Rainmaker Fundraising Podcast

Every industry has experienced disruption over the last few years. The nonprofit sector wasn’t immune. One area where our sector has seen significant change (not just because of Covid, but even before) is in the way nonprofits engage and are served by agencies.  That’s why I was excited to sit down with Dan Sonners , Vice President at Conrad Direct, Board Member at DMAW , and host of the Dynamic N...

If you’ve worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 10 minutes, you know just how incredibly difficult it is to find and keep great people. The staffing challenges in our sector aren’t new, but it seems like the challenges have become more pronounced over the last few years. At least that’s what I keep hearing from clients and friends in our sector.  Recently, my friends at  Dickerson Bakker &a...

This conversation with Rev. Jeremy Montgomery, MBA-MA, President/CEO at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission in Philadelphia, PA, is a deep-dive into change leadership like you’ve never heard before!  When he took the helm at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission in 2018, the organization was barely surviving. Philadelphia is the 5th largest city in the U.S., and also the poorest large city in the country. T...

Glenn Cranfield is President and CEO at Nashville Rescue Mission , and Host of the Real Hope podcast.  In this conversation, Glenn talks with me about four key values that guide his work and ministry at Nashville Rescue Mission, including: Extravagant Faith – Sometimes we’re forced into situations where all we have is faith. Impossible situations where people think there’s no hope.  Radical Hospit...

The definition of culture is the distance between who you say you are and how you act.  Ken Brissa became Chief Executive Officer at Phoenix Rescue Mission in February of 2020, just days before the country went into full crisis mode in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.   In the months since Ken began his leadership journey at Phoenix Rescue Mission, much has changed at the mission, throughout Pho...

I’m continuing to explore a series of leadership conversations with nonprofit CEO’s, Executive Directors, and Chief Development Officers across our sector. In today’s conversation, you’ll hear a discussion with Elaine Streno , Executive Director at Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee .  With more than 20 years of leadership experience in East Tennessee, Elaine shares great wisdom and insigh...

From entrepreneur to volunteer Board Chair, to nonprofit CEO, Erinn Rowe’s path to leadership at Harvest Hope Food Bank isn’t necessarily common, but neither are the needs of the food bank today.  I sat down with Harvest Hope’s new CEO, Erinn Rowe recently to talk about her journey from board chair to food bank CEO, what she’s learned along the way, and key leadership insights she’s gained through...

The world of philanthropy is changing by the day right now. From the pandemic to artificial intelligence, to the dramatic increase in giving through Donor Advised Funds (DAF), and even the gamification of giving. So much is changing so quickly. But one thing is clear…donors continue to dictate the terms. With so much changing, I was thrilled to sit down with my friend, Paul D’Alessandro, Founder o...

Sarah Lee is Chief Operating Officer at New Story , an innovative, growth-focused organization that behaves more like a Silicon Valley start-up than a traditional nonprofit.  New Story is on a mission to solve the global homelessness crisis by creating solutions that are cheaper to develop, higher quality than traditional housing options, and able to get into market faster than typical solutions. ...

If you want to be a successful major gift fundraiser, one of the most important traits you'll need is courage. Courage to overcome the fear of failure that so many of us face in asking donors to invest in our causes. Fear of not just hearing "no", but failing our organizations and letting down those we're committed to serving.  Julie Ordoñez is the Founder of  Courage Lab , a coaching and training...

Matt Hackler is Vice President of Strategic Capacity Building with Feeding America . Like many of us, Matt says he "fell into" fundraising before joining Feeding America. In his current role, Matt leads a team of experts across multiple disciplines to help local member food banks increase their capacity to serve children, families, seniors and individuals experiencing hunger across the U.S. Matt a...

Brent A. Hafele, M.A., is Senior Vice President of Talent Development at Dickerson Bakker & Associates . Early in his career, Brent held various leadership roles inside nonprofit organizations, including Development Director and Executive Director.  Today, Brent leads talent development efforts for Dickerson Bakker & Associates, and provides executive coaching to fundraisers and nonprofit...

As President & CEO of Oxfam America, Abby Maxman is responsible for leading global social change to alleviate the injustice of poverty across 90 countries.  This fight is not a new one for Maxman, who has made a career of giving a voice to the voiceless, fighting hunger, poverty, disease, and injustice across the globe at leading INGO's and within the U.S. Government.  Abby and I sat down to d...

The fifth child in a family of six, Bill High grew up "dirt poor and on welfare." The son of an alcoholic, Bill describes his childhood as "pretty dysfunctional." Around age eight or nine, Bill was introduced to the idea of a personal faith by a neighbor, and that began his life-long journey to live differently and to focus on making an eternal impact in our world. Throughout his lifetime, Bill ha...

Our good friend Brady Josephson at NextAfter joined us for a third episode here on the podcast recently. You might remember Brady from our conversation about COVID fundraising observations , or fundraising Testing .  This week we connected with him to learn about the recent project that NextAfter and Salesforce.org collaborated on, called the Global Online Fundraising Scorecard .  This study explo...

You might know him as The Fundraising Coach , the Founder of Concord Leadership Group , the author of Ask Without Fear , Fundraising Kick , or the brand new book, The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be . Or maybe you've seen and heard him speak at one of hundreds of nonprofit conferences over the last few years.  I was honored and thrille...

Bob Carter is Founder and Chairman at Carter Global , the leading global philanthropic consultancy serving nonprofits, international non-governmental organizations (INGO's), and ultra-high net worth philanthropists. Bob is personally an expert in the development of major and mega gift fundraising campaigns and philanthropic giving strategies for mega givers. Throughout his career, Bob has also ser...

Dr. Charles Owubah is the visionary leader currently serving as CEO of Action Against Hunger . He's also a member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council .  We spoke recently about global leadership lessons, and you won't want to miss this conversation! In our discussion, Dr. Owubah shared key insights that any nonprofit leader or aspiring leader can learn from, including: The importance of leading with h...

Unless you live under a rock, you'll know that in 2020 the nonprofit sector saw HUGE increases in giving through Donor Advised Fund (DAF) giving accounts. There was an outpouring of generosity across the nation, and many donors with DAF giving accounts stepped up to make sure that organizations received critical funding when they needed it most. Watching this play out in 2020 got me thinking more...

In this episode I talk with Burt Rosen, President & CEO at Knox Area Rescue Ministries about leading an organization over the long-term, and the most important aspects of leading well, including:  The importance of taking a stand when you see something broken in your organization Every sound of the sail means something to the sailor Navigating the fears associated with making difficult calls a...

Alan Clayton is Chairman of Philanthropy and Fundraising International, and Director of Philanthropy and Fundraising North America.  He's also a brilliant fundraiser. I had the absolute pleasure of visiting with Alan this past week to talk about great fundraising organizations...what makes them great, how they think and behave differently than other nonprofits, how they approach their brand differ...

Franklin Guerrero is Vice President of Major Gifts at AARP , and is a highly accomplished fundraiser and leader in the nonprofit sector. He and I recently sat down for a conversation about philanthropy and leadership. In our discussion, we talk about how personal crisis shapes our work as leaders, the importance of values-based leadership, how the nonprofit sector is addressing issues of diversity...

Change. Whether you like it or not, it's the topic of the day. 2020 punched all of us in the face with COVID-19, economic turmoil, and racial unrest across the country. And that's just the change that many of us didn't initiate. Countless other change initiatives were launched and undertaken for one reason or another by organizations of all shapes and sizes. But at the end of the day, one thing is...

We kicked off 2021 with an awesome conversation with Kent Stroman, Principal and Founder of the Institute for Conversational Fundraising , and author of Asking About Asking .  We covered a ton of ground in our conversation, focused primarily on how frontline fundraisers can improve their individual relationship engagement and raise more money for their causes. Here are some of the key points from...

It was an incredible honor to sit down recently with Commissioner Kenneth Hodder, National Commander of The Salvation Army USA , and Joey Zumaya, Public Sector Leader at LinkedIn and national advisory board member at The Salvation Army .  One of the things I love about The Salvation Army is that they are actively serving people in EVERY zip code in the U.S. That is a bold and expansive commitment...