The Nonprofit Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Today Jared Polivka meets Curt Yagi, the  Executive Director of Real Options for City Kids (R.O.C.K.) a nonprofit that helps children become successful and healthy adults. Curt and his team serve children in the Visitacion Valley area of San Francisco. With 28 years of providing resources for their young community, anchored in academic and social support that nurtures youth with l...

Send us Fan Mail Looking to assess your nonprofit team's performance in 2022?   A turbulent year may have tested your nonprofit to the limit, but it sure taught us all a lot about the nonprofit sector’s ability to pivot and perform!   Today we tackle mindful retrospection as a ‘quick and cool’ tool to take your nonprofit’s temperature at the start of a new year.  Using the Rose, Bud, and Thor...

Send us Fan Mail Top nonprofit fundraising trends for 2023 take center stage in our last episode for 2022.  Cara and her guests tackle three key issues that will influence fundraising in the coming year, unpacking how to manage, mitigate or make them work for you. Recession, conflicts, and a distracted, time-pressed audience present a mixed bag of opportunities and challenges.  The global economy...

Send us Fan Mail After a year of change, conflict, and challenge, what did 2022 teach the savvy nonprofit fundraiser? Any expectation that 2022 would be ‘business as usual’, with a reassuring return to pre-pandemic fundraising strategies evaporated by February.  We’ve experienced a sharp increase in the need for nonprofit services globally, from humanitarian aid to the protection of freedoms, matc...

Send us Fan Mail Do you feel that your team may be heading for burnout? The last three months of the year are a little frenzied, and a lot stressful, for most nonprofits.  This intense fundraising period requires the most energy, intention, and action from your team!  So if you’re all feeling a little fried as the festive season sets in, Jena has 5 practical actions you can implement immediately t...

Send us Fan Mail In 2021, the average open rate was 21.3%. In 2022 it stands at 16.97%.  So how does the founder and Executive Director of Ten Eighteen Uganda , Jennings Wright, achieve almost triple that - twice a week? Join us as Jennings shares the fine art of email storytelling. From how to break through writer’s block to demolishing common misconceptions about communicating, she provides simp...

Send us Fan Mail If stewardship is about so much more than a thank you, what is it? And how do you make it work for your nonprofit? Donor stewardship is the intentional practice of building a relationship with your donors.  Today Cara and Jena examine how thanking and showing impact together underpin a sound donor stewardship strategy and support your all-important donor retention. It cannot be sa...

Send us Fan Mail If your Giving Tuesday strategy isn’t quite ready, take a breath, and make the most out of the time you have!  Heading into the 10 day countdown to Giving Tuesday a full panel of Donorbox Giving Season gurus are here take you through a comprehensive, game-changing checklist that will have your nonprofit ready to “Go Live” with confidence on November 29! From tips to broaden your d...

Send us Fan Mail Finding donors is challenging, keeping donors is an art!  Everyone will tell you finding donors is hard, fewer will share how hard they work to keep those hard-won relationships alive and healthy!  But we are here to share 5 tactics that will make it easier.  Today Cara drills down into the nuts and bolts of donor relationship building based on a well-implemented communication str...

Send us Fan Mail Growing a donor base is a challenge for all nonprofits.  Can a recurring giving program plus a lean team sustain, and grow, an organization? Join Cara and Rodger Obley, Creative Director at Pittsburgh Kids Foundation , for impactful and implementable insights into the PKF “Long Haul Mentality”, and discover how creating “a community of passionate monthly givers who believe every k...

Send us Fan Mail Donation pages are packed with donation driving potential, are you making the most of every element to enhance your donors experience?   Your donation page has one simple purpose, to inspire donors to give to your cause. But, they also need to make the giving experience easy and quick, create a connection to your mission and allow you to collect enough information to reach donors...

Send us Fan Mail 🎃If making “The Ask” has you more anxious than a Halloween Haunted House🦇 join Cara for 5 easily actioned steps to banish the “Actioning the Ask” bogeyman 👻this Giving Season. Breaking the Fundraising Cycle down into easily managed stages, Cara applies her bite-sized treats and tricks to creating and scheduling an ‘Ask’ amplifying year-end fundraising appeal plan anchored in 5...

Send us Fan Mail How do I bring new donors into my organization? Today Jena Lynch tackles the question that’s never too far from any nonprofit’s mind with five key strategies to help mastering your acquisition strategy. Converting interested visitors into supportive donors takes planning, consistency and doesn’t happen overnight.  There are many different approaches, but today as Jena drills down...

Send us Fan Mail Making the ask is what fundraising is all about, but writing appeals that inspire donors to engage and donate with your organization can push your powers of persuasion to the limit.   This week Kara Schmid , Senior Content Writer at Donorbox, takes the anxiety out of creating an awesome ‘ask’ for your year-end appeal campaign.  Tackling the timeline,  tone and methods to make your...

Send us Fan Mail If you think Direct mail is dead - it’s time for a reality check!  Direct mail is having a major resurgence as a key donation driver across nonprofit fundraising campaigns worldwide. So, if you think physical mail is too ‘last century’ for your Giving Season strategy, this 15 minute session with Cara and Joe Leach, President of Bliss Direct Media and Appealmaker, is about to chang...

Send us Fan Mail Donor segmentation is a term that gets thrown around a lot during strategy sessions, especially as you start to gear up for Giving Season fundraising appeals and events.  But what exactly is it, and what can it do for your organization?   In a perfect world, nonprofit fundraising professionals would be able to personalize marketing efforts. However, individualizing marketing per d...

Send us Fan Mail Finding the best software fit for your nonprofit is the smart strategic move, but what to look for and where to start can be confusing.  Online fundraising platform, donor management software…or both, or are they the same?  Join Cara and Amy Champagne, Donorbox Account Executive, to find out what to ask, what to look for and what to avoid, to turn your platform into a strategic sp...

Send us Fan Mail Own the Why!   Take 10 minutes to change your Giving Season outcomes with the persuasive power of a strong case statement. Why you do what you do can be hard to capture, but that story or statement is a valuable and versatile tool to explain the purpose and impact of the work your nonprofit organization does. Case statement, case for support, just as it has multiple impact points...

Send us Fan Mail Think of Us & Sixto Cancel Fostering Hope, Driving Change! Using technology to forge critical human connections may seem counter-intuitive, but the innovative and life-changing work Think of Us is driving in the US foster care system is doing exactly that!   Founded by today’s guest, Sixto Cancel, Think of Us is a research and design lab for foster care, driving equitable syst...

Send us Fan Mail How big a deal is your year-end giving campaign, and is it worth the work?   Short answer?  Huge , and YES! !! As Giving Season preparation information starts to dominate your social media and inbox, you might be wondering if Giving Season campaigns are really ‘All That’?  And if so, how to navigate the next 5 months of campaign creation, implementation and follow-up? Join Cara an...

Send us Fan Mail Spread the Vote founder Kat Calvin is inspiring and profoundly practical in her approach to resolving the daily challenges millions of Americans face in their struggle to obtain valid photo IDs.   Unconventional in her approach, fearless in her determination, Kat pulls no punches as she discusses the challenges and achievements Spread the Vote has faced and overcome in the past 5...

Send us Fan Mail Cara’s Top Time Management Tips and Strategies for Giving Season will take the bite out of year end planning for you and your team.  Most nonprofits start their Giving Season in October but our 3-2-1 countdown calendar puts you on the path to success from August, setting out step-by-step tactics and timing that will have you cool, calm and completely prepared for Giving Season suc...

Send us Fan Mail Grants can be ‘Instrumentl’ in growing and sustaining your organization, but they can also be time-consuming and confusing.  Gauri Manglik, CEO and Founder of Instrumentl, a barrier-breaking grant discovery, research and tracking tool, talks to Cara about how the challenges of sourcing grants inspired her and her partners to create a single source for organizations seeking grants....

Send us Fan Mail Never underestimate the value of your donation page!  Giving Season is on the way, so we’re taking a deep dive into the common and costly ‘mistakes’ we see on nonprofit donation pages with Donorbox Account Manager Bobbi-Jo Rockstrom to get you off to the best possible start to the season.   Cara and Bobbi-Jo unpack potential problems and offer quick fixes and simple suggestions fo...

Send us Fan Mail If the idea of setting out an organizational strategic plan has you stumped, this episode with Cara and Tim Ardillo will spark your strategy in a matter of minutes. From why you should have a strategic plan to when you should be tackling the details, Tim has tools and tips that will get you where you need to be, fully informed and ready to implement!  So take a few minutes to find...