The Mary Valloni Show

This episode airs the week of my 40th birthday and I'm pretty excited about it!  I'm looking forward to the next decade and letting my thirties live in the past like they are supposed to.  Today I want to take you on a walk down memory lane and share a little about what has happened in the last ten years; not only in my business and fundraising but also the single most important thing I've learned...

Today we are talking about the eight words that might explain why you're stuck.  As we've been talking about over the last several episodes, we've been dealing with a pandemic and trying to navigate not being in our offices and adjusting to working from home.  Now, some of you may have already been working from home, but it's probably still a little different or difficult to have conversations wit...

Today, I am joined by special guest Evan Cox.  Evan works for Joyce Meyer Ministries and has a background in nonprofit work with the St. Louis Dream Center, Hand of Hope, and many others.  He's also an incredible copywriter.  I've invited him onto today's show to share his insight on fundraising and the work he's done. Tell us about yourself. My wife and I started fundraising in order to go on mis...

I am a huge fan of you raising a ridiculous amount of money and changing the world.  I know that's what you're focused on and why you're here listening to this show but I want you to realize one thing.  If you're awesome at fundraising and awesome at helping other people, there's a good chance that you're not going to be all that awesome at taking care of yourself.  Today I want to talk about how...

If you've been with me for a while, you know I'm big into goal setting.  I think this is why I love fundraising so much because it's all about goal setting and can be very rewarding when you reach them.  So today I want to talk to you about how I set goals. Every time I work with a new client around setting goals, I typically take them through a similar process – it's the same process I teach as w...

I am joined today by Marissa Nehlsen, CEO of a 7-figure business, public speaker, coach, philanthropist, and an all-around incredible person.  Like me, she is originally from North Dakota which makes my heart happy!  What advice would you give to someone who is stuck in the financial mindset? I love this question and here's my strategy.  First, you take a notecard and it's a WIG (wildly important...

I am joined today by Marissa Nehlsen, CEO of a 7-figure business, public speaker, coach, philanthropist, and an all-around incredible person.  Like me, she is originally from North Dakota which makes my heart happy!    Tell us why the world needs us rich. The world needs us rich in all areas and my team and I focus on four areas of poverty.  I coach and train on poverty mindset with practical step...

Today I want to talk about the basics of fundraising. During this season where we are in the midst of a lot of uncertainty, I understand that people are being sensitive when it comes to asking for money.  I want to take a step back and talk about why people say yes in the first place and why we don't have to do anything crazy during this season.  We just need to get back to the basics.  In the pas...

In today's episode, I'm sharing with you the 3-part process I use to help charities raise more money.  These last couple of months have been a bit crazy and the last several episodes I've talked a lot about this pandemic and how to walk through this season.  But I want you to know that the topics I've covered are things you should do all the time, not just during a pandemic.  This 3-part process i...

I'm joined today with Casey Hill, Head of Growth at Bonjoro.  Bonjoro is a personalized video messaging app with the mission of empowering every organization to build real and lasting relationships with its customers, donors, or community, no matter where they live or work. Casey is a published contributor with Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and many other world-class outlets. At his core, Casey beli...

In today's episode, we are talking about the free resource every charity needs to reboot and start again.  We are in a season where we do need to reboot because we've never been here before.  If we look at anything that's happened in our past, recessions, depressions, etc. we can look to them and see that things will not be the same.  We cannot, especially in our fundraising efforts, go back to th...

Today I want to talk through how we can take back some control and turn things around for our causes so that when we come out of this pandemic, we are stronger than ever.  I want to share a few ideas with you as you're walking through this season.    First, it's all about perspective.  There are two different ways you can look at this time – you can look at your fundraising as "oh no, we're going...

Dr. Jonathan Roe has been a non-profit coach and trainer in AZ for more than a decade and is the Founder and CEO of  Venture 1:9 . Venture 1:9 guides non-profits to a place of courage, health, sustainability and impact, through free training, coaching and granting. After graduating college in Boston, Jonathan spent 17 years in church leadership, pastoring two local churches near Washington, D.C. a...

In the United States alone, we've gone through 15 recessions in the last 91 years.  Many people talk about the Great Depression that started in 1929, which played a huge role in the way we live today.  That generation still hides money under their mattresses and in different parts of the house because they couldn't put their money in the bank.  Many of us look to the most recent recession aka the...

This podcast began in 2017 right after I'd written my book, Fundraising Freedom .  It was a huge undertaking, I used all of 2016 to write the book.  I pretty much locked myself inside for one year – surrounded myself with authors – and it was the hardest thing I've ever done.  One of the topics I'm most passionate about is joy and one of the things that bring me the most joy is having deep convers...

Today I'm talking with Danielle Holly, CEO of Common Impact, which focuses on connecting corporations and companies with nonprofit organizations.  The core mission behind Common Impact is to tap into the superpowers that each of us has as individuals and to channel them for social good.  The primary way we do that is by working with companies to get their employees into pro-bono skills-based volun...

In light of COVID-19, I've been getting a lot of questions about fundraising during this time. Do I continue on?  Do I push pause?  Do I cancel my event? My number one piece of advice I want to give you is do NOT stop your fundraising.  Don't allow this to stale or stagnate or freeze your fundraising because life will continue to go on.  We are all going to continue making decisions on how we're g...

On Saturday, I was running around doing my typical weekend errands and since we've been having spring-like weather, I decided to start looking for pots to plant herbs in and wound up at Ikea.  I found what I was looking for and as I was loading up the back up of my car, I heard a woman call out to me.  She had her son with her and started talking to me about how she had just left her husband and d...

If you are new to the nonprofit space, I know this may sound crazy.  Just like some people don't work out in for-profit businesses, the same happens in nonprofits too.  This is a topic that comes up fairly frequently and it's a hard conversation to have, which is why I want to make sure you are equipped for when the occasion arises. Here are some of the reasons you may need to fire a volunteer: Th...

Martin Leifeld is an author, consultant, coach, and public speaker.  Martin is a professional fundraiser who's raised a staggering 500 million dollars in his career that has spanned more than two decades.  Two years ago, he was named the Outstanding Fundraising Executive by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in the St. Louis Regional Chapter.  Why are you so passionate about fundraising?...

In the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of traveling, not just for work but also with friends and family.  It was great spending time with my family and to remind me of what's important - it's healthy to shut down for a while and regroup.  Time away allows me to clear out the clutter, process information, and to really think about life.  My husband and I took a trip to Mexico, which we've done...

As I look back on my nearly 40 years of life, I can tell you how many different major things just didn't go my way.  When I think back to those things and what I actually wanted, I am completely grateful and thankful that things did NOT go my way.  But I know when we're in the middle of it all, some of those things can feel heart-wrenching and frustrating.  I had a lot of those feelings - especial...

The last couple of episodes we've been talking about the new year and goal planning.  Today I want to go over the difference between stretch and SMART goals and how you can incorporate them into the work you do.  Most of you have probably heard of stretch and SMART goals but may not know how to utilize them into your goal planning.  A stretch goal is a goal that allows you to go above and beyond w...

As we talk about goal planning in the new year, it is easy to fall into one-upping ourselves and wanting bigger, better, more.  When is enough, enough?  My answer is, never.  Our vision should be so big that it's something we probably won't accomplish in our lifetimes.  Of course, there will be goals on your list that you'll be able to knock off.  That's when you go back to the drawing board and d...

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty excited about the upcoming year.  We are moving into a new decade, I'm celebrating a big birthday this year, the big 4-0.  It's hard to believe.  As you are planning out your 2020, I want to share with you some ideas on how I plan and set goals. As many of you know, I'm a huge advocate of the whiteboard.  It's been my best friend as of late as my admi...