We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

Let's be real for a hot moment. Working with foundations is intimidating. Writing a grant is intimidating. And when you're not entirely sure of the process, it all seems like an incredible mountain to climb. Don't worry! We're walking through all the questions our junior-selves wanted to know about foundation relations when we were younger: the step-by-step process of a grant c...

Raise your hand if you're still trying to figure out how the heck cryptocurrency and philanthropy intersect? 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ We've got you! Meet Pat. He merged his nonprofit experience and passion for Bitcoin trading to create The Giving Block , a company helping nonprofits transact cryptocurrency donations. He's giving the simplest explanation into the ins and outs of cryptocurrency, bl...

Meet Carol. She's one of the world's pioneers of social impact connecting businesses to purpose. You might have heard a couple of her campaigns like Go Red for Women and Grow Up Great among others who have yielded more than $2.5B for various social causes. She's talking through the future of social purpose and how to build movements of believers. And if you're a sucker for a fe...

Volunteers - they're our organization's heart-powered engine AND muscle. Our rabid fans. Our mission-based PTAs. And we gotta talk about how to make the best use of their time, passion, expertise and story to power our missions. We simply cannot exist without them. We chat through how to find them, how to tap into their passion, how to retain them year-after-year, review engagement Pro T...

Meet Chris . This marketer, entrepreneur and digital impact leader strongly believes honest business holds the power to create change for good. And he's channeling that notion into helping nonprofits leverage the incredible tool of Google Grants. We've all heard about it, but few of us know how to fully execute one well. Chris is breaking down the steps and throwing in some awesome tips...

Meet Mitch. He left his Wall Street job to pour into something deeply meaningful in the nonprofit world, and thus became the launching pad of Pond , an incredible space pairing nonprofits with the right digital products. Everyone who’s ever hated researching tech solutions 😵‍💫- this episode is for you! Mitch is also a beacon of light addressing gay bias in the nonprofit industry, and sharing his...

[cue the confetti cannons and heel kicks🎉💃] It's nonprofit marketing and branding day!! aka: the only topic we love chatting about more than our respective kids and dogs. You're probably thinking to yourself, "I'm not a marketer; this doesn't apply to me." Friends. IT MATTERS! But don't feel intimidated, because we're taking your hand, and walking you thro...

Meet Sybil. She's a nonprofit purist on a mission: to help you do the most good when it comes to your personal philanthropy. It starts with building a personal giving strategy, aligning values and narrowing your giving goals. We're chatting about how to channel passion, creating focus and giving away money with humility. We believe everyone - especially nonprofit professionals - is an im...

Meet Travis . This nonprofit ED spent years in the women’s microcredit movement in Asia and Latin America, which taught him a couple of critical lessons: how a mother has an unyielding commitment to improve her family’s situation, and how education plays a pivotal role in breaking free of cyclical poverty and making informed choices. We're talking about creating a launchpad for donors and fun...

We all love our boards. But are we really leveraging them to their full potential? They just might be the volunteers closest to your mission, and knowing how to engage them (rather than simply talk at them) possesses the key to unpacking next level connections but also cultivating them toward their gift in the process. Join Jon + Becky as dive into Back to Basics: Boards. We're talking throug...

Meet Dominic. He's a humanitarian and innovator, and he knows how to mobilize massive audiences toward good. At the age of 20, he founded Missions. Me and began organizing strategic outreach campaigns in cities across Latin America. Today, his Love Has No Limits grassroots org has an audacious goal: calling all to be part of the greatest display of love Southern California has ever experience...

Meet Sianne. Her passion is simple: bring the philanthropic community together working toward achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Why? Because we know unified efforts lead to greater global equity for all. As a Chief Impact Officer and dual qualified lawyer in the UK and in her native South Africa, Sianne builds more impact equity for the London-based Maanch organization throug...

Just when we thought we had Corporate American figured out, the world went and threw a global pandemic at us, and everything flowing from that experience has reshaped what we all know about corporate giving. Join us as Jon + Becky walk us through Back to Basics: Corporate Giving.  We're talking through types of corporate philanthropy, CSR, reimagining corporate engagement and trends we see lo...

Meet Brian. He's the host of the Self Improvement Daily podcast (you know, a podcast with a casual 8M+ downloads where each episode lasts less than 2 mins 😲😱🤗) as well as the founder of For Purpose - a social impact platform modernizing what it means to make a difference. This self-professed Social Impactivist is breaking down how to capture impact and amplify it for good. Tune in and lear...

Meet Cheryl. This founder and CEO of Creative Breed , is an award-winning filmmaker who now applies her human-centered storytelling to marketing to help brands and organizations drive connection, engagement and action. In fact, she feels so passionately about how story can transform a person that she's leveraging her best tips to help nonprofits elevate their video storytelling game. Tune in...

Well, we had to bribe Becky with chips and queso to have this conversation, but even she agrees that regardless of how you feel, events are about as basic to fundraising as it gets. Join us as Jon + Becky walk us through Back to Basics: Fundraising Events. We're talking all things event fundraising, staging, volunteers, messaging, production, follow-up, and we're even advocating for dive...

Meet Elizabeth . She's answering the questions we've all been wondering the past year: what happened to philanthropy in 2020? This seasoned fundraising pro is breaking down the 2021 Giving USA Report on Philanthropy, which dropped last week. Beyond the headlines and major takeaways, she's giving us some actionable steps to provide focus - no matter the size of your fundraising shop....

Meet Taneshia. She's a social change agent and community developer who centers cultural equity in her work. As the President and CEO of Newark Symphony Hall, a historic performing arts center, she's using arts and culture as an economic development tool for the resurgence of Newark, N.J. She's also talking about how employing an entrepreneurial mindset for social change has created...

Back-to-Basics this week is diving into one of the brightest spots in our sector: donor relations. We're talking all things stewardship, acknowledgment, recognition and engagement, but naturally we're putting that WAFG spin on them to ensure you're not diluting the experience for those who are not in your top 1%. In short, we're talking about how to love on your people while al...

Meet Stephanie. She's a nonprofit purist with a passion for numbers and making them work for you in a most non-intimidating way. We're learning how nonprofit leaders can use their numbers to tell a more robust story, and how transparency around your numbers can lead to greater contributions. Numbers can do that?! You bet they can. Tune in and learn how. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS  Stephanie’s Ba...

Meet Jeremy. This author and digital marketing expert believes now more than ever, digital fundraising is both essential and critical for advancing missions. He's walking us through some key steps for launching a digital fundraising program in 21 days. Then he's throwing some icing on that cake by sharing how to refresh a Giving Tuesday or other digital fundraising campaign this year. If...

Back-to-Basics continues this week with the topic with diving into the ultimate realization of playing the long game: Planned Giving. Planned giving is the convergence of some of our favorite topics - value alignment, having meaningful conversations and telling incredible stories of quite possibly our most rabid fans. We discuss a starting point, Pro Tips and even provide a glossary of terms for t...

Meet Jenna and Nancy. When you meet two brilliant disruptors who are incredible teachers, good humans and have a heck of a fun time doing it all, it makes you want to come over and join their table - stat! They're chatting through how to remove that icky feeling from asking for money, and these native Kansans are doing it with authenticity and joy. If you're looking to shore up your trai...

Meet Tania. This former nonprofit ED is passionate about building thought leadership branding. Never heard of it? We hadn't either, but we are huge believers after this conversation. It's about abundantly sharing your lived experience, passion and expertise to build trust with the right audience on the right topic. She's walking us through it PLUS giving a mini masterclass on how to...

We kicked off our new Friday series Back to Basics last week focusing on Annual Giving...but naturally we added a We Are For Good arc on how build upon the basics.  This week we're diving in the science AND art of major giving ❤️ We'll talk strategy, structures, examples and infuse that We Are For Good arc into this conversation too. Tune in Friday for Basic to Basics: Major Gifts. Episo...