The Influential Nonprofit

Gauri Manglik is the CEO and Cofounder of Instrumentl, a company that helps nonprofit grant seekers with prospecting, tracking, and management all in one place.    Key Takeaways: In any organization, there has to be a foundation of trust, safety, and respect for one another. How you say things or how you connect with people is important in any environment, especially at work where people spend alm...

Key Takeaways: It’s ingrained in our minds that to get someone to do something, you have to convince them into doing it through pitching. However, getting to yes is really rooted in listening and founded in empathy.  There’s a vast difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is like being on the outside or on the top, looking down at the person’s situation while empathy is being there with t...

Haley Cooper is a certified fundraising executive, certified stress-management coach, and certified EMC Train The Trainer. Her mission is to empower, elevate and engage nonprofit leaders to build healthy, thriving organizations.    Key Takeaways: Influence is rooted in an emotional connection. What you put out is what you get back. If your gas tank is empty, you’re not going to be able to be as pr...

Key Takeaways: A preframe is how you show up as a leader to a meeting. You initiate and set the conditions for the conversation Here’s the basics of doing a pre-frame: they will talk, you will listen to understand, you may add some wisdom, and then you decide together what comes next.  Schedule people in your calendar and make sure that you’ll follow up. Give them permission to say no, encourage t...

Key Takeaways: You might be imagining that they are at a higher level and you are down below looking up. Put that image aside and really come in as a peer. A peer-to-peer situation where you both have assets, you both have things you need to get done and you may need each other in order to do it. Be careful about telling yourself stuff like “it’s easier to do a meeting in person” because that way,...

Key Takeaways: Recognize if your message has an element of pitching and avoid that. You have to be a value first before asking something from the other person otherwise they’ll be uncomfortable and will probably reject you.  Instead of asking them to participate, express your desire to connect with them and why you want to. This approach works for a lot of people.  Invite people into a meeting tha...

Kiersten Hill is the Director of Nonprofit Solutions in Firespring. She is a Nebraska-native born and raised in North Platte. She graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. With almost two decades in nonprofit management and fundraising, she has raised over $20 million for Nebraska nonprofit organizations and worked to better train and equip nonprofit leaders and boards of directors.   Key...

Lynne Wester strongly believes that donor relations is the key to unlocking fundraising success and that organizations must be as dedicated to the donor experience, or DX, as they are to the ask itself. Sometimes referred to as the Olivia Pope of fundraising, Lynne helps organizations when they need it the most – when crisis or opportunity arrive. Lynne and her teammates at the Donor Relations Gur...

Emily Taylor, the principal of teenyBIG, is an expert listener who is passionate about helping nonprofits find better ways to engage the people who matter to them. She guides teams in stepping outside of their day-to-day work in order to create stronger connections with their audiences, turning lackluster followers into enthusiastic supporters.    Key Takeaways: Build a strategy according to what...

Key Takeaways: Don’t feel bad if you’re currently suffering from a disconnection. This stage is part of the process of healing, this is a stage that you will go through.  You are a supreme creator of your experiences. Don’t long for a quick fix or a solution that will make the problem go away - let go of that magic wand thinking.  Anger is a revolution, nothing in this world would change without p...

Key Takeaways: Freezing has its origin in trauma and it means seeing people as “frozen” or unchanging. It’s when you keep your perception of a person despite the passage of time, or even despite them being a different person now.  Change starts with you. Determine if you are freezing somebody in your life right now. Being able to recognize that and shift your perspective allows others to also shif...

Key Takeaways: People sometimes don’t know what they really want, so the best thing to do before executing a plan is to figure out what people really want to happen.  The first problem is what you know and admit to, the second is what you know but don’t admit to and the third problem is the problem that you don’t know and don’t admit to. The third is often called a blindspot.  Don’t directly call...

Key Takeaways: Manage the expectation of those around you. Communicate openly what you do and do not know.  Once you’ve evaluated your conditions, decide what your time frame is gonna be and stick to it no matter what. When the time frame is done, that’s when you can re-assess whether to continue on the project or not.  Commit to doing adequate research before launching a new initiative. Don’t jus...

Since 2002 Dana has guided organizations in California's Silicon Valley and worldwide to produce breakthrough talent and community engagement programs. She is a popular presenter at the Points of Light National Conference on Volunteering and Service (USA), and countless regional conferences and webinars.  Dana is the creator of the premiere web series “Priceless Advice for Leaders of Volunteers.”...

Can you imagine harnessing the power of email to easily generate leads to your business, to have your emails be the one that are welcomed and read, to be the stars of your subscribers inboxes? You’re in luck because today’s guest is LeeAnn Marie Webster is an email marketing expert who is on a mission to get you to love email marketing. LeeAnn created “Email With Heart” to give entrepreneurs a str...

About Ilia Khairetdinov: He is a Growth Specialist at ConnectAd, spends his days discussing strategy and growth with nonprofits. His extensive experience in the nonprofit and start-up space allows him to deeply understand the challenges organizations face, particularly when it comes to digital marketing and strategy.   Key Takeaways: Getting a grant from Google is not as hard as it sounds. Just ap...

Key Takeaways: There are five phases to creating and implementing new ideas: ideation, concentration and focus, momentum, stabilization, and integration.  The second phase often kills ideas because people give up. However, every idea needs an investment of time and effort - you’re not going to get a return for that investment early on but you have to keep pushing.  Your idea not working doesn’t me...

About Liz London: She is an artist out of Dallas who exhibited all over the country. With her creative energy, she created two projects namely, “Art For Your Cause” and “The Causability”    Key Takeaways: Empower people to do good with their purchase. Reward people with the opportunity to give, share, and help. With your help, cause-based businesses can take over traditional capitalism, building a...

Key Takeaways: Having an interim ceo or founder is a good opportunity to reset your identity as an organization so that you understand who you are as an organization in order to attract your people. Take some time to explore that. You can be a much more effective ambassador, advocate, and strategic leader when you understand your organization’s mechanics deeply.  A certain kind of cultural deferen...

Corey Kupfer is a deal-driven growth strategist, negotiator, deal-maker, speaker, and attorney. He’s also the founder of DealQuest, host of the weekly DealQuest Podcast, and author of Authentic Negotiating. A successful entrepreneur from the age of 15, Corey is a passionate advocate and leader in the entrepreneurial world; he’s also a renowned strategist on deal-driven growth strategies.   Key Tak...

Key Takeaways: Nonprofit leaders and members really struggle with taking salary from the nonprofit organization. This is rooted from a poverty mindset that you have to let go of if you want to build a successful and sustainable nonprofit company.  The four main pieces of starting out a nonprofit: be incorporated into your state, work on board and bylaws, create a narrative on what you’re gonna do...

Besides being married to Maryanne, Jon Schmuke was Vice President of Research and Development at Adarza Biosystems,  leading the development of biosensors for use with the AIR technology. He has more than 30 years of experience and a successful track record of developing, expanding, and automating technology. His ability to leverage extensive automation in liquid handling, small volume assays, inn...

For more than 23 years, Kathy Lambert has worked to disrupt the cycle of poverty with a holistic family approach. Her journey began in 1997 after she read an article about Dress for Success New York, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women re-enter the workforce by providing interview clothing. Recognizing a similar need in her St. Louis community, Kathy launched Dress for Success Midwest to help w...

Key Takeaways: Realize that your reaction to unexpected comments is a biochemical response and it will not be productive to continue responding from a place of either anger or fear.  If you receive an unexpected comment via email and you start getting a feeling in your body, that’s your cue to pause and take an hour or as much as you need to do to get some better perspective. Perspective will come...

Marc A. Pitman, CSP® helps leaders, especially in nonprofits, lead their teams with more effectiveness and less stress. His latest book is The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be . He's also the author of Ask Without Fear! ® - which has been translated into Dutch, Polish, Spanish, and Mandarin. He is the founder of The Concord Leadership G...