The Nonprofit Show

Send us Fan Mail Donor retention is not just a feel good metric it is one of the most powerful levers in the business model of a nonprofit. We sit down with Kirsten Wantland, Principal Industry Strategist at Bloomerang, to explore how organizations can move beyond fear and confusion and actually use retention data to protect revenue and grow lifetime value. Kirsten begins by explaining her new rol...

Send us Fan Mail Labor myth buster Dana Scurlock, Director of Recruitment at Staffing Boutique, reframes temporary staffing as a sophisticated business tool for nonprofit leaders—not a last-resort move when things are on fire. Dana steps in to show how strategic temp and temp-to-perm staffing can stabilize teams, protect budgets, and protect sanity. She starts with a fundamental question: how many...

Send us Fan Mail In this thoughtful Fundraisers Friday conversation, cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall take viewers inside one of the most persistent tensions in fundraising: the distinction between donor appeals and donor relationships. Using real experiences, honest stories, and decades of shared sector knowledge, they walk through why these two ideas are often treated as opposites—when in...

Send us Fan Mail A valuable and thought-provoking conversation with Carrie Wright, consultant and coach at Wright Consulting . Joined by cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Wendy F. Adams, Carrie guides leaders toward a more thoughtful, rigorous, and human-centered approach to nonprofit organizational performance. Rather than rushing into resolutions and planning cycles, Carrie urges leaders to adopt a p...

Send us Fan Mail Rethinking nonprofit success usually begins with new metrics or another training calendar. In this conversation, educator and learning strategist Nancy Bacon of Nancy Bacon Consulting proposes something far more disruptive: stop confusing information with action. Drawing on adult learning research and decades inside associations, state agencies, and community organizations, she ch...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofits love to talk about growth. New markets, new programs, new grants, new everything. But our guest, Aila Malik , founder of Venture Leadership Collective , flips the script and asks the question most boards and executives skip: Have you actually earned the right to scale up? Coming out of Silicon Valley’s “grow or die” mindset, Aila warns that scaling is not a badge of hon...

Send us Fan Mail Interim leadership is no longer just a stopgap in the executive director’s seat—it’s becoming a strategic engine for sustainable fundraising.  Joan Brown , Chief Operating Officer at Interim Executives Academy , and David M. Nicole, CFRE , founder of Headwinds Consulting , share why interim development leadership may be one of the most underused tools in the nonprofit sector. Toge...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a kid who scribbles “play soccer at Ohio State” in kindergarten actually does it—and then decides his story shouldn’t be the exception? That question sits at the center of this episode with Channing Chasten, professional athlete and founder of The One Percent Kid Foundation. From the start, Channing describes a childhood shaped by two steady forces: the soccer pi...

Send us Fan Mail Year-end generosity is a perfect storm for cybercrime—and most nonprofits don’t see the danger until after the damage is done. We talk with Alex Brown, Director of Business Development at Richey May, about why the busiest time of your fundraising year is also one of the most hazardous for your systems, donors, and reputation. Alex explains how attackers watch for holiday chaos: st...

Send us Fan Mail Grant writers and fundraisers share the same mission, but often work in different corners of the building—and sometimes entirely different worlds. In this Fundraisers Friday convo, cohosts Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall peel back the curtain on how these two roles can move from quiet coexistence to true collaboration. Julia opens with gratitude—for long standing sponsors who have...

Send us Fan Mail Tech, data, and generosity are not abstract buzzwords—they’re concrete levers that can stabilize funding, expand impact, and re-energize exhausted fundraisers . Chief Fundraising Officer Kimberly O’Donnell of Bonterra joins us to map out how recurring giving, trust-based philanthropy, and AI-powered tools can move the entire sector from scarcity thinking into a new “ generosity ge...

Send us Fan Mail Donor love is measurable, and in this lively discussion, guest Lynne Wester, Principal and Founder of Donor Relations Group , brings the receipts. Drawing on data from her seventh global donor relations survey, conducted every two years since 2013 with more than 1,000 participants, Lynne shows us why retention, not the next big campaign, is where the real money is. Her core messag...

Send us Fan Mail Who actually owns data protection in a nonprofit? In this fast-paced conversation, host Julia C. Patrick sits down with Taysha Adams, Manager Technology Support at JMT Consulting , and Josh Fricovsky, Engineering Director at Cortavo , to tackle the uncomfortable truth: cybersecurity is no longer “someone else’s job.” Taysha starts with a reality check: most vulnerabilities don’t b...

Send us Fan Mail What if the people we call donors are actually investors ? And what if this subtle shift reshapes expectations, power, professionalism, and even the identity of philanthropy itself? Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall challenge one of the nonprofit sector’s most deeply rooted labels. Julia opens the conversation by admitting she’s ready to change her own vocabulary, saying, “I’m going...

Send us Fan Mail Federal shutdown over! Systems rebooting! Nonprofits on the clock! In this urgent episode, we bring back Derick Dreher, Department Leader, Government Funding at Your Part-Time Controller (YPTC)— just hours after the government reopens from the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Derick starts with what happened in Washington: failed Senate votes, a last-minute continuing resolution,...

Send us Fan Mail Fundraising can feel like walking through mist—messages blur, instincts wobble, and urgency crowds out intention. In this energizing conversation, we welcome returning favorite Micah James (team lead and coach at Bloomerang —and a bride-to-be!) to name the haze and show practical ways through it. Micah calls today’s moment “muddy and foggy” because donors face nonstop alerts, shif...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofits can absolutely finish the year strong—especially when they treat staffing as a strategic tool, not a scramble! In this energizing convo, Katie Warnock, founder and president of Staffing Boutique , maps out practical ways organizations can add capacity right when it matters most. Katie is plainspoken and solution-oriented: for major fundraising events, she recommends pla...

Send us Fan Mail In this capstone to Nonprofit Power Week, Rita L. Soronen, President and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, looks forward—past the news cycle and into the work that will shape children, families, and the sector. In a calm, mentoring tone, Rita keeps leaders grounded in first principles: start with the child. As she puts it, “We’re not finding what child is best for a...

Send us Fan Mail The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption shows exactly how today’s nonprofits can accelerate mission and amplify revenue by putting marketing and development on the same team! CEO & President Rita L. Soronen and SVP of Marketing & Development Jill Crumbacher explain how an approach that started 11 years ago matured into an integrated structure with shared goals, clear owner...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofits are being yanked into culture wars they never asked for. In this Nonprofit Power Week conversation , Jill Crumbacher , Senior VP of Marketing and Development at the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption , lays out how to keep your message steady when the public square gets noisy.  This episode is a field manual for keeping your purpose intact—and your voice effective—when...

Send us Fan Mail In this key conversation, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption President & CEO Rita L. Soronen maps out a modern playbook for governing with purpose while sustaining momentum after years of change. She begins with the Dave Thomas legacy—not as a branding exercise, but as a lived journey that shaped a national public charity with a singular focus: permanency for children in fost...

Send us Fan Mail The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption doesn’t treat partnerships as a side project—they’re the operating system. During this National Adoption Month and in this Nonprofit Power Week kickoff, Senior VP Jill Crumbacher shares how the Foundation builds relationships that move from a good idea to real results. Step one: align the people doing the work. “ Our marketing and our develo...

Send us Fan Mail On this special Halloween edition of #TheNonprofitShow, Host Julia C. Patrick welcomes “ Countess” Justine Townsend of Your Part-Time Controller (YPTC) , to turn board governance fears into practical know-how. Capes, cobwebs, and clever metaphors aside, the lesson is real: fiduciary duties aren’t folklore; they’re law. As Justine explains, “you have a legal and ethical obligation...

Send us Fan Mail Nonprofits send more messages than ever, yet many still miss the moment that matters: the decision. The CEO and Co-Founder Kylee Ingram of Wizer Technologies explains how seven decision profiles can transform fundraising emails, stewardship notes, and board communications from “nice” to effective.  If donor retention, board alignment, and major-gift outreach are priorities this ye...

Send us Fan Mail When fundraising meets humanity, transformation follows—and few express that better than Tammy Zonker , founder of Fundraising Transformed and author of Calling All Heroes . In this powerful episode, host Julia C. Patrick engages Tammy in a deep conversation about reimagining philanthropy through what she calls a human-centered mindset —a new evolution beyond donor- or community-c...