Successful Nonprofits Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Courage, Culture and Collaboration: Lessons from Army Ranger and Serial Entrepreneur France Q Hoang Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

France Hoang has some pretty amazing credentials. France is a serial entrepreneur trading in everything from jets to law firms to coworking space to technology for nonprofits.

So you may be asking, "Why is this for-profit guy on a nonprofit podcast?" The answer is simple: This West Point grad, Army Ranger and serial entrepreneur understands how to build and strengthen organizational culture better than anyone else. He's led teams in combat, on peace keeping missions, in the office and the board room.

Oh yeah, and he also founded a company called boodleAI to help nonprofit supporters data mine their own social media and fundraise better.

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:58) France explains why he went directly from West Point to Ranger School

(3:35) The leadership skills France learned at West Point and Ranger School

(11:18) How to develop culture-building experiences for your nonprofit team members

(13:00) The importance of allowing team members to make mistakes

(17:26) How to "hire right" for culture fit and soft skills

(22:58) Why every hire is critically important for your small team

(23:55) Why candidates applying to join your staff should speak with others on the team

(29:12) The founding story of BoodleAI

(29:45) Do you know what Boodle is? France explains this West Point term

(30:30) How France knows an applicant is a good fit to work at BoodleAI

(31:45) How BoodleAI resolves your fundraising pain points

Building Resilience, Practicing Forgiveness: Exploring Appreciative Inquiry with Jeanie Cockell and Joan McArthur-Blair Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

Appreciative inquiry is a strengths-based approach to facilitating positive change in human organizations. Dolph talks with two seasoned practitioners of this method, Jeanie Cockell and Joan McArthur-Blair, about the intersection of hope, despair, and forgiveness that leads to resilience. Lots of inspiration ahead!

Links:

Building Resilience with Appreciative Inquiry: A Leadership Journey through Hope, Despair, and Forgiveness https://www.amazon.com/Building-Resilience-Appreciative-Inquiry-Leadership/dp/1523082550

First Section of Book: https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/Building-Resilience-with-Appreciative-Inquiry

Nautilus Book Awards: http://nautilusbookawards.com/

Joan and Jeanie's Website: https://cockellmcarthur-blair.com/

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:24) The hardest piece of resilience is forgiveness

(3:05) If you can't forgive, forgive what you can

(9:40) Joan's poem about forgiveness

(14:45) A (short) stop at despair

(16:02) Systemic despair

(20:49) Moving forward with hope, the bedrock of resilience

(24:14) A metaphorical car crash

(24:36) The intersection of hope, despair, and forgiveness

(25:45) Generative questions – easy yet profound

(29:19) The good thoughts notebook

(30:55) Joan's poem about hope

(36:02) Keep your vision of the shore!

Maurya Couvares Shares the Code to Exponential Nonprofit Growth! Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

We take a deep dive into nonprofit growth with Maurya Couvares, founder of Code Nation, formerly known as ScriptEd. Having successfully grown ScriptEd from $0 to $3 million in under five years, Maurya gives us the scoop on what that phenomenal growth entailed. Spoiler alert: data collection and deep impact with fundraising are key!

Links:

ScriptEd's site: https://scripted.org/

ScriptEd's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScriptEdOrg?lang=en

ScriptEd's annual reports: https://scripted.org/annual-reports/

Maurya's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MauryaCouvares?lang=en

Maurya's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauryac/

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(3:14) Maurya's expectations for ScriptEd's Growth

(4:58) What ScriptEd does

(7:12) Three Ps: Passion, Partnerships, Program

(9:29) Mo levels, mo expenses

(10:19) Do the hustle! Maurya's approach for funds

(12:34) Deep thinking, low-cost

(16:45) The theory of change and the metrics pyramid

(18:49) Talk about growth – less than 1% to 73%!

(19:47) Translate impact into $$$ – speak the language of the funders

(22:30) Automation of data collection

(25:16) The Road Ahead: Maurya shares what's next for ScriptEd

(27:00) 400%?!?

(31:03) Dolph declines a dip in the Hudson Rive

The No Bricks, No Mortar, 100% Virtual Nonprofit: A Conversation with Barbara Van Dahlen, PhD, Founder of Give an Hour Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

9/11 and her daughter's outrage were the inspiration for Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen to pick up a copy of Nonprofits for Dummies and launch Give an Hour, her Craigslist-style nonprofit that links volunteer mental health service providers with those who need them. Join Dolph and Barbara as they discuss the background and lessons learned in the creation of Give an Hour, as well as newly formed The Campaign to Change Direction, Barbara's recent project.

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:27) Give an Hour because Barbara felt the 9/11 tragedy was enough

(6:45) How Barbara used the Craigslist model to build her nonprofit

(12:40) How Give an Hour functions as a 100% virtual nonprofit

(16:04) The transition into a virtual workplace

(19:10) Culture is important!

(20:33) A challenge with the virtual workplace model

(22:10) From ED to CEO/Founder – how Barbara owned her leadership role

(24:54) The Campaign to Change Direction, a collective impact initiative

(26:31) Inner Space: Barbara's podcast

(29:02) And yes, Barbara practices what she preaches

Links:

Give an Hour: https://giveanhour.org/

Barbara's podcast, Inner Space: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inner-space-with-dr-barbara-van-dahlen/id1450953411

Vault of Barbara's Huffington Post contributions: https://www.huffpost.com/author/barbara-van-dahlen-phd

The Campaign to Change Direction: www.changedirection.org

Barbara's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-van-dahlen-a298205/

The Government Does the Talking, Your Nonprofit Does the Walking, and Other Lessons from Evan Marwell, Founder of EducationSuperHighway Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

Dolph talks with Evan Marwell, successful serial entrepreneur, about his move into the nonprofit world with the creation of EducationSuperHighway. Evan compares and contrasts his experiences starting for-profit companies with the startup of a nonprofit organization.

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:20) The wifi problem that launched EducationSuperHighway

(4:30) F.E. #1 – Learning from Bold Endeavors by Felix Rohatyn

(6:00) F.E. #2 – Expanding a school's bandwidth for technology

(7:45) F.E. #3 – Bringing the tech issue center stage (White House)

(9:35) America's CTO lets Evan in on a government secret (shhh!)

(12:23) How Evan ran his nonprofit like a startup

(18:42) A project-oriented team is KEY!

(20:56) Gauging commitment to allocate tasks

(22:24) Working with a sense of urgency

(23:25) You MUST recruit the people that are invested in your mission

(25:39) A Big Bold & Finite Goal: Go out of business by 2020

(28:25) Preaching "planned obsolescence" to avoid mission creep

(35:15) Evan's entrepreneurial advice

(38:49) "It's better to be lucky than smart"

Links:

Bold Endeavors: https://www.amazon.com/Bold-Endeavors-Government-America-Rebuild/dp/1416533133

2019: State of the State Report: www.educationsuperhighway.org

Be in the know about bandwidth: www.compareandconnectk12.org

Cracking the Corporate Gifts Code: A Conversation with Former Director of Corporate Giving Joe Vella Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

Dolph talks with Joe Vella, former Director of Corporate Giving at Macy's, to learn how nonprofits can position themselves for corporate gifts in an era of more restricted giving.

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:10) A happy accident: How Joe began community engagement (4:50) Massaging the numbers fairly, judiciously, and strategically (9:36) Securing funds from a corporation by showing tangible results (11:48) Cause marketing vs corporate giving (13:32) Doing your homework BEFORE you approach a corporation for funding (17:26) Tips to increase your chances of receiving funding (18:36) Trust me, a tour can show a LOT (21:35) Appreciating every single dollar of a contribution (22:46) The icing on the cake to your ask – proposing an offer they can't resist (25:44) Storytelling for the win! (26:53) What to do if you when a corporate funder declines (27:56) Postcards, postcards, and more postcards!

Links:

Joe's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-vella-9172303/

Macy's website: https://www.macys.com/

Set the Goals, Secure the Funding, Prepare for Lift-Off! Mini Program Planning Series, Part Two May 14, 2019

Show notes

In Part Two of his Mini Program Planning Series, Dolph outlines the steps to set goals, track program outputs vs outcomes, secure initial funding, and obtain sustaining funding. He also throws in a few out-of-the-box ideas to consider and shares a real-deal timeline for program planning.

Links:

Lean more about the MVP (Most Viable Product) in episode 106

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:41) Outputs vs. outcomes, and examples that help you remember the difference

(6:13) How will you measure outputs and outcomes?

(7:13) Where are you going to put your collected data?

(9:00) Look close to home for your first source of funding

(10:52) An approach for sustainable funding that sets you up for success

(11:47) Can you earn some income?

(13:51) The long game: planned giving

(15:16) O-O-B idea #1: MVP (minimum viable product)

(16:00) The merits of the MVP approach

(17:14) O-O-B idea #2: test it first

(18:49) O-O-B idea #3: outsource first

(20:04) True expectations timeline

So You Want to Develop a Program, Here's Where You Start - Program Planning Series Part One May 09, 2019

Show notes

Flood waters of Biblical proportions have forced Dolph to go solo for a few podcast episodes! It's all good, as Dolph kicks of a Mini Program Planning Series today. In part one, Dolph provides step-by-step check points of the crucial components involved in creating a successful program plan.

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(3:19) Dolph's cautionary tale about program design

(8:37) Back to the drawing board

(10:52) 1st step: figure out what need your program is going to address.

(11:30) Identifying data sources to establish need

(15:03) 2nd step: define the program or service are you going to provide.

(16:22) You'll need a program planning group, and here's why.

(19:04) 3rd step: figure out the logistics – including the who, where, when, and everything in between.

(20:15) 3a: outreach

(21:10) 3b: put partnerships on paper

(21:59) 3c: staying on the right side of the law

(23:12) 3d: put together a documentation plan

(23:55) 3e: hammer out auxiliary services – what they are, who will provide them, and what those relationships will look like

(24:12) And yes, your logistics will overlap!

(25:00) Next week: Setting goals, tracking goals, finding initial and sustained funding, and identifying out-of-the-box ideas!

Engage Your Board with Rob Acton Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

Board builder Rob Acton joins us to discuss specific strategies and tactics to optimize your board. He offers actionable tactics that you can implement today. Acton, founder of Cause Strategy Partners, discusses the three categories of tactics: making better use of board meeting, treating board members as individuals not "the board" and reshaping board culture.

****Timestamped Highlights*****

(10:00) Designing board meetings that are not snooze fests

(11:30) An alternative to simply reading the Executive Director's report

(13:30) The "Plus, Delta, Question" exercise every executive director can use with their board

(17:00) The power of generative questions

(21:40) Building the strategic dashboard your board needs

(28:00) Uncovering the unique strengths of board candidates

(33:15) Rob's advice for nonprofit board candidates to consider

(35:45) The amount of time a board candidate should expect to volunteer each month.

Links:

Cause Strategy Partners: http://causestrategypartners.com/ Robert's Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/robertacton Cause Strategy's Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/causestrategy

I've Seen Your Resume, Show Me YOU. Strategies to Get the Director-Level Job with Executive Search Consultant Kevin Chase Apr 23, 2019

Show notes

In part one of his episode, Kevin Chase shared the importance of honing your professional development to prepare for a director-level job. In part two, Kevin discusses how resume building, negotiation skills, and your personality can help you secure the executive-level position you've been after.

Links:

Kevin's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinscakesla/?hl=en

Kevin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-chase-8a9a23/

Kevin's Firm, Kevin Chase Executive Search Group: www.kevinchasesearch.com

See Kevin's current searches: http://kevinchasesearch.com/current-searches/

Kevin's Appearance on Season 1, Episode 2 of Nailedit! : www.netflix.com

*****Timestamped Highlights*****

(2:26) How to stand out from the crowd

(4:05) It's all in the sauce

(5:21) Kevin shares the recipe for job burnout

(9:44) When Kevin knew he could not fix his fit

(13:15) Do's and don't's of resume writing