The Nonprofit Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Summer is a good time to slow down and check the quiet gaps in your fundraising…before Giving Season prep picks up speed. This episode is a fan favorite, back for our July summer rewind series. Donors haven't stopped giving. They've just gotten more careful, and that means small friction points matter more than they used to. Jena Lynch and Britt Stockert talk through thr...

Send us Fan Mail Giving hit a record high in 2025. What's underneath that number will shape your fundraising strategy for the next decade. Americans gave $617 billion to charity in 2025, a record, and real growth even after inflation. Five of nine nonprofit categories hit all-time highs. The sector showed up!! But the Giving USA 2026 report tells a more layered story. Jena Lynch and Britt Sto...

Send us Fan Mail Nearly seven in ten nonprofit employees are actively looking for new jobs…and it's not always about the paycheck. Britt Stockert and Cara Augspurger talk through five low-cost ways to help your team feel appreciated and connected to the mission. Cara draws on real examples from her work at Grace Care Center Foundation, where a culture of recognition has helped keep people eng...

Send us Fan Mail Every nonprofit team has one…the decision that keeps getting pushed to next week.  The platform that's been under evaluation for three months. The recurring giving program that still doesn't have a name. The donor email that's been rewritten twelve times and still hasn't been sent. In this episode, Jena Lynch and Britt Stockert get into why fundraising decision...

Send us Fan Mail The fundraising capacity gap is the distance between what a nonprofit needs to raise money sustainably and what it's actually resourced to do.  And, right now?... That gap is widening. In this episode, Britt Stockert, Fundraiser Coach at Donorbox, unpacks what it is, where it shows up in daily development work, and why it keeps getting misdiagnosed as a performance problem wh...

Send us Fan Mail “Doubt kills donations.” Before a donor ever gives, they’ve already formed an opinion of your organization. It takes a minute. Sometimes less. And most nonprofits have no idea what’s coming up about their mission. What they find in those moments either builds confidence or raises doubt. In this episode, Jena Lynch sits down with Tori Burrello , Marketing Manager at Candid , to tal...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofit boards are doing more with less. And when governance isn't working, it's the executive director who absorbs it quietly, consistently, at real cost to the organization. Britt Stockert sits down with David Rhode, nonprofit executive coach and author of Passion Isn't Enough, to talk about the board self-assessment - what it is, why so many boards skip it, and...

Send us Fan Mail Fundraising is getting harder. But generosity hasn't disappeared. So what's actually changing? Jena Lynch sits down with nonprofit coach, consultant, and host of The Nonprofit Leadership Podcast , Rob Harter, to interrogate the real pressures nonprofit leaders are facing right now, donor retention, staffing burnout, supporter engagement, and fundraising performance. They...

Send us Fan Mail Promoting from within is one of the best things a nonprofit can do. Until it isn't. Not because the person wasn't ready. But because nobody built the bridge between outstanding performer and effective leader, and that gap quietly costs nonprofits some of their best people. Britt Stockert sits down with Chris Wong , founder of Leadership Potential , licensed therapist, an...

Send us Fan Mail The plan is just paper. The value is in using it. When your nonprofit is growing but still feels directionless, that's not a passion problem…it's a planning problem.  Strategic planning isn't about doing more, it's about finally knowing what matters. When you're clear on who you serve, honest about what it costs, and aware of how it's funded, everythi...

Send us Fan Mail Most nonprofit teams don't have a workload problem. They have a systems problem. And spring is the perfect time to fix it. Your tools aren't broken. They're just not talking to each other. Donor data lives in one place, your emails in another, and somewhere in between, things fall through the cracks. The simple stuff starts to drag. Your team picks up the slack. And...

Send us Fan Mail Most fundraising copy is built on urgency and guilt. It gets the gift. But does it keep the donor? Jena and Maria Bryan make the case that ethical persuasion isn't a softer ask - it's a sharper one. And they get specific about what that looks like in practice. From donation page mistakes that quietly erode trust, to the language of agency, to Maria's Four Cs framewo...

Send us Fan Mail Your board wants to help with fundraising. But nothing’s moving. Without clear roles and next steps, board fundraising stalls…and the work falls back on you. Cara sits down with Adam Morgan , founder of MVP Advisors , to unpack why boards struggle with fundraising and what nonprofits can do to fix it fast. Cutting through assumptions and getting practical, they dig into how to ali...

Send us Fan Mail The reality of sustainable fundraising nobody tells you? It starts with you. Not your strategy. Not your donor pipeline. Not your appeal calendar. You . Most fundraising conversations right now are about doing more with less. This one is different. Because the best fundraisers know the work starts with knowing themselves, what they bring, and how to protect it. In this episode, Br...

Send us Fan Mail Slow Fundraising: How to Do Less and Raise More with Chad Barger Fundraising feels busy. Packed calendars, constant campaigns, endless asks. But results are not keeping pace. Many teams are working harder than ever and still missing growth targets. Jena Lynch sits down with Chad Barger , founder of Productive Fundraising , to unpack his approach to slow fundraising . His work with...

Send us Fan Mail You’ve done the hard part. People are giving. They care. They’re showing up. So what’s next? Most nonprofits get to this point… and stop. Supporters stay consistent. But the relationship doesn’t go any further. This episode is about that gap, and how membership programs are designed to close it. There’s a clear progression in fundraising. From first gift…to consistent support…to s...

Send us Fan Mail Are you missing one of the biggest growth opportunities in your donor base? Most nonprofit fundraising focuses on two things: bringing in new donors and managing major gifts. Both matter. But there’s a group in the middle that often gets missed. These are supporters who already give, already care, and keep coming back. They respond when you reach out. They stay connected to your w...

Send us Fan Mail Most nonprofits track gift size.  The best fundraisers track lifetime value. Join Cara as she unpacks the lifetime value mindset and why recurring donors often become some of the most valuable supporters a nonprofit has. While major gifts create big moments, monthly donors quietly build the steady support that sustains a mission over time. What you'll learn in this episode: W...

Send us Fan Mail Are we overlooking one of the most powerful forces behind nonprofit work? For many nonprofit professionals, care for community doesn’t switch off at the end of the workday. Long after the job is done, we’re still showing up, supporting causes, helping neighbors...living the values that drew us to this work to begin with. In this episode, Britt sits down with Esther Saehyun Lee , f...

Send us Fan Mail Is your nonprofit overlooking the quiet infrastructure gaps costing you donations? When fundraising feels tighter, it’s rarely because generosity disappeared. Donors are still giving. They’re just more careful. And that means small friction carries more weight than it used to. A slow checkout. Recurring giving that’s technically available but not clearly positioned. Event energy t...

Send us Fan Mail Uncertainty doesn’t just expose cracks in the system. It exposes who actually holds value. When uncertainty hits the sector, partnership conversations often shift.  Resources tighten. Expectations change. Risk tolerance narrows. In this conversation with Britt, impact advisor Bruce Arbit challenges the assumption that nonprofits enter these conversations from a position of need. T...

Send us Fan Mail Email is where most supporters experience your organization over time – not just during campaigns, but in the quieter moments in between. Jena Lynch sits down with our on-the-ground fundraising expert, Cara Augspurger, CFRE, to talk about what’s really happening in those in-between spaces. Because the emails you send every day? They’re shaping donor relationships long before the n...

Send us Fan Mail Where do donor relationships go after the gift? Donor retention is shaped by what carries the relationship forward over time. When that continuity isn’t intentionally supported, donors don’t disengage all at once...they slowly lose their sense of connection. In this episode, Jena Lynch unpacks how simple, repeatable structures, not more asks , help relationships hold between campa...

Send us Fan Mail Most teams learn pretty quickly what happens when they give feedback and adjust accordingly.   When people feel safer being honest anywhere except work, trust isn’t the issue...safety is. Britt Stockert chats with Tasha Van Vlack , founder of The Nonprofit Hive, about psychological safety in nonprofit teams...and why silence often shows up long before burnout or turnover. Together...

Send us Fan Mail DAFs don’t delay generosity - they reveal giving friction. Donor-advised funds are shaping how people give, but many nonprofits aren’t quite ready for it. In this episode, Cara Augspurger shares what she’s seeing firsthand as a frontline fundraiser, including why DAF donors are often some of the most prepared, responsive, and relationship-driven supporters - when nonprofits make i...