Relish THIS: The Nonprofit Marketing Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Whether you are a startup looking for investment, or a nonprofit seeking to build momentum by attracting a larger donor, getting your story dialed in is clutch.

On this week’s Relish THIS, David Cohen from Techstars joined me to discuss his experience with investing and what purpose-focused businesses can do to ensure that they are able to attract the capital they need to take their organizations to the next level.

David sees three items as paramount to attracting and securing investment: 

1. A good team with a proven track record
2. Traction: some momentum toward your goals
3. Genuine enthusiasm for your mission

These three, core elements are the ingredients for an amazing story. And stories are what help people get excited about your programs.

David has a long history of investing in early-stage companies in both the for- and nonprofit spaces. He’s been around the block so to speak when it comes to understanding how these three, core elements combine to produce success. 

If you are looking to up your game by attracting investors or are looking for tips to improve your ability to bring on larger donors to fuel your organization’s success, this is a great episode.

I hope you enjoy it.

Links: 

Techstars 

Book - Do More Faster

David’s Website 

Ask: 

Help an entrepreneur succeed. You have special knowledge so help someone learn that so we can make the world a better place. 

Volunteers are the fuel that keeps nonprofit organizations humming.

Not discounting volunteers' hard work to serve nonprofits’ missions, volunteers and how they talk about their experiences working with their favorite organizations provide the thrust that brings an abundance of donations, interest, and other volunteers into the system. 

In short, when you treat your volunteers well and create an experience that a) positions them as the heroes in your mission story and b) treats their time as an invaluable resource not to be wasted, you’ll be on the path to real success.

See, many nonprofits position the organization as the hero of their story. In this narrative, the organization is cast as the creator of the majority of the thrust leading the charge to fulfill its mission.

Turning that framework on its head to position the volunteer as the hero is a fantastic way to encourage better engagement and attract more volunteers to your organization. It’s a subtle shift that can be challenging, but magic happens when you get it right. This shift in messaging helps bring volunteers into the system as they see themselves cast that the hero. Who wouldn’t want to work with an organization that views its volunteer force through that lens?

Once you have enticed your volunteers to take action to engage with your organization is the next area in which planning and process development works wonders.

Crafting an onboarding process and following that process each and every time a volunteer offers to engage with your organization is paramount. Have a plan, make the volunteers feel welcome and valuable, and ensure they don’t feel that their time was wasted.

When you nail these two elements of your organization, you will see an uptick in your repeat volunteerism, your helpers will start recruiting for you, and you will see referral-based donations start rolling in.

That’s a long introduction to this week’s guest on Relish THIS, Karen Knight. Karen has worked in the nonprofit space since first volunteering at age 11 and has been helping nonprofits improve their volunteer engagement ever since. Her consulting business helps nonprofit organizations knock their volunteer engagement out of the park by developing proven, repeatable processes and a better understanding of effective volunteer engagement and management.

If you leverage the talent and hard work of volunteers, this episode is tailor-made for you.

Dig in to see a different approach to volunteerism. 

Links: 

Karen Knight Consulting 

Ask: 

Show your appreciation

Thank your volunteers on every shift 

One of the challenges most entrepreneurs create for themselves is an inability to ask for help. This can stem from fear of appearing weak, a desire for control, or a heightened sense of responsibility honed by years of “Gettin’ it done.”

Regardless of the root cause, one thing is certainly true: You are not alone. Neither in your thinking that you ARE alone nor your actual state of aloneness. Help is available for you and it’s ok to be vulnerable and ask for assistance. (In fact, asking for help is seen as a way to help others. The Jewish faith calls this a worthy deed – a “mitzvah”.)

My guest today is Mike Hess. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Blind Institute of Technology. Mike and I actually met several years ago when he was doing a presentation for the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). Mike took us through a really cool exercise that demonstrated how entrepreneurs in particular have a hard time asking for help. Mike and I chatted about this challenge – particularly in relation to the idea of loss aversion and how he experiences that as a person with blindness. 

Mike says he gets a sense of this kind of “squishy” feeling sometimes when he's talking with people and makes some recommendations for ways to avoid creating that experience for others if you are starting to put off that vibe. Mike believes that if one can just be vulnerable and admit the challenges that they're having, how that becomes a way to diffuse the “squishiness” and creates a stronger foundation on which to build relationships. As you may have guessed, Mike is just an amazing person. His willingness to share his perspectives to help others grow is truly a gift.

Links: 

Blind Institute of Technology

ASK: Partner up! If you don’t know how to do something, find a partner and engage with them – particularly if things are feeling “squishy”

Yay! A new episode with Scott Segerstrom from the Colorado Youth Corps Association.

Scott and I chatted about his journey to the CYCA and all the great work they are doing to help bridge the gap between Land Managers and Youth Corps here in the state.

Scott faces some interesting challenges coordinating messaging and communications between the Corps (and their roughly 1800 youth and veteran workers) and Land Managers who are looking to get trail work, fire mitigation, and other environmental projects accomplished.

Enjoy the show!

Show notes and links:

• Colorado Youth Corps Association
• Careers in National Resources Initiative
• Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics
• Keep It Colorado

Action Ask:
Be a good land steward when you are out.

Another fun episode of Relish This!

My conversation today is with Brad Appel, Executive Director of Wish for Wheels, a really great nonprofit that has a mission to provide every 2nd grader at Title 1 schools around the country a new bike and helmet to improve their mobility and health.

We chatted a lot about challenges Wish for Wheels is facing this year with supply chain problems (simply sourcing bikes and helmets to give out), running a nonprofit during a global pandemic, and the greatness of riding bikes and the importance of bikes to kids.

Hope you enjoy the show!

Show notes and links:

Wish for Wheels

Action Ask:
Offer grace to someone else on a bicycle.

Super informative episode of Relish This!

Today, I chatted with Margaret Watts Romney, Founder of MasterSpeaker Lab.

Margaret brought a ton of expertise and experience to our conversation around some of the challenges we can overcome when public speaking in any setting. Whether you are getting in front of a huge audience or addressing a more intimate team setting, public speaking can create a lot of tension. These tips, coupled with storytelling become SUPER powerful when connecting with your audience.

Enjoy the show!

Show notes and links:

MasterSpeaker Lab
Atomic Habits

What a great premiere episode of Relish This!

Today, I chatted with Anna Zawisza, Chief Program Officer at Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.

In addition to catching up after a fun day of volunteer work rehabilitating trails in the Mt. Evans Wilderness, we talked in more detail about how the VOC can leverage its assets to create repeat engagement opportunities with donors and volunteers, systems to engage a more diverse audience, and how to employ social media to supercharge their relationship-building.

Show notes and links:

Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado
The Surrender Experiment

Action Ask:
Pick up trash whenever you see it.

Marketing is all about relationship-building.

From selling a $0.25 widget to landing a multi-million dollar corporate sponsor, your ability to close business is only as strong as the relationships you build. People do business with people… and it’s becoming increasingly evident that people do even MORE business with people they like. That’s why any chance to further your relationships with other and to strengthen those bonds is an important part of your organization’s tactics.

And that’s what our guest today, Nick Black is all about. Nick is the Co-Founder and CEO of Good United, an organization that helps nonprofits build lasting relationships with their stakeholders at scale.

If there's one takeaway from today's show it's that you need to go over to Facebook right now and make sure that you have “Facebook Giving Tools” activated for your organization. This tool enables you to start collecting donations on Facebook and Instagram immediately, improving your ability to tap into the power of these social platforms to expand your means of collecting donations from those who are interested in the good work you do.

From a relationship-building standpoint, Good United has you covered. They have developed an amazing platform that allows nonprofits to engage with their potential audiences through Facebook messaging. It's unique, cutting edge, and is something that almost every nonprofit could take advantage of. 

Have a listen to this episode to expand your ability to leverage the power of social media and the opportunities for relationship-building that it provides.

Links: 

https://www.goodunited.io/

Ask: 

Go onto Facebook and make sure that the Facebook Giving Tools are turned on for your organization. 

A small adjustment in the language you use can make a big impact on your outcomes. 

A lot of nonprofits, in fact, MOST nonprofits, talk about donations in terms of  “gifts”. This tees up a certain dynamic – one with low expectations which can reduce the frequency and volume of said “gift”. 

My guest today is Greg Harrell-Edge, the Executive Director at CoachArt. He and his team have completely reimagined how they talk about donations to reframe the narrative to one with heightened expectations, resulting in an increase in revenue and engagement with their donors.

Instead of simply being a donor who gives a gift to the organization, CoachArt uses language framed around “investment” language. They talk about IPOs and ROI and use similar language that transitions the relationship they are building with their stakeholders from one that is a one-way exchange of value into one where there is increased interest and investment in the outcomes, creating more of a two-way relationship with donors.

This was an incredibly fascinating conversation jam-packed with valuable insights that can be applied to any organization’s playbook.

Links: 

https://coachart.org/

Surveymonkey Audience: https://www.surveymonkey.com/market-research/solutions/audience-panel/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregharrelledge/

Expectations vs. Agreements: https://relishstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Expectation-vs-Agreement.mp3

Ask:
Head to CoachArt’s website and Join our Impact Investment Club

If there’s one takeaway from this week’s episode it’s that “your site is a member of your team.”

And, like the other members of your team, your site needs to be nurtured in order for it to thrive and work as effectively as you would like.

See, a lot of people think that having a website is enough. They tend to fall into the Field of Dreams fallacy. “Build it and they will come,” they say.

But this just isn’t how the web works these days.

You have to nurture your site to enable it to work to its fullest potential. And that means introducing new content, building out hub pages, storytelling effectively, etc.

The conversation today is with David Pisarek, Founder and Chief Digital Aficionado of Wow Digital. David and the team at Wow Digital focus on building strong brands with effective sites for both for- and nonprofit organizations seeking to maximize their positive impact on the world.

Our conversation was wide-ranging and had a LOT of great information for anyone seeking to fuel their organization’s growth through marketing.

Hope you have as much fun with this conversation as I did.

Links: 
david@wowdigital.com

wowdigital.com/ebook/

• http://nonprofitdigitalsuccess.com/  (redirect to the podcast page on my site at https://wowdigital.com/podcast - eventually I'll probably build out a proper site for it, but for now enjoying the SEO benefits of having it on my site)
• https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-You-Genius-Anybody-Anything-ebook/dp/B00PWE8IXA/ - the book I mentioned - it's a quick read, $5 for the paperback...

Ask: Look at your analytics and get a feel for what people are actually doing when they visit your site