The Nonprofit Show

Send us Fan Mail Gift acceptance policies sound like paperwork—until a donor tries to turn your organization into their personal dare! In this episode, Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall get practical about why this policy is a frontline operating tool for modern fundraising teams: it protects mission alignment, strengthens governance, and keeps staff out of reactive, high-pressure decision-making. J...

Send us Fan Mail Leadership transitions don’t have to be terrifying revenue cliffs. In this conversation , Travis Craddock, CFRE and Founder of Craddock Strategies, reframes interim development leadership as a powerful strategic advantage—not a temporary patch. Too often, organizations view interim fundraising support as “a warm body in an empty seat.” Travis challenges that mindset directly . “It...

Send us Fan Mail A visit with Doug Chapiewsky, CEO & President of Kanso Software , and Cameron Bowman, CAAS Solutions Consultant at JMT Consulting, for a fast-moving, systems-first conversation on one thing every nonprofit runs on : trustworthy data. Cameron frames the moment we’re in as “the golden age of software”— more tools, more dashboards, more integrations, and more AI than ever before....

Send us Fan Mail We lean into a timely business truth: nonprofit sustainability is built as much through belonging as through budgets. Cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Tim Sarrantonio welcome Rachel D’Souza, Founder and President of Gladiator Consulting, for a conversation that reframes community-building as a practical growth strategy for donors, volunteers, staff cohesion, and long-term resilience....

Send us Fan Mail Starting a new role as a nonprofit’s fundraiser can feel like stepping onto the field mid-game—high expectations, limited time, and a lot of “what happened before I got here?” On this Fundraisers Friday, cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall offer a practical, confidence-building roadmap for what a new development officer should focus on in the first 30 days —with the business r...

Send us Fan Mail Sunsetting a nonprofit is one of the most difficult decisions a board and executive team can face. Erin McPartlin, Principal of Erin McPartlin Consulting , guides leaders through the strategic and compassionate realities of organizational closure. Host Julia Patrick opens the conversation by acknowledging the emotional weight of the topic. Closing an organization can feel like fai...

Send us Fan Mail On this Fundraisers Friday, our cohosts lean into one of the most nuanced and professionally demanding areas of nonprofit leadership: donor research, privacy, ethics, and gift acceptance policy. For nonprofit executives, development leaders, and board members, this episode functions as a governance workshop disguised as a conversation. The message is clear: professionalism in fund...

Send us Fan Mail If your nonprofit’s checking account looks “healthy,” this episode is your friendly wake-up call: bank balance is not the same as real liquidity . Carole Santilli, CPA, Manager at Your Part-Time Controller (YPTC) Philadelphia, joins us to help leaders, board members, and development teams stop guessing and start managing cash with clarity. Carole lays out why the bank statement ca...

Send us Fan Mail Planned giving isn’t a “sign the paperwork and move on” moment—it’s a decades-long business strategy that demands discipline, systems, and relationship leadership. James Goalder (Partnerships Manager, Bloomerang) reframes planned gifts as the start of a longer stewardship cycle, not the finish line. James tackles a mindset shift many organizations need right now: once a donor incl...

Send us Fan Mail Job searches in the nonprofit sector aren’t just about “what’s next” anymore they’re about navigating a labor market that feels equal parts opportunity and uncertainty. We visit with Dana Scurlock, Managing Director of Staffing at Staffing Boutique , to talk about what’s really happening on both sides of the hiring desk and how nonprofit professionals can compete with more strateg...

Send us Fan Mail Jeffrey R. Wilcox, President and Chief Learning Curator of Third Sector Company , and Nancy Bacon of Nancy Bacon Consulting—provide a timely conversation on interim leadership as a smart business move for nonprofits. Nancy shares the findings from their recently completed report on Interim Leadership and how it was built through deep listening—town halls, surveys, and focus groups...

Send us Fan Mail Cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall tackle a fundraising trap that quietly keeps nonprofits stressed and stuck: betting everything on one revenue source. They call it “The Egg or the Basket” —and the message is clear: your mission can’t ride on a single lane of funding. Tony frames revenue diversification in plain business terms: build multiple revenue streams that fit your mi...

Send us Fan Mail AI isn’t a “someday” conversation for nonprofits anymore it’s a right-now operational decision with governance, risk, and staff behavior at the center. Joshua Peskay, Co-Founder of Meet the Moment, joined Julia C. Patrick to talk about the practical reality nonprofits are facing: AI adoption is already happening inside your organization whether leadership has planned for it or not...

Send us Fan Mail We visit with Kate Berkey, a StoryBrand guide for nonprofits , to talk about something that affects every organization’s bottom line — whether they realize it or not: clear messaging. Or more specifically… what happens when we don’t have it. Kate opens with a reality check that’s hard to ignore: many nonprofits are unintentionally leaving money on the table simply because their co...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take for a nonprofit to grow from “we’re getting by” to “we’re building a real engine for impact”? In this energizing conversation, Julia Patrick sits down with Sherry Quam Taylor of Quam Taylor to talk about what nonprofit leaders should truly focus on in 2026 if they want sustainable, strategic revenue growth. Sherry starts with a bold challenge: stop letting scarci...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofit leaders are staring down a new funding reality and Ben Cooley, CEO of Maxwell and Marie, arrives with the kind of energy that turns anxiety into action. In this conversation, Ben makes the case that “development” is no longer a department it’s a shared posture across the whole organization. When revenue streams shift and donor expectations rise, sustainable growth comes...

Send us Fan Mail This lively Fundraisers forum delivers real-world guidance on the operational side of fundraising and nonprofit management. Cohosts Julia Patrick and Tony Beall tackle a range of audience-submitted questions that reflect the day-to-day realities facing development professionals and nonprofit leaders. The conversation opens with a thoughtful discussion about who should pay for prof...

Send us Fan Mail In this energizing conversation , Ann Fellman, Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang , provides a data-forward look at what donors will expect in 2026—and what that means for the business of fundraising. The conversation opens with a “hopeful reframe” rooted in fresh research: Bloomerang conducted a national survey of 1,000 U.S.-based donors in November 2025, and the findings poin...

Send us Fan Mail Every nonprofit says they want board meetings that are strategic, energizing, and worth everyone’s time. And yet… so many board meetings still feel like a quarterly endurance test: long decks, last-minute prep, and a live meeting that turns into a read-aloud. We visit with Robert Wolfe, CEO and founder of Zeck —to reimagine how boards and leadership teams communicate—because meeti...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Wealth Transfer is already in motion, and Gen X is standing in the receiving line! Wendy F. Adams, CFRE, CEO of Cultivate for Good and longtime friend of the show, brings a leader’s lens and a fundraiser’s candor to a question many nonprofits still avoid: Who inherits donor loyalty, and what are we doing to earn it? She shares a personal story that makes the business cas...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofit financial leaders are being asked to do more with less, manage rising risk, and still advance mission with confidence. Dr. Stephanie Rose-Belcher, COO of JMT Consulting , provides a forward-looking conversation on FinTech forecasts and what nonprofit executives must be preparing for now. Dr. Rose-Belcher reframes finance as the operational backbone of nonprofit leadershi...

Send us Fan Mail We sit down with  Keith Mestrich, Senior Advisor of Nonprofit and Foundation Partnerships at Crescent Cares, for a great nonprofit business conversation. As nonprofit leaders step into a new year filled with uncertainty and rapid change, Keith offers a clear message: finance isn’t a back-office function to tolerate—it’s one of the strongest tools a nonprofit has to stay steady, ma...

Send us Fan Mail In the nonprofit world, “funding” is often treated like a finish line. But in this conversation, Gloria Dixon—Executive Director and Director of Philanthropy at the BECU Foundation —frames it as something more useful: a long-term business relationship built on trust, clarity, and shared accountability. Gloria begins with BECU’s origin story, rooted in cooperative problem-solving:...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Wealth Transfer is no longer a future talking point—it is unfolding right now, and nonprofit organizations that are not prepared risk watching history pass them by. Cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall confront what may be the most consequential financial shift the nonprofit sector will ever face: an estimated $90–$100 trillion moving between generations, with $12–$18...

Send us Fan Mail With the kind of energy that makes you sit up straighter: Tim Sarrantonio, now Chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP), leads a boardroom-level conversation about one of the biggest business threats to nonprofits today: misinformation. Tim pulls back the curtain on what FEP actually is—an ambitious collaboration where major CRM and data partners contribute anonymized...