We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

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Latest Episodes:

703. People Power: How to Turn Volunteers Into Core Capacity - Sara Lomelin, Nicole Stewart, Nicole R. Smith, CVA, and Susan McPherson Apr 27, 2026

Show notes

We're living in the loneliest moment in modern history. And at the same time, people have never been hungrier for hope, for joy, for meaningful connection.

Your volunteers are at the center of that tension. And if you're not treating people power as a strategy, you're leaving your mission's most powerful asset on the table.

Recorded live at the We Are For Good Summit, this conversation brings together four extraordinary leaders: Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies and author of The Lost Art of Connecting; Nicole Stewart, Executive Director of Boston CASA; Nicole R. Smith, Executive Director of ALIVE, the National Professional Association for Leaders in Volunteer Engagement; and Sara Lomelin, CEO of Philanthropy Together.

In this episode, you'll hear:

What ALIVE's data shows about organizations that treat volunteers as strategy vs. afterthought: 80% more volunteers, 60% higher engagement, and donors who are twice as likely to give
Boston CASA's three non-negotiables for scaling a volunteer program without burning people out: exceptional training, strong supervision, and a mission-anchored culture
How to operationalize people power right now: from launching a giving circle to giving volunteers a role, not a receipt
Why skills-based volunteering is surging even as companies go quiet on CSR, and what that means for nonprofits

People are looking for hope. They're looking for joy. They're looking for meaningful connections. You are the one they've been waiting for. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

How volunteer expectations have shifted post-Covid (3:00)
People want belonging, not transactions (4:09)
Volunteers as your best marketing money can't buy (8:21)
Volunteers as ambassadors, donors, and storytellers (10:42)
Boston CASA's non-negotiables for scaling without burnout (16:37)
CSR in 2026: skills-based volunteering and what companies are doing quietly (22:58)
Operationalizing people power: giving circles, storytelling, clarity (24:11)

Episode Shownotes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/703

Join us at The Spread!

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We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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702. Working Session: Planned Giving Without the Overwhelm - Pedro J. Rivera Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

Meet Pedro J. Rivera 👋 In 30 years at the intersection of law, philanthropy, and fundraising, he has launched three planned giving programs and raised $150 million for nonprofits and universities. In this Working Session, he's here to give you a clear entry point into planned giving, no matter where you're starting from.

In this Working Session, you'll hear:

How to talk about legacy giving in a way that feels natural
How to find your best planned giving prospects with data you already have
A 30-day action plan to move planned giving from overwhelming to doable

Episode Highlights:

What is planned giving, really? (0:21)
Why right now: The Great Wealth Transfer (3:18)
How to talk about legacy without making it weird (4:48)
Finding your best prospects: the 7-10 rule and more (5:50)
Weaving planned giving into what you're already doing (8:21)
The 30-day starter plan (12:05)
One Good Thing: stop assuming donors don't want to talk about this (14:07)

Welcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.

Let's get to work.

Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/702

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701. 93% of Funding Gone Overnight: A Case Study in Crisis Leadership - Jennifer Rupp Apr 20, 2026

Show notes

At 4am on April 3, 2025, Jennifer Rupp's phone wouldn't stop buzzing. 93% of Michigan Humanities' budget. Gone overnight. What happened next is a story about crisis leadership, radical transparency, and why connection isn't a soft strategy. It's the only strategy. 🙏

In this episode, you'll hear:

What Jennifer did in the first 24 hours after losing 93% of her budget, and why transparency was her most important tool
How she decided which programs to cut and which were non-negotiable (and the framework you can use to make those calls)
Why "when division is the crisis, connection is the strategy" isn't just a philosophy at Michigan Humanities, it's their entire operating model
Jennifer’s One Good Thing: flip the funding triangle. 85% of your money comes from individuals. Are you spending 85% of your time there?

This one's going to stay with you. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

Meet Jennifer Rupp (00:48)
The 4am email that changed everything (09:44)
How federal humanities funding actually works (10:46)
The pivot: transparency, triage, and staying mission-aligned (13:55)
What programs fell and which were non-negotiable (17:09)
Crisis leadership lessons you can only learn by walking through it (22:28)
From front porches to back decks: why we've lost the art of gathering (25:15)
The Great Michigan Gathering: a three-year plan to rebuild community (26:43)
A powerful story of generosity in Jennifer's life (33:10)
Jennifer's One Good Thing: flip the funding triangle (35:05)

Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/701

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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700. What 700 Episodes Have Taught Us About Generosity - Jon and Becky Apr 15, 2026

Show notes

700 episodes felt like the kind of moment that deserved more than a LinkedIn post and a few dancing emojis. So we sat down to talk about what this journey has taught us about generosity, the stories that haven't left us, and what we're still learning.

We're so grateful you're here. Come celebrate with us. 🩵

-Jon + Becky

Episode Highlights:

Two powerful stories of generosity we are still carrying with us (5:00)
The ripple effect and what generosity has taught us (10:00)
Low ego, high impact: what the best leaders share (15:00)
Jon and Becky’s One Good Things (19:00)

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699. How to Build a Mission That Outlasts You - Jeremy Bouman, RISE Apr 13, 2026

Show notes

Meet Jeremy Bouman, Founder of RISE in Omaha 👋. Today, RISE operates in seven Nebraska prisons with a 90% graduate employment rate and a recidivism rate a third of the state average. And Jeremy has spent the last decade building a leadership team, a sabbatical policy, and a succession plan designed to outlast him.

In this episode, he breaks down exactly how, including the internal leadership academy, the innovation program open to every employee, and their newly approved sabbatical policy.

Plus: the story of a man serving a life sentence who donated $500 so someone else could take the same program that changed his life. 🩵

Tune in to hear:

What the "Inside Out" model actually looks like, and why starting the relationship inside prison, years before release, is the thing that makes everything else work
RISE’s human-centered internal policies, leadership academy, and innovation project + the impact on their team

Episode Highlights:

Meet Jeremy Bouman (00:38)
The Inside Out model: building trust before release (09:05)
70% system-impacted staff and why lived experience leads (09:05)
Founder-proofing: humility, culture, and getting out of the way (14:10)
The sabbatical policy and what happened when Jeremy took five weeks off (16:29)
Succession planning: Rise Leadership Academy and Rise Innovation Project (21:14)
Two generosity stories that say everything about this mission (27:29)
One good thing: visit a prison, practice second chance hiring (29:57)

Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/699

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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698. Contagious Culture: Why Better People Build Better Organizations - Kyle S. King Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

Kyle S. King started his nonprofit journey as a college junior, raised $100K, and never stopped. Eight books, a publishing company, a keynote career, and the Growth Alliance later — he's spent over a decade helping mission-driven organizations do the deeper work first: aligning leadership, tightening operations, and sharpening the stories that actually move donors to act. 💪

In this episode, you'll hear:

Why burnout isn't a wellness problem or a leadership problem — it's an organizational culture issue, and that distinction changes everything about how you solve it
The three pillars of "contagious culture" (kindness, community, capital) and why skipping step one means you'll never reach step three
The counterintuitive advice Kyle gives every leader who wants to grow: stop adding. Play defense first. Stop the leaks.

This conversation will challenge how you think about culture, leadership, and the small moments where real impact actually happens. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

Meet Kyle King (00:41)
Roots: Sankofa and the backstory that built everything (3:15)
Contagious Culture: Kindness, Community, Capital (6:44)
The root cause mistake nonprofit leaders keep making (10:00)
Why burnout is an organizational culture problem (15:05)
Leading with heart when you're running on empty (20:00)
Play defense: building momentum by stopping the leaks (25:30)
The barbershop story and the $800 check (30:26)
One good thing: better people build better organizations (35:01)

Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/698

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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697. How Team Rubicon Built a Movement of 200,000 Volunteers - Jeff Byard Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

"You don't manage volunteers. You have to inspire them."

Jeff Byard figured that out after 14 years in Alabama emergency management, six years as a senior leader at FEMA overseeing 185 presidential disaster declarations, and now as Chief Programs Officer at Team Rubicon — the disaster response organization with 200,000 Greyshirts deployed across the country and around the world.

In this episode, you'll hear:

Why the shift from volunteer management to community building changes everything — and exactly how Team Rubicon made that shift at scale
How 3,500 volunteer leaders lead a Greyshirt nation of 200,000 — and what that organizational structure teaches every nonprofit leader
Jeff's One Good Thing: don't let perfection get in the way of good.

Episode Highlights:

Jeff's origin story: Marine Corps to FEMA (3:08)
Joining Team Rubicon and the "for impact" sector (6:36)
You don't manage volunteers — you inspire them (7:48)
What Team Rubicon does: 1,000 service projects a year (9:14)
Volunteer management vs. community building (12:00)
Veterans + "kick ass civilians": the 50/50 dynamic (14:51)
Making volunteers your core capacity at scale (16:13)
10 simultaneous operations in Hurricane Helene (16:51)
The philanthropy moment that made Jeff cry (20:55)
One Good Thing: don't let perfection get in the way of good (25:04)

Resources Mentioned:

Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/697

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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696. Building Trust: The 3 Layers Every Nonprofit Leader Needs - Aila Malik Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

Trust is not a soft skill. It's the whole job.

Today we're bringing you something special: Aila Malik's live keynote from the We Are For Good Summit, followed by a real-time coaching Q&A with our community.

Aila has spent nearly a decade working alongside nonprofit leaders at their most defining moments: leadership transitions, burnout, mergers, and organizational inflection points. Her firm has partnered with hundreds of organizations, and her framework for building trust has changed how leaders think about culture, credibility, and change.

In this episode, you'll hear:

Why trust isn't a soft skill — and why treating it like one is silently breaking your organization
The three layers of trust (workability, credibility, vulnerability) and exactly where most leaders get stuck
How to rebuild trust after a leadership transition, a broken promise, or a loss of confidence
What Aila told a room full of summit attendees about why people resist change — and why the answer isn't strategy, it's safety

Episode Highlights:

The Sector as a Response to Broken Narratives (1:42)
The Three Layers of Trust (8:15)
Building Credibility (10:10)
The Vulnerability Layer (12:47)
Live Q&A: Trusting Funders and Long-Term Partners (17:33)
Navigating Trust in Organizational Transitions (20:00)
When Stakeholders Have Different Goals (24:27)
Trust Repair and Apology Tours (30:03)
What Young Organizations Should Know About Trust (33:47)
Middle Management as Trust Infrastructure (35:00)
Aila's One Good Thing (40:01)

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Aila + Venture Leader Collective

Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/696

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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695. How to Build an Organization Ready for Its Biggest Moment - Sara LaBarge Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

Sara LaBarge grew up on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin, won a Gates Millennium Scholarship as a teenager, and went on to lead strategic partnerships at Native Forward Scholars Fund — the largest direct scholarship provider to Native students in the country. When MacKenzie Scott called (twice), their organization was ready. This conversation is about what that readiness actually looked like.

Native nonprofits receive less than 0.5% of all philanthropic funding. Native Forward has been building anyway — for 55+ years. And the frameworks Sara uses for partnerships, accountability, and trust-based giving are some of the most practically useful we've heard for any fundraiser navigating high-stakes funder relationships right now. 🩵

In this episode, you'll hear:

What the "dreaming phase" looked like inside Native Forward after their first MacKenzie Scott gift — and how they moved from scarcity thinking to strategic deployment fast
How to identify true alignment with a partner before resources change hands, and why accountability to that alignment is what makes partnerships compound over time
How Native Forward is handling a 35% surge in scholarship applications while protecting 55+ years of mission integrity
Sara's One Good Thing: why passion alone isn't enough, and what discipline and alignment unlock

Episode Highlights:

Sara's origin story: growing up on the Menominee reservation (3:00)
Winning the Gates Millennium Scholarship (3:31)
What scholarships unlock beyond financial support (7:07)
The funding gap + MacKenzie Scott gifts (10:39)
Building readiness to absorb and deploy a gift at scale (13:03)
Strategic partnerships and the 35% surge in applications (15:25)
What authentic partnerships look like in practice (17:06)
Relationships as currency and values in action (20:15)
The philanthropy story that changed Sara (22:03)
One Good Thing: discipline and alignment (24:43)

Resources Mentioned:

Native Forward Scholars Fund
Yield Giving — MacKenzie Scott's giving platform and essays

Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/695

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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694. Stop Scaling. Start Solving: What the Nonprofit Sector Gets Wrong About Growth - Eliza Blank Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

Meet Eliza Blank, the new CEO of The Farmlink Project 👋 We’re exploring what happens when a founder-CEO mindset collides with one of the most urgent food systems problems of our time.

Eliza bootstrapped and scaled The Sill from a single idea to 12 stores across seven markets and $25M raised. Now she's applying that same startup lens to Farmlink, which rescues and redistributes over a million pounds of food every week.

In this episode, you'll hear:

Why Eliza's team talks about their own obsolescence every day, and what that mindset unlocks for mission-driven orgs
Why growth for growth's sake is a red flag, and how Farmlink thinks about scale vs. depth instead
How to build a community of fanatics around a cause most people don't even know exists yet

Episode Highlights:

From The Sill to Farmlink: Eliza's origin story (3:22)
What the startup model has to teach the nonprofit sector (6:14)
Brand building and community as a growth strategy (9:16)
Scale vs. depth: why Farmlink talks about its own obsolescence (13:19)
The Field Fellowship: investing in the next generation of food systems leaders (16:41)
One Good Thing: pick a lane and compound it over a lifetime (26:01)

Resources Mentioned:

Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/694

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

Learn more and save your free spot today.

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