community Farmers Markets.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

As I record this, it’s early January. If you work with or lead a nonprofit, you’re probably either figuring out and embarking on your strategic game plans for the year. If that plan includes video – and it absolutely should, because of all the ways video tells your story best – I want to provide a framework for how to determine your investment in 2026. This is your nonprofit's video game plan for 2026. We talk larger strategy, dive into the two paths for video storytelling, and for each you’ll leave with three questions/prompts to get yourself and your organization started with investing in video in the year ahead. 

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

As someone who spends my days making videos for nonprofits, I always admire the nonprofits that have a clearly defined strategy for video. And in Atlanta, a recent client of mine is a perfect example.

FreeRent.Org is a young nonprofit, but you wouldn’t know it by their video output. They post everywhere, from Instagram to LinkedIn. They use videos on their web site. And they recently brought me in for a video specifically geared at a major fundraising event. They do it on all fronts, and they do it well. My guest is Ashley Stewart, the executive director of FreeRent.Org, with a thoughtful look into how they thrive.

FREERENT.ORG IMPACT VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW8Y16ryv34

This is Episode 10. It’s a milestone episode. Double digits. And in each of the first nine, I can tell you how I feel when I finish listening. Invigorated. Ready to get out there and do what I love for this space. And thankful for all the nuggets of insight provided by our guest. 

I want to try to capture that in this episode by mining those insights, specifically those about video. We’re switching it up a bit. No guest today … it’s just me. And I’ll be going through ten lessons from ten episodes of Dot Org about nonprofit storytelling through video. We all know video can be complicated. It can be intimidating. It can challenging. And that’s just doing one video, let alone building a strategy around it. But not only is it possible to fundraise and raise awareness through video, I’d say it’s essential for long-term growth. 

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast. is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

Sometimes organic conversations just turn into a podcast, and that's what happened here. I was chatting on Google Meet with Kacey Koeppel, associate director of the Pink Agenda, and the discussion was so rich that I inquired, "Do you think we could continue this on my podcast?" In this episode, Koeppel speaks about the pillars of nonprofit storytelling and how to approach it, no matter your nonprofit's size. 

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast. is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

For Episode 8, I'm excited to bring in Lasima Turmon, program director for the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area. I gave a workshop for her foundation last month, and it was a rich, rewarding conversation about video storytelling. The concerns and questions on the minds of those in the room are among the many things we discuss here.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast. is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

For Episode 7, I'm excited to bring in Ralph Jean of Resource Rural. When I give presentations on visual storytelling for nonprofits, I always discuss the importance of the overarching strategy. Creating videos and posting them on social media is great, but if you don’t know how that fits into your larger goals, you’re not using video to your best potential. As the communications manager for Resource Rural, Ralph Jean brings a unique perspective on this.

At this time in 2024, I was a news reporter, working for the person who’s my guest today: Evident Media founder and executive director Zach Toombs.

Back in '24 we worked for a for-profit news company. Now Toombs runs a not-for-profit news organization, boldly taking on documentary storytelling from a nonprofit model. Not only has he overseen masterful long-form projects throughout his career, but in this role he also oversees how he tells the story of his own upstart organization. Through that, he shares insights that are valuable for nonprofits of any size with any level of background in storytelling.

A few weeks back, I read about the Climate Storytellers Summit, bringing in fascinating individuals doing critical storytelling work on maybe the most critical issue of our lives. The summit platformed so many voices, and one of the leaders behind it is my guest on this episode: Bethany Wiggin, co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania’s Program in Environmental Humanities and the founder of Penn’s My Climate Story initiative.

Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

We are now into Episode 4, and unlike Episodes 1 thru 3, I had not met the person I was interviewing until a few minutes before our conversation. But I’d worked with her organization on one of the most important projects of my career as a journalist.

Back in the fall of 2022, I put together a documentary for Scripps Media called The Love of Care. I spent a day in the life with six individuals who serve as unpaid caregivers members of their families. Through that project I became familiar with Caring Across Generations, an advocacy group that doesn’t just speak up for caregivers. They teach caregivers how to speak up for themselves, how to tell their own stories.

The person who oversees that work, among other things, is the person I shared the screen with for this episode: Lydia Storie, the director of culture change for Caring Across Generations.

I got the chance to know this guest late last year when I collaborated with her and her organization on an impact video. We hit it off quickly over a shared love of a few select storytelling projects and a similar outlook on embracing authenticity when telling your own story.

That’s the topic for Episode 3 of DOT ORG.

And she is my guest: Jeronica Harts, Director of Community Engagement and Partnerships for Purpose Built Schools Atlanta.

Recently I worked with a client that provides grants and guidance for nonprofits in the climate space, particularly solar and clean energy. They wanted a video that spotlighted several of their grantees, which – in one case – sent me on a cross-country trip to the Bay Area to meet a truly impressive nonprofit with an equally impressive leader. He is the founder and executive director of RE-volv, Andreas Karelas.

For more than a decade, RE-volv has made storytelling central to not just its marketing but its mission. It's listed as a climate justice nonprofit that helps nonprofits across the country go solar, while also raising awareness about solar's benefits. Video intertwines with that mission, and it's a non-negotiable investment for Karelas and his team.

Karelas is my guest on Episode 2 of DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast. is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

For Episode 1, we’re not holding back. My guest is Brent Pease, someone I’ve known for nearly 14 years. I knew him when he was just planting the seeds of the nonprofit he now co-leads, the Kyle Pease Foundation. And I’ve watched him and his brother grow those seeds into something absolutely special and impactful. On this episode, Brent speaks about investing in visual storytelling and seeing the payoff a decade down the road.