Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Nonprofit Pulse

Gregg Hunter says a membership nonprofit proves its worth by knowing its members' greatest threats and greatest needs, and then addressing them. Gregg is the President and CEO of Christian Camp and Conference Association, which serves more than 800 camps and conference centers. He has led CCCA since 2009.

Membership organizations live or die on perceived value. Too often, members keep paying dues without knowing why. Gregg shares how CCCA builds its strategy, tells stories that matter to its members, and speaks with one voice for hundreds of independent camps.

In this episode:

• What one voice means when every member camp has its own brand, board, and story
• Why CCCA surveys members every three years on their greatest threats and needs
• What Gregg learned at Boeing about holding storytelling to a standard of perfection
• Why knowing your audience decides whether a story connects
• The three reasons camps renew: belonging, savings, and ways to connect
• How a food service contract can save one member camp $92,000 a year
• How roundtable discussions connect camp staff who work far from their peers
• How CCCA spoke with one voice to the media after the tragedy at Camp Mystic
• Why stories of changed lives come first
• Why CCCA will not exploit someone's pain for its gain, a lesson from Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission
• Why CCCA sees itself as a long haul movement, not a group chasing the latest thing
• How core disciplines like marketing, finance, fundraising, and food service shape member training
• Why setting annual priorities is like painting a picture
• One storytelling habit and one strategy habit to borrow from CCCA's playbook

You will leave with a clearer way to prove your value to members, choose the stories that keep them coming back, and set priorities around what they need most.

Episode highlights: Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:26) What one voice means for a membership nonprofit (2:48) How member threats and needs shape your strategy (3:55) Why quality matters in membership storytelling (6:22) The three reasons members renew (10:43) How to speak with one voice when hard news hits (14:02) Which stories to tell and which to protect (17:44) Why a membership nonprofit can be a movement, not a trade group (19:15) How core disciplines shape member training (20:38) How to decide what gets airtime in your annual narrative (22:41) One storytelling habit to borrow for your membership nonprofit (24:36) Closing thoughts

Guest: Gregg Hunter, President and CEO, Christian Camp and Conference Association https://www.ccca.org/

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-membership-nonprofits

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Bill Crouch says deeper donor connections are not a fancier way to say thank you. Bill is the CEO of BrightDot Fundraising Advisors, and for 40 years he has helped nonprofits reimagine fundraising. His idea of mattership starts with one question every donor is asking: does my life matter?

Many nonprofits connect with supporters mostly around gifts, events, and appeals. That keeps the calendar full, but it can leave donors feeling managed instead of valued. Bill shares how nonprofits can move beyond transactions and build relationships that make supporters feel they truly matter.

In this episode:

• Why stewardship is still transactional, and what a real relationship looks like
• Why the month after a golf tournament matters more than the month before
• The one question a funeral home owner says everyone is asking
• How mattership helps high wealth donors see that their lives are significant
• Why high wealth donors need different vocabulary and new collateral
• The personal touches that signal a real relationship, from stationery to texts
• The text message test for knowing a relationship is moving forward
• How a question about a favorite childhood toy reveals a donor's joy
• Why mattership has to start inside your own development team
• How longevity bonuses can help fundraisers stay past 16 months
• Why a $20 gift with a thoughtful note is an investment, not an expense
• How one donor went from giving $100 a year to a $5 million gift
• The stories major donors want to hear, and why listening comes first
• Why asking a donor for advice makes them feel they matter

You will leave with a clearer picture of what it takes to build donor relationships that last, and a few simple ways to start this week.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:21) What deeper donor connections mean beyond stewardship (4:22) The hidden cost of letting events define donor relationships (12:15) Signs a donor feels known, not managed (19:45) How to build a culture where everyone feels they matter (25:53) Low-cost ways a small team can make donors feel they matter (29:40) How one donor went from $100 a year to a $5 million gift (32:27) How to tell stories that invite donors into the mission (36:22) Why asking for advice shows donors they matter (40:11) Closing thoughts

Guest: Bill Crouch, CEO, BrightDot Fundraising Advisors https://thebrightdot.com/

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-donor-relationships

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Amberlee Burrows says a nonprofit data strategy starts with the information behind every gift, donor record, and interaction. The Development and Salesforce Director at Bearing Tree explains that gift processing is not just administrative work. It creates donor intelligence that helps fundraisers improve communication and build stronger long-term relationships.

Missing contact details, duplicate records, and delayed gift entry can lead to returned mail, awkward donor interactions, inaccurate tax receipts, missed major-gift opportunities, and fundraising asks based on an incomplete view of a donor’s giving history. Amberlee shares how nonprofits can strengthen data quality, standardize gift processing, and make more informed fundraising decisions.

In this episode:

• Why gift processing should be a core part of your nonprofit data strategy, not simply back-office work
• How reliable donor data helps fundraisers build stronger, more personal donor relationships
• The donor communication mistakes that can happen when gifts, contact details, and household records are not updated
• How duplicate donor records can split a donor’s giving history and cause fundraisers to underestimate donor value
• Why incomplete donor profiles can lead teams to make the wrong ask amount or miss major-gift opportunities
• Three donor data quality checks to run: duplicate-contact reports, contact-completeness reports, and current-donor reports
• How to match potential duplicates using multiple fields, including donor name, email address, and mailing address
• The donor details to capture from mailed checks, online donations, campaign pages, and other everyday transactions
• How donor interests, program engagement, volunteer activity, and outreach history support segmentation and personalized communication
• A realistic data standard for small and mid-sized nonprofits: every donor should have at least one valid contact method
• Why clear ownership, standardized gift-processing procedures, trained backups, timely deposits, and regular reconciliation reduce risk
• How better gift processing can prevent lost checks, improve tax-receipt accuracy, reduce audit stress, and increase trust in the CRM
• Why clean, connected donor records must come before AI, predictive analytics, and personalized major-gift outreach
• How automating online gift processing into your CRM can reduce manual entry, limit human error, and give staff more time for donor stewardship

You will leave with a clearer nonprofit data strategy for improving gift processing, strengthening donor data quality, using your CRM with greater confidence, and turning everyday donor information into fundraising intelligence.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:32) Where weak fundraising operations show up first (3:01) Why gift processing should be part of your nonprofit data strategy (4:17) How poor gift processing and data entry affect fundraising results (6:25) How duplicate donor records distort donor value (8:32) Three ways to check whether your donor data is good enough (13:03) How better gift processing and caging improve fundraising operations (17:09) The donor data you need for better segmentation and communication (19:30) A realistic nonprofit data strategy for small and mid-sized teams (21:32) Why clean donor data needs to come before AI and advanced analytics (26:04) The one gift-processing improvement to make in the next 30 days (27:38) Closing thoughts

Guest: Amberlee Burrows, Development and Salesforce Director, Bearing Tree https://bearingtree.com/

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-data-strategy

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Michael Medoro says nonprofit coalition building works when partners stay grounded in a shared mission, bring their own strengths to the work, and remain clear about what they can and cannot do. The Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at Childhelp explains that bold advocacy is not about being the loudest voice in the room. It is about being clear, disciplined, and focused on outcomes for the people you serve.

Some of the biggest challenges nonprofits address, including child abuse, trauma, and exploitation, cannot be solved by one organization working alone. Michael explains how coalitions can bring nonprofits, government agencies, corporations, and community partners together to reduce duplication, pool scarce resources, and advance systemic change.

In this episode:

• Why coalition building is becoming a more necessary strategy for nonprofits facing systemic challenges

• How mission-centered coalition work differs from partisan political advocacy

• Why coalitions can help nonprofits create systemic change that would take one organization much longer to achieve alone

• How Childhelp’s Children’s Advocacy Center model brings law enforcement, medical professionals, child welfare agencies, prosecutors, and forensic interviewers together to reduce retraumatization and better support children

• The common concerns nonprofits and corporate partners have about advocacy, including brand risk, loss of control, and slow decision-making

• How to keep advocacy focused on your mission instead of reacting to trends or the news cycle

• Why shared values and clear roles matter more than funding and operational plans alone

• How Childhelp stays focused on its core strengths while connecting people to trusted partners and local resources

• Why boards, legal teams, communications teams, and corporate partners should be involved early in coalition conversations

• The questions nonprofits should ask about mission alignment, governance, resources, ethics, and brand values before joining a coalition

• A practical coalition-building framework: trust first, structure second, results measurement third, and ongoing communication throughout

• How to explain coalition decisions to donors, staff, corporate partners, and communities by starting with the mission-based why

You will leave with a clearer way to evaluate coalition opportunities, establish boundaries and shared goals, build trust across sectors, and advocate for meaningful change without losing sight of your mission or your partners.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:18) Why coalition building matters for nonprofits today (3:52) How nonprofit coalition building differs from political advocacy (5:33) Why nonprofits choose coalition advocacy to strengthen mission impact (10:38) Common fears about coalition advocacy and corporate partnerships (11:55) How to keep advocacy focused on your mission (12:52) How shared values and clear roles build stronger coalitions (16:57) How boards and executive teams should approach coalition advocacy (18:26) Questions to ask before joining or launching a coalition (20:17) What effective coalition building looks like in practice (21:41) How to communicate coalition decisions with stakeholders (23:36) The future of coalition building for nonprofit impact (24:43) Closing thoughts

Guest: Michael Medoro, Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff, Childhelp ⁠⁠https://childhelp.org/⁠⁠](https://childhelp.org/⁠⁠

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-coalition-building

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/⁠

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Lindsay Whorton says nonprofit-public partnerships work best when nonprofits support a public system’s goals rather than trying to shape its decisions. As president of The Holdsworth Center, she explains that lasting partnerships require real alignment from the start, respect for the public leader’s chain of accountability, and the willingness to say no when the fit is not right.

Public systems often face constrained budgets, limited staff capacity, and urgent needs. That can make any outside resource feel like an opportunity. Lindsay says the better test is whether the nonprofit’s offering supports the system’s actual strategy and priorities, not simply whether it addresses a gap or comes with funding.

In this episode:

• How to tell the difference between a nonprofit partnership that strengthens a public system and one that quietly tries to direct it
• Why saying no to an unaligned partnership can protect a district’s limited time, attention, and capacity
• How The Holdsworth Center works through superintendents rather than approaching school boards directly
• What the organization’s five-year partnership with Lockhart ISD shows about shared ownership, redesigned leadership roles, and sustainable results
• Why the nonprofit takes responsibility for adapting its delivery to each district’s culture while keeping clear values-based boundaries
• How funder boundaries protect district confidentiality and keep district selection independent of outside influence
• Why real scale means building a system’s ability to continue the work after the partnership ends
• The questions to ask before entering a partnership, including whether the work aligns with the system’s goals and whether leaders have the capacity to benefit from it

You will leave with a way to evaluate nonprofit-public partnerships before they begin, clarify who owns the strategy and accountability, communicate boundaries with funders and stakeholders, and build support that strengthens public institutions without taking them over.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Intro (1:26) The growing need for nonprofit partnerships in public education (5:02) What a healthy nonprofit partnership with public schools looks like (7:51) Working inside public school systems without losing your mission (9:41) A public school partnership that strengthened outcomes for students and educators (13:22) The biggest fears about nonprofits working with public systems (14:40) Strategic support versus short-term fixes in public partnerships (17:53) Building trust and shared culture across nonprofit and public school teams (20:39) Getting boards and executive teams aligned around a public partnership (23:32) Questions to ask before entering into a public partnership (25:30) What it takes to build a long-term public school partnership (28:12) Clearly communicating roles in a nonprofit-public partnership (30:41) The future of nonprofit partnerships in public education

Guest: Lindsay Whorton, President, The Holdsworth Center ⁠https://holdsworthcenter.org/⁠

Full transcript and show notes: ⁠https://www.anedot.com/nonprofit-pulse⁠

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: ⁠https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/⁠

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Erica Cox has spent more than 30 years in technology consulting, and she says nonprofit AI adoption is the polar opposite of a large, singular transformation. The Chief Innovation Officer at Provisio Partners recommends small, controlled use cases that let a team fail fast or win fast while building the guardrails it needs.

The usual instruction is to clean all of your data first, then modernize systems, then consider AI. Erica says data readiness does not depend on organization size or a sophisticated platform. It depends on the minimum viable data required for a useful job.

In this episode:

• How to find a small AI use case inside a recurring process instead of starting with one large transformation project

• The minimum viable data test, including why asking staff to enter 100 fields can hurt both adoption and AI results

• How the Higher Learning Commission used runners, walkers, and bystanders to identify early adopters and bring more people in

• The guardrail behind Pacific Clinics' agent Hope, which had one identifier and no other information about a person

• Why a client kept staff at eight-hour days but helped them see ten kids instead of five and complete three grant applications instead of one

You will leave with a way to inventory AI already in use, choose a pilot, revisit governance monthly, and explain why responsible adoption can strengthen the human work your team does.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Starting with AI without a transformation (1:14) Small pilots beat the big transformation (3:14) The minimum viable data test (7:19) The runners, and permission to fail (10:31) How to inventory scattered data (13:18) What the agent named Hope actually does (15:37) Guardrails before sensitive data (19:19) Why AI is changing work so fast (25:38) Why ignoring AI can be risky (30:00) AI that strengthens human work (33:09) Where to start this week

Guest: Erica Cox, Chief Innovation Officer, Provisio Partners https://provisiopartners.com

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ai-how-to-start

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Krissie Kelleher brings more than 25 years of strategic fundraising experience to Team IMPACT, and she says an annual fundraising plan is not a document. It is a decision about what you will do and what you will not do.

The answer is not a 40-page plan no one reads. Krissie starts with the few revenue drivers that matter, maps the work across the year, and turns ambitious goals into math the team can manage. Fear is not a strategy, and neither is hope.

In this episode:

• How to identify the 3 to 5 core revenue drivers instead of treating every idea as equally important

• Why 70 to 80% of revenue is often predictable, while the rest can be tested, shrunk, or removed

• What a $3.7 million Team IMPACT gala reveals once $750,000 in event costs are counted

• How a 12-month calendar becomes the strategy for campaigns, appeals, events, and stewardship

• Why the top 25 prospects and 30%, 50%, and 75% yield calculations keep a pipeline honest

You will leave with a one-page planning approach, a calendar your team can follow, and a quarterly review rhythm for changing course. Focus on relationships, not activity for activity's sake. Krissie would take a sit-down visit with a major-gift prospect ten times more than an event invitation.

Episode highlights: (0:00) What the plan says no to (1:26) What makes a fundraising plan work (4:58) Choose revenue drivers that matter (8:36) A 12-month calendar people use (12:59) Targets ambitious enough to manage (18:25) Planning mistakes to avoid (24:55) When to revise the plan (27:58) Fundraising beyond the development team (34:16) Staying focused amid shiny objects (43:37) Start with the one-page plan

Guest: Krissie Kelleher, CEO, Team IMPACT

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-annual-nonprofit-fundraising-plan More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Luke Mickelson helped turn Sleep in Heavenly Peace into a volunteer-powered nonprofit with more than 300 chapters, and he did not want to become the bottleneck. The organization's national ambassador says founders do not always have to step back. They have to step differently, from daily operator to a role that protects the mission while local leaders carry it forward.

That transition demands a shared process, not hundreds of separate ways of doing the same work. It also demands an experience that lets volunteers contribute meaningfully, even if they have never touched a tool before.

In this episode:

• How Sleep in Heavenly Peace grew from seven chapters to 125 in less than a year, while its budget rose from $80,000 to $1 million in six months

• Why every chapter needs at least four core team members, rather than one or two people headed for burnout

• Why a jig that builds beds ten times faster with ten times fewer people can work against a volunteer-powered mission

• How public bed builds turn one person's 10 to 30 beds a year into a community effort that can build 300 or 400

• Why chapter presidents receive a weekly P&L and the organization presents its finances every quarter

You will leave with a framework for deciding what to centralize, choosing coachable chapter leaders, designing a meaningful volunteer experience, and preparing for the moment your organization outgrows you.

Episode highlights: (0:00) How to grow past the founder bottleneck (1:41) When founders must step differently (6:40) National standards, local ownership (9:49) A founder's job: vision, not operations (14:06) Keeping quality across 300 chapters (18:19) When growth breaks the system (22:33) Choosing leaders who can be coached (28:26) Volunteers who become long-term champions (35:13) Why radical transparency matters (41:40) Before your idea takes off (45:46) Where founders go from here

Guest: Luke Mickelson, National Ambassador, Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-scale-a-volunteer-powered-nonprofit

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Dave Raley, Founder and CEO of The Center for Sustainable Giving, says recurring giving programs do not grow on technology pixie dust. Recurring giving has changed with the subscription economy, but too many charities still treat it as a checkbox.

The average recurring donor retention rate is between 78 and 84%, yet a recurring program can still plateau when nobody owns it or donors have no reason to stay. Dave explains how to make recurring giving a full-fledged discipline, not a side project.

In this episode:

• What The Joshua Fund changed to grow from about 1,900 to more than 4,000 recurring donors in two years

• Why Netflix and Spotify spend heavily to acquire subscribers, and what that says about donor lifetime value

• The difference between voluntary and involuntary churn, including the 20 to 25% of cards that go bad each year

• Why a $1,500 to $3,000 recurring donor is worth a call when a payment fails

• The "how many and how much" questions to answer by the end of today before assessing six technology criteria

You will leave with a way to identify the owner of your program, define a recurring value proposition, and start reducing churn with the resources you already have. Technology can be a barrier or an ally, but it will not grow the program for you.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why recurring programs stop growing (1:06) Why resilient programs still plateau (3:44) Quick wins for a stagnant program (5:11) What Netflix and Spotify reveal (7:38) When recurring giving becomes core strategy (9:50) Who owns recurring giving? (12:49) A value proposition donors want to keep (15:08) Reducing churn and winning donors back (18:24) Growth without a big tech stack (21:20) First steps toward sustainable growth (24:42) Start with the program, not the technology

Guest: Dave Raley, Founder and CEO, The Center for Sustainable Giving

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-recurring-giving More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stephen Minix thinks nonprofit impact measurement starts with people, not a report or a platform. As Vice President of Community at UpMetrics, he helps investors, funders, and nonprofits move beyond transactional engagement toward authentic partnership.

An annual report that says everything worked is validation, not learning. Stephen explains how nonprofits can own their story, decide what success means for their intervention, and use information to improve instead of merely meeting a funder requirement. The work becomes more useful when teams can see themselves in the process.

In this episode:

• Why collecting every possible metric makes it harder to identify what actually matters

• How a single source of truth can replace disconnected surveys, budgets, marketing data, and spreadsheets

• What the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation event revealed by putting a story before the data

• Why Affirmative Athletics could move from the story to its data without putting Rob Thelusma on the back foot

• The $8 million funding loss that affected 12,000 kids across Los Angeles and exposed the cost of an ineffective data strategy

You will leave with a people-first approach to choosing useful measures, combining numbers with stories, and making room to change course when the data shows an intervention is not working. Start with the mission and values before looking for a tool.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When measurement becomes a burden (1:10) Make measurement work for your team (4:13) One source of truth, not scattered systems (7:20) From collecting data to improving programs (10:16) When numbers and stories work together (14:01) A shared framework with funders (17:46) From ad hoc reports to disciplined measurement (21:59) Data confidence for non-data people (26:39) Define the work before choosing a platform (29:49) Start with mission and values

Guest: Stephen Minix, Vice President of Community, UpMetrics

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-data-impact-measurement

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Laurie Hood has spent 20 years growing Alaqua Animal Refuge, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Northwest Florida, and she says nonprofit crisis preparedness begins long before an emergency. For Laurie, relationship building is not something to turn on in a crisis. It is work an organization lives every day.

When Hurricane Milton created an urgent need, Alaqua had less than 24 hours to organize hundreds of dogs from South Florida. The response worked because people knew its role, trusted its team, and could be assigned to work quickly.

In this episode:

• How Alaqua became part of a statewide disaster-response coalition before it needed to activate one

• What changed when hundreds of dogs arrived from South Florida and Alaqua was fully set up within 24 hours

• How more than 1,000 volunteers contributing 80,000 hours a year create readiness before the next call for help

• Why knowing volunteers' strengths lets a team assign tasks quickly, safely, and without chaos

• How to use AI as an intern to create a starting point for an emergency-management plan and identify community partners

You will leave with a simple first move: make one phone call this week, start one relationship in the calm season, and build the trust that turns goodwill into coordinated response.

Episode highlights: (0:00) The relationships a crisis response depends on (2:03) Build community before the emergency (4:18) Who needs to be at the table first (6:49) Making room for readiness on a maxed-out team (7:56) Why calm-season relationships matter (10:46) Earning a seat in emergency planning (14:16) Keeping volunteers engaged between crises (16:22) The cost of activating community too late (18:12) What a prepared response looks like (19:24) One call to start building readiness (21:05) Your first relationship this week

Guest: Laurie Hood, Founder, Alaqua Animal Refuge

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-community-before-a-crisis-hits More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Tasha Van Vlack says nonprofit ambassador programs fail when organizations treat people as a marketing tactic instead of building community. As Founder & Co-Director of The Nonprofit Hive, she has seen why a Slack channel full of posts to share can turn committed supporters into a distribution channel.

The goal is not simply brand awareness. Tasha argues that ambassadors should create trust, belonging, and influence around the mission. That begins by defining the purpose, choosing the right people, and giving the group a role that is clear without trying to control every action.

In this episode:

• Why an ambassador program should be a community strategy, not a cheaper substitute for paid advertising

• How The Nonprofit Hive used a one-page overview, an internal owner, and minimum expectations for its cohorts

• Why 12 ambassadors may need to become 18 instead of being asked to do more

• The value of separate tracks for a TikTok contributor and someone connected to a local chamber of commerce

• How a second-Wednesday monthly rhythm lets ambassadors put 12 months on the calendar

You will leave with a practical way to pilot an ambassador program, define its role, and recognize people without making the work feel transactional. Start small, learn from the pilot, and refine it.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When ambassadors become a distribution channel (1:08) Why ambassador programs miss the point (4:45) When programs turn transactional (7:00) Define the purpose before recruiting (8:53) What a working ambassador program needs (13:13) Values before marketing goals (17:18) Ambassadors as community leaders (20:01) Scaling without burning out supporters (25:59) Building belonging beyond the task list (30:08) How to start a program that lasts (37:08) Start small, learn, refine

Guest: Tasha Van Vlack, Founder & Co-Director, The Nonprofit Hive

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ambassador-programs More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Debra Hertz says a nonprofit merger can make one plus one equal five, but only when the organizations share a clear vision and common values. As Managing Director and founder of The Strategy Group, she helps nonprofit organizations build strength, clarity, and impact through moments of growth, transition, and complexity.

A merger is not automatically a sign of failure. Debra explains why leaders should look beyond themselves to what is best for the people they serve, while being honest about the time, money, and champion the process requires. Culture must be part of the conversation early, because cultures do not simply merge. The dominant culture dominates.

In this episode:

• How Connecticut's two food banks became a larger organization that served more pantries and saved $1 million a year

• Why the strongest mergers begin with common values, common vision, and a realistic view of non-negotiables

• The difference between a boardroom conversation and broad discussion before leaders have done their homework

• Why a merger can take 7 to 8 months, while an unusually compressed process can take 60 days

• How community foundations and capacity-building grants can help fund the work of exploring a merger

You will leave with a practical lens for deciding whether a merger is a strategic opportunity, how to raise the question responsibly, and which early issues deserve attention before a commitment. Reimagine the future around mission and community impact.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When one plus one can equal five (1:22) Why mission-driven mergers are rising (4:24) A merger that strengthened impact (5:52) The misconceptions that cloud merger talks (8:06) Strategic opportunity or desperation? (10:00) Why cultures do not simply merge (13:48) How boards should start the conversation (17:16) Questions to ask before pursuing a merger (18:37) What the merger process requires (20:55) Mergers as a sustainability strategy (23:15) Reimagine the future around mission

Guest: Debra Hertz, Managing Director and founder, The Strategy Group

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-mergers

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Christina Tzavaras Edwards has trained more than 10,000 nonprofit professionals across 20 countries, and she wants leaders to build fundraising systems that run like an engine instead of betting the budget on one annual event.

She is not anti-event. She is against high expense, high time, and high people power for diminishing returns. A fundraising engine carries momentum through the year, gives donors more than one moment to participate, and creates repeatable campaigns that compound over time.

In this episode:

• What makes a $10K+ sprint campaign different: a clear goal, a defined audience, and less than 30 days

• How clients raised $20K in 20 days and $10K in 10 days with sprint campaigns

• Why recurring-giving sprints moved one organization from 12 to 120 recurring donors

• Why PayPal is not a donation tool, and how a poor donation experience can block recurring giving

• How email, a 3-to-5-part welcome series, and personal texts can outperform a social media campaign

You will leave with a practical first step for launching a sprint in the next 30 days, a way to choose a real goal, and a better case for reallocating time from reactionary fundraising. Forward momentum includes hearing no, falling, and getting back up.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Stop betting the budget on one event (1:12) Fundraising as an engine (4:48) What scattered fundraising has to stop (6:42) What to prioritize before the next campaign (8:33) The anatomy of a $10K+ sprint (12:06) Campaigns that earn repeat giving (15:36) Storytelling beyond the transaction (16:44) Building a digital giving engine (21:30) Scaling mistakes to avoid (24:01) The first 30 days of your first sprint (24:48) Forward momentum, even after no

Guest: Christina Tzavaras Edwards, Founder of Splendid Consulting, Splendid Consulting Sprint campaign class: https://splendidcourses.com/sprintclass

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-fundraising-engines

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Dacia Moore says nonprofit leader burnout is too late. A licensed professional counselor and Founder of Second Wind Counseling and Consulting, she helps people build sustainable mental wellness and challenges leaders to stop treating themselves like machines.

Mission-driven work can make it easy to ignore the indicators and push through. Dacia explains that strength includes asking for help, taking basic care of yourself, and recognizing that leaders are interdependent. The nature of the work may not change, but what leaders do to manage it can.

In this episode:

• Why Dacia cites 95% of nonprofit leaders as worried about staff, while one third are worried about themselves

• The 1-to-10 exhaustion check leaders can use to compare how they feel now with last year

• Why a client who went to bed at midnight and got up at 3 a.m. to work needed a different approach

• How lunch outside the office at least three days a week can create space away from the pressure

• Dacia's 15-minute focus and 10-minute break version of the Pomodoro method

You will leave with small, sustainable ways to notice burnout sooner, protect time, and build a culture where counseling, coaching, and an EAP can be used without shame. Start now. Little things matter.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When mission work makes self-care feel optional (1:26) Why leader well-being cannot wait (4:58) What leaders carry behind the scenes (10:24) Early warning signs leaders miss (13:17) How burnout changes culture and retention (15:20) Well-being practices that fit mission work (20:31) Small habits that protect your capacity (25:33) A culture that makes support usable (34:04) Boundaries in mission-driven work (39:37) Little things matter

Guest: Dacia Moore, Founder, Second Wind Counseling and Consulting

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-leaders-mental-well-being

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Karen Alonso believes nonprofit event planning is not about a singular focus. As Chief Advancement and Communications Officer at United Way of Southern Nevada, she designs experiences that can fundraise, educate, build a supporter base, and turn attendees into advocates for a cause.

The work continues after people leave the room. Karen explains why every event needs a mission connection, participation before and during the experience, and a timely follow-up plan. The payoff is not just a dollar total. It is whether people remember the mission and choose to engage again.

In this episode:

• How United Way of Southern Nevada brings more than 1,000 volunteers together for Fall Day of Caring

• Why a save-the-date sent six or nine months ahead helps protect a fundraising gala from calendar conflicts

• The personal photo experience that gave attendees images they later used as Facebook and Instagram profile photos

• Why calling every attendee within 48 hours, with no ask involved, prevents the next-year-only follow-up mistake

• How a Salvation Army emcee's story of addiction and homelessness made the mission more memorable than figures alone

You will leave with a practical plan for designing an event people participate in, talk about afterward, and connect back to the mission. Measure the experience through engagement, follow-up, and the relationships it creates, not attendance and donations alone.

Episode highlights: (0:00) More than a fundraising event (1:24) Mission-first event design (7:35) Engagement before and during the event (13:52) Interactive moments people remember (18:18) Turn attendees into lasting supporters (23:31) Stories that make the mission stick (29:08) Success beyond attendance and donations (32:22) Follow up while the experience is fresh

Guest: Karen Alonso, Chief Advancement and Communications Officer, United Way of Southern Nevada

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-event-planning

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Courtney De Ronde says instinct can get a nonprofit to a certain level, but it cannot be the only guide when the organization is trying to grow, launch a program, or enter a new geography. As CEO of Forge Financial and Management Consulting, she helps leaders build reliable intelligence around the decisions that matter.

Hope is a great virtue, she says, but not a wonderful strategy. Courtney does not argue that leaders should ignore their gut. She argues that they should supplement it with clear outcomes, a system for gathering information, and a way to see what the organization needs to do next.

In this episode:

• How one client modeled best-case, better-case, and worst-case scenarios after governmental funding was affected

• The four areas in Courtney's system: finance, leadership, productivity, and human intelligence

• Why reliability, visibility, predictability, and flexibility must come before a dashboard can help

• The difference between a six-year-old small-dollar campaign anecdote and a measurable 3% annual-giving goal

• How 1- or 2-question pulse surveys can reveal more than isolated feedback from leaders or coordinators

You will leave with a way to move from gut-only decisions toward a system that makes instincts more valuable over time. Begin by getting visibility into where your organization is now, then define the result before you measure it.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When instinct is not enough (1:03) From gut calls to reliable insight (5:27) When funding cuts test your decisions (9:25) What insight-led decisions look like (11:58) Track the results that matter (18:03) Insights for donors, fundraising, and volunteers (24:49) A learning culture without losing creativity (27:43) The first move beyond gut instinct (29:14) Start with visibility, then define the result

Guest: Courtney De Ronde, CEO, Forge Financial and Management Consulting

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-leadership-insights-over-instincts

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Nathan Young has spent more than 12 years helping leaders use nonprofit storytelling to connect, inspire, and lead the narrative. The founder of StoryCulture Consulting says storytelling is more than recounting events. It is the cognitive tool people use to make sense of the world.

Instead of searching for one emotional story that sells, Nathan urges nonprofits to keep sharing many stories that make their work recognizable over time. The same discipline can shape fundraising, internal culture, and a leader's vision for the community.

In this episode:

• How the Mingei Museum connected a capital campaign to three distinct audiences, from younger millennials to legacy-minded donors

• Why opening every meeting with a story and sharing a story of the month can make storytelling part of the culture

• How accountants, HR staff, and volunteers can connect their everyday work to the mission statement and organizational values

• Why a leader's vulnerability sets the emotional tone, and why confidence matters even more than a polished story

• How fight, flight, freeze, and fawn can keep leaders from telling the bigger, more honest vision

You will leave with practical ways to find stories already inside your organization, invite more people to share them, and connect a near-term fundraising need to the community change you want to create.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why stories do more than sell (1:34) What makes supporters feel a story (5:48) Finding stories without a big moment (7:40) A culture built on stories (10:22) Getting staff and volunteers to share (13:11) Storytelling as leadership vision (16:18) Vision mistakes leaders make (20:56) Building a narrative that inspires (23:01) Naming the change you want (24:47) Growing confident as a storyteller (28:06) Start with stories you already have

Guest: Nathan Young, Founder, StoryCulture Consulting

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-storytelling-builds-powerful-engaging-leaders

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Lyn Wineman, founder, president, and chief strategist at KidGlov, says nonprofit branding is not a logo-and-colors exercise. After more than 15 years of nonprofit branding work, she sees tangled brands drain time, blur the mission, and leave leaders misaligned.

The usual impulse is to jump straight to a name, tagline, logo, or font. Lyn's eight-step framework starts somewhere else: visioning, audience research, peer analysis, and alignment before a nonprofit invests in creative elements.

In this episode:

• Why KidGlov's first five of eight brand-framework steps are strategy based, not creative

• The 30% marketing-time efficiency Lyn sees when an organization has a strong brand

• How a confusing name that sounded like a government agency became a fresh identity and better messaging

• Why storytelling produces emotion, emotion produces trust, and consistency signals quality

• The two facilitated conversations that bring leaders together before the fifth-step brand strategy session

You will leave with a way to diagnose whether your brand needs clarity, align the people who have to carry it, and begin before a major rebrand. Lyn's practical starting point is the brand compass, with fewer than ten questions.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Brand clarity before creative (2:16) Why Untangling Spaghetti tells a fable (4:41) The eight steps before the logo (6:31) Why clarity is worth the investment (8:46) How brand clarity changes culture (10:35) How clarity earns trust and loyalty (13:38) Why logos cannot create clarity (15:43) Getting leaders on the same page (21:17) The tools inside Untangling Spaghetti (23:43) The brand compass starting point

Guest: Lyn Wineman, founder, president, and chief strategist, KidGlov Kidglov.com

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-tangled-brand More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

James Misner has more than 20 years of fundraising leadership, and he says donor retention is not a mystery outside a nonprofit's control. The Founder & Owner of The Kipos Group identifies three reasons recurring donors stop giving, and says two of them come down to what an organization does after the gift is made.

The goal is to reinforce that a donor made an amazing decision from the moment they hit submit. That requires an experience built around appreciation, stories, and signals that catch a lapse before it becomes permanent.

In this episode:

• Why monthly donors leave when they do not know they made a difference or do not realize that they lapsed

• How a physical welcome packet can stay in a home for an average of four to six months, long after an email falls down the inbox

• Why James recommends hearing from your organization at least twice a month, with impact stories, frontline reports, and thought leadership

• The donor-appreciation finding behind random handwritten thanks, and why anniversary celebrations can give people an excuse to unsubscribe

• How 17 to 20 touchpoints reactivated a donor who gave $50,000 at the 17th touchpoint, then grew to $100,000 and eventually $250,000 a year

You will leave with concrete ways to welcome recurring donors, use stories instead of facts alone, monitor early-warning signals, and give a lapsed donor campaign enough time to work.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why recurring donors quietly stop giving (1:00) The three reasons donors leave (3:45) An experience that earns long-term loyalty (7:19) The twice-a-month contact rhythm (8:53) Creative thanks that keep donors close (11:35) Stories that make the impact real (14:27) Using data to find lapsed donors (16:52) Personal outreach that reconnects donors (20:35) A retention plan you can start today (23:57) Give the campaign time to work

Guest: James Misner, Founder & Owner, The Kipos Group

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-maximize-donor-retention More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Pat Taggart, Founder of SkyBlue Creative, says nonprofit video storytelling does not need an $8,000 camera or a word-perfect script. The former documentary filmmaker believes the cell phone in your pocket can be a better tool, because people do not want perfection. They want humanity, honesty, and authenticity.

Video has the power to move people from knowing something exists to feeling something. Pat explains how nonprofits can make that connection without forced performances, inflated production budgets, or videos that keep talking after the story is over.

In this episode:

• Why a cell phone, tripod, light, and microphone can cost about 100 bucks all in

• How six, eight, or ten video FAQs can turn repeated questions into a human touch point

• Why scripts are the enemy of great content, and how an editor can shape an unscripted conversation

• The test for video length: as long as the content is compelling, and not a second longer

• Why Pat points to The Bonnell Foundation and Leaven Kids while discussing how to let people into your world

You will leave with a simpler way to put people on camera, select a useful format, and judge whether a video is working. You do not have to look into the lens. Start with a real conversation and let people into your world.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why honest video beats polished video (1:12) How video moves people to feel (3:49) The ingredients of a story that works (7:38) Quality video on a 100-dollar budget (12:28) Video mistakes that lose the story (14:03) Choosing the right format and length (17:11) How to make camera conversations feel real (20:25) What makes a video work (25:35) Let people into your world

Guest: Pat Taggart, Founder, SkyBlue Creative SkyBlueCreative.com

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-video-storytelling-for-nonprofits More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Laura Bonnell founded The Bonnell Foundation in 2010 and says nonprofits need to act like they are in it to win. The foundation provides tools to navigate the difficulties of living with cystic fibrosis, and Laura views herself as its CEO because financial health is what sustains programs for people across the country.

That mindset means asking confidently, spending strategically, and treating other leaders as potential collaborators. Laura does not see a nonprofit as a lesser kind of organization. She sees an organization that needs a financial plan, a strategic plan, and the confidence to tell its story everywhere.

In this episode:

• Why Laura stopped asking larger companies for $10,000 and began asking for $25,000

• How a Meijer grant request received a yes in 24 hours and yielded $1,000 after a $2,000 ask

• The $4,000 strategic financial planner investment that Laura says paid for itself

• How a $40,000 cystic fibrosis vitamin program came together when The Bonnell Foundation could commit $15,000

• Why Laura says every event produces either funding or friends, including a new camp idea for parents

You will leave with a corporate-minded approach to setting bigger asks, investing in expertise, and building reciprocal relationships with donors and peers. Take your organization seriously, share what you know, and keep asking for support that matches the work.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Nonprofits that think like businesses (1:23) The corporate mindset for nonprofit growth (4:27) Treat your nonprofit as a revenue generator (6:50) Strategic planning that supports scale (8:51) Collaboration that multiplies impact (12:40) Deeper relationships with donors and peers (17:45) When investing in expertise pays off (19:53) Mentorship for a stronger network (21:44) Changing how the public sees nonprofits (23:13) Ask for support that matches the work

Guest: Laura Bonnell, Founder, The Bonnell Foundation

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-growth-seeing-nonprofits-as-corporations More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Joe Allio and Maryanne Miller believe a diverse nonprofit board needs more than a mix of résumés. As President and Vice President of the Leaven Kids Board, they argue that character, humility, and a real servant-leadership mindset are what turn different perspectives into impact.

Their conversation moves past box-checking. A board may not always look like the community it serves, but it must have a heart for the people it serves, the courage to ask hard questions, and the discipline to stay focused on governance rather than operations.

In this episode:

• How Leaven Kids moved from a like-minded church committee to a board with business and public-sector experience

• Why the right fit is more than your network, and how showing up in rooms where people do not know you creates new recruitment opportunities

• The onboarding approach that has kept every participant so far and left new members with clearer focus

• How finance, operations, marketing, and personnel committees keep a working board aligned with mission, vision, and stewardship

• Why a board debating whether 2,000 pencils should be replaced at 50% or 60% used is in the wrong weeds

You will leave with a sharper lens for vetting board candidates, welcoming them into meaningful work, and making space for disagreement without making the board about ego.

Episode highlights: (0:00) What makes a board diverse in practice (1:02) Why diversity needs more than resumes (1:24) Finding board members beyond your network (19:15) The gaps your board needs to see (21:48) A board with heart for its community (25:15) Welcoming new members into real work (28:24) Making room for unique perspectives (29:57) Moving past barriers to diversity (30:24) How Leaven Kids broadened its board (32:22) Where to start with your board

Guest: Joe Allio, President of the Leaven Kids Board, Leaven Kids Guest: Maryanne Miller, Vice President of the Leaven Kids Board, Leaven Kids

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-a-diverse-high-impact-board-of-directors More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Ciara Byrne started Green Our Planet in 2013 with ten schools in Las Vegas, and her nonprofit funding lesson is that one dependable revenue source is not enough. Nonprofits need diverse revenue streams and a business model that can support the mission when funding shifts.

In 2020, Green Our Planet lost half of its annual budget within a month as funders redirected money. Ciara did not see that as a reason to abandon the mission. She saw it as a reason to monetize the expertise the organization had already built through school garden and hydroponics programs.

In this episode:

• How Green Our Planet grew from ten Las Vegas schools to more than 1,200 schools in 43 states

• Why some foundations now look for 20% to 50% of revenue to come from a business model

• How selling programs to schools and corporations supports STEM education and community empowerment

• What it took to get a Nevada school garden bill passed on its first attempt after serving about 400 schools

• Why the organization aims for 15% of revenue from sales now and 50% over the longer term

You will leave with a way to look at your nonprofit's expertise, identify a revenue opportunity that fits the mission, and begin diversifying without stretching the team too thin. Be creative, be optimistic, and be kind to yourself as you go down that route.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When one funder is not enough (1:18) Why funding diversity matters (4:56) Turning expertise into revenue (8:20) Diversification pitfalls (13:34) Revenue options for small nonprofits (16:16) Tradition and innovation in balance (21:20) Metrics that show what works (25:11) Ethics behind new revenue (29:53) Where to start diversifying

Guest: Ciara Byrne, Founder, Green Our Planet

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-diverse-revenue-streams-for-sustainability

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Howard Adam Levy has spent about 30 years revitalizing brands, and he says nonprofit branding is not a logo exercise. The President of Red Rooster Group defines a nonprofit brand as its reputation: what it says it does, how effectively it does it, and the perception people carry away.

A strong brand helps people understand a mission quickly, then gives donors a way to act on their own altruistic impulses through the organization. That means being clear, consistent, and willing to measure an outcome beyond awareness.

In this episode:

• The three building blocks of a strong brand: organizational name, tagline, and visual identity

• How the 183-year-old Leake and Watts became Rising Ground after growing to more than 40 programs

• Why USBLN changed its name to Disability:IN and turned a vague label into a galvanizing theme

• A before-and-after measurement question: whether people know three of six things you do, including after-school work and meals

• How a $30 monthly Canva subscription or $40 monthly ChatGPT subscription can support small, immediate brand experiments

You will leave with a practical way to test whether people understand what you do, connect your brand to fundraising and program goals, and decide where a bold next step can make a difference.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a nonprofit brand is more than a logo (1:05) Defining the reputation people carry away (5:16) The three building blocks of a strong brand (13:22) Visual identity that makes a mission recognizable (16:35) From Leake and Watts to Rising Ground (20:27) Why Disability:IN changed its name (24:34) Stories that give donors a way to act (28:33) Keeping the brand consistent everywhere (33:05) Measuring more than brand awareness (42:56) $30 experiments for a stronger brand (47:27) The next bold step

Guest: Howard Adam Levy, President, Red Rooster Group

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-a-strong-brand

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Dan Rhoton, CEO of Hopeworks, says a social enterprise nonprofit has one job: deliver for its clients. Hopeworks uses market-based business tools to move young adults into long-term, living-wage careers, but Dan argues that social mission should not be the first thing a buyer hears.

The tension is real. A social enterprise has to operate a good business while keeping a promise to people whose lives depend on the result. Dan's answer is not to juggle competing priorities. It is to put clients first and make every other metric serve that promise.

In this episode:

• Why Hopeworks gives work away once it becomes profitable, rather than letting client work displace its mission

• How leading with a social mission in an RFP can lose the contract and get a donation instead

• The promise behind Hopeworks' 96% placement rate and 93% 12-month job-retention rate

• Why a Monday-morning KPI report makes a yellow or red metric somebody's problem that week

• How a small pilot, not an innovation strategy, determines whether an idea gets scaled or thrown away

You will leave with a framework for setting a participant promise, tracking the metrics that protect it, and building partnerships around mutual benefit. As Dan puts it, effectiveness matters more than innovation.

Episode highlights: (0:00) The business that must put clients first (1:13) What makes a nonprofit a social enterprise (2:13) The operational squeeze (5:41) Market-based tools that serve the mission (9:21) The metrics that define success (15:06) Why effectiveness beats innovation (16:31) Partnerships built on mutual benefit (18:58) Where to start with client promises

Guest: Dan Rhoton, CEO, Hopeworks

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-social-enterprise-nonprofit

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Albert Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Anago, says the most immediate AI for nonprofits use cases are personal, not organization-wide. He works with resource-constrained teams, and he argues that generative AI is smart autocomplete, not a substitute for human judgment.

The useful starting point is small: research, drafting, and critiquing work that already consumes a team member's time. The rule is equally simple. Give the tool grounded source material, then check the final output before it goes out.

In this episode:

• The difference between traditional AI's predictive analytics and generative AI's words, images, and sounds

• Albert's external, internal, and personal framework for finding AI use cases

• How Perplexity and You.com can synthesize dozens of websites into a report in about 30 seconds

• Why asking AI for "radical candor" can turn it into a critic for a grant proposal or board briefing

• The custom GPT that translates stories from Hindi to English and turns them into a summary

You will leave with practical ways to test ChatGPT or Claude, a method for reducing hallucinations by supplying more ground truth, and a boundary for relational work with donors and people served. Keep that work human.

Episode highlights: (0:00) AI as a tool, not a substitute for judgment (2:40) Where AI can help right away (9:40) Finding and engaging donor prospects (13:38) Forecasting donations and donor behavior (19:31) The AI tools worth starting with (23:17) Keeping relational work human (30:50) Making AI accessible on a nonprofit budget (33:50) Ethics before the first AI pilot (41:00) What AI could change next (43:12) A practical place to begin

Guest: Albert Chen, Co-founder and CEO, Anago

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-ai-can-empower-nonprofit-organizations More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Elana Frank, CEO and Founder of the Jewish Fertility Foundation, grew a one-location pilot in Atlanta into ten locations without turning JFF into a franchise. Her nonprofit provides financial assistance, support, and education to people struggling with infertility.

Her expansion rule is direct: do not choose a random location. Start with need, test the opportunity against a defined set of conditions, and say no when a community asks the organization to go outside its proven program.

In this episode:

• Why JFF pilots locally before expanding, and why one Cincinnati expansion took a little over a year

• The three mission prongs JFF protects: fertility education, fertility support, and financial assistance

• How grassroots relationships with reproductive attorneys, therapists, rabbis, and community leaders build buy-in

• Why a $100,000 local operation does not simply become a $200,000 budget in a new city

• How JFF uses full-time executive staff, local managers, and graduate-school social-work interns

You will leave with a framework for choosing locations, building a larger infrastructure, and modifying a model without losing its purpose. Piloting and flexibility can coexist with a clear boundary around mission creep.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Expansion without becoming a franchise (1:00) What to test before expanding (7:30) Keeping mission and values intact (9:09) Replicating success in a new community (11:20) Relationships that make expansion work (15:03) The operational challenges ahead (19:29) Staffing for a larger footprint (23:59) Where a new location should start

Guest: Elana Frank, CEO and Founder, Jewish Fertility Foundation

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-to-scale-a-nonprofit-expanding-your-local-model

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Mark Lillis is Chief Executive Officer of Leaven Kids, an organization that has operated for 15 years, and he says community collaboration is built through continuous communication, not transactions. He shares how long-lasting, mission-aligned partnerships have helped Leaven Kids keep more than 90% of its partnerships.

A corporate partner can offer much more than money. Mark makes the case for being face to face, thanking people, involving stakeholders, and letting partners see both the work and the hardships families face.

In this episode:

• Why Leaven Kids spent two and a half years meeting with the San Antonio community before entering the city

• How Mark sends hundreds of handwritten thank-you notes each month to appreciate partners

• What winning Chick-fil-A's national award twice taught Leaven Kids about corporate partnership

• How 21 learning centers reported an 80% increase in math and English arts and better self-esteem for 90% of students

• Why a work party painted miles of fence in 4 to 5 hours and helped distribute hundreds of pounds of food

You will leave with practical ways to find partners who will stick with the mission: start with why, clarify expectations early, respect volunteers' time, and keep people informed. Supporters may not have the time, Mark says, but they have the heart.

Guest: Mark Lillis, Chief Executive Officer, Leaven Kids

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-community-collaboration More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Sarah Silvestri and Tiferet Sprung, Co-founders of Executive Arm, say scaling a nonprofit is about impact, not simply getting larger. Executive Arm helps nonprofits through internal capacity development, executive coaching, and strategic program design.

That means a nonprofit can scale by improving program quality, reaching more people, or partnering with another organization. It does not mean hiring people with the founder's level of passion or saying yes to work that falls outside the mission.

In this episode:

• The four areas to assess before scaling: organizational capacity, financial health, leadership, and program effectiveness

• How one nonprofit went from no employees and no financial structure to four employees while serving 150 family units

• Why an extra $75,000 must still be available to pay a hire in the second year

• The risk of hiring one person for one job while expecting them to do six jobs

• How a quarterly or five-minute monthly mission review can prevent mission drift

You will leave with a lens for deciding whether a new opportunity fits, where a partnership or merger may extend impact, and why investment in overhead can make a nonprofit more sustainable over the long term.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Growing bigger versus scaling impact (0:47) The difference between scale and growth (2:07) What successful scaling teaches (5:53) Financial sustainability before expansion (13:18) Scale without losing the mission (22:32) The leadership and capacity to build first (25:16) Practical first steps toward scale (29:40) Choosing impact over size

Guest: Sarah Silvestri, Co-founder, Executive Arm Guest: Tiferet Sprung, Co-founder, Executive Arm

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-to-scale-a-nonprofit

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Elizabeth Cushing has more than 30 years of nonprofit management experience, and she says nonprofit culture gets stronger when play is not treated as the opposite of work. The CEO of Playworks explains how the power of play can strengthen relationships, creativity, and adaptability.

This is not about forcing fun or promising a guaranteed result to a board. Elizabeth treats play as a discovery: an invitation that lets people bring their whole selves to the work and reveals what a team can solve together.

In this episode:

• Why people who meet on monkey bars or slides can seem like they have known each other within 5 to 10 minutes

• How a four-square game removes the pressure to be an expert and makes everyone an amateur

• The 1- to 2-minute stories about play Elizabeth invited 400 Playworks staff members to share

• What Playworks learned about morale after staff furloughs during the pandemic

• Why a small group should test a playful practice before deciding who the right messengers are

You will leave with permission to begin small: ask a question that has nothing to do with the meeting content, invite people into the game without forcing them, and see what it inspires. Play can remind a team that adapting is a strong strategy.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why play makes nonprofit work stronger (0:58) Play is not the opposite of work (3:18) Making room for creativity at work (6:46) What play changes about morale (8:47) Professionalism can make room for play (10:58) Inviting play without forcing it (16:49) A small test for a more playful culture (18:45) Start with an invitation, not a mandate

Guest: Elizabeth Cushing, CEO, Playworks Playworks resources: https://www.playworks.org/

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-culture-the-power-of-play

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stewart Severino has spent more than 25 years driving growth in startups and large organizations, and he believes nonprofit innovation needs to be a discipline, not an exercise in throwing ideas at the wall.

A defined process makes innovation repeatable, predictable, and scalable. Stewart argues that organizations often begin with a product, a technology, or a familiar assumption instead of first understanding what their audience actually needs. Innovation is not AI, and AI is not innovation.

In this episode:

• How the Jobs-to-be-Done framework exposes assumptions about an audience that may be 3 to 10 years old

• Why Netflix competed with a bottle of wine, date night, and bowling, not only Blockbuster

• How to treat donors as human capital by inviting them into service, local chapters, or board roles

• Why an NPS score can be a leading indicator while revenue is a lagging indicator

• How customer-experience mapping, service blueprints, and root-cause analysis make innovation operational

You will leave with a way to start with the need of the audience, choose measures that reveal progress early, and put guardrails around experiments. The goal is not another shiny object. It is serving your organization and audience better than before.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Innovation is a discipline, not a shiny object (0:45) What makes innovation a discipline (3:17) The barriers to repeatable innovation (6:49) The Jobs-to-be-Done framework (11:54) Turning Jobs to be Done into action (15:48) Metrics that reveal progress early (20:55) Making innovation part of culture (25:03) Start with your audience's need

Guest: Stewart Severino, Head of Innovation, The Navigators

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-innovation-as-a-discipline

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stephen King, Founder and CEO of GrowthForce, says a sustainer program is simply a monthly giving program, and it can transform both cash flow and donor retention. GrowthForce is an outsourced accounting department for nonprofits, from bookkeeping through CFO services.

The case is stark: monthly donors retain at 80% in the first year, compared with 41% across all donors. After five years of monthly giving, the retention figure reaches 95%, compared with 23% for one-time giving.

In this episode:

• How Amnesty International USA grew from $6 million to $18 million when 92% of revenue came from direct mail

• Why prompting a donor during the first gift matters when only 14% of nonprofits do it

• The case for bank debit over credit cards, so organizations do not have to chase expired cards

• How Wheelchairs For Warriors uses its Touch 22 program to connect $22 per month to 22 veterans who die by suicide each day

• The $500 annual donor example that becomes $50 monthly, $600 annually, and a 20% increase

You will leave with a simple launch approach, the key retention and cash-flow metrics to follow, and a reminder that a sustainer program is not set it and forget it. Build a donor connection through cultivation emails and concrete outcomes.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why monthly giving changes the math (0:57) What makes a sustainer program (1:30) The benefits of monthly giving (2:47) The retention advantage of sustainers (6:02) The challenges to expect (9:28) Promoting a monthly giving program (12:05) The metrics that grow sustainers (16:15) Why one program is enough (19:20) Launching your first sustainer program (22:07) The donor connection that keeps giving

Guest: Stephen King, Founder and CEO, GrowthForce

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/monthly-giving-program

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Jess Campbell has been a nonprofit fundraiser for 18 years and raised more than $17M, and she says email marketing for nonprofits needs less hesitation and more sending.

Jess, Founder of Out in the Boons, would rather have an engaged list than a large one. Her starting point is the first 1,000 subscribers, enough to test ideas and make decisions with usable data, before worrying too much about sophisticated segmentation.

In this episode:

• Why to scrub an email list two to four times a year and use a three- or four-part reengagement sequence

• How Jess's Monday teaser for a Tuesday email brings in 15 to 25 subscribers a week

• What a two-, four-, or six-week warm-up phase does before a fundraising ask

• Why a text-based email with one story, one topic, and one call to action can outperform a graphic-heavy message

• What Neon One found in millions of sends: six links can work when they all go to the same place

You will leave with a practical email cadence, a way to measure clicks and replies instead of relying on open rates, and permission to send double or triple the emails you think you need. Done is better than perfect when an organization is not sending enough.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why email needs less hesitation and more sending (2:58) Growing an engaged nonprofit email list (3:59) Build the first 1,000 subscribers (7:03) Resources that earn an email address (11:57) Growing the list through partnerships (15:33) The anatomy of an email that works (18:32) Make the email feel personal (20:00) One story, one topic, one call to action (21:21) Subject lines that spark curiosity (24:30) Send now, segment later (41:00) Done is better than perfect

Guest: Jess Campbell, Founder, Out in the Boons

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/email-marketing-for-nonprofits

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Leah Kral has spent the last two decades in this work, and her approach to nonprofit innovation for social change is simple: start small, but dream big.

Good intentions do not automatically create clarity. Leah makes the case for a workplace that leaves room for experimentation, discovery, tough-minded tradeoffs, and learning from failure before an organization invests too much in an untested idea.

In this episode:

• Six principles for sparking innovation, from relentless problem solving to persuasion

• How Saint Benedict's Prep became a student-led school, where 98% of students go to college

• Why Pixar assumes early versions of its movies are bad, then uses brutal feedback to improve them

• What World Reader learned when Kindle devices kept breaking and its mobile app worked better

• How LifeWorks examined 17 programs and saw job retention measurably increase within a year

You will leave with practical ways to test an idea, learn what is working, and make room for bottom-up decision making. You do not need a large staff or budget to begin. You need time to be strategic and innovative.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Start small, dream big (5:12) Six principles for better ideas (10:42) Design thinking in practice (13:25) Small experiments before scaling (16:58) Building an innovation ecosystem (20:03) Moving through innovation roadblocks (24:17) Where to start this week

Guest: Leah Kral, Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation, Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-innovation-for-social-change

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Kimberly Thornbury says nonprofit capacity building cannot be done alone. As Vice President of Nonprofit Leadership and Development at Murdock Trust, she breaks capacity building into three pillars: leadership, governance, and fund development.

A new executive director who is drowning is not failing. Kimberly argues that mentors, coaches, and peer cohorts can turn that strain into stronger leadership, while a healthy board and a disciplined fundraising plan make the organization more sustainable.

In this episode:

• Why Murdock Trust focuses its capacity-building work on executive leadership, board governance, and fund development

• How a peer cohort of 10 to 12 leaders with a master facilitator can keep an executive director from going it alone

• What Union learned after an F4, F5 tornado destroyed 85% of its campus housing and 23 buildings in 2008

• The annual board culture survey that a coach can help interpret in 30 minutes

• Why “if everyone on our list would just give us $25” is a red flag for fund development

You will leave with a lower-bar way to begin: spend 20 minutes investigating one next step, call five leaders you respect, and learn with a team instead of waiting for a perfect plan. As Kimberly puts it, just do your worst.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why capacity building cannot be done alone (3:13) The leadership pillar (4:28) Three ways leaders grow stronger (7:55) The governance pillar (9:55) What a healthy board looks like (19:55) The fund development pillar (27:34) One next step is enough

Guest: Kimberly Thornbury, Vice President of Nonprofit Leadership and Development, Murdock Trust

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-capacity-building

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Michelle Shumate has studied nonprofit collaboration for 20 years, and she says the right partnership starts with the outcome, not a rush to merge. As founding director of the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact, she shows why collaboration is a strategic tool for social impact rather than a generic efficiency play.

The form has to fit the goal. Shared services consistently delivered efficiency in her research, integrated organizations paid off for program growth and innovation, and alliances and networks worked best for larger policy wins and system-level outcomes.

In this episode:

• What a study of about 60 collaborations, including 20 deep dives, found when 14 partnerships succeeded and 6 did not

• Why an asset transfer can move a program or intellectual property and support innovation or culture change

• How DVBeds connects 29 shelters and 12 non-shelter facilities across Texas and part of Oklahoma

• What 50,000 annual DVBeds logins changed for bed utilization, rural shelter capacity, and people seeking help

• Why leaders should do more listening than proposing and “go on a date” before pursuing a merger

You will leave with a way to match a collaboration model to the result you need, plus a case for due diligence, feasibility analysis, and board and mid-level staff buy-in. Start small, learn the options, and explore before making a long-term commitment.

Episode highlights: (0:00) The partnership must fit the outcome (0:47) What 60 collaborations revealed (3:44) Choosing the collaboration model (5:19) How DVBeds made collaboration work (8:46) The obstacles partnerships must face (13:26) The leadership behind lasting partnerships (17:38) Two trends reshaping collaboration (19:22) How to explore collaboration before committing (21:26) Start small before you commit

Guest: Michelle Shumate, Founding Director, Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-collaboration

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Lynn Margherio founded Cradles to Crayons in 2002, and her approach to corporate partnerships starts with a question many fundraising teams skip: how can a business help before it writes a check?

Lynn has seen volunteerism become the first step toward larger, multifaceted corporate partnerships. A relationship needs to create value on both sides, not ask a nonprofit to say yes to work that pulls its team away from the mission.

In this episode:

• Why a two-hour shift sorting, inspecting, and packaging outfits can open a corporate relationship

• How Bank of America engagement grew from volunteering into board participation, drives, events, and skills-based work

• The reason to start with companies near your location and an introduction from someone they know

• How First Quality and Cuties combined financial support, regular volunteering, and joint promotion

• What Cradles to Crayons tracks: how many packages for children a partnership helps provide

You will leave with a practical way to design a tangible volunteer experience, set expectations, and build touchpoints that can last beyond one event. Corporate partnerships take time, but shared values and useful engagement can become the foundation for financial support.

Episode highlights: (0:00) How volunteering becomes a corporate partnership (0:52) CSR as a starting point for shared value (3:09) What both partners need from the relationship (8:21) Building partnerships beyond one event (18:22) The work a partnership cannot create (20:38) Measuring the packages a partnership provides (26:45) What comes next for corporate partnerships (34:00) Start with a useful volunteer experience

Guest: Lynn Margherio, Founder and CEO, Cradles to Crayons

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/corporate-partnerships

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stephanie Skryzowski has worked in nonprofit finance for more than a decade, and she says nonprofit finance is more than balancing the books. The Founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting explains why sustainability depends on profitability, reserves, forecasting, and transparent decision-making.

A nonprofit can be mission-driven and still need money left at the end of the year. Stephanie challenges leaders to look beyond a 12-month budget, examine revenue concentration, and use financial information to make decisions before a gap becomes a crisis.

In this episode:

• Why receiving about 75% of revenue from one government source creates a serious concentration risk

• How a surplus budget can build a 3- to 6-month cash reserve instead of operating donation to donation

• Why a 3- to 5-year forecast can reveal an 18-month funding gap early enough to change course

• The gala that netted about $20,000 and the question of whether that effort could produce a $100,000 gift or $200,000 grant

• What GuideStar transparency requirements had to do with organizations receiving 53% more contributions the following year

You will leave with a framework for looking at financial health by program and department, not just in the aggregate. Nonprofit numbers do not have to be scary, Stephanie says. Anybody can do it, and everybody should do it.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Financial resilience starts before crisis (0:55) The signals of financial health (3:51) Preparing for economic uncertainty (6:56) Choosing financial software (9:37) New ways to diversify revenue (12:37) Transparency that builds trust (18:13) What strong financial leadership looks like (21:15) The forces shaping nonprofit finance (24:53) Look beyond the 12-month budget

Guest: Stephanie Skryzowski, Founder and CEO, 100 Degrees Consulting

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-finance

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stephanie Schwartz has spent almost 20 years in and around nonprofits, and her advice on donor relationships during an economic downturn is deliberately simple: make the time for genuine contact.

Stephanie, CEO of Little Bean Group, says an organization does not need a large campaign to stay close to supporters. When donors feel insecure, even a lower gift can be harder and more meaningful to make. The immediate goal of outreach can be a conversation, not a measurable sales result.

In this episode:

• Why big summary emails can give way to a leaner, more personalized approach

• How the Greater DC Diaper Bank linked supporters to its Amazon store for baby wipes

• Why converting a $50 annual gift into $10 a month can mean $120 in revenue and closer stewardship

• What Stephanie learned in 2008 from donors who gave a couple thousand dollars and later became six-figure donors

• How board members can call as supporters, while volunteers and events keep non-givers connected

You will leave with ways to thank people without an agenda, make small recurring giving accessible, and keep a no from becoming a permanent goodbye. Just because a donor says no now does not mean no forever.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why genuine contact matters in a downturn (15:52) What donors face when the economy turns (17:13) Why relationships matter more in a downturn (18:41) Personal ways to stay close to supporters (20:13) Empathy before a measurable result (25:21) Keep a no from becoming goodbye

Guest: Stephanie Schwartz, CEO, Little Bean Group

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/donor-relationships

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Holly Tate has spent more than a decade serving nonprofit leaders, and she says nonprofit employee engagement is not about whether people are happy at work. It is whether they are aligned with the mission and rowing in the same direction.

Nonprofits often reach for a new system, process, or technology while overlooking the people whose engagement drives performance. Mission can be a recruiting advantage, but leaders cannot use it as an excuse to underinvest in development, communication, or recognition.

In this episode:

• Why mission and values should be clear enough to name, and limited to about five or fewer

• How to redesign the first 30 to 90 days so 90% of first-day paperwork is already complete

• The Chief Reminding Officer role, and why negativity fills the void when clarity is missing

• What Frank Blake's 300 thank-you notes meant at Home Depot, with almost 500,000 employees

• Why a $25 gift card, a care card, and a weekly 30-minute one-on-one can build trust

You will leave with a people-first plan for improving employee engagement without waiting for a bigger culture budget. Put one-on-one meetings on the calendar, learn what recognition matters to each person, and repeat the mission until the team can see where it is going.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Mission alignment, not workplace happiness (0:53) Beyond being happy at work (2:59) The nonprofit engagement challenge (6:58) When mission drives motivation (10:22) Building an engaged team (17:41) Transparency that earns trust (24:33) Recognition without a bigger budget (32:34) What is next for engagement (36:09) Where leaders start

Guest: Holly Tate, Chief Marketing Officer, Leadr

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-leadership-employee-engagement

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Nichole Vander Wall, a search marketing expert, says Google Ad Grants can give eligible nonprofits $10,000 a month in search advertising, but the grant account cannot compete with paid ads.

That constraint is the point of the strategy. Rather than chasing high-competition terms such as "donate to charity," nonprofits need to build a brand campaign, use the right keyword mix, and understand where a paid account fits.

In this episode:

• How the Google Ad Grant application is validated through Percent and can take 10 minutes to an hour

• Why a brand campaign should be the first priority, including at least five brand keywords

• The brand-ad update that led to a $300 donation within the first week

• How a dynamic search campaign uses landing pages and two description lines to find keywords

• Why paid campaigns need at least three months for machine learning and bidding to learn

You will leave knowing what the $10,000 monthly grant covers, how to choose medium- to low-competition search terms, and when an ecommerce store or a larger budget calls for paid Google Ads as well.

Episode highlights: (0:00) The $10,000 grant and its limits (1:27) How Google Ad Grants work (4:42) What changed in the grant program (7:09) A strategy for making the grant work (15:28) The mistakes that waste the grant (20:44) When paid Google Ads belong in the mix (23:28) Where to begin with Google Ad Grants

Guest: Nichole Vander Wall, search marketing consultant

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/google-ad-grants

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Erin Davison was leading Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana when Hurricane Laura devastated the organization’s building in August 2020. Her nonprofit leadership advice for adversity begins with two blunt principles: cash is king, and do not give in to fear.

Every organization will face adversity, whether it comes from staffing, resources, technology, a disaster, or a changing community need. Erin explains why a plan matters even when the real emergency forces you to move far beyond the original plan.

In this episode:

• Why every nonprofit needs a disaster-preparedness plan and contingency plans from A through Z

• How a healthy ego lets a leader say, "I don't know what to do and I need help"

• The case for building a reserve fund with at least 10 months of operating funds

• How Lone Star handled programming health and safety checks for six weeks after Hurricane Laura

• Why direct conversations with donors and investors led some funders to increase their giving

You will leave with a practical way to prepare for the rainy day, communicate the real need without sugarcoating it, and stay the course with your mission when the budget has to change. Erin also offers a hard leadership question: am I the mountain here?

Episode highlights: (0:00) Leadership after the storm (3:36) Leading through unforeseen challenges (8:40) The value of a healthy ego (14:17) Two rules for adversity (15:29) Cash is king (17:35) Do not give in to fear (20:39) Put the organization first (24:31) The hard question for leaders

Guest: Erin Davison, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-leadership-overcome-adversity

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Tim Lockie has worked inside and outside nonprofits for more than 20 years, and he says nonprofit digital transformation fails when organizations buy technology without teaching people how to use it.

Tim, Founder and CEO of The Human Stack, compares the problem to buying a car without driver’s education. Digital transformation is not just a tech stack. It is good technology and humans who can use it well, moving at the speed of humans instead of the speed of a software rollout.

In this episode:

• Why 90% of organizations collect data but only 5% use it to make decisions

• How teams can spend another 18 months and six figures on technology without changing how work gets done

• What an old Jeep story reveals about different people needing different ways to learn to drive

• Why a strategic leader and a tactical doer need a strong relationship to create digital maturity

• Tim’s recommendation to divide the technology budget equally between people and technology

You will leave with a framework for spotting a driver problem, reducing disruption, and connecting data to actionable decisions. More tools are not the answer when the team is already overwhelmed.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why new technology fails without new habits (0:55) Digital transformation at the speed of humans (4:30) What teams gain when people can use the tools (6:39) The results beyond a new tech stack (10:26) Finding the driver problem before buying tools (15:30) Split the budget between people and technology (19:16) Start with the people, not the software

Guest: Tim Lockie, Founder and CEO, The Human Stack

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/digital-transformation

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Stephanie Schwartz, CEO of Little Bean Group, says a major gift is not a universal dollar amount. It is a gift meaningful enough to help a particular nonprofit achieve its mission and goals.

That reframing changes how an organization builds its major gift fundraising strategy. Start with the organization’s own data, deepen relationships with annual donors, and avoid announcing an internal fundraising structure as if it were a donor-facing program.

In this episode:

• Why a major gift can be $1,000 for one organization and $100,000 for a large university

• How five gifts of $10,000 can fund a program that costs $50,000 to administer

• Why list buying is an archaic, ineffective alternative to beginning with existing donor data

• The case for asking a consistent $7,500 donor to consider a $10,000 gift

• How digital tools support identification and stewardship but cannot replace personal contact

You will leave with a way to establish gift levels based on capacity and goals, not an arbitrary benchmark, plus a healthy revenue mix where 65% to 75% comes from major gifts and the remainder from lower-dollar giving.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a major gift is not a fixed dollar amount (3:01) Defining a major gift for your nonprofit (10:48) How leaders see major-gift development (20:51) Major-gift strategies that build relationships (22:57) Starting major-gift work with your data (24:52) Goals for a major-gift program (28:03) The right revenue mix for major gifts

Guest: Stephanie Schwartz, CEO, Little Bean Group

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/major-gifts

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Katie Lord has spent more than a decade managing and leading nonprofit development operations and initiatives, and she treats a nonprofit development plan as something too useful to leave on a shelf.

A development plan is the roadmap for raising the funds an organization needs, but Katie says it should be a living, breathing document. The point is not a long narrative or a perfect plan. It is a focused plan the team works and changes when the year changes.

In this episode:

• Why a one-year plan can be more useful than a longer plan when January work is obsolete by March

• The rule of three: no more than three tactics, before a fourth task makes the brain shut down

• How one author and clear assignments keep a team from carrying 37 marked-up plans

• Why a Kansas City nonprofit reused media clips to reach donors outside its area

• How $5 and $10 gifts can snowball when organizations stop treating small donors as insignificant

You will leave with a way to build a short, usable development plan, assign ownership, and focus on the work with the highest ROI. Starting small is starting, and the plan only works when the team keeps returning to it.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why your plan cannot sit on a shelf (0:45) A fundraising roadmap the team can use (3:50) The practices behind a living plan (6:50) When shiny opportunities derail the plan (13:41) Mistakes that leave plans unused (17:06) What changes when the plan guides the work (20:35) Start small and return to the plan

Guest: Katie Lord, Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/development-planning

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Greg McRay has helped nonprofits with expert guidance and solutions for more than 25 years, and he says nonprofit bylaws are not an afterthought. The Founder and CEO of Foundation Group explains why these governance rules can protect an organization or leave it exposed when a board ignores them.

Bylaws are about the mechanics of governance, not a place to store every operational policy. Greg and Josh unpack the legal consequences of disregarding them, the habits that keep boards accountable, and the amendment rules that can create avoidable trouble years later.

In this episode:

• Why every board member should review the bylaws and sign off every year, a question the IRS asks on Form 990

• The Long Island church case where 10 members were reinstated after its board skipped a required written notice

• Why putting every policy and procedure in bylaws can create a 50-page document no board can keep up with

• How an HOA's 5% annual dues cap became a problem when extraordinary expenses arrived

• Why a simple-majority amendment rule can be more workable than a unanimous board vote

You will leave with a practical governance habit: give the board the bylaws annually, review what no longer fits, and amend the document instead of working around it. Good governance starts with knowing what the organization can and cannot do.

Episode highlights: (0:00) When ignored bylaws expose a nonprofit (0:50) The real job of nonprofit bylaws (4:21) Bylaws that give new nonprofits a foundation (7:22) Keeping established boards accountable (10:39) The bylaw mistakes that create legal trouble (15:06) Changing bylaws without creating a mess (18:33) Knowing when bylaws need an update (22:02) Start with the rules your board already has

Guest: Greg McRay, Founder and CEO, Foundation Group

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-bylaws

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Rex Miller, an award-winning author and consultant with more than 35 years as a corporate manager and executive, says team development matters more in an economic downturn, not less. Hard times expose how well people actually work together, and leaders cannot fix that by asking people to simply push harder.

Rex's case is that work is a team sport. The leader's job is to give people clarity, not certainty, make structural changes that support recovery, and model the behavior the organization needs.

In this episode:

• Why the first five minutes of a meeting can be heads-down time before the agenda starts

• The 10 to 15 minute transition break that helps people reset between back-to-back meetings

• How Gallup's 82% manager figure changes the case for assessments such as CliftonStrengths, Enneagram, and DISC

• What one company learned after leaders averaged 60-hour weeks and less than six hours of sleep

• How Genius Spark aims to lower traditional training and consulting costs by about 80%

You will leave with practical ways to build social connection, create clarity during uncertainty, and give a depleted team space to recover. Rex's closing counsel is simple: let people heal, and the organization can earn loyalty and commitment.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why downturns test the team (1:34) Why team development matters most now (4:50) Building stronger teams in hard times (9:43) The case for team assessments (14:11) How leaders make development visible (16:46) Putting development into the leadership team (19:15) Making team development a priority (21:35) Let people heal and recover

Guest: Rex Miller, Award-winning author and consultant

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/team-development

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Peter Lipsett, Vice President at DonorsTrust, wants nonprofits to see donor advised funds as more than a warehouse of wealth. For donor advised funds, the key fact is simple: a dollar put into one has to go to charity.

Peter describes a DAF as a charitable savings account, like a health savings account for charitable dollars. The number of DAF accounts rose 27.6% between 2020 and 2021 to more than 1.2 million, and he argues that nonprofits should learn how these donors give instead of treating the vehicle as a barrier.

In this episode:

• Why smaller mission-driven DAFs and community foundations can become useful nonprofit partners

• How donor advised fund dollars supported more level giving during the first half of 2020

• Why nonprofits should thank DAF donors but not send a tax receipt for the gift

• The database detail that helps future asks: record that a donor gives through a DAF

• How a known DAF donor may be ready for a capital campaign or a $5,000 additional gift

You will leave with a clearer way to acknowledge DAF gifts, cultivate donors over time, and prepare for money that may be available when the organization needs it. Peter’s recommendation is to read the National Philanthropic Trust Donor Advised Fund Report to understand the landscape.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a DAF is not a warehouse of wealth (0:30) The charitable savings account for giving (2:05) What DAFs can offer nonprofit partners (4:09) The questions DAFs keep raising (5:03) Beyond the warehouse-of-wealth claim (5:59) The concern about anonymous DAF giving (8:04) Where donor advised funds are headed (10:31) How to recognize and cultivate DAF donors (14:27) The DAF report worth reading

Guest: Peter Lipsett, Vice President, DonorsTrust

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/donor-advised-funds

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.

Delaney Mullennix of Nonprofit Hub uses the 70/20/10 rule to explain why nonprofit leadership development is learned in challenging work, not by reading a book or sitting through a course.

Her case is the 70/20/10 rule: 10% of learning comes from academics, 20% from mentors, and 70% from challenging experience. That changes how leaders should think about professional development, work-life balance, feedback, and risk.

In this episode:

• How the 70/20/10 rule puts challenging experience ahead of academic learning

• Why work-life balance is not always 50/50, even when work takes 70% to 80% of life

• The shift from completing a to-do list to prioritizing and driving organizational results

• Why managers should find a course or class for an employee instead of waiting to be asked

• What four co-executive directors can teach a nonprofit about trying a different leadership model

You will leave with a way to identify one experience that stretches a team member, and a reminder that doing something ten times can open new doors. The goal is not to remove risk. It is to assess it without treating every possible loss as catastrophic.

Episode highlights: (0:00) Why leaders learn by doing (1:31) Why experience is the best teacher (3:27) The 70/20/10 learning rule (5:42) Thoughtfulness toward the team (8:46) The line between manager and leader (10:37) Seeking experiences that stretch you (16:35) Helping others learn by doing (17:15) Recognizing each employee’s strengths (18:43) Professional development that helps (20:12) Taking risk without treating loss as catastrophe (23:11) Where to start with your next stretch

Guest: Delaney Mullennix, Executive Director, Nonprofit Hub

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/experiential-learning-for-nonprofit-leaders

More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/

If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.

Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.