The Influential Nonprofit

Discover how a longtime educator-turned-nonprofit leader uses governance, compassion, and community empowerment to build organizations that truly last. In this episode, you’ll hear stories from hospices, classrooms, and European projects that reveal what sustainable leadership looks like in the real world.   Key Takeaways: Strong governance and clear structures are critical for nonprofits to compe...

Key Takeaways: Identify and acknowledge your resistance, such as being overly attached to outcomes or trying to fix others. Understand that fear has a role but should not drive your actions. Reframe negative mindsets and stories into more positive, empowering narratives. Make the unconscious conscious to change unhelpful thought patterns. Practice surrender, trust, and gratitude to cultivate a rec...

What happens when you stop people-pleasing, raise your standards, and actually live in alignment with your truth? In this episode, you’ll learn what it really means to be fully self-expressed—and how to practice it every day in your work, relationships, and leadership.   Key Takeaways: Self-expression is less about speaking louder and more about aligning your outer life with your inner truth. The...

Most nonprofits push harder when donors go quiet. In this episode, you’ll learn how to trade pressure for emotional momentum, so stalled donors start moving again—without more follow-up fatigue.   Key Takeaways: Donor silence is usually a signal of an unmet emotional need, not a verdict on your worth or your mission. Interest and readiness are different stages; rushing from enthusiasm to “the ask”...

Discover how karaoke becomes a surprising laboratory for courage, authenticity, and leadership. In this episode, you’ll learn eight powerful lessons from the karaoke stage that can radically shift how you show up as a fundraiser, leader, and human being.   Key Takeaways: Courage comes before confidence; action is what generates the confidence you’re waiting for. Releasing attachment to specific ou...

Learn what it really takes to scale a focused nonprofit, build long-term corporate partnerships, and play the long game in fundraising without losing sight of the people you serve.   Key Takeaways: A narrow, concrete focus, like providing brand-name shoes, can dramatically amplify a nonprofit’s clarity, impact, and support. Strong corporate partnerships grow slowly from shared values, deep listeni...

Key Takeaways: Energy shapes everything. Energy is the foundation of all outcomes—your energy affects your thoughts, words, and ultimately, your results. You broadcast what you carry. As a leader, your thoughts and emotions are felt by others. Your energy influences how people respond to you. Attention creates direction.  Where you focus your attention determines what grows. Choose to notice what...

When your nonprofit outgrows spreadsheets and sticky notes, your impact can stall. In this episode, discover how smart, accessible data systems can free your team from copy‑and‑paste drudgery and unlock real capacity for relationship-building and growth.   Key Takeaways: Resilience in the face of uncertainty can become the catalyst for building an entirely new, impact-driven business. As organizat...

Struggling with a passive or confused board? In this episode, you’ll learn how to transform tension into clarity, turn board members into passionate advocates, and use thoughtful questions to unlock real leadership and fundraising support.   Key Takeaways: Many board-staff problems trace back to a lack of clarity between governance and operations, and defining that line can immediately relieve ten...

When you finally set a boundary, and everything seems to explode, it doesn’t mean you did it wrong; it may mean it’s finally working. In this episode, you’ll learn how to recognize and ride out the “extinction burst” so your new agreements, standards, and leadership can actually stick.   Key Takeaways: Boundaries define what you will no longer tolerate, while agreements define what you are activel...

In this episode, discover why impatiently “watching” your donors actually blocks generosity—and how to shift into “watering” relationships with trust, patience, and consistent care. Learn the WATER method to move from transactional fundraising to transformational connection.   Key Takeaways: Lasting donor relationships are built by tending to them consistently, not by pushing for quick outcomes or...

Dave LeVan is President and CEO of Water for Good. They transform lives by providing access to reliable water, sanitation, and hygiene in needy communities. He recently led a merger with Lifewater International.    Key Takeaways: Successful mergers start as honest conversations about where each organization wants to go and what assets they bring, not as a rushed decision to combine. Fear of change...

Key Takeaways: The Donor Flow Framework moves donors through four stages: Aware, Interest,  Connect, and Act. Awareness and interest are often handled well, but true giving comes when people feel personally connected. The real gap is in the Connect stage. Without structured opportunities for meaningful interaction, donors may like your work but won’t feel invested enough to take action. Small, con...

Sally is the founder and CEO of Commonwell Marketing, a heart-centered marketing and leadership firm that helps nonprofits and rural health organizations stand out. A former brain injury rehabilitation therapist turned marketer, Sally brings a rare blend of art and science to her work—applying the neuroscience of belonging, trust, and human connection to marketing, communications, and leadership s...

JD Bauman is the executive director of Christians for Impact and co-author of a new book on effective altruism, All the Lives. You can change how you turn good intentions into real impact. It shows how you could move beyond. Feel good philanthropy, I make a maximum Impact on problems that you care about. JD spends most of his time helping analytically minded Christians find careers that have maxim...

Naomi Hattaway is the founder of Leaving Well, a practice devoted to helping organizations treat leadership transitions not as crises or cleanups—but as acts of cultural maturity. She works with mission-driven teams to address board development, succession planning gaps, and workplace transition support. Through interim executive leadership and advisory services, Naomi's work lives at the intersec...

Key Takeaways: Fundraising rooted in pressure and extraction erodes trust over time. Sustainable support grows from community, shared values, and genuine connection. When relationships lead, generosity follows naturally. Over-following up and manufactured urgency often reveal anxiety, not strategy. Constant pressure weakens credibility and exhausts donors. Abundance thinking creates calmer, more e...

Heidi is a nonprofit communicator passionate about helping civic tech, human services, and food access organizations tell clear, human-centered stories. She believes marketing carries great responsibility and shapes how communities understand and access support. As the founder of Heidi Kerr Strategies, she loves building thoughtful campaigns and social videos that earn trust and inspire action.  ...

As a fundraising consultant and coach, Perry helps nonprofits develop strategies, systems, and relationships to improve their fundraising yield. She believes in creating environments that nurture all gifts - time, talent, treasure, testimony, and ties - honoring how each person is uniquely suited to make a difference within their community.   Key Takeaways: Donors are partners who bring time, tale...

Key Takeaways: Chasing a yes often comes from anxiety, not intention, and people can feel that pressure immediately. When you stop needing a specific outcome, your tone relaxes and trust increases naturally. Your role is to help others decide freely, not to manage your own fear through follow-ups. Momentum shows up as shared energy, mutual curiosity, and agreed-upon next steps. Chasing looks like...

Key Takeaways: Lasting fundraising growth does not come from better tactics alone but from changing the internal narratives that drive behavior. Coaching addresses fear, money stories, and self-doubt that silently undermine even the best strategies. Fundraising leaders often carry invisible baggage that affects how they show up with donors and teams. Coaching builds awareness, emotional neutrality...

Key Takeaways: Fundraising nos and prolonged indecision often reflect emotional readiness, not the quality of the ask. Letting go of over-attachment to a yes allows fundraisers to listen more clearly. The Map of Consciousness offers a practical way to understand donor behavior without ranking people as better or worse. Effective fundraising adapts presence and strategy to a donor’s current emotion...

Key Takeaways: Centering fundraising on genuine care, honesty, and alignment creates trust and long-term support rather than transactional gains. Actions from authentic relationships feel meaningful, while actions solely for money feel manipulative. Loving donor relationships are honest, authentic, and aligned. They are not transactional or performative, and both the donor and organization benefit...

Key Takeaways: 90 days is long enough to get something done, but short enough that there’s some urgency to it. The 90-day MOST stands for Mission, Objective, Strategy, and Tactics. It accounts for having an overall vision and creating simple strategies to implement each quarter.  We need to have a clear vision so that we know what we’re looking for. Before creating a plan, take time to create a vi...

Key Takeaways: Reframe goals as guides, not judgments. Traditional output-focused goals can create pressure and burnout; goals should inform your direction, not define your worth or success. Wrap up the year holistically. Reflect on wins, surprises, and growth beyond numeric targets, release what no longer serves you, and recognize internal and relational progress as real achievements. Make goals...