Explore every episode of the podcast Small Nonprofit: Fundraising Tips, Leadership Strategies, and Community-Centric Solutions
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Nonprofit Marketing Strategy: Mastering Nonprofit Messaging with Kathryn LeBlanc
Do donors realy know what you do and how you do it? Join us for an insightful conversation with Kathryn LeBlanc, a communications consultant specializing in social impact. Kathryn shares her expertise on overcoming common nonprofit messaging challenges, creating concise and emotionally resonant messages, and developing strategic communications plans.
Discover how to craft messaging that resonates with your audience, builds your nonprofit’s brand, and drives action. From crafting a one-liner to rolling out a full communications strategy, this episode is packed with actionable advice for nonprofits looking to enhance their communication efforts.
Nonprofit Marketing Strategy: Mastering Nonprofit Messaging – The Highlights:
Why concise messaging resonates better with donors and supporters.
How to identify and narrow your nonprofit's target audience.
Building your nonprofit's message guide and communication strategy.
Tips for operationalizing your messaging across teams.
How to bridge gaps between internal and external communications.
🎧 Listen to more episodes for actionable fundraising tips and insights on nonprofit leadership, nonprofit governance, productivity & tools, and donor engagement strategies that work! We're here to eliminate nonprofit burnout and boost your donations!
About Kathryn LeBlanc:
Kathryn founded LeBlanc (& co.) Communications, an agency that uses strategy, brand design, campaigns, and training to help social impact organizations fulfil their missions and drive social change. They serve a roster of local, national, and international clients that advance social good. Their client base includes nonprofits, philanthropy, labour, government, and mission-aligned businesses.
Actionable Tips for Clear Nonprofit Messaging:
Create a Message Guide and Communication Strategy: These documents should be separate, clear, and shared consistently across your team.
Focus on Building Internal Cohesion: A well-aligned team is better equipped to handle both day-to-day communications and unexpected crises.
Develop a Crisis Communications Plan: Create a plan outlining how your organization will respond to incidents, emergencies, and crises. Assign roles, establish protocols, and train your team regularly to ensure a swift, unified response when needed.
Have you heard of the "Shift the South" report? Join Maria Rio and Carmen Randolph, CEO of the Women’s Foundation of the South, as they shed light on the critical funding challenges faced by nonprofits serving women and girls of color in the U.S. South. In this thought-provoking episode, Carmen discusses the disparities in philanthropic investment, the impact of systemic inequities, and actionable strategies to support nonprofits addressing these issues.
Highlights include insights into grantmaking trends, overcoming legal challenges, and how organizations can diversify funding to build resilience. Whether you're a donor, nonprofit leader, or advocate, this episode is packed with valuable lessons for driving equity and change.
Addressing Funding Challenges for Women of Color Nonprofits – The Highlights:
The unique funding challenges faced by nonprofits led by women of color in the U.S. South.
The intersection of systemic inequities like racism, patriarchy, and lack of prioritization for the South.
Legal challenges nonprofits face following the repeal of affirmative action.
Innovative strategies to diversify funding sources for resilience.
Key findings from the upcoming "Shift the South" report.
🎧 Listen to more episodes for actionable fundraising tips and insights on nonprofit leadership, nonprofit governance, productivity & tools, and donor engagement strategies that work! We're here to eliminate nonprofit burnout and boost your donations!
About Carmen Randolph:
Over the course of her 25-year career in philanthropy, Carmen has worked hard to successfully galvanize funders, donors, policymakers, and grassroots activists to forever change lives, systems, and communities for good. She is particularly passionate about building prosperity for women and girls of color and firmly believes in the ineffable power a sisterhood holds to support, nurture, and amplify one another – this is why she always makes a point of collaborating with other women in philanthropy to inspire and guide each other. She is presently a fellow in the Aspen Institute and the Neighborhood Funder’s Group Philanthropy Forward initiative, and was recently invited to join Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Membership.
Actionable Tips for Nonprofit Leaders:
Engage in Legal Preparedness: Nonprofits should conduct legal reviews of their operations and documents to prepare for potential lawsuits, especially those focused on racial equity.
Proactively Educate Donors: Engage donors about the importance of continued support for marginalized communities and the potential challenges your organization may face due to shifting legal landscapes.
Diversify Funding Streams: Look at your nonprofit's work through various lenses to attract funding from different sources.
Struggling to connect with your service users and donors in a meaningful way? On this episode of Small Nonprofit, Ashley Alaniz-Moyer, Executive Director of the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium and co-founder of Refuerzo Collaborative, shares her insights on refreshing your approach to community engagement.
Ashley and Maria discuss innovative ways to build community, reimagine nonprofit events, and foster meaningful engagement among board members, donors, and volunteers.
Meaningful Nonprofit Community Engagement – The Highlights:
Strategies for hosting engaging nonprofit events that build community.
How to create a sense of belonging among volunteers and attendees.
Using innovative methods like multi-step programming to increase retention.
Tips for fostering community within nonprofit boards.
Real-world examples of how creative events can deepen impact and connection.
🎧 Listen to more episodes for actionable fundraising tips and insights on nonprofit leadership, nonprofit governance, donor engagement, productivity & tools, and donor engagement strategies that work! We're here to eliminate nonprofit burnout and boost your donations!
About Ashley Alaniz-Moyer:
Ashley has over 15 years of experience working in nonprofits with roles focused in operations, fundraising, marketing, communications, and events. Ashley believes in combining communication and collaboration for maximum impact. She has successfully planned major events that have launched regional education movements.
She has led organizations through rebranding efforts and strategic planning processes. Her passion for community building shines through as she shares stories and examples of successful engagement strategies.
When you’re a small nonprofit, it’s hard to say no to any opportunity that comes your way. After all, you want to make the most out of every single day and help as many people as possible. But if you try to take on too much, it can be a detriment to your effectiveness as an organization. When should you say yes vs. no?
We're talking with Dr. William Clark, founder of Eli Patrick & Co. which provides fundraising consulting to nonprofits. He has over 15 years of experience working in city government, nonprofit administration, and public housing operations. Dr. Clark assists nonprofits with developing sustainable revenue strategies and identifying talent acquisition solutions for growing businesses.
Myths that Dr. Clark wants us to walk away from:
Saying NO will cost you opportunities: In making important decisions, we need to think about things more intentionally rather than being driven by the need of the moment, which is most likely revenue for small nonprofits.
You are always in control: If things didn't work out in your favour, remember that there are forces bigger than you that may have contributed to this as well, forces you couldn't and will never be able to control. You must accept the fact that you will not always be in complete control.
Dr. Clark’s Tips on the power of "no"
Know your capacity. One of the questions you can ask yourself is: Can you do the job? It is a question of skill, talent, money and partnerships and everything that goes into running a successful business, or non-profit.
Communicate. Communicate consistently with folks that you work with, your consultant, your colleagues, and your board to get different perspectives and advice.
When you said no when you should’ve said yes. Every organization has its ups and downs. It's fine to rethink things and reevaluate how we proceed so that we can build up this account of goodwill with the various people with whom we were doing business.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Giving yourself space to grieve, grieve in the moment, grieve in potential loss, grieve in potential failure, grieving the fact that your view of yourself is not necessarily consistent with the situation. Grieve in the fact that some people may look at you slightly differently and it might not be favourable because of changes that they may blame you for. So I think a lot of it is just processing through. And as you've worked through that, you don't want to stay in that moment way too long, because there's still work to be done. There are still clients who are looking to you for services and resources and they need you. And so you need to process through these things, but get up, dust yourself off, get back on that horse. Learn from what happened and grow ”
“ When it comes to yes-no, it’s just understanding the moment and living in that moment and responding as best as you can. And lastly being okay with that response. ”
We constantly hear that if you don't have a fundraising board, you won't be able to raise funds as an organization. I don't believe that! In fact, I’ve had a lot of fundraising success without board fundraising. I know - call all the “gurus” and report this sacrilegious statement!
How do we build a board that is all the things we require in leadership (subject matter experts, lived experience, community members) AND get them to love and embrace fundraising?
In this episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, we talk to Elizabeth Abel, about how to motivate board members to fundraise. Elizabeth is the Senior Vice President at CCS Fundraising, a global fundraising consulting firm for nonprofits and an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has designed, advised, and directed development initiatives and capital campaigns that have collectively raised nearly half a billion dollars, positively impacting tens of thousands of lives.
Myths that Elizabeth wants us to walk away from:
Board members can’t be involved in fundraising: Board members can be one of the greatest assets to any nonprofit's fundraising efforts because they champion your mission, engage their networks and provide financial support.
Board members should focus on major gifts: You need to figure out how your board members want to be involved in fundraising, find out what are their strengths? And then how can you create that synergy that allows them to be fantastic multipliers and fundraising ambassadors?
Corporate giving is better than individual giving: According to Giving USA 2021: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2020, individuals drove 69% of total giving in the US, which was about $324 billion. Corporations are estimated to have declined by 6.1% in 2020 to only about 17 billion. So there is a huge gap between where people think corporations are and where they are relative to individuals.
Elizabeth’s Tips on Engaging Board Members to Fundraise
Fundraising Ambassadors. They bring a diverse set of experiences and skills and talents. They are multipliers of all that you're doing programmatically, operationally, and of course your philanthropy.
Recruiting and Engaging Boards. Many people just don't necessarily know what's expected of them so you can begin with setting expectations and educating board members in their role in fundraising.
Best practices. When considering how our board members can support our fundraising efforts, we want to prioritize relationship building. Elizabeth uses small events to engage and connect with donors as an example.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“It's figuring out the ways in which your board members want to be involved in fundraising, what are their strengths? And then how can we create that synergy that allows them to be fantastic multipliers and fundraising ambassadors? ”
What makes a good leader? If you’re an executive director in a nonprofit, you're probably thinking about how you can be more effective and motivate your team to create a bigger impact. But what are these qualities you should have to inspire others?
To learn more about what makes a great leader, I sat down with Mathieu Yuill, Founder of Leading with a Nice, consultancy that develops leaders. Mathieu has more than 25 years of experience in the field of communication and marketing, as well as a master's degree in management and leadership.
Myths that Mathieu wants us to walk away from:
Leaders only give orders. Leaders who inspire their employees are those who practice empathy, listen, and genuinely care about their employees' well-being rather than just the work.
Leaders should hide any weaknesses. Honesty and trust are qualities of a good leader that requires being vulnerable, assessing one's own weaknesses, and communicating them to one's team.
Mathieu’s GET HG: qualities of leaders that inspire
Gratitude: Checking in with your staff and simply asking how things are going or offering them help is a way to express gratitude because you trust the person to do their job. You're also acknowledging that they're working hard and that you appreciate it.
Empathy: Stepping into other people’s shoes to understand their circumstances. A leader who shows empathy toward their employees reduces employee absenteeism and has a more productive team.
Trust: It is all about intent. By communicating your desired outcome to your team and trusting them to choose the best path forward.
Honesty: It is about understanding your own weaknesses and releasing control.
Generosity: It is simply a matter of making time to mentor your employees and check in with them.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“So if you have a report who's working on a project often what we do is we'll come by and be like, “Hey, you know, are you done with that yet? Or how far along are you?” That's checking up and that's like a doctor's appointment. Nobody likes it. But instead, check-in and be like, “Hey, how are things going? Is there anything I can help you with?” That's actually showing gratitude and trust cause you're trusting the person they're doing their job and you're also acknowledging that they're working hard and you recognize like, “Hey, can I help you? Like I get this is a job that might need an extra set of hands.” That's a very simple way to show gratitude.”
”We need to understand how to communicate with each other and that's really the first base, the barrier to entry is do you know how to communicate with each other? ”
A lot of people think that once they decide they want to start a capital campaign, they can just jump right in and start raising money. But it takes a lot of planning and preparation to make sure your campaign is successful. So, how do you know if your small nonprofit is ready to launch a capital campaign?
On today's episode, we’re talking all about Capital Campaigns with Sabrina Walker-Hernandez, Certified Consultant, Coach, Facilitator & Best Selling Author helping small nonprofits build relationships that convert into more donations. She's worked for 25 years in our sector from direct services operations all the way to executive leadership, and she took an organization with an annual budget of 750,000 to 2.5 million a year operations and launched a $12 million capital campaign in the US's third poorest county.
Myths that Sabrina wants us to walk away from:
You can start a capital campaign right away: If you are a small nonprofit, you need to build your annual campaign before you go into a capital campaign because capital campaigns are all about individuals and relationships. And you want those individuals connected to you and your work before you ask them to dig deep into their pockets.
You can ask any of your donors to give to your capital campaign: Yes - you can ask each and every donor to give towards your capital campaign (it’s not just about the big gifts), BUT you really need to have a relationship with them before you go and ask them for a special gift. You can't take a person from zero to $250,000.
Sabrina’s thoughts on Capital Campaign
Relationships first. Start with individual giving as you build your foundation. You have to have a relationship with people before you go and ask them for the amount of money that you're going to need to complete a capital campaign.
Feasibility Study. Have a conversation with the individuals in the community to let them know about what you want to do and share your vision. Seek advice from people who want to be part of the campaign.
Identify the key person. The executive director doesn't necessarily have to lead, but you can identify a co-chair to lead the campaign or even hire a consultant that can guide you through the campaign.
Phases of the campaign. You can start to secure your top gifts from your top donors and board members first. Depending on your strategy, you can also have mid-level, the corporate approach, and the foundation approach. Lastly, you can also have a community approach to get everyone involved.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“People will follow success. When we first launched this capital campaign and we talked about $12 million, people did not think it could be done. So we had to come out strong and so people will follow success, invest upfront in getting those top donors on board. It will break or make your capital campaign.”
Charity vs. Nonprofit. You may or may not know that those two have different meanings! They both doing amazing, mission-centred work! But there are more rules and regulations for charities (if you’re in the US, that’s a 501c3) which means it takes a lot more time and resources to get going.
Many nonprofits have aspirations to become a charity, but one of the biggest questions I get asked along the way is - “how do we fundraise without charitable status?” You see - nonprofits cannot issue tax receipts to donors.
Now - the short answer is that donors are not giving for the receipts.
But the long answer is that there is a formal structure - in Canada called a Shared Platform and in the US Fiscal Sponsorship - that allows emerging nonprofits to issue tax receipts and then some!
There are lots of reasons why this model is growing in popularity. So much so that Mackenzie Scott herself invested in today’s podcast guest’s organization - to the tune of $18.9 million.
Join me for this conversation all about Shared Platforms with Lizzie Howell, Director, Shared Platform at MakeWay. With MakeWay’s shared platform, changemakers share a suite of centralized organizational supports, and coaching when needed, so more time and money can go towards building strong, vibrant, just communities and a healthier planet.
Myths that Lizzie wants us to walk away from:
Only big organizations can host a Shared Platform. MakeWay is unique in that they are the only Shared Platform host that has gone through an audit - so they have formalized the operations of Shared Platforms in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency. However, there are many smaller charities that also act as a Shared Platform for nonprofits that are aligned with their work.
It’s just about issuing tax receipts. Established Shared Platforms do much more than allow your nonprofit to issue receipts for donations. They offer structure and support to help grow your impact.
Lizzie’s thoughts around Shared Platform
Support: As part of a shared platform, you can have access to a wide range of operational administrative support on the backend including financial management, human resources, grounds administration, charitable compliance, risk management. You get to focus on doing the work that you want to do, and create change in the community.
Efficient: It's a way to operate within the charitable sector that's far more cost and time effective than becoming a new charity.
Expertise: MakeWay has a great governance structure set up to support projects where they each have a steering committee who are responsible for providing strategic advice and direction for projects.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“We really value the autonomy of projects to be able to make their own decisions around things like compensation, and again, different groups have, different values in terms of who they hire and what that looks like and at MakeWay, overrule, we have a commitment to equity, to economic well being, and we realize that we're in a position where we were providing guidance advice, and of course, with the legal employer.”
Nonprofit leaders are always trying to do more with less. There never seems to be enough time in the day or enough resources to handle everything that comes along, but you still have to manage and lead your organization effectively.
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about leadership and management with Kishshana Palmer. Kishshana is an international speaker, trainer, and coach with a 20+ year background in fundraising, marketing, and talent management. When an organization wants to grow, find and retain people on their team, raise money, and more she is the fairy godmother they have on speed dial.
Myths that Kishshana wants us to walk away from:
You can do it all. As a leader, you don't need to push yourself until you're exhausted because you think you have to. Invest in the systems and people around you that will allow you to let go of things and focus on what you do best.
You don’t have enough time. Understanding how you work, what time of day it is, what fuels you, and where you busy yourself, so you don't have to do your work, this is everything you need to know if you want to regain control of your calendar.
Kishshana’s tips on leadership and management
Taking rest and break: We have to rethink the way we approach rest. We need to release what used to work. And now start thinking about what is going to satisfy you in your adult life in this new season.The idea of bringing in play into the work is so important in order for us to start to grab those small pieces of reset that we need.
You have agency and control: You are the CEO of your responsibilities within the organization, regardless of your title in your organization. Understanding that you're actually in control of a lot more than you might think is critical when navigating the power dynamics within your organization.
Leveraging resources: Leveraging tools and systems, developing your people and spending those dollars so that as you continue to grow. As you continue to deepen roots, you'll do so in a way that's healthy, that continues to attract folks who are there for longevity who want to have ties both to their work and ties to the community in a different kind of way, and who are healthy at work.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Let it be the last year that at 2022, that I utter this foolishness because I want to be in a place where if something were to happen to me or if I just wanted to take a darn break that I have hired capable folks who can take on the work that needs to be done, to be able to move the ball down the field.”
The pandemic has changed the way that many teams work. More people are working from home, or in a hybrid arrangement. And as we rethink our culture, many of us wonder how we can cultivate a sense of connection and create a unique and meaningful team culture in this ever-changing world?
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to build team culture with Ashlee Livingstone, CEO of Our Forté. She has built her career creating curated and memorable experiences for people, and works collaboratively with leaders in building stronger cultures to help teams thrive.
Myths that Ashlee wants us to walk away from:
Building team culture costs a lot of money. Applying humans first approach in teams does not have to cost you money. It just has to cost you time to focus on engaging with your team and making them feel that they matter.
Team culture is all about company events. You need to do the foundational work ahead of time to build that team and show ongoing connection with them so that when it's time to have a year end celebration or a halfway point celebration, people are actually excited to go.
Ashlee’s tips on developing teams with EDGE
Engagement: Engagement is about connecting with your team and how are they connecting with each other? It is important for leaders to keep their current team members engaged and feeling connected to their colleagues.
Development: Development looks like mentorship. It looks like understanding what your team member's goals and future is and what they want, not just what you see in them.
Gratitude: To show gratitude you have to really know your team and you can ask them questions such as how do you like to be appreciated? What motivates you?
Experience: Experience is about making your team feel empowered and heard. Helping them to enhance their experience at work.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“We can easily replace that person, people are replaceable, that mentality, even if you say it a couple of times, or you try and say it jokingly, that seeps into people. And so we guess the work that they're doing matters, but if they think they're replaceable or you can easily replace them, that's where they're not gonna feel connected to what they're doing.”
“At the end of the day, people want to be seen and they want to be heard and they want to know that they matter.”
Working with a consultant can be beneficial for nonprofits. They enable organizations to focus on keeping things running smoothly and efficiently by freeing up time for the bigger picture. But how do you find the right consultant for your organization?
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about working with consultants with Jess Campbell, Founder and CEO of Out in the Boons and a dear friend of mine. She is a trained nonprofit fundraiser who has worked with big and small organizations and runs a consulting business where she helps organizations to connect with the right consultants to get the help they need.
Myths that Jess wants us to walk away from:
Consultants only develop the plan. Some consultants like Jess, are committed to doing things differently. They are out there to help organizations not only get the plan, but also understand it and have the tools and resources they need to carry it out.
Nonprofit consultants are always expensive. There is a large range in price for nonprofit consultants. The right consultant will have a pricing structure that works for you and your organization's budget.
Jess’s tips on working with consultants
Outsourcing helps you focus on your mission: Wearing multiple hats is common in our sector, but trying to do everything at once can lead you and your team to burnout. Getting help from a consultant allows your organization to do other tasks and focus on what really matters.
Leveling of expectations: Before you decide to work with a consultant, Jess suggests that it is critical to identify the outcome that you want out of consulting, what your expectations and needs are to make this work effective for your organization.
Matchmaking: In her own program, Jess uses matchmaking to match nonprofits with consultants based on their specific needs and areas of expertise. She also stresses the importance of finding the right match between the consultant's personality, working style, and the nonprofit's team.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“And like you said, your experience working with coaches and consultants when you were in-house, I had a very similar experience. They came in, they wrote a plan, and then they left and I wanted to be more hands on. It's not in my nature to really set it and forget it as they say. And I think what I've learned in doing this for the last five or so years, is that it's so much more than a plan that folks need. It's really the execution. And I know that working with coaches and consultants can be such an investment. And so I've committed myself to doing it differently, which is really helping folks, not just get the plan, but understand the plan and then have the tools and resources to execute the plan.”
If you’re a regular listener, you will know that we love exploring brain science. And I am so excited to be exploring that in the context of branding. While I’ve been diving deeper into my own study of neuroscience, I haven't seen it applied to branding ever before.
In today’s episode, Chloé Nwangwu, Brand Scientist, Digital Diplomacy Consultant, and Conflict Mediator, shares with us the brain science behind brands and how you can leverage that to connect more with your audience and create more impact with your small nonprofit.
Myths that Chloe wants us to walk away from:
You can’t fundraise without rebranding. Before rebranding, think about how it contributes to the memorability of your brand and how it impacts your mission or the work that you do because if it doesn't, it's best not to do it.
Branding is about your personal preference. Knowing the preferences of your organization's most important stakeholders is essential when developing a brand for your nonprofit. If you're familiar with these patterns and trends in your industry, you'll have a better idea of how to stand out from the crowd.
Chloe’s thoughts around brain science branding
Brand vs Branding: A brand is simply a system of ideas that influences the behaviour of others. Branding is brand assets that are memorable. So the job that your branding is meant to do is meant to capture attention because that's how the memory process starts. And then it's meant to be stored within the right part of your memories, your memory network.
Brain Science of Branding: The definition of brand building from a scientific perspective is creating memories for people to recall or remember. If you want your brand and your branding to be effective to do the job that you need them to do, if you are looking to have the kind of impact in the world that shapes the future, repetition is required.
Behavioural Design: We figure out the steps that our stakeholders usually take between where they are now and the kind of behaviour that we would like to see from them. We can create an effective branding strategy once we know what the uncomfortably specific behaviour is and once we understand where they currently are.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“A brand's branding is really anything that can serve as a memory anchor for that brand. That just brings us back to the idea of memorability and attentional capture. If it captures attention, it stands a chance of getting past the brain's filters, which means it stands a chance of getting sorted into the right part of the memory network. Once it does that, it can serve as a memory anchor so that when people are making decisions about who to vote for, who to donate to, who to support, who to buy from, you stand a chance of being on that short list of people that they're considering are their considerations.”
These days it's easy to feel like we're not passionate about our work. Very often we get into the sector because we are passionate about changing the world. And then something happens over time and we lose that passion. And now we layer over COVID and isolation (and now a new global conflict) and all the other things, and that passion feels like a very distant memory.
In today’s episode, Shilbee Dhalla-Kim, Passion and Social Enterprise Coach, talks about how we can reignite the fire within us and find balance in doing our passion without burning out.
Myths that Shilbee wants us to walk away from:
Passion is always a good thing: When there’s only one thing that makes us feel good and we give all our energy to it but less energy to other important aspects of our life, this kind of passion becomes obsessive and not harmonious.
Passion is always about your profession: Very often we determine our worth based on our job. And then what happens is our passion for our job becomes the only thing that we identify as a passion. And then we don't find worthiness and meaning and value for other elements of our lives, where passions can also exist.
Shilbee’s thoughts around Passion
Harmonious vs Obsessive: To recover from passion burnout, you need to identify which of the passions in your life currently, or passions that you had before, may have lost their essence. Which of these passions would you describe as harmonious? Or obsessive?
Practice detaching our identity to the passions: Attachment of our identity to passion can prevent us from seeing other things that we might be passionate about. When our passion is so linked to our identity, it can create fear and prevent us from doing something new or different. We must be mindful of how our realities and beliefs might come up to prevent us from exploring other things that we are passionate about.
Embodied values: We need to identify what are those values that will help us stay anchored and grounded towards this better world. Passion can be one of our access points to help clarify our embodied values. We need to ask ourselves, what's the value that I'm willing to fight for?
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“So we determine our worth based on our job. And then what happens is our passion for our job becomes the only thing that we identify as a passion. And then we don't find worthiness and meaning and value for other elements of our lives, where passions also can exist, like me drinking this tea and drinking it mindfully and enjoying this to me, activates passions. But I think we don't give ourselves permission or that time and space or the language to call it that.“
“ We need to shift those values in order to create systems and structures and policies and laws and cultures and relations that can ensure that all of us can not only survive but thrive. And so, what are those values that will help us stay anchored and grounded towards this better world? I believe passion can be one of our access points to help clarify our embodied values.”
Are you constantly exhausted, overwhelmed, and struggling to find the motivation to keep going? In this episode of Small Nonprofit, Maria Rio is joined by the inspiring Kashana Palmer, CEO of Management Co, to explore the importance of rest, humanity, and self-awareness in nonprofit leadership. Together, they discuss how rest and intentionality can transform personal and organizational well-being.
This episode is a must-listen for any nonprofit leader who wants to break free from the cycle of burnout and create a more sustainable, fulfilling career.
Preventing Nonprofit Burnout – The Highlights:
Why rest and self-care are essential for effective nonprofit leadership.
The dangers of “martyrdom” in nonprofit work and how to break free.
Simple strategies to bring humanity into the nonprofit workplace culture.
Practical tips for finding your "sit in the sun" moment.
How nonprofit leaders can model healthy behaviors for their staff.
🎧 Listen to more episodes for actionable fundraising tips and insights on nonprofit leadership, nonprofit governance, donor engagement, productivity & tools, and donor engagement strategies that work! We're here to eliminate nonprofit burnout and boost your donations!
About Kishshana Palmer:
With 20+ years as a C-Suite executive turned consultant and coach, Kishshana helps organizations down the pathway to success, sustainability, and profitability. She uses her skills and extensive expertise in strategy, raising capital, and team management to review what you’ve done, share what you should be doing, and help you or your organization readjust its course to actualize goals.
Strategic planning is one of those seemingly boring things that we need to do every once in a while to have a vision and clarity around where our organization is going. But I've never seen it done as an exciting or innovative process in most small organizations.
In today’s episode, Jennifer Riel, IDEO’s global director of strategy (and probably one of the smartest people I’ve met), talks about how you can actually use that process to think about innovation and really have a strong impact on your organization.
Myths that Jennifer wants us to walk away from:
Strategy is about updating old plans: Doing the status quo may look risk-free, but it may be extremely risky because the world has changed, or we lack the capabilities, or whatever the case may be. Holding the same standard hinders us from seeing other possibilities that could lead us to where we want to be.
Strategy is all about budget and a thick binder full of initiatives: Strategy is a set of choices. And a choice means yes to some things and a no to other things, giving things up, trading things off. Real choices. And those choices are about how you are going to try to win in a particular way.
Jennifer’s thoughts around Strategy
“Winning” for nonprofits: Strategy is about making choices that will allow you to win and for nonprofits, winning means achieving ambitions and creating the change that we want to see in the world. Jennifer encourages not for profits to think of choices about what they can uniquely do and what should they uniquely do to create the change that they are after?
Start with human-centeredness: Understanding the context in which you are operating is important for nonprofits. You need to know what's happening in the community, what are the folks that you are working with, and what is it that is working for them or not? And use that to define the problem to be solved.
Competitive advantage: For nonprofits, the competitive advantage is a reason a donor would give you the dollar instead of someone else, a reason to believe that you can achieve the outcome you're after more effectively or less expensively than someone else could.
Knowing Your Capabilities: You need to know the capabilities and systems that you will need as an organization in order to implement your strategy. Be honest about where you are.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“The starting place is to use your existing understanding of the world, your collective wisdom as a leadership team to say what is the problem we need our new strategy to solve. Start there, then explore the possibilities. So don't try to get to that answer right away, diverge a little bit and explore different playing fields, different potential sources of advantage. Those are the two fundamental questions. “
LinkedIn is known for being a professional social media platform that can help you find a job and make stronger connections with individuals in your industry. However, it’s also a great place for nonprofits to make new connections or do prospect research, or find people who can help or volunteer.
In today’s podcast, Dee Boswell-Buck, Digital Marketing Strategist and Consultant of Boswell-Buck Creative, will talk about how nonprofits can leverage LinkedIn to advance their mission and grow visibility online.
Myths that Dee wants us to walk away from:
LinkedIn is only good for job seekers: LinkedIn is also a great way to build a business, share your content, connect with individuals who are aligned with your organization, start a conversation and move those conversations off of the profile.
You can’t create meaningful connections on LinkedIn: If you are looking to build your online network, LinkedIn is a great place to start. In building meaningful connections, you have to be genuine with your message and engage intentionally with your audience.
Dee’s thoughts around leveraging LinkedIn
Optimize Your Profile. Choose a great image for your profile picture. Include some important keywords about what you do in your banner or headline. In the summary section, highlight keywords about how you help, what your skills are, or other relevant services you offer.
Build genuine connections. With LinkedIn, you can make connections with individuals within your industry or who share similar interests. You can engage with them by learning more about them before you send personalized or intentional messages.
Be active and consistent. Dee suggests sharing content in your profile at least four times a week, by sharing relevant posts, and spending time to engage with your connections.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“There's no set of rules, but you want to spend time on LinkedIn where you're actually engaging with those who you have connected with, or, you know, when you're surfing through engaging with posts that you like, because when you are engaging on content of others, and even if you're not connected with them, then that opens it up for others to connect with you. ”
Have you ever seen this in an organization? Maybe the executive director or founding executive director leaves and they hire someone to replace them, but that person may last six or eight months because the transition is just too hard. It's too hard to take over from long-standing ED or a founding ED or maybe you are the ED and you're really struggling with how to create a succession plan where your organization can be in really good hands after you leave.
In today’s podcast, Jane Garthson, President of Garthson Leadership Centre and experienced interim executive director, will talk about how interim leadership can help nonprofits navigate change and organizational transition.
Myths that Jane wants us to walk away from:
Internal promotion is always beneficial for the organization. Most small organizations do not have a lot of people who are ready to step into an executive director role and promoting someone without enough skills and experience to handle an executive role can be overwhelming for the person and can have a negative impact on the organization.
Interim leaders are just like consultants. Executive consultants always give advice to organizations, but interim leaders not only give advice to the board but also become part of the management team that implements the goals and objectives of the organization.
Jane’s thoughts around Interim leadership
Navigating change An interim executive’s role is to help any organization have a smooth transition when there’s a need to recruit a new executive. Interim leaders make sure that the organization continues to operate and do its mission, that board members have the time to make decisions on the changes and to make the new executive successful in the role.
Managing relationships Being hired externally, not all people in the organization will like the interim executive. If the leader speaks the truth about an issue, it should be related to how it is affecting the mission and how it reflects the organization’s values.
Success Measures It is important that the board member and interim ED be always on the same page. It is the role of the board to make sure that the ED understands what is expected of them, but also listens when the interim ED has any suggested changes.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“An interim executive forces them basically to accept change and be resilient and ready for more change. New person comes, they're not fighting that same level of we've always done it that way. They've seen change and they've seen that some of it is at least starting to work. ”
Fundraising is all about mindset. And if you don't believe that, chances are actually that you need to work on your mindset. If you've heard me speak about my fundraising origin story, you’ll know that I have loved fundraising right out of the gate, but I know that that's not the case for everyone. And so today you're going to hear from someone who hated fundraising and learned to love it by focusing on changing the mindset.
Mallory Erickson, CEO & Creator of the Power Partners Formula, joins us in the podcast to discuss how you can change your mindset about fundraising and raise more money for your nonprofit.
Myths that Mallory wants us to walk away from:
Mindset has nothing to do with fundraising. How we feel and think about fundraising ultimately impacts how we show up and the results that we see. We can overcome the barriers to fundraising success by reframing our mindset and developing new habits.
Great fundraisers don’t get rejected. Good fundraising is a job that involves regular rejection and it takes a lot of intentional building of resilience to be able to not internalize that rejection or make it about you, or have it relate to your stories about yourself that get in the way and keep you in a paralysis and perfectionist state.
GAIL: four primary types of thoughts that hold you back from successful fundraising
Gremlin or self-critic is the voice in your head that says “I am not good enough. I am not smart enough. I am not pretty enough. I am not enough” which plagues all of us.
Assumptions this is the result of our belief that when something has happened before, we believe it's going to happen again. For example, one donor didn't give last year, now we think that they're not going to give this year. But in reality, the data shows the exact opposite.
Interpretations are the stories that we make up about someone’s behavior that is not based on facts.
Limiting beliefs are things that society puts on us that restrict our ability to think outside the box. The hundred percent model is a great example of a limiting belief, where we have been trained to think that there’s too much money to overhead. This is simply the limiting belief that we are all continuing to perpetuate, even as fundraisers. However, once you begin to challenge these beliefs, they disappear.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“Good fundraising is a job that involves regular rejection and it takes a lot of intentional building of resilience to be able to not internalize that rejection or make it about you, or have it relate to your, um, stories about self, um, that that often sort of get in the way and keep us in a sort of paralysis and perfectionist state. ”
Major gift fundraising can be very intimidating for so many small organizations. Oftentimes we think we don't know anyone who can give, or we think of a major gift as a hundred thousand dollars where very often it can be 500 or a thousand dollars for your organization. But I think the most intimidating part of major gift fundraising is the idea of a face-to-face ask that gets people running and hiding. I think that is truly the number one thing that many people think of as the worst part of fundraising.
In today’s podcast, Rhea Wong, experienced nonprofit consultant and coach, will talk about how you can make bigger asks for bigger gifts to fully fund your small nonprofit’s vision and mission.
Myths that Rhea wants us to walk away from:
You can ask anyone to give. Building a relationship with donors is a process. To determine whether they align with your organization’s mission, you must first identify and understand the type of person you are approaching, their capacity to give and know their values and interests.
Only rich people have the capacity to give. Rhea suggests that the best way to know whether someone is inclined to give to you is to simply ask. Just because someone has a hundred million dollars doesn't mean they're going to give you a hundred million dollars. These donors could give you a thousand or five hundred dollars if your mission does not resonate with them.
Rhea’s thoughts around major gift fundraising
Fundraising is just a math problem. It's asks minus no’s equal yeses. The more asks you put out, the more nos you're going to get, but the more yeses you're going to get.
Learn to listen. In conversations with donors, remember the 75:25 ratio, where 75% donors talking and 25% you listening. People who are nervous about money, about the conversation, they overtalk, they create a deck as a crutch but there's no substitute for being present and being vulnerable and asking really good questions to people.
Give value. Every time you talk to someone and you're asking them for something, you're probably not going to get callbacks. But you can cultivate a relationship where you are also offering value and that could be in the form of companionship, giving information, opportunity to get more engaged or involved in a meaningful volunteer experience. Every meeting should be about engaging further, but that engaging further, it doesn't have to be about them giving it can also be about you giving.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“ I build a whole business around major gift fundraising training, and I'm like, here's the big secret you guys, I'm training you to have a conversation. That's the secret. Like, it's not like some deck, it's not magical words. It's not like anything other than like, can I as a human being have, sit with you and understand who you are as a human being. And see if the thing that you care about is the thing that we're doing. And if so, can we build something together? Like, that's it, that's the big secret, right? ”
Running a small nonprofit can be pretty lonely. Very often, whether we're the executive director or a senior manager or leader in the organization, we don't have peers in our role. In small shops, we're often the only ones responsible for our area of work. And that can be hard, especially when we feel like we might not be as competent, confident, or content with ourselves as leaders in the work that we do.
In today’s podcast, we’ve invited Kathy Archer, a leadership development coach, to share her insights on how to lead your small nonprofit with confidence.
Myths that Kathy wants us to walk away from:
Leaders know everything. The most effective leaders are learners and they not only focus on professional development, but they focus on personal development. You can continue to grow and learn all of the stuff you need in your organization, your field, your sector, but as you move up the ranks, there's a lot of inner growth that needs to happen as well.
Small nonprofit employees can’t have leadership skills. Leadership is not about job title or job description. This is about becoming the person you want to be and as a leader. You can think of your future career path and make a decision. Forget about the victim mindset and take responsibility for your own learning and growth.
Kathy’s Inner Guidance Cycle in Mastering Confidence as Nonprofit Leader
Pause – Stop and pay attention to your thoughts. As leaders, we're always on the go, like whacking moles or sending emails and going to a meeting and we're getting this done and taking this off the to-do list, but we never step back and stop. The first thing we should do is step back and pause.
Ponder – Consider the messages in your thinking. True pondering is forward motion. Stop a moment and check where you're attuned to your body or your body sensations, your thoughts, and where you want to be. Think about your goals. Ask yourself: how do I want to develop? What do other people say? What's the feedback? What are my own desires? What's the direction my career wants to go?
Pivot – Shift your thoughts. This is the stage to think about the direction you are going and to review your goals. Break it down into those more reasonable steps so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
Proceed – Move forward again, intentionally and mindfully. This stage is actually doing the work you said you were going to do and recycling that process again. Pause, think about your goals, review, and proceed.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“The most effective leaders are learners and they not only focus on professional development, but they focus on personal development. And so you can continue to grow and learn all of the stuff you need in your organization, your field, your sector, but as you move up the ranks, there's a lot of inner growth that needs to happen as well. And so we have to align the two.”
In today’s podcast episode, we’re going to talk about influencer marketing with Christina Edwards, the founder of Splendid Consulting, a marketing expert, and a coach, and she will show you how to work with influencers to grow your small nonprofit and amplify your social impact.
Myths that Christina wants us to walk away from:
Influencer marketing doesn’t work with small nonprofits. Influencers are used to being paid but a lot of these people, especially on Instagram or TikTok, want to be part of change, they want to be part of making their world or their community or their neighbourhood, a better place. We just need to find influencers who care and resonate with our cause and highlight the benefit to them.
Influencers need to have large followings. Micro-influencers, who have 900 or 2000 followers are also powerful and sometimes even more powerful than influencers with 5 million followers because that person usually has a higher engagement level and is also very specific to what they talk about and that could be specific to your location or a cause of your organization.
Christina’s thoughts around influencer marketing for nonprofits
Make it fun and easy. Working with an influencer should feel fun and easy for the influencer. If it's not fun and it's not easy, then this is a business opportunity and we need to pay them for their time. This should feel like an added value for them because they're partnering with you.
Connect with influencers. Meet them where they are. Start by warming up before you make the ask. Interact, share and comment on their content in an authentic way. This should be a partnership that feels well aligned, fun, and easy for both people. You can also develop relationships with influencer agencies, managers, or publicists.
Make influencers your brand ambassadors and partners. Influencers are used to being paid for and they typically need to create a lot of content. In this sense, it's not a heavy lift for them if you give them done-for-you assets. The second thing is that we're really highlighting the benefit to them. They want to be part of something that is giving back to the community. They want to be a part of this social change. Lastly, start with an initial ask for one time, where you bring them in on for one of your campaigns. So that might be two or three times a year.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“We didn't really talk about like the power of the influencer who has 900 followers or 2000 followers, because that person is so powerful. Arguably sometimes more powerful than the person who has 5 million followers because that person usually has eight engaged community that has a higher engagement level and is also very specific to what it is they talk about.”
Small nonprofit organizations face the same fundraising challenges over and over again. They often believe that one fundraising strategy can solve all of their problems and look to large organizations for inspiration. Better marketing, major gift campaigns, corporate sponsorship- they have so many ideas, but most of the time, those solutions are not aligned with what will raise their organization's money today and in the near future and grow it into a sustainable program.
If you want to learn how to raise more money for your small nonprofit that is aligned with your organization’s mission, our very own Cindy Wagman will share the key strategy to your fundraising success in our upcoming FREE online training on January 18, see you there!
Myths that Cindy wants us to walk away from
A donor meeting is an ask for money. Donor meetings are not an ask for money. It is not a pitch and it's not talking about your organization very much. This is an opportunity for you to get to know your donors, why they support you, what they care about. Maybe they even have feedback around your fundraising or ideas to help you raise more money.
It’s okay to make assumptions about your donors. We make so many assumptions about our donors based on our beliefs around fundraising and the value of our work, and almost always we're wrong. And then we use these wrong assumptions to then drive our fundraising strategy and decisions, which leads to us making bad fundraising decisions, which leads to us not raising the money we want to make or raise for the organization.
Cindy’s thoughts around fundraising
Get to know your donors. Most of our fundraising decisions are made by people sitting in a boardroom or around zoom and we make assumptions about our donors. And almost always these assumptions are wrong. We need to stop making assumptions and start verifying information about our supporters. The more information we know the more we can think about fundraising strategies that make sense for their donors and of course for our mission.
Donor meetings help you find more donors. By getting to know your donors, it will help you see patterns and learn about their values. They have probably shared these values with their friends and networks. Your donors are one of the biggest untapped resources in finding new donors to your cause so the more you get to know them and build that fundraising strategy in line with them, you're also creating opportunities for them to welcome more people and introduce your organization to more potential donors.
Communicate with donors. Getting to know your donor is an opportunity to understand how to communicate with them. By leveraging tools and technology, you can find ways to connect more with them.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“We always get so caught up in elaborate fundraising plans and strategies, and we have to do these big things. It's not fundraising. Success comes from consistency and finding those points of intersection between your organization, its mission, and your donors.”
From lack of opportunity to develop leaders or train managers to pay transparency, there are so many issues and topics about HR that we never seem to have time to do or be able to make the proper investments. It's going to be a big problem for our sector because our work is only as good as our teams. Our organizations are only as strong as our culture.
In today’s podcast episode, Bruce MacDonald, President, and CEO of Imagine Canada, is going to share with us HR Intervals - a new and entirely free human resources toolkit specifically designed for nonprofit professionals to help them manage new challenges and opportunities in our work cultures.
Myths that Bruce wants us to walk away from
Small nonprofits can’t afford human resources. Some leaders may need to find some volunteers to help them out, whether it's a member of the board or just networking to find some HR folks. Start that conversation with the staff about the priorities and urgent needs of the organization and be willing to listen to them. A talented staff member who is inspired by this work could be the staff lead supported by the executive director. They can also access the information and resources they need to perform HR functions at their organizations with the new HR Intervals toolkit.
Nonprofits shouldn’t invest in human resources. The pandemic posed new challenges in terms of attracting and retaining employees. Private-sector firms are improving their ability to attract and retain talent, which has an impact on charities and nonprofits. Companies are now offering incentives to work there, and it is critical to ensure that we have the best possible workplaces, fair workplaces, reasonable, transparent compensation, that the culture is there, that this equity and equality is more vital than it has been in quite some time because of this competition for talent.
Bruce’s thoughts around HR Intervals for Nonprofits
Access to free information and resources. A vast majority of our sector does not have paid human resources talent inside their organizations, there can be a gap in terms of how organizations think about the management of their people. HR Intervals is made to bring a service that organizations can go to, to help leaders better understand, address, and guide people management in their organizations.
Be intentional. HR Intervals offers a variety of resources and practices that can be utilized by nonprofits to assess their organizations. They can leverage this information to develop realistic opportunities and set priorities that will create a better workplace for their employees and enable them to do their mission effectively.
Favorite Quotes for Today’s Episode
“I think the one thing I've learned is you can't do it all at the same time or can do it all at once, but over time can create a basket of offerings that make it a place where people want to be, want to go and want to stay.”
Have you ever felt overwhelmed, like giving up? Or maybe just really burnt out?
You are not alone! Nonprofit employees are always at risk of burnout. Pre-pandemic, our work was already demanding. And now the pandemic has left us even more stressed and with no capacity to deal with any more ups and downs.
In this episode, Kim Dechaine, Founder of Inner Powered Leaders, will discuss how we can change our mindset, and prevent and overcome burnout at work.
Myths that Kim wants us to walk away from:
Being busy and overwhelmed is normal. We have been told over the years that being busy and getting many things done is a good thing. But these are just the expectations of our society, especially in our sector. In reality, we need to listen to our body, and we need to take a break from work, slow down and take care of ourselves to prevent burning out.
We can’t control burnout. In order to find balanced energy, we need to have self-leadership which is learning to control our thoughts, feelings, and actions. We can have more balance and connection when we slow down, practice mindfulness, compassion, and gratitude.
Kim’s thoughts around Burnout
Mindfulness: Slowing down our minds and being quiet allows us to choose more of our energies. We can choose more creativity and flow. We can listen to what our body is telling us. Mindfulness helps us to focus on one thing at a time and we can train ourselves to be mindful by doing breathing exercises.
Compassion: Stepping into another person’s shoes. It is looking at their situation from their perspective without judgment. We need to practice breathing and quieting our minds first, which allows us to choose how we are going to react, what action we should take, and how we can look at a situation from someone else's perspective.
Practice Gratitude: Kim suggests practicing gratitude in three ways. First, by writing down three things that you are grateful for every day. This doesn’t have to be massive, we can find it with the small things. Second, saying you’re grateful right when the moment happens. Lastly, when you feel like you are in a difficult moment, you can pause for a moment and choose gratitude instead of reacting in a situation. Gratitude helps us to shift our perspective.
Favorite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“We have been taught this from a very young age that actually being busy and overwhelmed is normal. And it makes us a better person because we're doing more because we are, you know, look at how much work she gets done. Look at how the time, oh, look who spends the longest at work. Right. And it's almost like we applaud those actions and we cannot do that. And honestly, the only way we can change burnout is each of us taking control and deciding we're going to change this. We're going to change the outlook of society and the expectations.”
Curious about balancing experience and fresh ideas on your nonprofit board? Or seeking ways to keep fundraising events engaging in the digital age? In this special Mother’s Day episode of Small Nonprofit, Maria Rio is joined by Suzanne Wilcox, Director of Developmental Fundraising at Evergreen, and her mother, Martha Schwieters.
Together, they share their personal and professional experiences with philanthropy, nonprofit boards, and fundraising strategies across generations.
Generational Perspectives on Nonprofit Boards, Fundraising, and Events – The Highlights:
Susie and Martha’s journeys into nonprofit leadership.
Board diversity as a crucial key for nonprofit success.
How generational perspectives influence board participation and fundraising.
The pros and cons of modern fundraising events and digital elements.
Strategies for building community through inclusivity and feedback.
Insights on balancing mission alignment with ambitious campaigns.
🎧 Listen to more episodes for actionable fundraising tips and insights on nonprofit leadership, nonprofit governance, donor engagement, productivity & tools, and nonprofit storytelling strategies!
About Suzanne Wilcox:
Suzzane is a Fund Development and Strategic Planning Leader. Through her work at several charitable organizations, a cultural sponsorship agency, and as an industry consultant, she has a deep understanding of non-profit organizations while also being comfortable in a corporate setting. Her work includes fundraising, writing proposals, plans and reports, research projects, business and marketing planning, and feasibility studies.
AI is one of those buzzwords that has recently taken over people's minds. We imagine AI as a futuristic, thrilling, and scary opportunity. But we don't always recognize how it affects us or our work. The cool thing is that AI is being brought into our sector and has a lot of potentials to help organizations leverage their data to do more focused work or analyze and find new opportunities.
In today’s podcast, our guest, Nejeed Kassam, Lawyer, CEO and Founder of Keela, an impact technology company, talks about AI and how it helps small nonprofits manage their donors, mobilize resources, and raise more money.
Myths that Nejeed wants us to walk away from:
AI will replace your job as a fundraiser. Nobody's coming for your jobs. You can't automate fundraising. That's not realistic. What you can do is allow folks to be less burnt out, allow them to prioritize more effectively, allow them to see patterns and focus their work in different ways.
Spending time on data has no benefits for your organization. Quality data has many benefits for organizations. Aside from compliance, data helps organizations to prepare for donor meetings, and then to use it for reporting and analytics.
Nejeed’s thoughts around AI and Fundraising
AI predictions help drive decision-making. Using patterns from data that you have collected will help drive your decision-making. Data can tell your organization a story about your donors that is not recognizable when we don’t see the big data picture. It can also help you identify ask levels or make decisions about where you spend your time and energy.
Forecasting helps fundraisers. Understanding forecasting can help you understand your organization’s programming realities. It can understand whether you’re on track for where you want to be. You can make decisions when you have an idea of where you're going. It also helps identify when to ask for support, how much to ask for, and more.
Benchmarking for fundraising. Data helps your organization to measure efficacy and focus on thinking about how you are doing relative to your goals. Being able to check yourself, being able to hold yourself as an organization and as a fundraiser accountable is really valuable because then you can lean on all these data points in these predictive analytics and know where you really need to dig in and not.
Favorite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“No, you can't automate fundraising. That's not realistic. What you can do is allow folks to be less burnt out, allow them to prioritize more effectively, allow them to see patterns and, um, focus their work in different ways because of the AI ultimately the effective use of artificial intelligence and fundraising is going to be because it’s deployed appropriately and then the fundraisers can take that knowledge and make decisions and steward better and build stronger relationships.”
Have you ever heard the term design thinking thrown around whether in our sector or in the business world and you've thought, what are they talking about? What is that such a buzzword? But there's actually a lot of really cool stuff happening around design thinking and the approach that it has to problem-solving, which is exactly what today's podcast is about, how we can apply design thinking to our fundraising and our work.
Our guest for today’s episode is our colleague at The Good Partnership, Betty Xie, a fundraiser, filmmaker, and Coach for creatives. She studied Strategic Foresight, Innovation and Design at OCAD and brought that to our work.
Myths that Betty wants us to walk away from:
Design Thinking can't be applied in fundraising. At the core of design thinking is a process of problem-solving that is focused on a human-centric, problem-solving process. In the fundraising space, empathizing with the user is the key. This means understanding your donors and funders’ needs, reaching out to them, and getting feedback.
You need to have a perfect pitch deck to raise more money. Following the process of design thinking, at the most minimum prototype, it’s just like passing an idea or some kind of model that doesn’t go for the most perfect state and move forward with it.
The Stages of Design Thinking Process
Empathize with the user - In the nonprofit’s case, this could be our beneficiaries, the people that we serve, or our donors.
Framing the problem - Defining what exactly is the problem that we try to solve.
Ideate and design a solution - Once you have an idea of a solution, instead of going with the perfect solution, you will come up with a prototype and a prototype doesn't need to be physical. In a context of an organization, the prototype can be an idea that you're testing or a server or program.
Testing and Iterating - Testing the prototype to see what works, what doesn't work, and then bring it back, have an honest conversation of other feedback, and try again and again.
Favorite Quotes from today’s episode
Empathize with the user is key. And in the fundraising space, that means really understanding your donors and funders’ need. I just think that it's very common to not spend enough time staying in that space and trying to reach out and get feedback.
Supervision is one of those things in our sector that we kind of fall into. It is often overlooked in our sector but the quality of supervision is important because it affects productivity, morale, work quality, team interaction, conflict, and the overall culture of the organization.
In today’s episode, Rita Sever, an expert in human resources, organizational psychology, and nonprofit systems, talks about how to lead, manage people, and create a culture that is aligned with our organization’s anti-oppression work and values.
Myths that Rita wants us to walk away from:
Nonprofit workers don’t need supervision. Nonprofit organizations are full of kind, caring, and committed people, but that doesn't mean they don't need to be supervised. Even when people are extremely high functioning, they need a supervisor's tender touch and a culture that will encourage them along the way and help them succeed.
Power and privilege don’t exist in nonprofit supervision. Power and privilege have an impact on supervisory relationships. To work from an anti-oppression perspective, supervisors must be prepared for self-awareness – knowing their own background, norms, and hidden rules, and bringing that awareness to real conversations about how it affects their supervision, relationships, and treatment of others.
Rita’s JOIN framework on giving feedback as a supervisor
J - Join your supervisees before you give them feedback. You want to make sure you remember you're on the same side.
O - Observation and objective statement of what actually happened.
I - Impact. What was the impact of that objective observation? How did it impact the person, the team, the work?
N - What needs to be different. And that can be simply, let's talk more about how you could have handled that interaction.
Favorite Quotes from Today’s Episode Post your favorite quote on social media to share with us!
“I think the pitfall is that we are doing so much or so committed to our missions that we sort of take it for granted that everything will work out in terms of people because people are there to support the mission. So we just trust that it's all going to work, but even when people are extremely high functioning, they need that tender touch of a supervisor and a culture that is going to encourage them along the way and help them be successful.”
Fundraising and philanthropy make a lot of people very uncomfortable. A big part of that is our discomfort with money generally, but a lot of it is how our sector and philanthropy have been structured and the power systems it upholds.
Our sector faces challenges related to power, change, and resource redistribution for impact. In today's episode, Yonis Hassan, Co-Founder, and CEO of The Justice Fund discusses one of his biggest challenges with the philanthropic sector - the hoarding of money in foundations. According to the Justice Fund’s most recent campaign, Move The Money, charitable foundations in Canada are holding onto over $85 billion dollars in charitable assets. If distributed, this money would create transformative change in providing security and proper access to opportunities and long-term resources to underserved communities. Join the conversation as Yonis shares why the time to use this money is now. It’s time to call for change.
Myths that Yonis wants us to walk away from:
Preserving a foundation’s capital over a long time is in the best interest of the public. It’s not. There's going to be more money coming into this sector. There’s going to be more innovation, more creativity, and more risk-taking. Yonis urges the charitable sector to use the abundance of taxpayer’s assets in a timely manner when we have a plethora of crises facing our communities.
Small nonprofits cannot make big changes in the philanthropy sector. Whether you are a grassroots organization, an unincorporated organization, a volunteer, a board member, someone who just donates to organizations, there will be an opportunity for you to speak up around these issues.
Yonis’ thoughts around reforming philanthropy:
Changing the status quo. The foundations and funds in our sector have amassed a total of $85 billion. Reforming philanthropy entails leveraging the abundance of these assets to have a greater impact and serve the most vulnerable communities, especially during times of crisis.
Stepping up as a collective sector. We must act collectively and have an open discussion about charitable laws and how they contribute to discrimination and continued oppression of indigenous communities in order to mobilize resources that will improve the situation of the vulnerable populations.
It’s time to speak up. Yonis encouraged the philanthropic community to speak up. Whether it's speaking with your municipal council or your MP or MPP, your donors, or your board members, stand up and urge them to take action and make these legislative reforms.
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“With over $85 billion of charitable assets in this country, we can be using that to invest in affordable housing, to invest in climate financing, to invest in transit, to invest in cooperatives, but we choose not to. So, expecting the federal government to implement some changes to hold us accountable, to hold the philanthropic sector accountable.”
Are your donors on the same page as your organization when it comes to understanding the work? Often, we think that there is this great divide between us and our donors - one that is not easily bridged. But Aniel Gokhale at The Toronto Foundation has been creating programs for donors to go on a learning journey to better understand how they can change how they give to align with their values.
What might be considered risky - engaging your donors in conversations about justice, equity and a redistribution of funds - has turned into a very successful fundraising campaign and community building initiative.
Myths that Aneil wants us to walk away from:
Younger generations don’t give. In fact, younger generations often are excited to give but want a little more than just writing a cheque. They want to learn, be involved, and stay engaged. Think of how you can create a community of supporters and bring them along on a learning journey.
We have to tiptoe around tough topics with our donors. It can be hard to challenge your donors beliefs around philanthropy, but definitely not impossible. Aneil has leaned on research their organization does as well as understanding the intentions of donors and their values, to broach topics of privilege and power, as well as funding organizations that have historically been underserved by philanthropy.
Aneil’s thoughts around bring your donors on a learning journey.
You don’t have to be big or well resourced to bring your donors on a learning journey. Now is the time to have important conversations about equity. The world is going through changes and the status quo is being challenged. Your donors want to align their giving with their values but might not know how. Your donors also see you as the expert, so share your knowledge and experience.
Let your experts lead the way. The Toronto Foundation ensured that their new equity priorities were driven by populations they wanted to serve and support. Remember that you are the experts and your donors want to learn from you.
Now is the time to ask! Younger generations care and they want to be engaged in philanthropy. They expect to be focused on justice and equity and they want to be involved. Your donors are likely committed to their community and feel connected to the work they support.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“It was this idea of actually building out a learning journey and taking your donors on an experience where they're giving more than just that sum of money, but they're actually going out there and they are learning a ton of things about this topic that they care deeply about. So we basically took that concept and created a learning journey here in Toronto, focused on resilience, focused on really just trying to make people understand what the needs were in our community and really trying to underscore how they could make a difference and make an impact.”
Have you ever wondered how your small organization can leverage marketing to build an audience, raise more money, find volunteers or even find service users? I'm sure you've looked at the big organizations and their advertising, whether it be online or in-person and felt a little bit of envy - “I wish we could invest in that.” Well today's guest, Adora Drake, is going to bring her experience in marketing to the level that small nonprofits can actually implement.
Myths that Adora wants us to walk away from:
You need a big budget. The good news is that a lot of online engagement can happen for FREE! If you follow Adora’s SCALE model, you can build community and drive them to action organically, without a budget.
Big ads are the goal. The days of billboards and TV infomercials for nonprofits are limited (or at least, not the goal for small shops). Instead, focus on digital marketing where you can better track results and have a clear picture of who you are targeting and what actions they take because of your ads.
Adora’s SCALE method:
Social Media. You can’t be everywhere, so start by understanding the persona of who you are trying to reach and connect with. Where would they hang out online?
Content. What type of content will engage your audience or target persona? Think of it as an exchange. Often we assume we’re asking people to give to us, but we forget we have things that they value. Be consistent in your content.
Audience. Now is the time to grow your audience, leveraging the insights and engagement you’ve built with your persona and how they have been engaging with your content. You can run ads to target people based on their interests.The platform algorithms can help you find more people!
Lead. Social media is limited as you don’t own the relationship with your community. When the platforms go down (recently Facebook and Instagram), you still want to be able to engage with your audience. Think about giving them something valuable in exchange for their email address.
Execution. Use your email to nurture your list and lead them into a call to action - to give, volunteer, etc. Again, consistency is key - keep those relationships warm and engaged to build a “know, like, and trust” factor.
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“So no matter if you're in a for-profit or nonprofit, you're always going to have people that get on the list and they just don't stay on the list. There's nothing you can do about that. And it's actually a good thing. And I'm going to tell you why it's a good thing, because if they get on the list and they're not engaged, they don't really care about what you guys are talking about, then why have them on the list? It's just a vanity. I would rather have a really small list. Actually. I would really have five people that are really engaged on my list. Then they have a hundred people and one person maybe opens the email.”
“And so that persona represents that one person, that one ideal, which we call maybe a donor or a volunteer that you want to attract. You want to grab their attention. And so, instead of looking at a bunch of people and trying to get all these different people's interests, you want to just narrow it down to “who is this person?” Why would they be interested in my organization? And what should I do to give them value, to make them want to be attracted to me?
The last year and a half has been lonely. While at the beginning slogans like “together alone” might have made us feel connected, that has slipped away and many of us are feeling like our worlds are a whole lot smaller than before. But this loneliness is not new for those in small nonprofits. Often we are very much alone in our work, without peers. In today’s podcast episode, Kimberley MacKenzie joins us to talk about authenticity, community, and tough conversations.
Myths that Kimberley wants us to walk away from:
We need to put on our “armour” for work and “be professional.” Instead, Kimberley wants us to bring our whole selves to work. As leaders, we need to model that we’re human and lean on those around us when we’re not on our game. Not only do we get help, but then we also build trust and collaboration and create a safe space for others to be authentic.
We just need to fix our organizations. A lot of us are questioning some of the status quo and feel that our organizations need anything from a lite improvement to a full overhaul. And while that might be true, Kimberley reminds us that for change to stick, we have to change. It’s not just the organization, but we have personal work we need to do.
You’re the only one. One of the things Kimberley has seen in building her community is that as soon as we show up authentically, we find others who are very much in the same boat as us. You are most definitely not alone!
Kimberley’s tips on finding and building community:
Make the time and space to connect with others. This is something we often put off, because we are so busy with other things. But, as flight attendants like to remind us, put on your own oxygen mask first! Community can help you work through challenges and get different perspectives.
Change requires discomfort. Change is important and is probably more urgent now than ever. Change requires courage and discomfort, but knowing you are not alone can help you move forward and find accountability in the community.
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“People are craving that community and people, you know, those small networks of support are fundamentally important to us being able to continue to do this change because it's exhausting. It's exhausting. The world needs our sector more than ever. The need is greater. The resources are fewer and we're driven by passion. So we often compromise our own physical and mental wellbeing to deliver for our organizations. And of course, we need to fill our tank.”
“I know it's happened to a lot of people where all of our human messiness has been exposed. And I think that as leaders, when we create, when we model that we're human and when we model that, we're not always on our game. And when we lean on our teams, when we need to, and we create space for safe conversations about what it is to be human right now, in this moment that will build trust and that will build collaboration and that will build safety so that folks will bring forward. Some of them are difficult, challenging situations.”
Video - one of those things that everyone wants to get better at using, but not many know where and how to start. On today’s podcast, co-owner of Nonprofit Video Comms, David Phu, joins our host Cindy Wagman, to exchange insights on how nonprofits can best leverage the power of video.
Myths that David wants us to walk away
Video = social media. There are so many other ways videos can be useful for an organization beyond social media, including internal communication, personal messaging, documentation of work processes, guiding donors through their journey etc.
We need fancy equipment to make videos. You have everything you need. Your phone and your laptop can support you to make compelling videos to reach your specific goals.
David’s tips on using video content in a nonprofit setting
Guide donors through their journey using video content. From compelling donors to make a donation, to providing them instructions on how to make the donation, to thanking them, every touch point can be a short video.
Use videos to connect and establish personal connections. Before you interact with someone face-to-face, a quick and unedited video message is the best way to connect with them. An instant video message is like an upgraded voicemail.
Use videos to communicate work processes and provide training for staff and volunteers. There are many tools available now that allow you to record your screen while you’re working through a problem. What’s a better/quicker way to create an instructional manual than just simply hit record and send that video to your staff or volunteers after?
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode Post your favourite quote on social media to share with us!
“Video comes from a time where it was really about entertainment. And it later grew into advertising, maybe training, and publishing this and that. But now with video, it's really about being person to person as much as possible without being there in person.”
“It seems that the first thing that people's minds go to is social media. Video equals social media, which it does. But I think a lot of people are missing all these other opportunities, like personal video messaging, websites, or internal communications videos. There's so much more power right now with video.”
Every year before GivingTuesdays, a lot of fundraisers and Executive Directors are scratching their heads and wondering whether they should do something on GivingTuesday, and if do do something, what can make their organization’s messaging stand out? On today’s podcast, Lys Huggesen, the VP of Partnerships at CanadaHelps and one of the pioneers and leaders of GivingTuesday Canada, shares her insights on how charities might best leverage this day of giving and generosity.
Myths that Lys wants us to walk away
GivingTuesday is not just about fundraising. Giving Tuesday is a day to celebrate generosity that over 73 countries are now participating in. Any form of generosity is celebrated. There are 100 different ways to celebrate generosity without making a money ask.
People are tired of GivingTuesday asks. 52% of people say that they want to give on GivingTuesday because they want to be part of something bigger. Lys likened it to Black Friday - just because everyone is having a sale, does that mean you shouldn’t? Of course not - it’s an opportunity to capitalize on people’s planned behaviour.
Lys’ tips on leveraging GivingTuesday
Don’t treat GivingTuesday as just a day-long campaign. The best campaigns launch before the day, and the campaign can continue beyond GivingTuesday. Be intentional about the campaign launches and the different touch points you design with your audience and donors.
Have good messages in your ask and don’t rely on “just because it’s GivingTuesday.” GivingTuesday or not, people give when they are emotionally motivated and inspired. While the day provides a great opportunity to make an ask, make sure your communication also includes compelling messages and storytelling.
Thank your supporters and express gratitude. If you are not planning to make an ask on GivingTuesday, there are still many ways to engage your audience. It is a day to celebrate generosity, and so why not thank your donors and share messages of gratitude and community togetherness?
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode Post your favourite quote on social media to share with us!
“People are primed to give. 52% of people say that they want to give on GivingTuesday itself because they're part of something bigger.”
“I think one of the biggest myths is that GivingTuesday is just a day. It's more than just a day. The best campaigns start well before.”
Podcasting is exploding. More and more nonprofits have a podcast, or are considering getting into it. Should your organization also have a podcast? Is it a lot of work to manage a podcast? What should you talk about on the podcast? On today’s episode, Christian Robillard, founder of Purpose Podcasting, joins our host Cindy Wagman, and the two of them are going to answer all your burning questions about why and how to podcast.
Thinking of setting up a podcast for your organization and your cause? Christian shared with us some benefits and opportunities:
Building an audience (especially age 18-35) in an intimate way. Especially during the pandemic, as we all suffer from screen fatigue, podcasts are a great medium to connect with an audience in a different way and make them feel that they get to know you and your organization intimately.
Onboarding staff and volunteers and sharing resources internally. Especially for bigger organizations that have a large number of staff and volunteers, a podcast is a very great way to do internal resources and knowledge sharing.
Raising awareness on how your organization is helping your audience overcoming a specific problem. Whether your target audience is your donors, your program beneficiaries, or your partners, understanding what problem your podcast is helping them to overcome is the first thing to do before setting up your podcast.
Christian’s tips on podcasting
Hook your audience in the first 60 seconds. In the first 60 seconds of each episode, have a clear structure that introduces who you and your organization are and what the audience can expect from the podcast and this episode.
Include a clear call to action in the podcast. Be very clear what you want people to do as a result of listening to your podcast and communicating that.
Infuse personal touches. Let your audience know what is the host and the hosting organization’s stance and philosophies on issues that matter to them.
Be strategic about the production of the podcast. Decide how much you want to do in house and how much you want to outsource. Set up a good workflow and rinse and repeat.
Repurpose your podcast content. Take bits and pieces from the podcast and repurpose them widely to your blog, social media, e-news and even annual report. Christian’s take is if you are only doing less than 5 pieces of content from your podcast, you’re missing out.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode Post your favourite quote on social media to share with us!
“With any type of podcasting, the why is definitely important. But ultimately you have to think about who your audience is and what's the problem. Or what are the challenges that this particular piece of content is going to help them overcome?”
“If you're getting any less than five pieces of content out there, including the podcast from your recording, I think you're missing out. I would argue if you have an hour-long podcast that you've recorded and produced, you could probably get up to 20 pieces of solid 30 to 60 second content, plus a blog post, plus the transcription, plus any other parts that you want to use to compliment other communications that you're doing.”
Are you experiencing the awkward silences at the board meetings where people seem to want to say something, but no one is speaking up? Or maybe it’s that one person is dominating the conversation. How might leaders and organizations actually facilitate structure and process for all voices to be heard at the decision making table? On today’s podcast, organizational development consultant Susan Loucks shares with us how inclusive decision making can be facilitated and fostered.
Myths that Susan wants us to walk away from
Having a structure for decision making restricts participation. While having a very complicated decision making framework can definitely be too restrictive, having no structure is not conducive for ensuring inclusive participation at the board or organizational decision making table. For people who feel that they are not the loudest or most powerful voices in the room, having a simple and clear structure can actually allow them to fall back to that structure and express their opinion.
It’s great that our board is always in agreement and making efficient decisions. While there is value in efficiency, having consistent agreement might mean that you’re not paying attention to the diversity of perspectives and opinions at the table, or that you don’t have a diversity of perspectives at the table.
Susan’s tips on fostering inclusive organizational/board decision-making
Adopt a clear decision making framework that people get behind with, and actually follow the structure.
Establish the culture that accepts and celebrates disagreement
Don’t rush with decision making. Be ok to sit in the uncomfortable zone of deciding to not decide.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“I am usually happy if everybody is in agreement, it means it's going to be easy. It means it's going to be efficient. But I have to watch myself - this is not the optimal place for the group. We don't want people at each other's throats, but to have everybody agreeing is not the best outcome for this group. We want to be able to see that disagreement. So actually just to frame this as disagreement is healthy and good, and we want to surface that and learn what we can do better.”
“I think the bias is towards let's just make this happen. We're informal. We'll just talk. We don't have to have a lot of rules. If you're the one in power, it's super easy for you to not understand how it feels if you don't have power. To feel like I have an open door. People can just come in and talk to me! They're not going to do that unless there's like a time in the week when you're allowed to come in and talk. Right?”
Grant writing. It’s one of those things that every organization struggles with. Often grant writing seems like it’s a bad investment of time and effort - you put 100 out there, you hear 1 back. So how can nonprofits be more “grant-ready” and less overwhelmed with the process. On today’s podcast, CEO of Think and Ink Consulting, Shavonn Richardson, walks us through the key steps to prepare for a successful grant writing cycle.
Myths that Shavonn wants us to walk away
“Let’s start writing right away!”. Getting straight into the writing without doing any pre-work is not necessarily a sign of proactiveness when it comes to grant-writing. There are steps to set your organization’s grant strategy and writing up for success, See tips below.
Shavonn’s tips on preparing your organization to be grant-ready
Building relationships with funders. Do the research to find funders that are truly in alignment with your needs and values and have a conversation with them before applying if possible. This step will help you narrow down the list of prospects.
Conduct a logic model exercise. What is the theory of change that your program has, and how are you going to deliver the impact you want to deliver? Articulating the logic model of your program will help you anticipate and answer so many grant questions that by the time you write, it will feel effortless.
Establish measure of success and track metrics consistently. You don’t have to follow a grantor's definition of success, but you do need to establish your own measure of success and be able to track those metrics consistently. Regardless of which grant you’re applying, have these measures in place and develop the habit for tracking metrics now.
Have a detailed program/project budget. Build out a program budget that has a very detailed, line-by-line program budget so that if the funder asks for a detailed budget, you already have it, and if they don’t, then you can simplify it.
Train your board to take part in the process. The board needs to be involved in collaboration with the staff to come up with the strategic direction of programs, and they should be involved talking to funders when needed. Make sure your board understands their role and is supporting the staff.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Really take the time and focus on quality over quantity and do the research to only select foundations that are really aligned with what you do. Not a stretch. Not outside of your current program. But are really aligned with what you do. And if you take the time to cultivate a relationship with that funder, you will go much further when you go to submit an application.”
“A logic model will pull out all those juicy details that funders ask for. They will ask what are your smart outcomes? What are your short term, intermediate term, and long term objectives? What's your overall vision? What are your activities? How are you measuring them? One logic model can answer 500 questions that a funder would ask you.”
Our sector - especially in small nonprofits - is filled with reluctant fundraisers who were assigned the responsibility of fundraising so that they can keep the organization afloat. Reluctant fundraisers know a lot about fundraising best practices, but when it comes to actually doing it, fundraising still feels difficult and even impossible.
To support all the reluctant fundraisers, our very own Cindy Wagman wrote a book titled Raise It! The Reluctant Fundraiser’s Guide to Raising Money Without Selling Your Soul. On this very first episode of the season, Cindy shares with us an excerpt from the book.
Myths that Cindy wants us to walk away from
“How dare I ask people?” There is always a hesitation to ask because of our assumptions about donors and funders. A helpful reframe for this thought is - “how dare I not ask people?” Our organization’s mission is too important for it to be sitting in dust and not rally people’s support.
“If this strategy works for other organizations, it must work for us. Right?!” The comparison game shows up a lot for small organizations. The truth is - a cookie cutter approach to fundraising doesn’t work. What works for another organization is not a magical solution to your problem. Start from where you are.
“We need this and that in place before we can fundraise” Is this thought true, or is this another excuse to delay the action of actually doing the fundraising? You don’t need a fancy branding guide or marketing plan before starting to fundraising.
Cindy’s philosophy on addressing the root cause of fundraising pain
Focus on changing how we think and feel when we fundraise, rather than chasing for the magical solution. Recruiting a board member that knows fundraising won’t fix all your fundraising pain. Speaking to another organization that does individual giving well is not going to drastically increase your donations. If you are reluctant to fundraise, you will never prioritize it.
Check in how our beliefs around fundraising show up in different fundraising situations. For example, before going into a donor meeting, what are all the thoughts that are showing up on your mind? How are you feeling? Write these down and see if these thoughts are true or just assumptions that you’re bringing into the situation.
For more on how to change our mindset around fundraising, listen to the podcast and get your hands on Cindy’s new book and the amazing bonuses exclusive to the presale period. Pre-order your copy of Raise It! here today.
Do you get butterflies in your stomach before making a big pitch or presentation? To end the season off, we invited Lucia Cesaroni, world renowned opera singer and voice consultant, to share with us how to find our own voice and project it with confidence and ease.
Myths that Lucia wants us to walk away from
“I get nervous before presenting because I am not good at it.” Everyone gets nervous. We’re biologically wired to get nerves before a big presentation. Our brain perceives the presentation as a threat. Our nerves are a signal that our brain is trying to protect us from danger.
“I am not an extrovert and so I am not good at presenting.” Despite the fact that we’re often informed by the assumption extroverted people are better at public speaking, finding your own voice and projecting your voice is not related to introversion or extroversion.
Lucia’s tips on preparing the body and mind for presenting
Do some breathing exercises to find your own voice modulation. We often subconsciously model our voice after our role models or what society projects as our role models, without realizing that we have a tonal range and voice modulation that we can explore and leverage according to different situations. Tune into the breathing exercises that Lucia shares on the podcast to explore the different possibilities of your own voice.
Stretch to take up more space. When you stretch, you will find that your body naturally sits up a little straighter and taller. When you take up more space, your voice will project with more confidence and the receiver of your voice will feel your presence.
Take time before responding. Whether you are making a big speech, or responding to comments in an intense meeting, make sure you take pauses. Take a second to bring back awareness to your body and breathing. Take a second to feel your grounding, whether you’re sitting or standing.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“When our brain, mostly incorrectly, perceives a high pressure situation as a threat, adrenaline rises, certain chemicals are released. What we need to do is to learn to reroute that process, and that requires body awareness, vocal awareness and mental focus, mindful preparedness, and coping strategies.”
“When we are confronted with a challenging situation, we have to focus on body first and brain second.”
How have donors been giving this past year? And what’s the outlook for the future of giving? On today’s podcast episode, Jacob O’Connor, Vice President of Engagement at CanadaHelps, comes to share with us the latest giving trends published in CanadaHelps’ 2021 Giving Report.
Jacob’s highlights of 2021 giving trends
Charities are adopting digital giving rapidly. During the pandemic, online giving grew 86% while overall giving decreased by 10%. While many charities needed to put a stop to their in-person fundraising efforts, they are seeing significant growth to their online giving. There is huge potential for charities that have not yet adopted online giving to make that shift.
Young donors are giving to causes they deeply care about. Young donors who don’t necessarily have a very high income have stepped up in major ways during this pandemic. Not only are they giving to individual charities, they are also donating to cause based funds that will benefit a larger number of charities.
Because of the diversification of donors, important issues and sectors are being supported in more significant ways. For instance, we’re seeing an increase for individual donation to Indigenous charities and arts and cultural sector
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Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Young people are really engaged with the issues that are top of mind right now, and that's playing out across the board in all the given trends.”
“From a financial perspective, the shift from big checks to community-based giving is much more sustainable and less volatile, when you have 1000 donors versus one funder as your source of funding.”
How can we actively create the future we want to see beyond the COVID-19 pandemic? On today’s podcast, André Pawan Vashist, ecosystem facilitator, system solution designer, and seasoned nonprofit leader, shares with us his insights on how to move from a transactional way of thinking and doing to bringing about transformational changes in our sector and in our society as a whole.
André’s insights on how we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic
Move beyond transactional based processes. Recognize the limit of the transactional processes (like a grant application for funding) in our system and assess how they can better reflect relationships and perspectives from different communities.
Actively learn different ways of knowing and thinking. To bring about transformational changes, We must learn not only the different ways of doing but also the different ways of knowing. In the episode, Audre gives the example of learning from Indigenous communities and how they view ways of knowing.
Hold space to heal our intersectional identities. We see through experiences from our different lived experiences and identify. It is important to not only recognize the different identities and perspectives that co-exist, but also celebrate that identities are intrinsically intersectional.
Increase transparency and openness. Say goodbye to job postings that don’t disclose salary range. Question the lack of transparency and what kind of structure and value they try to uphold that no longer fit into the equitable world we want to see.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“To go from transactional to transformation - in the middle of that is our relationships”
“Revisit what it means to be an actor in society and not having to always be structured within a hierarchical organizational structure, it's okay to have those structures because they’re foundational in terms of holding space and resources, but they also interact in terms of transformation that requires actors moving in between those spaces"
Despite all the research that shows the untapped talent and capabilities of neurodiverse population, neurodiverse individuals are still facing significant barriers when seeking employment and adapting to workplace culture and practice that is not made accessible to them. How can employers proactively design a healthy workplace to support neurodiverse individuals to shine with their incredible talents? On today’s podcast, Isabella He and Isabelle Hsu, two young leaders of advocacy for neurodiversity, join us to share their insight and experience.
Isabelle and Isabella’s tips on making workplace accessible for neurodiverse individuals:
Adopt a strength-based approach. Neurodiverse individuals might need specific accommodations to equip them to work in the style they feel comfortable with and show their amazing strengths. Focus on their strengths when you communicate and work with neurodiverse individuals. Adopt the mindset of how you can design the workplace to unleash the amazing strengths of your neurodiverse teammates.
Raise general awareness and literacy about neurodiversity. The literacy around neurodiversity is still relatively low in our society. Seek resources that raise awareness at your workplace to learn more about neurodiversity so that you and your team know how to
Seek help to design the accessibility policy and practice at your workplace. There are professional accessibility specialists that can help you design your workplace practice and support your workplace to be certified neurodiverse workplace.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“I founded SN Inclusion after realizing that some people I knew that I had no idea were neurodiverse were actually neurodiverse and they had such struggles getting into the workplace and face so many adversities due to a lot of the stigmas that still perpetuate yeah in our world today. Unemployment rates among individuals with autism spectrum disorder is at 85%. I was shocked by that statistics.” - Isabella
“One thing to keep in mind is that so many of us with neurodiverse conditions have unfortunately learned to keep our conditions private and try not to bother others or to advocate for our specific needs. Of course, there are also people who are the complete opposite of that. But in general, if an employer wants to make a workplace more friendly, I suggest they approach it in a more proactive way to ask what needs to be done instead of waiting for employees to approach you and tell you what they need.” - Isabelle
Is your organization starting to plan for going back to the office? Or is your team going to continue working from home as we slowly transition to post-pandemic reality? Whichever option you’re thinking about, there are considerations for how to ensure your staff has a safe and healthy working environment. On today’s podcast, Alice D’Abreu, an HR expert and founder of Monday Morning, shares with us what employers should be thinking about, planning for, and starting to roll out now.
Alice’s tips on going back to the office
Develop plans and strategies to ensure workplace health and safety at the office. Consider strategies such as installing plexiglass and implementing a shift system and pay attention to details that people might get exposed to health hazards.
Have a work-from-home policy. It’s likely that for every organization, working from home will play a part in the post-pandemic reality. So if you don’t already have a work-from-home policy in place at your organization, start planning and implementing one.
Make sure that you also consider how to ensure staff working from home have a safe and accommodating work environment. Just because staff are working from home, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to consider their working conditions. Check in on if they have the right equipment and resources to work with and if there is the accommodation that they need at home.
Provide targeted support to address the main challenges your employees have faced. Understanding that people have different levels of experiences and challenges during the pandemic, first get a pulse check on what are the specific challenges that your staff have faced, and then look into providing targeted resources, training, or workshops to support them.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Before COVID, there were a lot of businesses that didn't even consider work from home and it's just become a fundamental reality for people that this is not going anywhere and this change might be here to stay.”
“Think about how this whole pandemic experience has had an impact on people during these very trying times. Get a pulse of what are the main challenges that people have faced and might face going forward and then look into providing targeted support.”
With everything that’s happening in the world right now, work can feel heavy and onerous. How can we bring back the joy in our work and feel aligned? On today’s podcast, business coach extraordinaire Lianne Kim shares with us her insight and tips on how to show up to work with a joy oriented mindset.
Get your copy of Lianne’s new bookhere Building a Joyful Business a 15% percent discount code exclusive to our listeners. Simply enter the code GOOD when you’re checking out to get the discount.
Self-talk that Lianne wants us to walk away from:
“What should I be doing today?”: Rather than operating from the place of asking yourself what you should be doing, try to shift to what you would like to do. That simple mindset shift will bring more joy and meaning to your day to day.
“I have no control during these unprecedented times.”: Yes. We don’t have control over how and when many things are happening in the world, but we do have control on how we respond to them. Our response is a choice that we make.
“I have to serve everyone.”: You don’t have to serve every donor, client, or person in the world. Honing down in your strength and being very specific about the community of people you serve is going to make your work that much more aligned and joyful.
Lianne’ tips on bringing back joy in our work:
Learn to let go. Learn to say no to projects, clients, donors that do not align with your values and vision and make space for things, people and tasks that truly matter.
Cultivate the mental awareness for the mindset trap of “I am not enough.” Often when we spend so much time and energy in doing the things we think we should do, we are informed by the mindset of not-enough-ness. Building awareness to the existence of this mindset is the first step to put some distance to it.
Stop playing the comparison game. Pick a lane, focus on your strength, doing things the way that you’re great at and feeling great from it. Don’t pay so much attention to what other people or organizations are doing. Think about how much you can accomplish can do with the time and energy that you spend on playing the comparison game.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Every single choice that we make can bring us closer to joy or further away.”
“I'm a big proponent that mindset really does need to be the foundation for all success. There’s no one tactic or strategy that is going to overcome a crappy mindset.”
“It’s in the letting go of the stuff that really isn't serving us, the stuff that is going to serve us shows up.”
As part 2 of Collecting Courage, we invited several white leaders in the sector to talk about how to be real and active allies for anti-racism work. On the podcast today are Mazarine Treyz, Fundraising Author and Coach, Chris Conroy, Partner at the Wellspring Group, and Scott Russell, Chief Executive Director at the Alzheimer Society of Toronto.
Mazarine, Chris and Scott’ tips on being active allies:
Commit to lifelong learning and listening. Allyship and anti-racism work is not a quick fix - it’s a lifelong commitment. Look for resources to help yourself learn and talk to people around you.
Stepping Back and Calling Out. When you’re invited to a panel or speaking engagement that includes only white people, do the work to ask questions, call out the organizers, and step back. Acts like participating in all-white panels is perpetuating the system at work that disproportionately supports white voices over other’s.
Get comfortable with confronting your own complicity. We are all complicit one way or another in participating in a system that is racist. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of coming face to face your own complicity.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Highlight people of colour and their work. Pay them if you’re inviting them to speak. Ask the questions that people don't want to ask. Like, why is the sector not a safe or good space for a lot of people of colour?” - Mazarine
“We have to be willing to go deeper and to look at things with critical eyes and questions. We have to be honest with ourselves that we don't see our bias and complicity very well and see it very clearly.” - Scott
“Getting comfortable with getting uncomfortable is about getting comfortable with letting go of your own empowered worldview, which has come at the expense at the oppression of people with different world views and differing identities, which whiteness has itself framed and named and defined for itself.” - Chris
Are you constantly losing your best fundraisers? Join Maria Rio and Laura Vitelli, co-founder of Staiger, Vitelli & Associates, as they share actionable insights on how nonprofits can attract, retain, and support their top fundraisers. Laura highlights the challenges fundraisers face, the importance of value alignment, and how to foster a supportive culture that retains top talent.
This episode dives deep into boundaries, nonprofit leadership accountability, and strategies to prevent nonprofit burnout, offering practical tips to empower fundraisers and strengthen organizational success.
Retaining & Supporting Nonprofit Fundraisers – The Highlights:
Why fundraisers leave: Exploring burnout, unrealistic goals, and lack of value alignment.
How to foster a supportive, human-centered workplace culture.
The role of nonprofit leadership in creating accountability and setting boundaries.
Practical steps to attract, retain, and empower fundraisers.
The growing need for values-driven fundraising and donor relationships.
🎧 Listen to more episodes for actionable fundraising tips and insights on nonprofit leadership, nonprofit governance, donor engagement, productivity & tools, and nonprofit storytelling strategies!
About Laura Vitelli:
Laura Vitelli is a seasoned fundraiser with over 30 years of experience and co-founder of Staiger, VITELLI & Associates. Laura and her business partner Sarah Staiger specialize in helping nonprofits create sustainable fundraising systems through value-based strategies. Together, they provide coaching, training, and strategic planning support to small and mid-sized organizations.
On today’s podcast, editors of the book Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love - Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira, and Nicole Salmon - share with us their insight and wisdom on how to confront systemic racism in our sector by starting with speaking up and sharing stories.
Ways that Nneka, Nicole and Camille encourages us to confront systemic racism:
Recognize that we are all part of a racist system. Centre the conversation on the system, and recognize that we all live and breathe in racism. Good people or organizations trying to do good can be actively participating in reinforcing systemic racism too.
Recognize that both action and inaction have impact. Not only do words have an impact in making changes or perpetuating harm, silence also can have significant impact. Think about what your silence means and reinforces.
Leverage collective power for change. Collective courage and power will mobilize changes. Click the links in the resource section to join and support the community of Black fundraisers or host a book club at your workplace.
Show commitment to philanthropy and community that do not subject to the tradition of Western and white philanthropy. Don’t let the tradition of Western and white philanthropy speak for all philanthropic and community endeavour. The Black communities’ love for community, making a difference, and connecting with people through giving predates Western philanthropy.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“The word racism is so charged because we've attached a good, bad binary to the word. And that's problematic and false. Racism is the water we swim in. So we're all infected. The question is what are we each going to do about our own infection?” - Nneka Allen
“The impact of your action and inaction lands somewhere. Words you use have a lasting impact on people.” - Nicole Salmon
“When I joined the collective, I was looking for a community, because most of the time you feel alone and you feel like you're the only one. We’re here. This is an invitation. If there's any, anyone out there in the nonprofit sector, and you're looking for a community, a place to really feel like you were at home, connect with us.” --Camila Vital Nunes Pereira
On today’s podcast, David Love, seasoned fundraiser also known as the Godfather of Good, shares with us his take on the role of fundraisers in achieving change in the world. When we centre our work around the mission and the journey that we are on as an organization and how that aligns with the journey our donors are making - we can impact meaningful and lasting change in the world.
Myths that David wants us to walk away from
The nature of a fundraiser's work to raise money. What fundraisers actually do is create value and make connections - connecting donors to the causes that matter deeply to them.
Less people are donating nowadays. Donors are stepping up again and again for different causes. Less people are donating just for a charitable receipt, but more people are giving to causes they are deeply passionate of regardless of the tax receipt. This is why we don’t yet have a great metric on the current state of philanthropy.
David’s tips on working with donors:
Recognize that the donors’ journey already started and you’re here to support them on their journey. No hard sell is needed. There is a reason that a potential donor is interested in the organization's mission and vision. You’re just here to support them on a path that they’re already on, guided by their own values, interest, and passion.
Help them to find and support initiatives that speak to their values and the changes they want to see in the world. Ask questions or guide the donors to hone in what is it that will make them feel the spark or the connection with the impact that matters to them.
Show passion and authenticity in your communication with your donors. Do away with aloof and formal language and focus on showing that you too deeply care about the mission and vision that your donors are invested in.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“It’s a fallacy to think that fundraisers raise money. What fundraisers spend their lives doing is creating value. Fundraisers make dreams come true. Small organizations with difficult causes need to find ways to make the values that are at the heart of what they do come alive in a donor’s soul.”
“Donors are already on a journey. We as fundraisers didn't actually start that journey. They come to us because they're on a journey and they're actually trying to find out whether the road that we’re showing them is one we want to go down or not.”
How do we recover from the exhaustion and pain of the pandemic? How do we lead our organizations into the post-pandemic world with responsible leadership in service for our communities? On today’s episode, social impact leader Chi Nguyen gives us the real talk on how to approach our leadership and the way we show up with a feminist and inclusive lens.
Chi’s tips on approaching leadership from a feminist and inclusive lens:
Caregiving is deeply feminist. Caregiving translates into leadership at all levels of our society. Leaders who understand the value of caregiving have the potential to transform how we are organized and governed.
Purpose and responsibility driven. Think about responsibility not just for ourselves and our immediate community, but our collective responsibility for this planet and future generations.
Show up as our whole selves. We carry what’s going on in our lives, our identities, and our values to the table and so let our authenticity and experience shine through our decision making and leadership.
Be ok with the discomfort when wrestling with power. Disrupting systemic privilege and power structure is uncomfortable but a necessary part of the work in service for our communities. And it’s not just about disrupting power structures outside of our own organizations and our sector. We have to be able to look inward as well.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“When I think about inclusive leadership and feminist leadership, it's about bringing that whole person and all of the weight of that into decision making, into how we run our organizations with lots of forgiveness and resiliency, and frankly, real humanity.”
“The best community programming and best response to community initiatives is a program that is for us by us - fundraised, led, designed, implemented. That is the model for ownership of community solutions, but it is not how our systems have been built. We need to move from a charitable model to collective impact model.”
How can I close that sponsorship deal? This is the question that keeps many fundraisers and Executive Directors up at night. On today’s episode, Charmaine Hammond, partnership development expert at Raise a Dream, shares with us an easy-to-follow, 7-step framework for building long lasting partnerships.
Myths that Charmaine wants us to leave behind
You have to shoehorn your nonprofit into a partnership. Have a discovery call with a potential partner and assess if there is an alignment before proceeding further. You don’t have to pursue a partner that has no value and impact alignment with your organization.
If there is a problem with partnership deliverables, let’s not report the problem until the point of no return. Engage your partner early on with the problem and invite them to be part of the solution. Your partner is invested in the success of the partnership just as you are.
Charmaine’s tips on building partnerships
Listen for the full episode to get all of Charmaine's tips and the complete 7-step framework.
Go beyond the obvious for partnership research. Try to see where your partners are speaking at, what social media engagement they are doing, and what campaigns they are involving themselves in.
Let the partnerships/sponsors tell you what to include in a proposal. Ask them explicitly what would be helpful to include, what should not be included, who else will be involved in the decision making process and viewing the proposal etc.
Continue to consistently engage your partners after the partnership is concluded. Get in touch with partners and see how they’re doing. Keep tabs on what initiatives they’re engaged in. Share program updates from your side. Keep in touch with them like your friends and the relationship will flow organically.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“I don't want any surprises when potential partners read the proposal and contract I send over. So when a potential partner asks for a proposal, I say absolutely, I can put it together and ask these questions: what would you like me to send you? Who else is going to be looking at it just you? Okay. Oh, you've got to bring in some other team members, what will they want to see? How many pages? What do I not need to cover? What do I need to ensure is in there for you to take this forward and sell it?”
“What I have learned is the earlier you bring a possible issue forward to a partner, the more support you get in the solution, because nobody at this point wants to see failure. Everybody is committed to make the partnership successful. So, let people be part of the solution.”