Nonprofit Power Podcast

Pilots can be a great strategy for setting the stage for sustainable funding. Many nonprofits have successfully leveraged a pilot project to unlock millions of dollars in funding and to achieve key policy changes that ensure those services are always available going forward. But too many pilot projects end with no discernible impact on funding or policy. And that's a shame because it doesn&ap...

One of the most underappreciated and overlooked factors that go into successfully engaging decision makers is identity. Identity is so powerful. It shapes how we see the world, and ourselves. It shapes how we relate to the world. And in the context of advocacy, it shapes how the decisionmaker sees the issues and problems we're engaging them on.  There can be an important difference between id...

As a nonprofit leader, you probably have a lot of experience with public policy that often fails to serve the best interests of the people you serve, and the work you do to help them thrive.  And when the time comes that you decide you want to create better policy, you want to make sure that the new policy does what you really need it to do. But getting from your great policy idea to finished poli...

Almost every aspect of a nonprofit's work is touched by public policy in some way. And sometimes we come to the realization that the way to achieve a particular goal or to solve a particular problem is that we need a new or different public policy around that.  But here's the thing. The landscape is littered with well-intentioned policy that did not succeed at doing what it was intended...

As advocates and leaders, a big part of our job is to successfully engage both decisionmakers and members of our own teams to join us in pursuit of a goal.  And when we’re at our most effective, we can feel that we’re operating from a place of strength and assuredness and confidence that others can feel and respond to.  But sometimes events happen that can undercut all of that in an instant. We ge...

Even when you've figured out the most effective messaging in the world, sharing that with the rest of your team and helping them to use it to produce the results you want can be a huge challenge. What definitely does not work is to simply provide all those talking points and say, here's everything in our messaging that works. Go do it. That's valuable information to have, but it is...

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You've identified what you want from a decision maker and you're ready to make your case. You got your facts all lined up. Your logic flow is great.  You’ve got your slide deck and your one-pager all set. Your infographics are brilliant. And then you lay it all out for the decision maker. And it falls flat. They don't buy what you're selling. Th...

If your nonprofit receives any sort of program-specific federal funding, you are likely subject to at least three levels of decision-making about that money and possibly more. If you don’t know exactly what the decision-making process looks like at all three levels – and how to influence it – you could be at risk of losing funding or having adverse decisions made about your funding without your kn...

The right wing is generating and amplifying a lot of fear-based, demonizing messaging that is driving polarization. And for many of the purveyors of this messaging, polarization is part of the point. It's one of the strategic objectives. It can be very tempting as a nonprofit leader to say that doesn't have anything to do with us. We're a nonpartisan organization, that's all po...

One of the most underrated and underappreciated tools in the toolkits of the most effective nonprofit leaders is vision. The truth is whether it's in nonprofit land or anywhere else, nothing big ever happens without a vision. Whether it's at the community level or worldwide, big ambitious things take vision in order to bring them about. And it also requires the ability to transform that...

You probably already know that client voices can be a key part of influencing decision makers. But it's not automatic. How that messaging is structured has a huge impact on how effective it is and whether it helps cause decision-makers to take action. For your client voices to be as impactful as possible, that messaging has to be as strategic and targeted as all the rest of your advocacy mess...

Having a strong cadre of powerfully influential champions is a huge asset that can dramatically accelerate your advocacy success. And when you have a key decision maker themselves operating as your champion, that takes things to a whole other level of impact. Imagine how powerful the impact would be if you had an entire cadre of money and policy decision makers who are operating at champion level...

Anyone who's been part of the coalition knows that it can be a complicated set of relationships. Some coalition experiences are fantastic. Others not so much. The best thing is when you and your coalition partners are fully aligned and everyone is pulling their weight and working together to get the results you've all agreed you want. The worst is when you get involved in a coalition and...

If you’ve ever said to yourself, “If only I had a paid advocacy person/team, everything would be great,” you’re in good company.  But you might be surprised by the path you need to take to get there.  It’s not as intuitive as it might seem, and there are some common mistakes that often block that path.   In this episode, we share: The three things you must already have in order for paid advocacy s...

I frequently hear from nonprofit leaders that they feel overwhelmed by the amount of strategic relationships they're trying to build. And they get both frustrated and exhausted trying to move them all forward at once. And it just feels like an endless hamster wheel.  It doesn't ever feel like there's an end in sight. You don't have to live there, and I want to help you get out...

Whenever you have the opportunity to meet with your US Representative and Senators in Washington DC, you want to make sure that you get the greatest possible impact for your efforts. A lot of time and expense goes into that trip, and too often folks come away disappointed in the results.  There’s a handful of things that can make or break your visit with congressional offices.  Let’s make sure you...

If I told you that up to 85% of your overall messaging may be undermining your goals for engaging key decisionmakers, you might be alarmed, or you might be skeptical.  But many nonprofits are in this situation and don’t realize it.  The good news is, there are some simple things you can do to identify and rework any counterproductive messaging, and ensure that all of your messaging and communicati...

To achieve your advocacy goals, you need decision makers to work with you to get that done.  They're not going to do that if they don't know you, don't like you and don't trust you. So our number one job in strategic relationship building is to build that know, like and trust factor with decision makers.  There's no way around the fundamental work of building a strategic r...

A key driver of advocacy success is the effectiveness of your messaging. If your messaging isn't landing, the decision-maker won't engage. It's that simple. But when your messaging is dialed in to that decision maker, they're leaning in, they want to know more and they're excited to work with you. There are five major tests of messaging effectiveness.   Today we take a loo...

Whenever you're engaging a decision maker to get them to agree to do something, usually something around money or policy, you're likely to encounter some resistance or objections along the way.   You can't make this not happen. But you can plan your messaging to anticipate objections, and address them quickly, sometimes even before they've been spoken. So that you reduce any po...

I had the opportunity to interview Dorella Walters, who is the Chief Business Development Officer for God’s Love We Deliver in New York.  Her job is basically to prospect for, and develop revenue-generating partnerships that do two main things: they diversify the organization’s funding portfolio, and bring in the dollars that allow them to serve a substantially greater number of people who despera...

Whether you love it or hate it, negotiating with decisionmakers is part of the job of a nonprofit leader.  You have to negotiate with funders, contracting partners, policymakers, and more.  Like most things, negotiation is a lot more enjoyable when you get good at it.  The secret of those who love negotiating is they’ve learned the keys to success, and developed the skills to use them well. In thi...

If you've ever invited policymakers and other decisionmakers to visit your program, and then been disappointed that it didn't lead to any tangible results, it may be that your design for those visits needs an upgrade.   In today’s episode, we do a deep dive on how you can strategically design a decisionmaker’s visit to your program to have a powerful impact on that decisionmaker, and mov...

I had the opportunity to interview Gilda Nardone, who shared how she built a leadership and advocacy training and support system that helped her organization’s program graduates become powerful advocates on issues they care about.  A few of them even went on to run for and win local elected office, where they now influence policy as decisionmakers themselves.  Gilda recently retired from her role...

If you’re ready to have a breakthrough advocacy year, 2024 can be that year.  To make it happen, you  need to apply four main keys with your advocacy team.  Today we dig into each of those keys and lay out how you can set yourself up to have that breakthrough year.   In this episode, we share: Four key moves that will set you up for your breakthrough advocacy year  How to identify the most impactf...