Successful Nonprofits Podcast

Get more return on our fundraising efforts! Ellen Bristol shares effective ways to identify, qualify, cultivate, and solicit donors.

Practical, no-nonsense advice for building and strengthening your board.

Imagine an event where your donors are excited to buy a ticket, tell all their friends they are going, post it on Facebook and get even more pleasure from bidding competitively at the auction and giving generously to the solicitation. Abra Annes tells us how to make this event a reality.

31 proven fundraising ideas for your board members (in less than 13 minutes)!

A real story about a nonprofit staffing firm serving homeless people that bought a for profit company. The purchase enabled them to grow from a $2 million nonprofit to a $20 million organization and dramatically expand their impact among homeless people in their city. Listen to the episode to find out how they financed the purchase, the due diligence they exercised in the purchase, and what they will do differently the next time.

Late last week the White House released Donald Trump’s “budget blueprint” that outlines his spending priorities and cuts for the upcoming fiscal year. Knowing that this budget blueprint could have broad implications for nonprofits across the nation, we read the 62 page document, researched the agencies to be impacted, and summarized changes that nonprofits should anticipate in this 27-minute podcast episode.

A deeply personal story about learning to face uncertainty with confidence.

If you go to the Foundation Center Library, you will undoubtedly see a crowded bookshelf in the strategic planning and strategic prioritization section. But one recent book stands out as a resource for the busy nonprofit leader who needs guidance and practical advice to focus their work and increase their impact: Mission Control by Liana Downey. Our conversation this week with Liana Downey offered some highlights from her book. This included: • Why organizations need to focus • How goal setting can support your focus • Using an option tree framework to focus (this will change your planning process) • Identifying what strategies will actually impact your mission

From the moment we get up in the morning until our eyes close at night, we are bombarded with marketing messages. Today we get marketing messages through our phone’s apps, online, via email, on the radio, on tv, and through the old fashioned postal mail. Is it any wonder that traditional marketing messages aren’t working? After all, we have to cut through a very cluttered marketing environment in order to reach our nonprofit’s prospective volunteers, advocates, and donors. This is why many nonprofits are turning to a content marketing approach that creates and distributes content that is relevant and valuable to our target audience. To help explore content marketing for your nonprofit, we spoke with Robert McGuire.

According to a 2015 Stanford Business School study, 78% of nonprofits were not prepared to name a permanent successor immediately if their executive director entered the witness protection program tomorrow, and on average organizations thought it would take them 112 days to find the replacement. This is why we have the rare professional known as the “interim executive director”, and we spoke with Lynne Molnar who has spent much of her professional life coaching organizations through these difficult transitions, screening prospective interims, training prospective interims, and being an interim herself.

Without a doubt, the best time to engage board members is when they first join the board, and orientation should play a critical role in the process. This Bonus Break will help you develop a more effective orientation process for your board.

The nonprofit sector is known for long work hours, where our passion and excitement for the mission seem to be a sustaining source of energy. But eventually, failing to care of ourselves takes a toll on our passion and every other aspect of our lives. Imagine if it was possible to have an impact without burnout? On this episode of the Successful Nonprofits Podcast, we speak with Beth Kanter, co-author of The Happy Health Nonprofit about how organizations can actually achieve both impact and happy employees who balance work and personal lives.

Four contemplations on compensation to help you receive the highest possible salary for the contributions you make to your organization.

I’ve been thinking a lot about stories lately after reading an incredible book titled: The Story Telling Nonprofit by Vanessa Chase Lockshin. This is a practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness, and the Amazon reviews for this book are incredible. I found the book useful, and felt strongly that the principles Vanessa lays out in the book can be used whether you are in the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. Our conversation with Vanessa Chase Lockshin includes: ➢ How nonprofits can use stories ➢ Identifying your audience and why create a faux person ➢ Elements of a good story And more! Be certain to download this episode and start writing more compelling stories for your nonprofit!

All too often, a new executive director runs from their job screaming (or with the board screaming at them). In fact, I’ve actually been known to congratulate executive directors who reach their two year anniversary by saying, “In my experience, those E.D.’s who last two years often enjoy successful tenures of 5 – 10 years.” There are many reasons why some executive directors don’t succeed during their initial two years. And an unsuccessful executive director is never the fault of just the unfortunate person who takes a job only to leave it 15 months later. To help understand how organizations can ensure a successful executive transition, we spoke with Kim Powell. Kim, who is with ghSmart, is a consultant and career coach who has advised CEOs and senior managers of Fortune 500 companies seeing transformational change through their corporate strategies. A few of the highlights from our conversation include: ➢ The 5 behaviors that make up the genome of a successful CEO genome ➢ Preparing to move past an iconic or founding leader ➢ Creating a 100-day launch plan and setup your new CEO for a successful tenure ➢ Developing a strong relationship between the board chair and CEO