What the Fundraising

Rhea Wong is a nonprofit leader with 20 years of experience that helps Executive Directors and development staff build out individual major gift programs to raise money like a pro. In this episode, we dismantle some of the most common biases inside the fundraiser’s mindset when it comes to money and the risk of rejection. Rhea has some interesting takeaways to help you challenge your pre-establish...

Cindy Wagman is the President and Founder of The Good Partnership, a consultancy that is working to unlock the potential of small nonprofits through fundraising. In this episode, me and Cindy talk about the system of beliefs and stigmas that are often associated with fundraising and how we can rewire the neural pathways in our brains that are keeping us stuck. We also explore the power of stories...

Becky Straw is the Co-Founder of The Adventure Project, and a true believer in the ability to build community through entrepreneurship and move people out of poverty for good. There are so many amazing elements of The Adventure Project but in this episode, we look into their monthly giving program because it uses some innovative strategies to create strong memory peaks with the members of The Coll...

In this episode, I’m interviewing Lys Hugessen from Canada Helps and Celeste Flores from GivingTuesday. More specifically, Lys is the Vice President of Partnerships & GivingTuesday Canada. In her role, Lys leads the growth and development of the national GivingTuesday movement across Canada. Celeste supports and mobilizes GivingTuesday’s network of 200+ communities across the United States. Both o...

Francesco Ambrogetti leads Supporter Engagement for UNICEF worldwide. He has over 20 years’ international experience and has worked for organizations like the WWF, MSF, and the Red Cross World Bank across four different continents. His most recent book, “Hooked on a Feeling”, inspired this episode as it dives deep into the neuroscience of fundraising and explores a number of different topics not t...

It might be Thursday, but we couldn’t wait another week to introduce you to this amazing guest. So, in honor of Black History Month, we released two episodes this week with two inspiring Black women. Our second guest, Domonique James is the CEO & Founder of Politics With Purpose, a political communications agency helping leaders raise their influence to serve and empower others in media, politics,...

Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, Executive Director of Reading Partners DC, joins the show and we cover a lot of topics, like why every organization should have a level of flexibility when it comes to their work, how to balance short-term metrics with long-terms goals, and funders’ actual role in community-centered fundraising. Shukurat is an inspiring leader that is asking her staff to think completely d...

Stephynie Malik is known as an expert negotiator and skilled crisis management consultant. While leading alliances, she has created countless partnerships with huge brands like American Express, Monster.com, Deloitte, and Nike (to name just a few). In this episode of What The Fundraising we talk about why listening to people means building an authentic and genuine connection, and why it’s so impor...

Vanessa Bohns is a psychologist, award-winning researcher, and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. Plus she is the author of an amazing book that I encourage everyone to read, You Have More Influence Than You Think. Today, Vanessa joins the show to talk about influence and the ways that we as fundraisers might underestimate our own, especially when it comes to making the bi...

This is part two of our conversation with psychologist, award-winning researcher, and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University, Vanessa Bohns. Here we discuss  the psychological aspects and consequences of power dynamics. Plus the ways donors can sometimes underestimate their influence. It’s time to put our funder lenses on to really understand our organization’s potential from d...

Kishshana Palmer is an international speaker, trainer, and coach with a 20+ year background in fundraising, marketing, and talent management who helps leaders create high-performing teams. Kishshana is known for calling out toxic mindsets and behaviors so that organizations can actually make their missions come true. This conversation is both a wake-up call and a joyful release as we get into all...

Are you ready for the second season of What the Fundraising? Before we properly start a new season, we take a look back to highlight some of the most interesting lessons from last season's episodes with my friend and nonprofit game-changer, Vik Harrison. Vik links each one of these favorite moments to her experience being the creative leader of charity: water, a successful nonprofit she co-founded...

Ryan Erickson is my amazing husband, life partner, friend, counselor, and co-parent. In this episode, Ryan and I discuss his experience being the partner of a busy nonprofit leader, me. While we make a terrific team, it hasn’t always been an easy ride; especially when I became an Executive Director or when I launched this business! Tune in and learn what it is like to be the supporting partner in...

Nicole Parker is a social innovator that knows how to create strategies that lead to transformation. With her sisters, she founded the project Sisters in Business, which has the mission to create a space for women of color to connect, collaborate, and build community to sustain, grow and maximize their vision. In this episode, Nicole talks about her journey through community development, from her...

Heather Segar is a coach, speaker, trainer, and host of The Heather Sager Show. Through her years in the business, she’s learned something: success is limited by your ability to articulate a vision and inspire others to take action. In this episode, Heather shares her wisdom around how we need to be showing up to one-on-one conversations, fundraising events, and any other presentation to have a re...

Philippa White is the founder, and CEO of The International Exchange, and a true believer in the power of business and leadership to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. In this episode, Philippa shares some of her experiences with building partnerships through TIE and how for 15 years they’ve made successful collaboration between sectors possible. Join in and listen to this expert’s experi...

In this episode of What the Fundraising Podcast… I talk to my long-time friend, and talent and human potential aficionado with over a decade of experience within Career Coaching and Human Resources, A.J. Mizes. He is my go-to resource when it comes to how to build a strong, healthy, and balanced culture for organizations. AJ and I get to nerd out and go deep on the nuances and strategies behind bu...

Taylor Stewart is the Vice President of Organizing Leadership at Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE). Her work centers on developing the leadership of LEE members to build powerful ecosystems in their communities filled with elected officials, policymakers, advocacy leaders, and organized constituencies. In this conversation Taylor talks about what organizing really means, finding that sweet s...

Tanya St. Julien is a community leader, advocate for educational equity, and Chief of Staff at Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE). In this episode, Tanya talks about her experience in the political space and how her organization promotes and supports civic leaders in their run for office. There is a lot that the nonprofit sector can learn from the faithful long game this organization plays fo...

Josie Raymond is the State Representative for Kentucky's 31st District, the Director of Elected Leadership Fellowships at Leadership for Educational Equity, and a mom of three. In this episode, Josie shares her experience running for office with no political background. She talks about what it was like to run in her hometown of Louisville, the process of fundraising for her campaign (it’s not what...

Tania Anaissie is the Founder and CEO at Beytna Design, an equity design studio supporting social sector leaders to translate their equity values into action. She is a Founding Creator of Liberatory Design, a new practice of human-centered design that drives innovation towards liberation. In this episode, Tania shares why the way to break the status quo is by slowing down and being intentional. Pl...

Today’s world is demanding companies to change their behavior and engage in a truly responsible way with society and the environment. Being a good global citizen is not a matter of choice for companies anymore, it’s the only way. In this episode, Professor Maurizio Zollo, the Scientific Director of the Leonardo Centre on Business for Society at Imperial College Business School and a Professor of S...

Episode highlights:  (01:52) - Who is Hilary Doe? A fun reconnection from the past + Hilary’s journey from college to the present in the nonprofit world. (11:14) - What is long-run motivation?: How to find new donors and turn them into long-term givers and supporters of your organization.  (18:07) - The strength behind having a solid network: What Lisa hoped she knew as a young fundraiser. (23:54)...

The infinitely wise Sheri Riley is an Empowerment Speaker, High-Performance Life Coach, and Award-Winning Author of the book Exponential Living: Stop Spending 100% of Your Time on 10% of Who You Are. In this episode, she shares what is Exponential Living and some of the 9 principles included in her book to pursue peace, choose clarity and live courageously. Sheri’s work as a life strategist can he...

Lisa Fabrega is the founder, CEO, and coach at Capacity Shift where she teaches the Capacity Framework, a model to understand and grow your ability to hold, handle and receive every next level of your impact. In this episode, Lisa walks us through the six areas of capacity work, plus she tells us how scarcity mindset and transactional relationships are keeping us from expanding. You really don’t w...