Stay ConnectedNonprofit Pulse is a nonprofit podcast that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission.
Each episode features conversations with nonprofit leaders and experts, delivering practical ideas and fresh perspectives to help you grow your impact.
Erica Cox has spent more than 30 years in technology consulting, and she says nonprofit AI adoption is the polar opposite of a large, singular transformation. The Chief Innovation Officer at Provisio Partners recommends small, controlled use cases that let a team fail fast or win fast while building the guardrails it needs.
The usual instruction is to clean all of your data first, then modernize systems, then consider AI. Erica says data readiness does not depend on organization size or a sophisticated platform. It depends on the minimum viable data required for a useful job.
In this episode:
How to find a small AI use case inside a recurring process instead of starting with one large transformation project
The minimum viable data test, including why asking staff to enter 100 fields can hurt both adoption and AI results
How the Higher Learning Commission used runners, walkers, and bystanders to identify early adopters and bring more people in
The guardrail behind Pacific Clinics' agent Hope, which had one identifier and no other information about a person
Why a client kept staff at eight-hour days but helped them see ten kids instead of five and complete three grant applications instead of one
You will leave with a way to inventory AI already in use, choose a pilot, revisit governance monthly, and explain why responsible adoption can strengthen the human work your team does.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Starting with AI without a transformation (1:14) Small pilots beat the big transformation (3:14) The minimum viable data test (7:19) The runners, and permission to fail (10:31) How to inventory scattered data (13:18) What the agent named Hope actually does (15:37) Guardrails before sensitive data (19:19) Why AI is changing work so fast (25:38) Why ignoring AI can be risky (30:00) AI that strengthens human work (33:09) Where to start this week
Guest: Erica Cox, Chief Innovation Officer, Provisio Partners https://provisiopartners.com
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ai-how-to-start
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Krissie Kelleher brings more than 25 years of strategic fundraising experience to Team IMPACT, and she says an annual fundraising plan is not a document. It is a decision about what you will do and what you will not do.
The answer is not a 40-page plan no one reads. Krissie starts with the few revenue drivers that matter, maps the work across the year, and turns ambitious goals into math the team can manage. Fear is not a strategy, and neither is hope.
In this episode:
How to identify the 3 to 5 core revenue drivers instead of treating every idea as equally important
Why 70 to 80% of revenue is often predictable, while the rest can be tested, shrunk, or removed
What a $3.7 million Team IMPACT gala reveals once $750,000 in event costs are counted
How a 12-month calendar becomes the strategy for campaigns, appeals, events, and stewardship
Why the top 25 prospects and 30%, 50%, and 75% yield calculations keep a pipeline honest
You will leave with a one-page planning approach, a calendar your team can follow, and a quarterly review rhythm for changing course. Focus on relationships, not activity for activity's sake. Krissie would take a sit-down visit with a major-gift prospect ten times more than an event invitation.
Episode highlights: (0:00) What the plan says no to (1:26) What makes a fundraising plan work (4:58) Choose revenue drivers that matter (8:36) A 12-month calendar people use (12:59) Targets ambitious enough to manage (18:25) Planning mistakes to avoid (24:55) When to revise the plan (27:58) Fundraising beyond the development team (34:16) Staying focused amid shiny objects (43:37) Start with the one-page plan
Guest: Krissie Kelleher, CEO, Team IMPACT
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-annual-nonprofit-fundraising-plan More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Luke Mickelson helped turn Sleep in Heavenly Peace into a volunteer-powered nonprofit with more than 300 chapters, and he did not want to become the bottleneck. The organization's national ambassador says founders do not always have to step back. They have to step differently, from daily operator to a role that protects the mission while local leaders carry it forward.
That transition demands a shared process, not hundreds of separate ways of doing the same work. It also demands an experience that lets volunteers contribute meaningfully, even if they have never touched a tool before.
In this episode:
How Sleep in Heavenly Peace grew from seven chapters to 125 in less than a year, while its budget rose from $80,000 to $1 million in six months
Why every chapter needs at least four core team members, rather than one or two people headed for burnout
Why a jig that builds beds ten times faster with ten times fewer people can work against a volunteer-powered mission
How public bed builds turn one person's 10 to 30 beds a year into a community effort that can build 300 or 400
Why chapter presidents receive a weekly P&L and the organization presents its finances every quarter
You will leave with a framework for deciding what to centralize, choosing coachable chapter leaders, designing a meaningful volunteer experience, and preparing for the moment your organization outgrows you.
Episode highlights: (0:00) How to grow past the founder bottleneck (1:41) When founders must step differently (6:40) National standards, local ownership (9:49) A founder's job: vision, not operations (14:06) Keeping quality across 300 chapters (18:19) When growth breaks the system (22:33) Choosing leaders who can be coached (28:26) Volunteers who become long-term champions (35:13) Why radical transparency matters (41:40) Before your idea takes off (45:46) Where founders go from here
Guest: Luke Mickelson, National Ambassador, Sleep in Heavenly Peace
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-scale-a-volunteer-powered-nonprofit
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Dave Raley, Founder and CEO of The Center for Sustainable Giving, says recurring giving programs do not grow on technology pixie dust. Recurring giving has changed with the subscription economy, but too many charities still treat it as a checkbox.
The average recurring donor retention rate is between 78 and 84%, yet a recurring program can still plateau when nobody owns it or donors have no reason to stay. Dave explains how to make recurring giving a full-fledged discipline, not a side project.
In this episode:
What The Joshua Fund changed to grow from about 1,900 to more than 4,000 recurring donors in two years
Why Netflix and Spotify spend heavily to acquire subscribers, and what that says about donor lifetime value
The difference between voluntary and involuntary churn, including the 20 to 25% of cards that go bad each year
Why a $1,500 to $3,000 recurring donor is worth a call when a payment fails
The "how many and how much" questions to answer by the end of today before assessing six technology criteria
You will leave with a way to identify the owner of your program, define a recurring value proposition, and start reducing churn with the resources you already have. Technology can be a barrier or an ally, but it will not grow the program for you.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why recurring programs stop growing (1:06) Why resilient programs still plateau (3:44) Quick wins for a stagnant program (5:11) What Netflix and Spotify reveal (7:38) When recurring giving becomes core strategy (9:50) Who owns recurring giving? (12:49) A value proposition donors want to keep (15:08) Reducing churn and winning donors back (18:24) Growth without a big tech stack (21:20) First steps toward sustainable growth (24:42) Start with the program, not the technology
Guest: Dave Raley, Founder and CEO, The Center for Sustainable Giving
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-recurring-giving More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stephen Minix thinks nonprofit impact measurement starts with people, not a report or a platform. As Vice President of Community at UpMetrics, he helps investors, funders, and nonprofits move beyond transactional engagement toward authentic partnership.
An annual report that says everything worked is validation, not learning. Stephen explains how nonprofits can own their story, decide what success means for their intervention, and use information to improve instead of merely meeting a funder requirement. The work becomes more useful when teams can see themselves in the process.
In this episode:
Why collecting every possible metric makes it harder to identify what actually matters
How a single source of truth can replace disconnected surveys, budgets, marketing data, and spreadsheets
What the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation event revealed by putting a story before the data
Why Affirmative Athletics could move from the story to its data without putting Rob Thelusma on the back foot
The $8 million funding loss that affected 12,000 kids across Los Angeles and exposed the cost of an ineffective data strategy
You will leave with a people-first approach to choosing useful measures, combining numbers with stories, and making room to change course when the data shows an intervention is not working. Start with the mission and values before looking for a tool.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When measurement becomes a burden (1:10) Make measurement work for your team (4:13) One source of truth, not scattered systems (7:20) From collecting data to improving programs (10:16) When numbers and stories work together (14:01) A shared framework with funders (17:46) From ad hoc reports to disciplined measurement (21:59) Data confidence for non-data people (26:39) Define the work before choosing a platform (29:49) Start with mission and values
Guest: Stephen Minix, Vice President of Community, UpMetrics
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-data-impact-measurement
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Laurie Hood has spent 20 years growing Alaqua Animal Refuge, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Northwest Florida, and she says nonprofit crisis preparedness begins long before an emergency. For Laurie, relationship building is not something to turn on in a crisis. It is work an organization lives every day.
When Hurricane Milton created an urgent need, Alaqua had less than 24 hours to organize hundreds of dogs from South Florida. The response worked because people knew its role, trusted its team, and could be assigned to work quickly.
In this episode:
How Alaqua became part of a statewide disaster-response coalition before it needed to activate one
What changed when hundreds of dogs arrived from South Florida and Alaqua was fully set up within 24 hours
How more than 1,000 volunteers contributing 80,000 hours a year create readiness before the next call for help
Why knowing volunteers' strengths lets a team assign tasks quickly, safely, and without chaos
How to use AI as an intern to create a starting point for an emergency-management plan and identify community partners
You will leave with a simple first move: make one phone call this week, start one relationship in the calm season, and build the trust that turns goodwill into coordinated response.
Episode highlights: (0:00) The relationships a crisis response depends on (2:03) Build community before the emergency (4:18) Who needs to be at the table first (6:49) Making room for readiness on a maxed-out team (7:56) Why calm-season relationships matter (10:46) Earning a seat in emergency planning (14:16) Keeping volunteers engaged between crises (16:22) The cost of activating community too late (18:12) What a prepared response looks like (19:24) One call to start building readiness (21:05) Your first relationship this week
Guest: Laurie Hood, Founder, Alaqua Animal Refuge
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-community-before-a-crisis-hits More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Tasha Van Vlack says nonprofit ambassador programs fail when organizations treat people as a marketing tactic instead of building community. As Founder & Co-Director of The Nonprofit Hive, she has seen why a Slack channel full of posts to share can turn committed supporters into a distribution channel.
The goal is not simply brand awareness. Tasha argues that ambassadors should create trust, belonging, and influence around the mission. That begins by defining the purpose, choosing the right people, and giving the group a role that is clear without trying to control every action.
In this episode:
Why an ambassador program should be a community strategy, not a cheaper substitute for paid advertising
How The Nonprofit Hive used a one-page overview, an internal owner, and minimum expectations for its cohorts
Why 12 ambassadors may need to become 18 instead of being asked to do more
The value of separate tracks for a TikTok contributor and someone connected to a local chamber of commerce
How a second-Wednesday monthly rhythm lets ambassadors put 12 months on the calendar
You will leave with a practical way to pilot an ambassador program, define its role, and recognize people without making the work feel transactional. Start small, learn from the pilot, and refine it.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When ambassadors become a distribution channel (1:08) Why ambassador programs miss the point (4:45) When programs turn transactional (7:00) Define the purpose before recruiting (8:53) What a working ambassador program needs (13:13) Values before marketing goals (17:18) Ambassadors as community leaders (20:01) Scaling without burning out supporters (25:59) Building belonging beyond the task list (30:08) How to start a program that lasts (37:08) Start small, learn, refine
Guest: Tasha Van Vlack, Founder & Co-Director, The Nonprofit Hive
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-ambassador-programs More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Debra Hertz says a nonprofit merger can make one plus one equal five, but only when the organizations share a clear vision and common values. As Managing Director and founder of The Strategy Group, she helps nonprofit organizations build strength, clarity, and impact through moments of growth, transition, and complexity.
A merger is not automatically a sign of failure. Debra explains why leaders should look beyond themselves to what is best for the people they serve, while being honest about the time, money, and champion the process requires. Culture must be part of the conversation early, because cultures do not simply merge. The dominant culture dominates.
In this episode:
How Connecticut's two food banks became a larger organization that served more pantries and saved $1 million a year
Why the strongest mergers begin with common values, common vision, and a realistic view of non-negotiables
The difference between a boardroom conversation and broad discussion before leaders have done their homework
Why a merger can take 7 to 8 months, while an unusually compressed process can take 60 days
How community foundations and capacity-building grants can help fund the work of exploring a merger
You will leave with a practical lens for deciding whether a merger is a strategic opportunity, how to raise the question responsibly, and which early issues deserve attention before a commitment. Reimagine the future around mission and community impact.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When one plus one can equal five (1:22) Why mission-driven mergers are rising (4:24) A merger that strengthened impact (5:52) The misconceptions that cloud merger talks (8:06) Strategic opportunity or desperation? (10:00) Why cultures do not simply merge (13:48) How boards should start the conversation (17:16) Questions to ask before pursuing a merger (18:37) What the merger process requires (20:55) Mergers as a sustainability strategy (23:15) Reimagine the future around mission
Guest: Debra Hertz, Managing Director and founder, The Strategy Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-mergers
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Christina Tzavaras Edwards has trained more than 10,000 nonprofit professionals across 20 countries, and she wants leaders to build fundraising systems that run like an engine instead of betting the budget on one annual event.
She is not anti-event. She is against high expense, high time, and high people power for diminishing returns. A fundraising engine carries momentum through the year, gives donors more than one moment to participate, and creates repeatable campaigns that compound over time.
In this episode:
What makes a $10K+ sprint campaign different: a clear goal, a defined audience, and less than 30 days
How clients raised $20K in 20 days and $10K in 10 days with sprint campaigns
Why recurring-giving sprints moved one organization from 12 to 120 recurring donors
Why PayPal is not a donation tool, and how a poor donation experience can block recurring giving
How email, a 3-to-5-part welcome series, and personal texts can outperform a social media campaign
You will leave with a practical first step for launching a sprint in the next 30 days, a way to choose a real goal, and a better case for reallocating time from reactionary fundraising. Forward momentum includes hearing no, falling, and getting back up.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Stop betting the budget on one event (1:12) Fundraising as an engine (4:48) What scattered fundraising has to stop (6:42) What to prioritize before the next campaign (8:33) The anatomy of a $10K+ sprint (12:06) Campaigns that earn repeat giving (15:36) Storytelling beyond the transaction (16:44) Building a digital giving engine (21:30) Scaling mistakes to avoid (24:01) The first 30 days of your first sprint (24:48) Forward momentum, even after no
Guest: Christina Tzavaras Edwards, Founder of Splendid Consulting, Splendid Consulting Sprint campaign class: https://splendidcourses.com/sprintclass
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-fundraising-engines
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Dacia Moore says nonprofit leader burnout is too late. A licensed professional counselor and Founder of Second Wind Counseling and Consulting, she helps people build sustainable mental wellness and challenges leaders to stop treating themselves like machines.
Mission-driven work can make it easy to ignore the indicators and push through. Dacia explains that strength includes asking for help, taking basic care of yourself, and recognizing that leaders are interdependent. The nature of the work may not change, but what leaders do to manage it can.
In this episode:
Why Dacia cites 95% of nonprofit leaders as worried about staff, while one third are worried about themselves
The 1-to-10 exhaustion check leaders can use to compare how they feel now with last year
Why a client who went to bed at midnight and got up at 3 a.m. to work needed a different approach
How lunch outside the office at least three days a week can create space away from the pressure
Dacia's 15-minute focus and 10-minute break version of the Pomodoro method
You will leave with small, sustainable ways to notice burnout sooner, protect time, and build a culture where counseling, coaching, and an EAP can be used without shame. Start now. Little things matter.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When mission work makes self-care feel optional (1:26) Why leader well-being cannot wait (4:58) What leaders carry behind the scenes (10:24) Early warning signs leaders miss (13:17) How burnout changes culture and retention (15:20) Well-being practices that fit mission work (20:31) Small habits that protect your capacity (25:33) A culture that makes support usable (34:04) Boundaries in mission-driven work (39:37) Little things matter
Guest: Dacia Moore, Founder, Second Wind Counseling and Consulting
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-leaders-mental-well-being
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Karen Alonso believes nonprofit event planning is not about a singular focus. As Chief Advancement and Communications Officer at United Way of Southern Nevada, she designs experiences that can fundraise, educate, build a supporter base, and turn attendees into advocates for a cause.
The work continues after people leave the room. Karen explains why every event needs a mission connection, participation before and during the experience, and a timely follow-up plan. The payoff is not just a dollar total. It is whether people remember the mission and choose to engage again.
In this episode:
How United Way of Southern Nevada brings more than 1,000 volunteers together for Fall Day of Caring
Why a save-the-date sent six or nine months ahead helps protect a fundraising gala from calendar conflicts
The personal photo experience that gave attendees images they later used as Facebook and Instagram profile photos
Why calling every attendee within 48 hours, with no ask involved, prevents the next-year-only follow-up mistake
How a Salvation Army emcee's story of addiction and homelessness made the mission more memorable than figures alone
You will leave with a practical plan for designing an event people participate in, talk about afterward, and connect back to the mission. Measure the experience through engagement, follow-up, and the relationships it creates, not attendance and donations alone.
Episode highlights: (0:00) More than a fundraising event (1:24) Mission-first event design (7:35) Engagement before and during the event (13:52) Interactive moments people remember (18:18) Turn attendees into lasting supporters (23:31) Stories that make the mission stick (29:08) Success beyond attendance and donations (32:22) Follow up while the experience is fresh
Guest: Karen Alonso, Chief Advancement and Communications Officer, United Way of Southern Nevada
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-event-planning
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Courtney De Ronde says instinct can get a nonprofit to a certain level, but it cannot be the only guide when the organization is trying to grow, launch a program, or enter a new geography. As CEO of Forge Financial and Management Consulting, she helps leaders build reliable intelligence around the decisions that matter.
Hope is a great virtue, she says, but not a wonderful strategy. Courtney does not argue that leaders should ignore their gut. She argues that they should supplement it with clear outcomes, a system for gathering information, and a way to see what the organization needs to do next.
In this episode:
How one client modeled best-case, better-case, and worst-case scenarios after governmental funding was affected
The four areas in Courtney's system: finance, leadership, productivity, and human intelligence
Why reliability, visibility, predictability, and flexibility must come before a dashboard can help
The difference between a six-year-old small-dollar campaign anecdote and a measurable 3% annual-giving goal
How 1- or 2-question pulse surveys can reveal more than isolated feedback from leaders or coordinators
You will leave with a way to move from gut-only decisions toward a system that makes instincts more valuable over time. Begin by getting visibility into where your organization is now, then define the result before you measure it.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When instinct is not enough (1:03) From gut calls to reliable insight (5:27) When funding cuts test your decisions (9:25) What insight-led decisions look like (11:58) Track the results that matter (18:03) Insights for donors, fundraising, and volunteers (24:49) A learning culture without losing creativity (27:43) The first move beyond gut instinct (29:14) Start with visibility, then define the result
Guest: Courtney De Ronde, CEO, Forge Financial and Management Consulting
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-leadership-insights-over-instincts
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Nathan Young has spent more than 12 years helping leaders use nonprofit storytelling to connect, inspire, and lead the narrative. The founder of StoryCulture Consulting says storytelling is more than recounting events. It is the cognitive tool people use to make sense of the world.
Instead of searching for one emotional story that sells, Nathan urges nonprofits to keep sharing many stories that make their work recognizable over time. The same discipline can shape fundraising, internal culture, and a leader's vision for the community.
In this episode:
How the Mingei Museum connected a capital campaign to three distinct audiences, from younger millennials to legacy-minded donors
Why opening every meeting with a story and sharing a story of the month can make storytelling part of the culture
How accountants, HR staff, and volunteers can connect their everyday work to the mission statement and organizational values
Why a leader's vulnerability sets the emotional tone, and why confidence matters even more than a polished story
How fight, flight, freeze, and fawn can keep leaders from telling the bigger, more honest vision
You will leave with practical ways to find stories already inside your organization, invite more people to share them, and connect a near-term fundraising need to the community change you want to create.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why stories do more than sell (1:34) What makes supporters feel a story (5:48) Finding stories without a big moment (7:40) A culture built on stories (10:22) Getting staff and volunteers to share (13:11) Storytelling as leadership vision (16:18) Vision mistakes leaders make (20:56) Building a narrative that inspires (23:01) Naming the change you want (24:47) Growing confident as a storyteller (28:06) Start with stories you already have
Guest: Nathan Young, Founder, StoryCulture Consulting
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-storytelling-builds-powerful-engaging-leaders
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Lyn Wineman, founder, president, and chief strategist at KidGlov, says nonprofit branding is not a logo-and-colors exercise. After more than 15 years of nonprofit branding work, she sees tangled brands drain time, blur the mission, and leave leaders misaligned.
The usual impulse is to jump straight to a name, tagline, logo, or font. Lyn's eight-step framework starts somewhere else: visioning, audience research, peer analysis, and alignment before a nonprofit invests in creative elements.
In this episode:
Why KidGlov's first five of eight brand-framework steps are strategy based, not creative
The 30% marketing-time efficiency Lyn sees when an organization has a strong brand
How a confusing name that sounded like a government agency became a fresh identity and better messaging
Why storytelling produces emotion, emotion produces trust, and consistency signals quality
The two facilitated conversations that bring leaders together before the fifth-step brand strategy session
You will leave with a way to diagnose whether your brand needs clarity, align the people who have to carry it, and begin before a major rebrand. Lyn's practical starting point is the brand compass, with fewer than ten questions.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Brand clarity before creative (2:16) Why Untangling Spaghetti tells a fable (4:41) The eight steps before the logo (6:31) Why clarity is worth the investment (8:46) How brand clarity changes culture (10:35) How clarity earns trust and loyalty (13:38) Why logos cannot create clarity (15:43) Getting leaders on the same page (21:17) The tools inside Untangling Spaghetti (23:43) The brand compass starting point
Guest: Lyn Wineman, founder, president, and chief strategist, KidGlov Kidglov.com
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-tangled-brand More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
James Misner has more than 20 years of fundraising leadership, and he says donor retention is not a mystery outside a nonprofit's control. The Founder & Owner of The Kipos Group identifies three reasons recurring donors stop giving, and says two of them come down to what an organization does after the gift is made.
The goal is to reinforce that a donor made an amazing decision from the moment they hit submit. That requires an experience built around appreciation, stories, and signals that catch a lapse before it becomes permanent.
In this episode:
Why monthly donors leave when they do not know they made a difference or do not realize that they lapsed
How a physical welcome packet can stay in a home for an average of four to six months, long after an email falls down the inbox
Why James recommends hearing from your organization at least twice a month, with impact stories, frontline reports, and thought leadership
The donor-appreciation finding behind random handwritten thanks, and why anniversary celebrations can give people an excuse to unsubscribe
How 17 to 20 touchpoints reactivated a donor who gave $50,000 at the 17th touchpoint, then grew to $100,000 and eventually $250,000 a year
You will leave with concrete ways to welcome recurring donors, use stories instead of facts alone, monitor early-warning signals, and give a lapsed donor campaign enough time to work.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why recurring donors quietly stop giving (1:00) The three reasons donors leave (3:45) An experience that earns long-term loyalty (7:19) The twice-a-month contact rhythm (8:53) Creative thanks that keep donors close (11:35) Stories that make the impact real (14:27) Using data to find lapsed donors (16:52) Personal outreach that reconnects donors (20:35) A retention plan you can start today (23:57) Give the campaign time to work
Guest: James Misner, Founder & Owner, The Kipos Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-maximize-donor-retention More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Pat Taggart, Founder of SkyBlue Creative, says nonprofit video storytelling does not need an $8,000 camera or a word-perfect script. The former documentary filmmaker believes the cell phone in your pocket can be a better tool, because people do not want perfection. They want humanity, honesty, and authenticity.
Video has the power to move people from knowing something exists to feeling something. Pat explains how nonprofits can make that connection without forced performances, inflated production budgets, or videos that keep talking after the story is over.
In this episode:
Why a cell phone, tripod, light, and microphone can cost about 100 bucks all in
How six, eight, or ten video FAQs can turn repeated questions into a human touch point
Why scripts are the enemy of great content, and how an editor can shape an unscripted conversation
The test for video length: as long as the content is compelling, and not a second longer
Why Pat points to The Bonnell Foundation and Leaven Kids while discussing how to let people into your world
You will leave with a simpler way to put people on camera, select a useful format, and judge whether a video is working. You do not have to look into the lens. Start with a real conversation and let people into your world.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why honest video beats polished video (1:12) How video moves people to feel (3:49) The ingredients of a story that works (7:38) Quality video on a 100-dollar budget (12:28) Video mistakes that lose the story (14:03) Choosing the right format and length (17:11) How to make camera conversations feel real (20:25) What makes a video work (25:35) Let people into your world
Guest: Pat Taggart, Founder, SkyBlue Creative SkyBlueCreative.com
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-video-storytelling-for-nonprofits More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
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Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Laura Bonnell founded The Bonnell Foundation in 2010 and says nonprofits need to act like they are in it to win. The foundation provides tools to navigate the difficulties of living with cystic fibrosis, and Laura views herself as its CEO because financial health is what sustains programs for people across the country.
That mindset means asking confidently, spending strategically, and treating other leaders as potential collaborators. Laura does not see a nonprofit as a lesser kind of organization. She sees an organization that needs a financial plan, a strategic plan, and the confidence to tell its story everywhere.
In this episode:
Why Laura stopped asking larger companies for $10,000 and began asking for $25,000
How a Meijer grant request received a yes in 24 hours and yielded $1,000 after a $2,000 ask
The $4,000 strategic financial planner investment that Laura says paid for itself
How a $40,000 cystic fibrosis vitamin program came together when The Bonnell Foundation could commit $15,000
Why Laura says every event produces either funding or friends, including a new camp idea for parents
You will leave with a corporate-minded approach to setting bigger asks, investing in expertise, and building reciprocal relationships with donors and peers. Take your organization seriously, share what you know, and keep asking for support that matches the work.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Nonprofits that think like businesses (1:23) The corporate mindset for nonprofit growth (4:27) Treat your nonprofit as a revenue generator (6:50) Strategic planning that supports scale (8:51) Collaboration that multiplies impact (12:40) Deeper relationships with donors and peers (17:45) When investing in expertise pays off (19:53) Mentorship for a stronger network (21:44) Changing how the public sees nonprofits (23:13) Ask for support that matches the work
Guest: Laura Bonnell, Founder, The Bonnell Foundation
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-nonprofit-growth-seeing-nonprofits-as-corporations More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Joe Allio and Maryanne Miller believe a diverse nonprofit board needs more than a mix of résumés. As President and Vice President of the Leaven Kids Board, they argue that character, humility, and a real servant-leadership mindset are what turn different perspectives into impact.
Their conversation moves past box-checking. A board may not always look like the community it serves, but it must have a heart for the people it serves, the courage to ask hard questions, and the discipline to stay focused on governance rather than operations.
In this episode:
How Leaven Kids moved from a like-minded church committee to a board with business and public-sector experience
Why the right fit is more than your network, and how showing up in rooms where people do not know you creates new recruitment opportunities
The onboarding approach that has kept every participant so far and left new members with clearer focus
How finance, operations, marketing, and personnel committees keep a working board aligned with mission, vision, and stewardship
Why a board debating whether 2,000 pencils should be replaced at 50% or 60% used is in the wrong weeds
You will leave with a sharper lens for vetting board candidates, welcoming them into meaningful work, and making space for disagreement without making the board about ego.
Episode highlights: (0:00) What makes a board diverse in practice (1:02) Why diversity needs more than resumes (1:24) Finding board members beyond your network (19:15) The gaps your board needs to see (21:48) A board with heart for its community (25:15) Welcoming new members into real work (28:24) Making room for unique perspectives (29:57) Moving past barriers to diversity (30:24) How Leaven Kids broadened its board (32:22) Where to start with your board
Guest: Joe Allio, President of the Leaven Kids Board, Leaven Kids Guest: Maryanne Miller, Vice President of the Leaven Kids Board, Leaven Kids
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-a-diverse-high-impact-board-of-directors More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Ciara Byrne started Green Our Planet in 2013 with ten schools in Las Vegas, and her nonprofit funding lesson is that one dependable revenue source is not enough. Nonprofits need diverse revenue streams and a business model that can support the mission when funding shifts.
In 2020, Green Our Planet lost half of its annual budget within a month as funders redirected money. Ciara did not see that as a reason to abandon the mission. She saw it as a reason to monetize the expertise the organization had already built through school garden and hydroponics programs.
In this episode:
How Green Our Planet grew from ten Las Vegas schools to more than 1,200 schools in 43 states
Why some foundations now look for 20% to 50% of revenue to come from a business model
How selling programs to schools and corporations supports STEM education and community empowerment
What it took to get a Nevada school garden bill passed on its first attempt after serving about 400 schools
Why the organization aims for 15% of revenue from sales now and 50% over the longer term
You will leave with a way to look at your nonprofit's expertise, identify a revenue opportunity that fits the mission, and begin diversifying without stretching the team too thin. Be creative, be optimistic, and be kind to yourself as you go down that route.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When one funder is not enough (1:18) Why funding diversity matters (4:56) Turning expertise into revenue (8:20) Diversification pitfalls (13:34) Revenue options for small nonprofits (16:16) Tradition and innovation in balance (21:20) Metrics that show what works (25:11) Ethics behind new revenue (29:53) Where to start diversifying
Guest: Ciara Byrne, Founder, Green Our Planet
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-diverse-revenue-streams-for-sustainability
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Howard Adam Levy has spent about 30 years revitalizing brands, and he says nonprofit branding is not a logo exercise. The President of Red Rooster Group defines a nonprofit brand as its reputation: what it says it does, how effectively it does it, and the perception people carry away.
A strong brand helps people understand a mission quickly, then gives donors a way to act on their own altruistic impulses through the organization. That means being clear, consistent, and willing to measure an outcome beyond awareness.
In this episode:
The three building blocks of a strong brand: organizational name, tagline, and visual identity
How the 183-year-old Leake and Watts became Rising Ground after growing to more than 40 programs
Why USBLN changed its name to Disability:IN and turned a vague label into a galvanizing theme
A before-and-after measurement question: whether people know three of six things you do, including after-school work and meals
How a $30 monthly Canva subscription or $40 monthly ChatGPT subscription can support small, immediate brand experiments
You will leave with a practical way to test whether people understand what you do, connect your brand to fundraising and program goals, and decide where a bold next step can make a difference.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a nonprofit brand is more than a logo (1:05) Defining the reputation people carry away (5:16) The three building blocks of a strong brand (13:22) Visual identity that makes a mission recognizable (16:35) From Leake and Watts to Rising Ground (20:27) Why Disability:IN changed its name (24:34) Stories that give donors a way to act (28:33) Keeping the brand consistent everywhere (33:05) Measuring more than brand awareness (42:56) $30 experiments for a stronger brand (47:27) The next bold step
Guest: Howard Adam Levy, President, Red Rooster Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-how-to-build-a-strong-brand
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Dan Rhoton, CEO of Hopeworks, says a social enterprise nonprofit has one job: deliver for its clients. Hopeworks uses market-based business tools to move young adults into long-term, living-wage careers, but Dan argues that social mission should not be the first thing a buyer hears.
The tension is real. A social enterprise has to operate a good business while keeping a promise to people whose lives depend on the result. Dan's answer is not to juggle competing priorities. It is to put clients first and make every other metric serve that promise.
In this episode:
Why Hopeworks gives work away once it becomes profitable, rather than letting client work displace its mission
How leading with a social mission in an RFP can lose the contract and get a donation instead
The promise behind Hopeworks' 96% placement rate and 93% 12-month job-retention rate
Why a Monday-morning KPI report makes a yellow or red metric somebody's problem that week
How a small pilot, not an innovation strategy, determines whether an idea gets scaled or thrown away
You will leave with a framework for setting a participant promise, tracking the metrics that protect it, and building partnerships around mutual benefit. As Dan puts it, effectiveness matters more than innovation.
Episode highlights: (0:00) The business that must put clients first (1:13) What makes a nonprofit a social enterprise (2:13) The operational squeeze (5:41) Market-based tools that serve the mission (9:21) The metrics that define success (15:06) Why effectiveness beats innovation (16:31) Partnerships built on mutual benefit (18:58) Where to start with client promises
Guest: Dan Rhoton, CEO, Hopeworks
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-pulse-social-enterprise-nonprofit
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Albert Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Anago, says the most immediate AI for nonprofits use cases are personal, not organization-wide. He works with resource-constrained teams, and he argues that generative AI is smart autocomplete, not a substitute for human judgment.
The useful starting point is small: research, drafting, and critiquing work that already consumes a team member's time. The rule is equally simple. Give the tool grounded source material, then check the final output before it goes out.
In this episode:
The difference between traditional AI's predictive analytics and generative AI's words, images, and sounds
Albert's external, internal, and personal framework for finding AI use cases
How Perplexity and You.com can synthesize dozens of websites into a report in about 30 seconds
Why asking AI for "radical candor" can turn it into a critic for a grant proposal or board briefing
The custom GPT that translates stories from Hindi to English and turns them into a summary
You will leave with practical ways to test ChatGPT or Claude, a method for reducing hallucinations by supplying more ground truth, and a boundary for relational work with donors and people served. Keep that work human.
Episode highlights: (0:00) AI as a tool, not a substitute for judgment (2:40) Where AI can help right away (9:40) Finding and engaging donor prospects (13:38) Forecasting donations and donor behavior (19:31) The AI tools worth starting with (23:17) Keeping relational work human (30:50) Making AI accessible on a nonprofit budget (33:50) Ethics before the first AI pilot (41:00) What AI could change next (43:12) A practical place to begin
Guest: Albert Chen, Co-founder and CEO, Anago
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-ai-can-empower-nonprofit-organizations More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Elana Frank, CEO and Founder of the Jewish Fertility Foundation, grew a one-location pilot in Atlanta into ten locations without turning JFF into a franchise. Her nonprofit provides financial assistance, support, and education to people struggling with infertility.
Her expansion rule is direct: do not choose a random location. Start with need, test the opportunity against a defined set of conditions, and say no when a community asks the organization to go outside its proven program.
In this episode:
Why JFF pilots locally before expanding, and why one Cincinnati expansion took a little over a year
The three mission prongs JFF protects: fertility education, fertility support, and financial assistance
How grassroots relationships with reproductive attorneys, therapists, rabbis, and community leaders build buy-in
Why a $100,000 local operation does not simply become a $200,000 budget in a new city
How JFF uses full-time executive staff, local managers, and graduate-school social-work interns
You will leave with a framework for choosing locations, building a larger infrastructure, and modifying a model without losing its purpose. Piloting and flexibility can coexist with a clear boundary around mission creep.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Expansion without becoming a franchise (1:00) What to test before expanding (7:30) Keeping mission and values intact (9:09) Replicating success in a new community (11:20) Relationships that make expansion work (15:03) The operational challenges ahead (19:29) Staffing for a larger footprint (23:59) Where a new location should start
Guest: Elana Frank, CEO and Founder, Jewish Fertility Foundation
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-to-scale-a-nonprofit-expanding-your-local-model
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Mark Lillis is Chief Executive Officer of Leaven Kids, an organization that has operated for 15 years, and he says community collaboration is built through continuous communication, not transactions. He shares how long-lasting, mission-aligned partnerships have helped Leaven Kids keep more than 90% of its partnerships.
A corporate partner can offer much more than money. Mark makes the case for being face to face, thanking people, involving stakeholders, and letting partners see both the work and the hardships families face.
In this episode:
Why Leaven Kids spent two and a half years meeting with the San Antonio community before entering the city
How Mark sends hundreds of handwritten thank-you notes each month to appreciate partners
What winning Chick-fil-A's national award twice taught Leaven Kids about corporate partnership
How 21 learning centers reported an 80% increase in math and English arts and better self-esteem for 90% of students
Why a work party painted miles of fence in 4 to 5 hours and helped distribute hundreds of pounds of food
You will leave with practical ways to find partners who will stick with the mission: start with why, clarify expectations early, respect volunteers' time, and keep people informed. Supporters may not have the time, Mark says, but they have the heart.
Guest: Mark Lillis, Chief Executive Officer, Leaven Kids
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-community-collaboration More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Sarah Silvestri and Tiferet Sprung, Co-founders of Executive Arm, say scaling a nonprofit is about impact, not simply getting larger. Executive Arm helps nonprofits through internal capacity development, executive coaching, and strategic program design.
That means a nonprofit can scale by improving program quality, reaching more people, or partnering with another organization. It does not mean hiring people with the founder's level of passion or saying yes to work that falls outside the mission.
In this episode:
The four areas to assess before scaling: organizational capacity, financial health, leadership, and program effectiveness
How one nonprofit went from no employees and no financial structure to four employees while serving 150 family units
Why an extra $75,000 must still be available to pay a hire in the second year
The risk of hiring one person for one job while expecting them to do six jobs
How a quarterly or five-minute monthly mission review can prevent mission drift
You will leave with a lens for deciding whether a new opportunity fits, where a partnership or merger may extend impact, and why investment in overhead can make a nonprofit more sustainable over the long term.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Growing bigger versus scaling impact (0:47) The difference between scale and growth (2:07) What successful scaling teaches (5:53) Financial sustainability before expansion (13:18) Scale without losing the mission (22:32) The leadership and capacity to build first (25:16) Practical first steps toward scale (29:40) Choosing impact over size
Guest: Sarah Silvestri, Co-founder, Executive Arm Guest: Tiferet Sprung, Co-founder, Executive Arm
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/how-to-scale-a-nonprofit
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Elizabeth Cushing has more than 30 years of nonprofit management experience, and she says nonprofit culture gets stronger when play is not treated as the opposite of work. The CEO of Playworks explains how the power of play can strengthen relationships, creativity, and adaptability.
This is not about forcing fun or promising a guaranteed result to a board. Elizabeth treats play as a discovery: an invitation that lets people bring their whole selves to the work and reveals what a team can solve together.
In this episode:
Why people who meet on monkey bars or slides can seem like they have known each other within 5 to 10 minutes
How a four-square game removes the pressure to be an expert and makes everyone an amateur
The 1- to 2-minute stories about play Elizabeth invited 400 Playworks staff members to share
What Playworks learned about morale after staff furloughs during the pandemic
Why a small group should test a playful practice before deciding who the right messengers are
You will leave with permission to begin small: ask a question that has nothing to do with the meeting content, invite people into the game without forcing them, and see what it inspires. Play can remind a team that adapting is a strong strategy.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why play makes nonprofit work stronger (0:58) Play is not the opposite of work (3:18) Making room for creativity at work (6:46) What play changes about morale (8:47) Professionalism can make room for play (10:58) Inviting play without forcing it (16:49) A small test for a more playful culture (18:45) Start with an invitation, not a mandate
Guest: Elizabeth Cushing, CEO, Playworks Playworks resources: https://www.playworks.org/
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-culture-the-power-of-play
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stewart Severino has spent more than 25 years driving growth in startups and large organizations, and he believes nonprofit innovation needs to be a discipline, not an exercise in throwing ideas at the wall.
A defined process makes innovation repeatable, predictable, and scalable. Stewart argues that organizations often begin with a product, a technology, or a familiar assumption instead of first understanding what their audience actually needs. Innovation is not AI, and AI is not innovation.
In this episode:
How the Jobs-to-be-Done framework exposes assumptions about an audience that may be 3 to 10 years old
Why Netflix competed with a bottle of wine, date night, and bowling, not only Blockbuster
How to treat donors as human capital by inviting them into service, local chapters, or board roles
Why an NPS score can be a leading indicator while revenue is a lagging indicator
How customer-experience mapping, service blueprints, and root-cause analysis make innovation operational
You will leave with a way to start with the need of the audience, choose measures that reveal progress early, and put guardrails around experiments. The goal is not another shiny object. It is serving your organization and audience better than before.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Innovation is a discipline, not a shiny object (0:45) What makes innovation a discipline (3:17) The barriers to repeatable innovation (6:49) The Jobs-to-be-Done framework (11:54) Turning Jobs to be Done into action (15:48) Metrics that reveal progress early (20:55) Making innovation part of culture (25:03) Start with your audience's need
Guest: Stewart Severino, Head of Innovation, The Navigators
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-innovation-as-a-discipline
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stephen King, Founder and CEO of GrowthForce, says a sustainer program is simply a monthly giving program, and it can transform both cash flow and donor retention. GrowthForce is an outsourced accounting department for nonprofits, from bookkeeping through CFO services.
The case is stark: monthly donors retain at 80% in the first year, compared with 41% across all donors. After five years of monthly giving, the retention figure reaches 95%, compared with 23% for one-time giving.
In this episode:
How Amnesty International USA grew from $6 million to $18 million when 92% of revenue came from direct mail
Why prompting a donor during the first gift matters when only 14% of nonprofits do it
The case for bank debit over credit cards, so organizations do not have to chase expired cards
How Wheelchairs For Warriors uses its Touch 22 program to connect $22 per month to 22 veterans who die by suicide each day
The $500 annual donor example that becomes $50 monthly, $600 annually, and a 20% increase
You will leave with a simple launch approach, the key retention and cash-flow metrics to follow, and a reminder that a sustainer program is not set it and forget it. Build a donor connection through cultivation emails and concrete outcomes.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why monthly giving changes the math (0:57) What makes a sustainer program (1:30) The benefits of monthly giving (2:47) The retention advantage of sustainers (6:02) The challenges to expect (9:28) Promoting a monthly giving program (12:05) The metrics that grow sustainers (16:15) Why one program is enough (19:20) Launching your first sustainer program (22:07) The donor connection that keeps giving
Guest: Stephen King, Founder and CEO, GrowthForce
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/monthly-giving-program
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Jess Campbell has been a nonprofit fundraiser for 18 years and raised more than $17M, and she says email marketing for nonprofits needs less hesitation and more sending.
Jess, Founder of Out in the Boons, would rather have an engaged list than a large one. Her starting point is the first 1,000 subscribers, enough to test ideas and make decisions with usable data, before worrying too much about sophisticated segmentation.
In this episode:
Why to scrub an email list two to four times a year and use a three- or four-part reengagement sequence
How Jess's Monday teaser for a Tuesday email brings in 15 to 25 subscribers a week
What a two-, four-, or six-week warm-up phase does before a fundraising ask
Why a text-based email with one story, one topic, and one call to action can outperform a graphic-heavy message
What Neon One found in millions of sends: six links can work when they all go to the same place
You will leave with a practical email cadence, a way to measure clicks and replies instead of relying on open rates, and permission to send double or triple the emails you think you need. Done is better than perfect when an organization is not sending enough.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why email needs less hesitation and more sending (2:58) Growing an engaged nonprofit email list (3:59) Build the first 1,000 subscribers (7:03) Resources that earn an email address (11:57) Growing the list through partnerships (15:33) The anatomy of an email that works (18:32) Make the email feel personal (20:00) One story, one topic, one call to action (21:21) Subject lines that spark curiosity (24:30) Send now, segment later (41:00) Done is better than perfect
Guest: Jess Campbell, Founder, Out in the Boons
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/email-marketing-for-nonprofits
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Leah Kral has spent the last two decades in this work, and her approach to nonprofit innovation for social change is simple: start small, but dream big.
Good intentions do not automatically create clarity. Leah makes the case for a workplace that leaves room for experimentation, discovery, tough-minded tradeoffs, and learning from failure before an organization invests too much in an untested idea.
In this episode:
Six principles for sparking innovation, from relentless problem solving to persuasion
How Saint Benedict's Prep became a student-led school, where 98% of students go to college
Why Pixar assumes early versions of its movies are bad, then uses brutal feedback to improve them
What World Reader learned when Kindle devices kept breaking and its mobile app worked better
How LifeWorks examined 17 programs and saw job retention measurably increase within a year
You will leave with practical ways to test an idea, learn what is working, and make room for bottom-up decision making. You do not need a large staff or budget to begin. You need time to be strategic and innovative.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Start small, dream big (5:12) Six principles for better ideas (10:42) Design thinking in practice (13:25) Small experiments before scaling (16:58) Building an innovation ecosystem (20:03) Moving through innovation roadblocks (24:17) Where to start this week
Guest: Leah Kral, Senior Director of Strategy and Innovation, Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-innovation-for-social-change
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Kimberly Thornbury says nonprofit capacity building cannot be done alone. As Vice President of Nonprofit Leadership and Development at Murdock Trust, she breaks capacity building into three pillars: leadership, governance, and fund development.
A new executive director who is drowning is not failing. Kimberly argues that mentors, coaches, and peer cohorts can turn that strain into stronger leadership, while a healthy board and a disciplined fundraising plan make the organization more sustainable.
In this episode:
Why Murdock Trust focuses its capacity-building work on executive leadership, board governance, and fund development
How a peer cohort of 10 to 12 leaders with a master facilitator can keep an executive director from going it alone
What Union learned after an F4, F5 tornado destroyed 85% of its campus housing and 23 buildings in 2008
The annual board culture survey that a coach can help interpret in 30 minutes
Why “if everyone on our list would just give us $25” is a red flag for fund development
You will leave with a lower-bar way to begin: spend 20 minutes investigating one next step, call five leaders you respect, and learn with a team instead of waiting for a perfect plan. As Kimberly puts it, just do your worst.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why capacity building cannot be done alone (3:13) The leadership pillar (4:28) Three ways leaders grow stronger (7:55) The governance pillar (9:55) What a healthy board looks like (19:55) The fund development pillar (27:34) One next step is enough
Guest: Kimberly Thornbury, Vice President of Nonprofit Leadership and Development, Murdock Trust
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-capacity-building
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Michelle Shumate has studied nonprofit collaboration for 20 years, and she says the right partnership starts with the outcome, not a rush to merge. As founding director of the Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact, she shows why collaboration is a strategic tool for social impact rather than a generic efficiency play.
The form has to fit the goal. Shared services consistently delivered efficiency in her research, integrated organizations paid off for program growth and innovation, and alliances and networks worked best for larger policy wins and system-level outcomes.
In this episode:
What a study of about 60 collaborations, including 20 deep dives, found when 14 partnerships succeeded and 6 did not
Why an asset transfer can move a program or intellectual property and support innovation or culture change
How DVBeds connects 29 shelters and 12 non-shelter facilities across Texas and part of Oklahoma
What 50,000 annual DVBeds logins changed for bed utilization, rural shelter capacity, and people seeking help
Why leaders should do more listening than proposing and “go on a date” before pursuing a merger
You will leave with a way to match a collaboration model to the result you need, plus a case for due diligence, feasibility analysis, and board and mid-level staff buy-in. Start small, learn the options, and explore before making a long-term commitment.
Episode highlights: (0:00) The partnership must fit the outcome (0:47) What 60 collaborations revealed (3:44) Choosing the collaboration model (5:19) How DVBeds made collaboration work (8:46) The obstacles partnerships must face (13:26) The leadership behind lasting partnerships (17:38) Two trends reshaping collaboration (19:22) How to explore collaboration before committing (21:26) Start small before you commit
Guest: Michelle Shumate, Founding Director, Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-collaboration
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Lynn Margherio founded Cradles to Crayons in 2002, and her approach to corporate partnerships starts with a question many fundraising teams skip: how can a business help before it writes a check?
Lynn has seen volunteerism become the first step toward larger, multifaceted corporate partnerships. A relationship needs to create value on both sides, not ask a nonprofit to say yes to work that pulls its team away from the mission.
In this episode:
Why a two-hour shift sorting, inspecting, and packaging outfits can open a corporate relationship
How Bank of America engagement grew from volunteering into board participation, drives, events, and skills-based work
The reason to start with companies near your location and an introduction from someone they know
How First Quality and Cuties combined financial support, regular volunteering, and joint promotion
What Cradles to Crayons tracks: how many packages for children a partnership helps provide
You will leave with a practical way to design a tangible volunteer experience, set expectations, and build touchpoints that can last beyond one event. Corporate partnerships take time, but shared values and useful engagement can become the foundation for financial support.
Episode highlights: (0:00) How volunteering becomes a corporate partnership (0:52) CSR as a starting point for shared value (3:09) What both partners need from the relationship (8:21) Building partnerships beyond one event (18:22) The work a partnership cannot create (20:38) Measuring the packages a partnership provides (26:45) What comes next for corporate partnerships (34:00) Start with a useful volunteer experience
Guest: Lynn Margherio, Founder and CEO, Cradles to Crayons
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/corporate-partnerships
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stephanie Skryzowski has worked in nonprofit finance for more than a decade, and she says nonprofit finance is more than balancing the books. The Founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting explains why sustainability depends on profitability, reserves, forecasting, and transparent decision-making.
A nonprofit can be mission-driven and still need money left at the end of the year. Stephanie challenges leaders to look beyond a 12-month budget, examine revenue concentration, and use financial information to make decisions before a gap becomes a crisis.
In this episode:
Why receiving about 75% of revenue from one government source creates a serious concentration risk
How a surplus budget can build a 3- to 6-month cash reserve instead of operating donation to donation
Why a 3- to 5-year forecast can reveal an 18-month funding gap early enough to change course
The gala that netted about $20,000 and the question of whether that effort could produce a $100,000 gift or $200,000 grant
What GuideStar transparency requirements had to do with organizations receiving 53% more contributions the following year
You will leave with a framework for looking at financial health by program and department, not just in the aggregate. Nonprofit numbers do not have to be scary, Stephanie says. Anybody can do it, and everybody should do it.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Financial resilience starts before crisis (0:55) The signals of financial health (3:51) Preparing for economic uncertainty (6:56) Choosing financial software (9:37) New ways to diversify revenue (12:37) Transparency that builds trust (18:13) What strong financial leadership looks like (21:15) The forces shaping nonprofit finance (24:53) Look beyond the 12-month budget
Guest: Stephanie Skryzowski, Founder and CEO, 100 Degrees Consulting
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-finance
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stephanie Schwartz has spent almost 20 years in and around nonprofits, and her advice on donor relationships during an economic downturn is deliberately simple: make the time for genuine contact.
Stephanie, CEO of Little Bean Group, says an organization does not need a large campaign to stay close to supporters. When donors feel insecure, even a lower gift can be harder and more meaningful to make. The immediate goal of outreach can be a conversation, not a measurable sales result.
In this episode:
Why big summary emails can give way to a leaner, more personalized approach
How the Greater DC Diaper Bank linked supporters to its Amazon store for baby wipes
Why converting a $50 annual gift into $10 a month can mean $120 in revenue and closer stewardship
What Stephanie learned in 2008 from donors who gave a couple thousand dollars and later became six-figure donors
How board members can call as supporters, while volunteers and events keep non-givers connected
You will leave with ways to thank people without an agenda, make small recurring giving accessible, and keep a no from becoming a permanent goodbye. Just because a donor says no now does not mean no forever.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why genuine contact matters in a downturn (15:52) What donors face when the economy turns (17:13) Why relationships matter more in a downturn (18:41) Personal ways to stay close to supporters (20:13) Empathy before a measurable result (25:21) Keep a no from becoming goodbye
Guest: Stephanie Schwartz, CEO, Little Bean Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/donor-relationships
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Holly Tate has spent more than a decade serving nonprofit leaders, and she says nonprofit employee engagement is not about whether people are happy at work. It is whether they are aligned with the mission and rowing in the same direction.
Nonprofits often reach for a new system, process, or technology while overlooking the people whose engagement drives performance. Mission can be a recruiting advantage, but leaders cannot use it as an excuse to underinvest in development, communication, or recognition.
In this episode:
Why mission and values should be clear enough to name, and limited to about five or fewer
How to redesign the first 30 to 90 days so 90% of first-day paperwork is already complete
The Chief Reminding Officer role, and why negativity fills the void when clarity is missing
What Frank Blake's 300 thank-you notes meant at Home Depot, with almost 500,000 employees
Why a $25 gift card, a care card, and a weekly 30-minute one-on-one can build trust
You will leave with a people-first plan for improving employee engagement without waiting for a bigger culture budget. Put one-on-one meetings on the calendar, learn what recognition matters to each person, and repeat the mission until the team can see where it is going.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Mission alignment, not workplace happiness (0:53) Beyond being happy at work (2:59) The nonprofit engagement challenge (6:58) When mission drives motivation (10:22) Building an engaged team (17:41) Transparency that earns trust (24:33) Recognition without a bigger budget (32:34) What is next for engagement (36:09) Where leaders start
Guest: Holly Tate, Chief Marketing Officer, Leadr
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-leadership-employee-engagement
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Nichole Vander Wall, a search marketing expert, says Google Ad Grants can give eligible nonprofits $10,000 a month in search advertising, but the grant account cannot compete with paid ads.
That constraint is the point of the strategy. Rather than chasing high-competition terms such as "donate to charity," nonprofits need to build a brand campaign, use the right keyword mix, and understand where a paid account fits.
In this episode:
How the Google Ad Grant application is validated through Percent and can take 10 minutes to an hour
Why a brand campaign should be the first priority, including at least five brand keywords
The brand-ad update that led to a $300 donation within the first week
How a dynamic search campaign uses landing pages and two description lines to find keywords
Why paid campaigns need at least three months for machine learning and bidding to learn
You will leave knowing what the $10,000 monthly grant covers, how to choose medium- to low-competition search terms, and when an ecommerce store or a larger budget calls for paid Google Ads as well.
Episode highlights: (0:00) The $10,000 grant and its limits (1:27) How Google Ad Grants work (4:42) What changed in the grant program (7:09) A strategy for making the grant work (15:28) The mistakes that waste the grant (20:44) When paid Google Ads belong in the mix (23:28) Where to begin with Google Ad Grants
Guest: Nichole Vander Wall, search marketing consultant
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/google-ad-grants
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Erin Davison was leading Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana when Hurricane Laura devastated the organization’s building in August 2020. Her nonprofit leadership advice for adversity begins with two blunt principles: cash is king, and do not give in to fear.
Every organization will face adversity, whether it comes from staffing, resources, technology, a disaster, or a changing community need. Erin explains why a plan matters even when the real emergency forces you to move far beyond the original plan.
In this episode:
Why every nonprofit needs a disaster-preparedness plan and contingency plans from A through Z
How a healthy ego lets a leader say, "I don't know what to do and I need help"
The case for building a reserve fund with at least 10 months of operating funds
How Lone Star handled programming health and safety checks for six weeks after Hurricane Laura
Why direct conversations with donors and investors led some funders to increase their giving
You will leave with a practical way to prepare for the rainy day, communicate the real need without sugarcoating it, and stay the course with your mission when the budget has to change. Erin also offers a hard leadership question: am I the mountain here?
Episode highlights: (0:00) Leadership after the storm (3:36) Leading through unforeseen challenges (8:40) The value of a healthy ego (14:17) Two rules for adversity (15:29) Cash is king (17:35) Do not give in to fear (20:39) Put the organization first (24:31) The hard question for leaders
Guest: Erin Davison, CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-leadership-overcome-adversity
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Tim Lockie has worked inside and outside nonprofits for more than 20 years, and he says nonprofit digital transformation fails when organizations buy technology without teaching people how to use it.
Tim, Founder and CEO of The Human Stack, compares the problem to buying a car without driver’s education. Digital transformation is not just a tech stack. It is good technology and humans who can use it well, moving at the speed of humans instead of the speed of a software rollout.
In this episode:
Why 90% of organizations collect data but only 5% use it to make decisions
How teams can spend another 18 months and six figures on technology without changing how work gets done
What an old Jeep story reveals about different people needing different ways to learn to drive
Why a strategic leader and a tactical doer need a strong relationship to create digital maturity
Tim’s recommendation to divide the technology budget equally between people and technology
You will leave with a framework for spotting a driver problem, reducing disruption, and connecting data to actionable decisions. More tools are not the answer when the team is already overwhelmed.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why new technology fails without new habits (0:55) Digital transformation at the speed of humans (4:30) What teams gain when people can use the tools (6:39) The results beyond a new tech stack (10:26) Finding the driver problem before buying tools (15:30) Split the budget between people and technology (19:16) Start with the people, not the software
Guest: Tim Lockie, Founder and CEO, The Human Stack
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/digital-transformation
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Stephanie Schwartz, CEO of Little Bean Group, says a major gift is not a universal dollar amount. It is a gift meaningful enough to help a particular nonprofit achieve its mission and goals.
That reframing changes how an organization builds its major gift fundraising strategy. Start with the organization’s own data, deepen relationships with annual donors, and avoid announcing an internal fundraising structure as if it were a donor-facing program.
In this episode:
Why a major gift can be $1,000 for one organization and $100,000 for a large university
How five gifts of $10,000 can fund a program that costs $50,000 to administer
Why list buying is an archaic, ineffective alternative to beginning with existing donor data
The case for asking a consistent $7,500 donor to consider a $10,000 gift
How digital tools support identification and stewardship but cannot replace personal contact
You will leave with a way to establish gift levels based on capacity and goals, not an arbitrary benchmark, plus a healthy revenue mix where 65% to 75% comes from major gifts and the remainder from lower-dollar giving.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a major gift is not a fixed dollar amount (3:01) Defining a major gift for your nonprofit (10:48) How leaders see major-gift development (20:51) Major-gift strategies that build relationships (22:57) Starting major-gift work with your data (24:52) Goals for a major-gift program (28:03) The right revenue mix for major gifts
Guest: Stephanie Schwartz, CEO, Little Bean Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/major-gifts
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Katie Lord has spent more than a decade managing and leading nonprofit development operations and initiatives, and she treats a nonprofit development plan as something too useful to leave on a shelf.
A development plan is the roadmap for raising the funds an organization needs, but Katie says it should be a living, breathing document. The point is not a long narrative or a perfect plan. It is a focused plan the team works and changes when the year changes.
In this episode:
Why a one-year plan can be more useful than a longer plan when January work is obsolete by March
The rule of three: no more than three tactics, before a fourth task makes the brain shut down
How one author and clear assignments keep a team from carrying 37 marked-up plans
Why a Kansas City nonprofit reused media clips to reach donors outside its area
How $5 and $10 gifts can snowball when organizations stop treating small donors as insignificant
You will leave with a way to build a short, usable development plan, assign ownership, and focus on the work with the highest ROI. Starting small is starting, and the plan only works when the team keeps returning to it.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why your plan cannot sit on a shelf (0:45) A fundraising roadmap the team can use (3:50) The practices behind a living plan (6:50) When shiny opportunities derail the plan (13:41) Mistakes that leave plans unused (17:06) What changes when the plan guides the work (20:35) Start small and return to the plan
Guest: Katie Lord, Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/development-planning
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Greg McRay has helped nonprofits with expert guidance and solutions for more than 25 years, and he says nonprofit bylaws are not an afterthought. The Founder and CEO of Foundation Group explains why these governance rules can protect an organization or leave it exposed when a board ignores them.
Bylaws are about the mechanics of governance, not a place to store every operational policy. Greg and Josh unpack the legal consequences of disregarding them, the habits that keep boards accountable, and the amendment rules that can create avoidable trouble years later.
In this episode:
Why every board member should review the bylaws and sign off every year, a question the IRS asks on Form 990
The Long Island church case where 10 members were reinstated after its board skipped a required written notice
Why putting every policy and procedure in bylaws can create a 50-page document no board can keep up with
How an HOA's 5% annual dues cap became a problem when extraordinary expenses arrived
Why a simple-majority amendment rule can be more workable than a unanimous board vote
You will leave with a practical governance habit: give the board the bylaws annually, review what no longer fits, and amend the document instead of working around it. Good governance starts with knowing what the organization can and cannot do.
Episode highlights: (0:00) When ignored bylaws expose a nonprofit (0:50) The real job of nonprofit bylaws (4:21) Bylaws that give new nonprofits a foundation (7:22) Keeping established boards accountable (10:39) The bylaw mistakes that create legal trouble (15:06) Changing bylaws without creating a mess (18:33) Knowing when bylaws need an update (22:02) Start with the rules your board already has
Guest: Greg McRay, Founder and CEO, Foundation Group
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-bylaws
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Rex Miller, an award-winning author and consultant with more than 35 years as a corporate manager and executive, says team development matters more in an economic downturn, not less. Hard times expose how well people actually work together, and leaders cannot fix that by asking people to simply push harder.
Rex's case is that work is a team sport. The leader's job is to give people clarity, not certainty, make structural changes that support recovery, and model the behavior the organization needs.
In this episode:
Why the first five minutes of a meeting can be heads-down time before the agenda starts
The 10 to 15 minute transition break that helps people reset between back-to-back meetings
How Gallup's 82% manager figure changes the case for assessments such as CliftonStrengths, Enneagram, and DISC
What one company learned after leaders averaged 60-hour weeks and less than six hours of sleep
How Genius Spark aims to lower traditional training and consulting costs by about 80%
You will leave with practical ways to build social connection, create clarity during uncertainty, and give a depleted team space to recover. Rex's closing counsel is simple: let people heal, and the organization can earn loyalty and commitment.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why downturns test the team (1:34) Why team development matters most now (4:50) Building stronger teams in hard times (9:43) The case for team assessments (14:11) How leaders make development visible (16:46) Putting development into the leadership team (19:15) Making team development a priority (21:35) Let people heal and recover
Guest: Rex Miller, Award-winning author and consultant
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/team-development
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Peter Lipsett, Vice President at DonorsTrust, wants nonprofits to see donor advised funds as more than a warehouse of wealth. For donor advised funds, the key fact is simple: a dollar put into one has to go to charity.
Peter describes a DAF as a charitable savings account, like a health savings account for charitable dollars. The number of DAF accounts rose 27.6% between 2020 and 2021 to more than 1.2 million, and he argues that nonprofits should learn how these donors give instead of treating the vehicle as a barrier.
In this episode:
Why smaller mission-driven DAFs and community foundations can become useful nonprofit partners
How donor advised fund dollars supported more level giving during the first half of 2020
Why nonprofits should thank DAF donors but not send a tax receipt for the gift
The database detail that helps future asks: record that a donor gives through a DAF
How a known DAF donor may be ready for a capital campaign or a $5,000 additional gift
You will leave with a clearer way to acknowledge DAF gifts, cultivate donors over time, and prepare for money that may be available when the organization needs it. Peter’s recommendation is to read the National Philanthropic Trust Donor Advised Fund Report to understand the landscape.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a DAF is not a warehouse of wealth (0:30) The charitable savings account for giving (2:05) What DAFs can offer nonprofit partners (4:09) The questions DAFs keep raising (5:03) Beyond the warehouse-of-wealth claim (5:59) The concern about anonymous DAF giving (8:04) Where donor advised funds are headed (10:31) How to recognize and cultivate DAF donors (14:27) The DAF report worth reading
Guest: Peter Lipsett, Vice President, DonorsTrust
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/donor-advised-funds
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Delaney Mullennix of Nonprofit Hub uses the 70/20/10 rule to explain why nonprofit leadership development is learned in challenging work, not by reading a book or sitting through a course.
Her case is the 70/20/10 rule: 10% of learning comes from academics, 20% from mentors, and 70% from challenging experience. That changes how leaders should think about professional development, work-life balance, feedback, and risk.
In this episode:
How the 70/20/10 rule puts challenging experience ahead of academic learning
Why work-life balance is not always 50/50, even when work takes 70% to 80% of life
The shift from completing a to-do list to prioritizing and driving organizational results
Why managers should find a course or class for an employee instead of waiting to be asked
What four co-executive directors can teach a nonprofit about trying a different leadership model
You will leave with a way to identify one experience that stretches a team member, and a reminder that doing something ten times can open new doors. The goal is not to remove risk. It is to assess it without treating every possible loss as catastrophic.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why leaders learn by doing (1:31) Why experience is the best teacher (3:27) The 70/20/10 learning rule (5:42) Thoughtfulness toward the team (8:46) The line between manager and leader (10:37) Seeking experiences that stretch you (16:35) Helping others learn by doing (17:15) Recognizing each employee’s strengths (18:43) Professional development that helps (20:12) Taking risk without treating loss as catastrophe (23:11) Where to start with your next stretch
Guest: Delaney Mullennix, Executive Director, Nonprofit Hub
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/experiential-learning-for-nonprofit-leaders
More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Mark Miller, Co-founder and brand strategist at Historic Agency, says donor cultivation cannot stop at a cause. A brand-first donor experience gives supporters a way to connect with who an organization is, not only the impact it makes.
Mark defines brand as what other people say about an organization when it leaves the room. With 1.5 to 1.6 million nonprofits in the United States alone, he argues that a logo and a website are not enough. Organizational culture shows up in every donor touchpoint.
In this episode:
The three messages every donor touchpoint should communicate: values, differentiation, and unfair advantage
Why the top 10% may be giving more while the rest of a donor file fades away
How two organizations doubled year-end giving by changing the style of their communication
What Liberty in North Korea’s goal of 25 million allies shows about inviting people into a movement
Why Mark says every organization will become a video company, whether it makes software or not
You will leave with a way to make donor communications feel like an invitation to participate, not a transaction. The opportunity is to equip advocates with tools, from peer-to-peer fundraising to simple messaging, and let more people own the cause.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Why a cause alone cannot cultivate donors (0:50) What a brand-first donor experience means (4:54) The three messages behind better cultivation (12:45) Every donor touchpoint reflects your brand (17:05) How better experiences can grow giving (19:56) Turning donor experience into greater impact (23:26) From supporters to a movement (27:04) Invite people to own the cause
Guest: Mark Miller, Co-founder and brand strategist, Historic Agency
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/donor-cultivation More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
Nathan Hill has spent about seven years at NextAfter, and he says nonprofit innovation does not have to mean something new to the entire marketplace. The Vice President of the NextAfter Institute explains why the work can begin with something simply new to your organization.
Innovation is a mindset, not a single tactic or technology purchase. Nathan argues that nonprofit teams can test, optimize, and learn with the resources already around them before they ask for more staff or a bigger tool stack.
In this episode:
Why 23% new-donor retention and 40-something-percent overall retention call for testing beyond the usual advice
How a small change to donation-page language can lead to a 15% increase in giving
What a $20 mystery donor audit can reveal when a team makes a donation to its own organization
Why iOS 14.5 and changes to Facebook advertising made waiting even a couple of months risky
How two organizations can use the same technology stack and create radically different donor pathways
You will leave with a concrete first move: make a donation to yourself, find one step to improve, and keep testing. The tool empowers a strategy, Nathan says, but it cannot create the pathway for you.
Episode highlights: (0:00) Innovation can start with what is new to you (0:59) What innovation actually means (3:18) Why nonprofit teams get stuck (7:15) The reason innovation cannot wait (9:11) What innovation looks like in practice (14:03) Building a culture that tests and learns (18:51) Challenge the status quo (23:54) Make a donation to yourself
Guest: Nathan Hill, Vice President of the NextAfter Institute, NextAfter NextAfter resources: https://nextafter.com/
Full transcript and show notes: https://www.anedot.com/blog/nonprofit-innovation More episodes and the monthly newsletter: https://www.nonprofitpulse.com/
If this was useful, follow Nonprofit Pulse wherever you listen.
Nonprofit Pulse is a podcast by Anedot that explores trends, insights, and resources that help nonprofits accomplish their mission. Hosted by Josh Breland.
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