The Nonprofit Science Podcast

Two nonprofits start out nearly identical. Both survive the 2008 crash, both pivot through the pandemic, both make it through every shock for twenty years. So why is one thriving in 2026 while the other is winding down? We've been calling all of it resilience — but new research redefines what that word should mean for nonprofits. In this episode, we dig into a framework for proactive resilience. I...

Sitting in a budget meeting defending your numbers can be brutal, especially when the honest answer to "how did you land on these?" is "last year's budget, adjusted by feel." You run a lean operation, but the same pattern shows up every year: too much of one thing, not enough of another. For-profit companies solved this with a tool called demand forecasting. The catch was always cost and expertise...

What if the storytelling practices you were trained on are quietly causing harm and you don't even know it? In this episode, host Sheela Mahajan sits down with Diana Farias Heinrich, founder of Habra Marketing and host of the Ethical Nonprofit Summit, to dig into the ethics of nonprofit storytelling. They cover the power dynamics hiding in everyday language, why "donor as hero" is more problematic...

How do you know your program is working? You know it works and you see it every day. But translating that into evidence that satisfies stakeholders? That's where things get complicated. In this episode, we dig into peer-reviewed research to understand why impact measurement is so challenging and what works. We explore the five factors that make measurement credible, why starting with purpose beats...

"Collaboration" has become one of the most diluted words in the nonprofit sector. Funders push for it, grant applications require it, and yet most partnerships are coordination at best, administrative burden at worst. Dr. Priyanka Brunese and Pallavi Gupta of Saath Partners have spent years researching why some cross-sector partnerships create genuine value while others stall out. In this episode,...

We talk a lot about best practices in this sector, but what if the better question is: how do we keep getting better? In this episode, I sit down with Leah Kral— author of Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results—to explore how nonprofit organizations can embrace experimentation without big budgets or safety nets. Leah shares her journey from the f...

What does it really mean for a nonprofit to succeed? How do you build trust with funders, and does celebrating wins help as much as we think? In this year-end reflection, I share five research articles that genuinely changed how I think about nonprofit work. We'll explore why impact is only one piece of organizational health, what transparency does for donor relationships (spoiler: it's not what y...

As the year winds down and your finance team fields last-minute reports, board meeting materials, and budget questions, it's worth asking: is your organization's relationship with money working? In this episode, I sit down with Sean Hale, founder of Nonprofit CFOs, to talk about what healthy financial management really looks like. We dig into why year-end is a particularly tough time for nonprofit...

You send thank-you letters. Your acknowledgements go out like clockwork. But are those thank-yous actually working? In this episode, we dive deep into the research on donor appreciation- and what we find may surprise you. Thank-you notes are just one tool in your gratitude toolbox, and their effectiveness depends on how you use them. Studies reveal that acknowledgements have the greatest impact on...

Is Giving Tuesday worth it, or will your appeal just get lost in the noise? It may feel like you're competing against thousands of other organizations for a fixed pool of charitable dollars on Giving Tuesday- there's a reason people refer to it as the "nonprofit hunger games." But what if this assumption is wrong? In this episode, we dive into research that suggests giving days like Giving Tuesday...

You know GivingTuesday as this massive global day of generosity. But, alongside leading this movement, GivingTuesday’s research team has been building a powerful data resource for the entire nonprofit sector. On this episode, we are joined by Samir Khan, Director of Research at GivingTuesday. He shares how their Data Commons is making critical fundraising analysis available for nonprofits of all s...

What if your donors' most valuable contributions aren't their checks? Research reveals that nonprofits tracking only financial donations could have a blind spot. Other forms of capital- such as social capital, relational capital, and network effects- might actually predict long-term sustainability more than immediate financial donations do. In this episode, we explore why a donor's social connecti...

Donor-advised funds represent a $250 billion opportunity that's transforming modern philanthropy- and new research shows how nonprofits can prepare to be perfectly positioned to benefit. Drawing from studies including interviews with 48 DAF users and 46 professional fundraisers, this episode offers fundraisers insight into practical strategies you can implement today. Discover why DAF donors incre...

In this data-packed episode, we dive deep into the psychology of default donations and behavioral nudging, revealing how seemingly tiny changes like a checkbox here or a specific word there can swing your revenue by 30%. Drawing on research from Stanford, University of Chicago, and other leading institutions, we unpack the mathematical models behind optimal ask strings, explore the ethical boundar...

Why do people really donate to nonprofits? It turns out, it's not just about generous donors but about the complex relationships between donors, beneficiaries, and the organizations that connect them. In this episode, Dr. Cassandra Chapman explains her Charitable Triad Theory and shares surprising insights into donor behavior. If you've ever wondered why some appeals work while others flop, or str...

Should your year-end appeal lean into heartbreak or hope? Make donors feel guilty or grateful? For decades, nonprofits have debated positive versus negative emotional appeals. But new research reveals we've been asking the wrong questions entirely. Comprehensive studies show the real power lies in sophisticated emotional combinations that mirror how people actually experience feelings. For instanc...

Every day, nonprofits face an impossible choice: show genuine hardship to motivate giving or preserve dignity and risk raising less. New research reveals this isn't a personal failure- it's built into how our charitable system works. We explore groundbreaking studies showing fundraisers serve "three masters" whose needs fundamentally conflict, why poverty porn actually backfires with donors, and h...

In this episode, we dive deep into the neuroscience and evolutionary biology that makes storytelling your nonprofit's most powerful tool. We explore groundbreaking research showing how stories literally synchronize brain activity across your audience, why our ancestors' campfire tales programmed us to respond to narrative, and how to strategically craft stories that drive action. From understandin...

Your most heart-wrenching fundraising appeal just flopped. But before you blame donor fatigue or economic uncertainty, consider this: neuroscience reveals that donors' brains process giving decisions in fundamentally different ways. Some donors need to feel your beneficiaries' struggles, while others need to understand their perspective. Some respond to your big-picture vision, while others need c...

Every year, nonprofits watch more than half their peer-to-peer fundraisers raise exactly zero dollars. Meanwhile, a tiny fraction bring in thousands but the donors they attract rarely stick around. Sound familiar? New research reveals why P2P success has felt so unpredictable. The findings highlights something we've known- people give to people. P2p donors give because they care about their friend...

Between 2018 and 2021, the equivalent of 48 million full-time volunteers vanished from the global workforce - not a typo, a crisis most nonprofits are experiencing in real-time. But here's what the research reveals: we're not actually losing volunteers, we're witnessing a fundamental shift from duty-based volunteering to what researchers call "reflexive volunteering." Think of it like the differen...

Your nonprofit posts consistently. You've built a decent following. Your content gets engagement. But deep down, you know your social media should be doing more for your mission than generating likes and comments. Here's the problem: for nearly two decades, nonprofits have been treating social media like a digital donation box. But research reveals a stunning truth—multiple studies show no signifi...

Every June, nonprofit leaders wait for the Giving USA report, but most miss the real value: understanding what the data reveals about donor behavior and strategic applications. Host Sheela Mahajan talks with Wendy McGrady, President and COO of The Curtis Group and chair of The Giving USA Foundation, about the 2024 findings. They explore why giving grew 6.3%, the continued "dollars up, donors down"...

Today we are joined by Dr. Chao Wu. Dr. Wu is a professor at the Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business. His research focuses on enhancing operational efficiency in nonprofits by developing scalable, cost-effective solutions using experimental and quasi-experimental methods. During our conversation, we chat a lot about volunteer engagement, specifically answering the question: if I...

Today I am joined by Chris McGown, a planned giving expert with decades of experience in-house and as a consultant in this specific area of fundraising. During our conversation, we dive into what exactly is planned giving, what nonprofits need to know, how to identify donors who would be a good fit for planned giving. Importantly, we discuss research-backed strategies and how to incorporate planne...