Small Nonprofit: Fundraising Tips, Leadership Strategies, and Community-Centric Solutions

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Have you ever heard the term design thinking thrown around whether in our sector or in the business world and you've thought, what are they talking about? What is that such a buzzword? But there's actually a lot of really cool stuff happening around design thinking and the approach that it has to problem-solving, which is exactly what today's podcast is about, how we can apply design thinking to our fundraising and our work.

Our guest for today’s episode is our colleague at The Good Partnership, Betty Xie, a fundraiser, filmmaker, and Coach for creatives. She studied Strategic Foresight, Innovation and Design at OCAD and brought that to our work. 

Myths that Betty wants us to walk away from:

• Design Thinking can't be applied in fundraising.  At the core of design thinking is a process of problem-solving that is focused on a human-centric, problem-solving process. In the fundraising space, empathizing with the user is the key. This means understanding your donors and funders’ needs, reaching out to them, and getting feedback. 
• You need to have a perfect pitch deck to raise more money. Following the process of design thinking, at the most minimum prototype, it’s just like passing an idea or some kind of model that doesn’t go for the most perfect state and move forward with it. 

The Stages of Design Thinking Process 

• Empathize with the user - In the nonprofit’s case, this could be our beneficiaries, the people that we serve, or our donors. 
• Framing the problem - Defining what exactly is the problem that we try to solve. 
• Ideate and design a solution - Once you have an idea of a solution, instead of going with the perfect solution, you will come up with a prototype and a prototype doesn't need to be physical. In a context of an organization, the prototype can be an idea that you're testing or a server or program.
• Testing and Iterating - Testing the prototype to see what works, what doesn't work, and then bring it back, have an honest conversation of other feedback, and try again and again. 

Favorite Quotes from today’s episode 

Empathize with the user is key. And in the fundraising space, that means really understanding your donors and funders’ need. I just think that it's very common to not spend enough time staying in that space and trying to reach out and get feedback. 

Resources from this episode

Betty Xie LinkedIn 
Lead to Create
The Good Partnership 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Supervision is one of those things in our sector that we kind of fall into. It is often overlooked in our sector but the quality of supervision is important because it affects productivity, morale, work quality, team interaction, conflict, and the overall culture of the organization.

In today’s episode, Rita Sever, an expert in human resources, organizational psychology, and nonprofit systems, talks about how to lead, manage people, and create a culture that is aligned with our organization’s anti-oppression work and values. 

Myths that Rita wants us to walk away from:

• Nonprofit workers don’t need supervision. Nonprofit organizations are full of kind, caring, and committed people, but that doesn't mean they don't need to be supervised. Even when people are extremely high functioning, they need a supervisor's tender touch and a culture that will encourage them along the way and help them succeed.
• Power and privilege don’t exist in nonprofit supervision. Power and privilege have an impact on supervisory relationships. To work from an anti-oppression perspective, supervisors must be prepared for self-awareness – knowing their own background, norms, and hidden rules, and bringing that awareness to real conversations about how it affects their supervision, relationships, and treatment of others.

Rita’s JOIN framework on giving feedback as a supervisor

• J - Join your supervisees before you give them feedback.  You want to make sure you remember you're on the same side. 
• O - Observation and objective statement of what actually happened.
• I - Impact. What was the impact of that objective observation? How did it impact the person, the team, the work? 
• N - What needs to be different. And that can be simply, let's talk more about how you could have handled that interaction.

Favorite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“I think the pitfall is that we are doing so much or so committed to our missions that we sort of take it for granted that everything will work out in terms of people because people are there to support the mission. So we just trust that it's all going to work, but even when people are extremely high functioning, they need that tender touch of a supervisor and a culture that is going to encourage them along the way and help them be successful.”

Resources from this Episode
Supervisionmatters.com
Leading for Justice: Supervision, HR and Culture
The Good Partnership

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Fundraising and philanthropy make a lot of people very uncomfortable. A big part of that is our discomfort with money generally, but a lot of it is how our sector and philanthropy have been structured and the power systems it upholds.

Our sector faces challenges related to power, change, and resource redistribution for impact. In today's episode, Yonis Hassan, Co-Founder, and CEO of The Justice Fund discusses one of his biggest challenges with the philanthropic sector - the hoarding of money in foundations. According to the Justice Fund’s most recent campaign, Move The Money, charitable foundations in Canada are holding onto over $85 billion dollars in charitable assets. If distributed, this money would create transformative change in providing security and proper access to opportunities and long-term resources to underserved communities.  Join the conversation as Yonis shares why the time to use this money is now. It’s time to call for change.

Myths that Yonis wants us to walk away from:

• Preserving a foundation’s capital over a long time is in the best interest of the public. It’s not. There's going to be more money coming into this sector. There’s going to be more innovation, more creativity, and more risk-taking. Yonis urges the charitable sector to use the abundance of taxpayer’s assets in a timely manner when we have a plethora of crises facing our communities. 
• Small nonprofits cannot make big changes in the philanthropy sector. Whether you are a grassroots organization, an unincorporated organization, a volunteer, a board member, someone who just donates to organizations, there will be an opportunity for you to speak up around these issues. 

Yonis’ thoughts around reforming philanthropy: 

• Changing the status quo. The foundations and funds in our sector have amassed a total of $85 billion. Reforming philanthropy entails leveraging the abundance of these assets to have a greater impact and serve the most vulnerable communities, especially during times of crisis.
• Stepping up as a collective sector. We must act collectively and have an open discussion about charitable laws and how they contribute to discrimination and continued oppression of indigenous communities in order to mobilize resources that will improve the situation of the vulnerable populations. 
• It’s time to speak up. Yonis encouraged the philanthropic community to speak up. Whether it's speaking with your municipal council or your MP or MPP, your donors, or your board members, stand up and urge them to take action and make these legislative reforms.

Favorite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“With over $85 billion of charitable assets in this country, we can be using that to invest in affordable housing, to invest in climate financing, to invest in transit, to invest in cooperatives, but we choose not to. So, expecting the federal government to implement some changes to hold us accountable, to hold the philanthropic sector accountable.”

Resources from this Episode 

• Justice Fund
• The Good Partnership 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Are your donors on the same page as your organization when it comes to understanding the work? Often, we think that there is this great divide between us and our donors - one that is not easily bridged. But Aniel Gokhale at The Toronto Foundation has been creating programs for donors to go on a learning journey to better understand how they can change how they give to align with their values.

What might be considered risky - engaging your donors in conversations about justice, equity and a redistribution of funds - has turned into a very successful fundraising campaign and community building initiative. 

Myths that Aneil wants us to walk away from:

• Younger generations don’t give. In fact, younger generations often are excited to give but want a little more than just writing a cheque. They want to learn, be involved, and stay engaged. Think of how you can create a community of supporters and bring them along on a learning journey.
• We have to tiptoe around tough topics with our donors. It can be hard to challenge your donors beliefs around philanthropy, but definitely not impossible. Aneil has leaned on research their organization does as well as understanding the intentions of donors and their values, to broach topics of privilege and power, as well as funding organizations that have historically been underserved by philanthropy.

Aneil’s thoughts around bring your donors on a learning journey.

• You don’t have to be big or well resourced to bring your donors on a learning journey. Now is the time to have important conversations about equity. The world is going through changes and the status quo is being challenged. Your donors want to align their giving with their values but might not know how. Your donors also see you as the expert, so share your knowledge and experience.
• Let your experts lead the way. The Toronto Foundation ensured that their new equity priorities were driven by populations they wanted to serve and support. Remember that you are the experts and your donors want to learn from you.
• Now is the time to ask! Younger generations care and they want to be engaged in philanthropy. They expect to be focused on justice and equity and they want to be involved. Your donors are likely committed to their community and feel connected to the work they support.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“It was this idea of actually building out a learning journey and taking your donors on an experience where they're giving more than just that sum of money, but they're actually going out there and they are learning a ton of things about this topic that they care deeply about. So we basically took that concept and created a learning journey here in Toronto, focused on resilience, focused on really just trying to make people understand what the needs were in our community and really trying to underscore how they could make a difference and make an impact.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Toronto Foundation

Aneil on Twitter

Email Aneil: agokhale@torontofoundation.ca 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Have you ever wondered how your small organization can leverage marketing to build an audience, raise more money, find volunteers or even find service users? I'm sure you've looked at the big organizations and their advertising, whether it be online or in-person and felt a little bit of envy - “I wish we could invest in that.” Well today's guest, Adora Drake, is going to bring her experience in marketing to the level that small nonprofits can actually implement. 

Myths that Adora wants us to walk away from:

1. You need a big budget. The good news is that a lot of online engagement can happen for FREE! If you follow Adora’s SCALE model, you can build community and drive them to action organically, without a budget.
2. Big ads are the goal. The days of billboards and TV infomercials for nonprofits are limited (or at least, not the goal for small shops). Instead, focus on digital marketing where you can better track results and have a clear picture of who you are targeting and what actions they take because of your ads.

Adora’s SCALE method:

1. Social Media. You can’t be everywhere, so start by understanding the persona of who you are trying to reach and connect with. Where would they hang out online? 
2. Content. What type of content will engage your audience or target persona? Think of it as an exchange. Often we assume we’re asking people to give to us, but we forget we have things that they value. Be consistent in your content.
3. Audience. Now is the time to grow your audience, leveraging the insights and engagement you’ve built with your persona and how they have been engaging with your content. You can run ads to target people based on their interests.The platform algorithms can help you find more people!
4. Lead. Social media is limited as you don’t own the relationship with your community. When the platforms go down (recently Facebook and Instagram), you still want to be able to engage with your audience. Think about giving them something valuable in exchange for their email address.
5. Execution. Use your email to nurture your list and lead them into a call to action - to give, volunteer, etc. Again, consistency is key - keep those relationships warm and engaged to build a “know, like, and trust” factor. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“So no matter if you're in a for-profit or nonprofit, you're always going to have people that get on the list and they just don't stay on the list. There's nothing you can do about that. And it's actually a good thing. And I'm going to tell you why it's a good thing, because if they get on the list and they're not engaged, they don't really care about what you guys are talking about, then why have them on the list? It's just a vanity. I would rather have a really small list. Actually. I would really have five people that are really engaged on my list. Then they have a hundred people and one person maybe opens the email.”

“And so that persona represents that one person, that one ideal, which we call maybe a donor or a volunteer that you want to attract. You want to grab their attention. And so, instead of looking at a bunch of people and trying to get all these different people's interests, you want to just narrow it down to “who is this person?” Why would they be interested in my organization? And what should I do to give them value, to make them want to be attracted to me?

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Adora Drake Marketing - free guide 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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The last year and a half has been lonely. While at the beginning slogans like “together alone” might have made us feel connected, that has slipped away and many of us are feeling like our worlds are a whole lot smaller than before. But this loneliness is not new for those in small nonprofits. Often we are very much alone in our work, without peers. In today’s podcast episode, Kimberley MacKenzie joins us to talk about authenticity, community, and tough conversations.

Myths that Kimberley wants us to walk away from:

1. We need to put on our “armour” for work and “be professional.” Instead, Kimberley wants us to bring our whole selves to work. As leaders, we need to model that we’re human and lean on those around us when we’re not on our game. Not only do we get help, but then we also build trust and collaboration and create a safe space for others to be authentic.
2. We just need to fix our organizations. A lot of us are questioning some of the status quo and feel that our organizations need anything from a lite improvement to a full overhaul. And while that might be true, Kimberley reminds us that for change to stick, we have to change. It’s not just the organization, but we have personal work we need to do.
3. You’re the only one. One of the things Kimberley has seen in building her community is that as soon as we show up authentically, we find others who are very much in the same boat as us. You are most definitely not alone!

Kimberley’s tips on finding and building community:

1. Make the time and space to connect with others. This is something we often put off, because we are so busy with other things. But, as flight attendants like to remind us, put on your own oxygen mask first! Community can help you work through challenges and get different perspectives.
2. Change requires discomfort. Change is important and is probably more urgent now than ever. Change requires courage and discomfort, but knowing you are not alone can help you move forward and find accountability in the community.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“People are craving that community and people, you know, those small networks of support are fundamentally important to us being able to continue to do this change because it's exhausting. It's exhausting. The world needs our sector more than ever. The need is greater. The resources are fewer and we're driven by passion. So we often compromise our own physical and mental wellbeing to deliver for our organizations. And of course, we need to fill our tank.”

“I know it's happened to a lot of people where all of our human messiness has been exposed. And I think that as leaders, when we create, when we model that we're human and when we model that, we're not always on our game. And when we lean on our teams, when we need to, and we create space for safe conversations about what it is to be human right now, in this moment that will build trust and that will build collaboration and that will build safety so that folks will bring forward. Some of them are difficult, challenging situations.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

The Intersection Hub

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Video - one of those things that everyone wants to get better at using, but not many know where and how to start. On today’s podcast, co-owner of Nonprofit Video Comms, David Phu, joins our host Cindy Wagman, to exchange insights on how nonprofits can best leverage the power of video. 

Myths that David wants us to walk away

1. Video = social media. There are so many other ways videos can be useful for an organization beyond social media, including internal communication, personal messaging, documentation of work processes, guiding donors through their journey etc. 
2. We need fancy equipment to make videos. You have everything you need. Your phone and your laptop can support you to make compelling videos to reach your specific goals.

David’s tips on using video content in a nonprofit setting

1. Guide donors through their journey using video content. From compelling donors to make a donation, to providing them instructions on how to make the donation, to thanking them, every touch point can be a short video.
2. Use videos to connect and establish personal connections. Before you interact with someone face-to-face, a quick and unedited video message is the best way to connect with them. An instant video message is like an upgraded voicemail. 
3. Use videos to communicate work processes and provide training for staff and volunteers. There are many tools available now that allow you to record your screen while you’re working through a problem. What’s a better/quicker way to create an instructional manual than just simply hit record and send that video to your staff or volunteers after?

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“Video comes from a time where it was really about entertainment. And it later grew into  advertising, maybe training, and publishing this and that. But now with video, it's really about being person to person as much as possible without being there in person.”

“It seems that the first thing that people's minds go to is social media. Video equals social media, which it does. But I think a lot of people are missing all these other opportunities, like personal video messaging, websites, or internal communications videos. There's so much more power right now with video.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with David on Linkedin

Nonprofit Video Comms

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Every year before GivingTuesdays, a lot of fundraisers and Executive Directors are scratching their heads and wondering whether they should do something on GivingTuesday, and if do do something, what can make their organization’s messaging stand out? On today’s podcast, Lys Huggesen, the VP of Partnerships at CanadaHelps and one of the pioneers and leaders of GivingTuesday Canada, shares her insights on how charities might best leverage this day of giving and generosity.

Myths that Lys wants us to walk away

1. GivingTuesday is not just about fundraising. Giving Tuesday is a day to celebrate generosity that over 73 countries are now participating in. Any form of generosity is celebrated. There are 100 different ways to celebrate generosity without making a money ask. 
2. People are tired of GivingTuesday asks. 52% of people say that they want to give on GivingTuesday because they want to be part of something bigger. Lys likened it to Black Friday - just because everyone is having a sale, does that mean you shouldn’t? Of course not - it’s an opportunity to capitalize on people’s planned behaviour.

Lys’ tips on leveraging GivingTuesday

1. Don’t treat GivingTuesday as just a day-long campaign. The best campaigns launch before the day, and the campaign can continue beyond GivingTuesday. Be intentional about the campaign launches and the different touch points you design with your audience and donors. 
2. Have good messages in your ask and don’t rely on “just because it’s GivingTuesday.” GivingTuesday or not, people give when they are emotionally motivated and inspired. While the day provides a great opportunity to make an ask, make sure your communication also includes compelling messages and storytelling.
3. Thank your supporters and express gratitude. If you are not planning to make an ask on GivingTuesday, there are still many ways to engage your audience. It is a day to celebrate generosity, and so why not thank your donors and share messages of gratitude and community togetherness? 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“People are primed to give. 52% of people say that they want to give on GivingTuesday itself because they're part of something bigger.”

“I think one of the biggest myths is that GivingTuesday is just a day. It's more than just a day. The best campaigns start well before.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Download toolkit and resources to support your GivingTuesday campaign

Connect with Lys on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Podcasting is exploding. More and more nonprofits have a podcast, or are considering getting into it. Should your organization also have a podcast? Is it a lot of work to manage a podcast? What should you talk about on the podcast? On today’s episode, Christian Robillard, founder of Purpose Podcasting,  joins our host Cindy Wagman, and the two of them are going to answer all your burning questions about why and how to podcast. 

Thinking of setting up a podcast for your organization and your cause? Christian shared with us some benefits and opportunities: 

1. Building an audience (especially age 18-35) in an intimate way. Especially during the pandemic, as we all suffer from screen fatigue, podcasts are a great medium to connect with an audience in a different way and make them feel that they get to know you and your organization intimately. 
2. Onboarding staff and volunteers and sharing resources internally. Especially for bigger organizations that have a large number of staff and volunteers, a podcast is a very great way to do internal resources and knowledge sharing. 
3. Raising awareness on how your organization is helping your audience overcoming a specific problem. Whether your target audience is your donors, your program beneficiaries, or your partners, understanding what problem your podcast is helping them to overcome is the first thing to do before setting up your podcast. 

Christian’s tips on podcasting

1. Hook your audience in the first 60 seconds. In the first 60 seconds of each episode, have a clear structure that introduces who you and your organization are and what the audience can expect from the podcast and this episode. 
2. Include a clear call to action in the podcast. Be very clear what you want people to do as a result of listening to your podcast and communicating that. 
3. Infuse personal touches. Let your audience know what is the host and the hosting organization’s stance and philosophies on issues that matter to them. 
4. Be strategic about the production of the podcast. Decide how much you want to do in house and how much you want to outsource. Set up a good workflow and rinse and repeat. 
5. Repurpose your podcast content. Take bits and pieces from the podcast and repurpose them widely to your blog, social media, e-news and even annual report. Christian’s take is if you are only doing less than 5 pieces of content from your podcast, you’re missing out.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
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“With any type of podcasting, the why is definitely important. But ultimately you have to think about who your audience is and what's the problem. Or what are the challenges that this particular piece of content is going to help them overcome?”

“If you're getting any less than five pieces of content out there, including the podcast from your recording, I think you're missing out. I would argue if you have an hour-long podcast that you've recorded and produced, you could probably get up to 20 pieces of solid 30 to 60 second content, plus a blog post, plus the transcription, plus any other parts that you want to use to compliment other communications that you're doing.”

Resources from this Episode 

The Good Partnership

Connect with Christian

Purpose Podcasting

Beyond the Bake Sale Podcast

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Are you experiencing the awkward silences at the board meetings where people seem to want to say something, but no one is speaking up? Or maybe it’s that one person is dominating the conversation. How might leaders and organizations actually facilitate structure and process for all voices to be heard at the decision making table? On today’s podcast, organizational development consultant Susan Loucks shares with us how inclusive decision making can be facilitated and fostered. 

Myths that Susan wants us to walk away from

1. Having a structure for decision making restricts participation. While having a very complicated decision making framework can definitely be too restrictive, having no structure is not conducive for ensuring inclusive participation at the board or organizational decision making table. For people who feel that they are not the loudest or most powerful voices in the room, having a simple and clear structure can actually allow them to fall back to that structure and express their opinion. 
2. It’s great that our board is always in agreement and making efficient decisions. While there is value in efficiency, having consistent agreement might mean that you’re not paying attention to the diversity of perspectives and opinions at the table, or that you don’t have a diversity of perspectives at the table. 

Susan’s tips on fostering inclusive organizational/board decision-making

1. Adopt a clear decision making framework that people get behind with, and actually follow the structure. 
2. Establish the culture that accepts and celebrates disagreement
3. Don’t rush with decision making. Be ok to sit in the uncomfortable zone of deciding to not decide. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“I am usually happy if everybody is in agreement, it means it's going to be easy. It means it's going to be efficient. But I have to watch myself - this is not the optimal place for the group. We don't want people at each other's throats, but to have everybody agreeing is not the best outcome for this group. We want to be able to see that disagreement. So actually just to frame this as disagreement is healthy and good, and we want to surface that and learn what we can do better.”

“I think the bias is towards let's just make this happen. We're informal. We'll just talk. We don't have to have a lot of rules. If you're the one in power, it's super easy for you to not understand how it feels if you don't have power. To feel like I have an open door. People can just come in and talk to me! They're not going to do that unless there's like a time in the week when you're allowed to come in and talk. Right?”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Susan Loucks

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Grant writing. It’s one of those things that every organization struggles with. Often grant writing seems like it’s a bad investment of time and effort - you put 100 out there, you hear 1 back. So how can nonprofits be more “grant-ready” and less overwhelmed with the process. On today’s podcast, CEO of Think and Ink Consulting, Shavonn Richardson, walks us through the key steps to prepare for a successful grant writing cycle. 

Myths that Shavonn wants us to walk away

1. “Let’s start writing right away!”. Getting straight into the writing without doing any pre-work is not necessarily a sign of proactiveness when it comes to grant-writing. There are steps to set your organization’s grant strategy and writing up for success, See tips below.

Shavonn’s tips on preparing your organization to be grant-ready

1. Building relationships with funders. Do the research to find funders that are truly in alignment with your needs and values and have a conversation with them before applying if possible. This step will help you narrow down the list of prospects. 
2. Conduct a logic model exercise. What is the theory of change that your program has, and how are you going to deliver the impact you want to deliver? Articulating the logic model of your program will help you anticipate and answer so many grant questions that by the time you write, it will feel effortless. 
3. Establish measure of success and track metrics consistently. You don’t have to follow a grantor's definition of success, but you do need to establish your own measure of success and be able to track those metrics consistently. Regardless of which grant you’re applying, have these measures in place and develop the habit for tracking metrics now. 
4. Have a detailed program/project budget. Build out a program budget that has a very detailed, line-by-line program budget so that if the funder asks for a detailed budget, you already have it, and if they don’t, then you can simplify it. 
5. Train your board to take part in the process. The board needs to be involved in collaboration with the staff to come up with the strategic direction of programs, and they should be involved talking to funders when needed. Make sure your board understands their role and is supporting the staff.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Really take the time and focus on quality over quantity and do the research to only select foundations that are really aligned with what you do. Not a stretch. Not outside of your current program. But are really aligned with what you do. And if you take the time to cultivate a relationship with that funder, you will go much further when you go to submit an application.”

“A logic model will pull out all those juicy details that funders ask for. They will ask what are your smart outcomes? What are your short term, intermediate term, and long term objectives? What's your overall vision? What are your activities? How are you measuring them? One logic model can answer 500 questions that a funder would ask you.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with Shavonn on Linkedin

Think and Ink Grants Consulting 

Shavonn’s writings on Forbes

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Send us Fan Mail

Our sector - especially in small nonprofits - is filled with reluctant fundraisers who were assigned the responsibility of fundraising so that they can keep the organization afloat. Reluctant fundraisers know a lot about fundraising best practices, but when it comes to actually doing it, fundraising still feels difficult and even impossible. 

To support all the reluctant fundraisers, our very own Cindy Wagman wrote a book titled Raise It! The Reluctant Fundraiser’s Guide to Raising Money Without Selling Your Soul. On this very first episode of the season, Cindy shares with us an excerpt from the book. 

Myths that Cindy wants us to walk away from

1. “How dare I ask people?”  There is always a hesitation to ask because of our assumptions about donors and funders. A helpful reframe for this thought is - “how dare I not ask people?”  Our organization’s mission is too important for it to be sitting in dust and not rally people’s support. 
2. “If this strategy works for other organizations, it must work for us. Right?!” The comparison game shows up a lot for small organizations. The truth is - a cookie cutter approach to fundraising doesn’t work. What works for another organization is not a magical solution to your problem. Start from where you are. 
3. “We need this and that in place before we can fundraise” Is this thought true, or is this another excuse to delay the action of actually doing the fundraising? You don’t need a fancy branding guide or marketing plan before starting to fundraising. 

Cindy’s philosophy on addressing the root cause of fundraising pain

1. Focus on changing how we think and feel when we fundraise, rather than chasing for the magical solution. Recruiting a board member that knows fundraising won’t fix all your fundraising pain. Speaking to another organization that does individual giving well is not going to drastically increase your donations. If you are reluctant to fundraise, you will never prioritize it. 
2. Check in how our beliefs around fundraising show up in different fundraising situations. For example, before going into a donor meeting, what are all the thoughts that are showing up on your mind? How are you feeling? Write these down and see if these thoughts are true or just assumptions that you’re bringing into the situation. 

For more on how to change our mindset around fundraising, listen to the podcast and get your hands on Cindy’s new book and the amazing bonuses exclusive to the presale period. Pre-order your copy of Raise It! here today. 

Resources from this Episode

 The Good Partnership

Pre-order your copy of Raise It! The Reluctant Fundraiser’s Guide to Raising Money Without Selling Your Soul and get all the amazing bonuses today. 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

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Do you get butterflies in your stomach before making a big pitch or presentation? To end the season off, we invited Lucia Cesaroni, world renowned opera singer and voice consultant, to share with us how to find our own voice and project it with confidence and ease. 

Myths that Lucia wants us to walk away from

1. “I get nervous before presenting because I am not good at it.”  Everyone gets nervous. We’re biologically wired to get nerves before a big presentation. Our brain perceives the presentation as a threat. Our nerves are a signal that our brain is trying to protect us from danger. 
2. “I am not an extrovert and so I am not good at presenting.” Despite the fact that we’re often informed by the assumption extroverted people are better at public speaking, finding your own voice and projecting your voice is not related to introversion or extroversion.

Lucia’s tips on preparing the body and mind for presenting

1. Do some breathing exercises to find your own voice modulation. We often subconsciously model our voice after our role models or what society projects as our role models, without realizing that we have a tonal range and voice modulation that we can explore and leverage according to different situations. Tune into the breathing exercises that Lucia shares on the podcast to explore the different possibilities of your own voice. 
2. Stretch to take up more space. When you stretch, you will find that your body naturally sits up a little straighter and taller. When you take up more space, your voice will project with more confidence and the receiver of your voice will feel your presence. 
3. Take time before responding. Whether you are making a big speech, or responding to comments in an intense meeting, make sure you take pauses. Take a second to bring back awareness to your body and breathing. Take a second to feel your grounding, whether you’re sitting or standing. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“When our brain, mostly incorrectly, perceives a high pressure situation as a threat, adrenaline rises, certain chemicals are released. What we need to do is to learn to reroute that process, and that requires body awareness, vocal awareness and mental focus, mindful preparedness, and coping strategies.”

“When we are confronted with a challenging situation, we have to focus on body first and brain second.”

Resources from this Episode

 The Good Partnership

Find Lucia at Cesaroni Consulting

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

How have donors been giving this past year? And what’s the outlook for the future of giving? On today’s podcast episode, Jacob O’Connor, Vice President of Engagement at CanadaHelps, comes to share with us the latest giving trends published in CanadaHelps’ 2021 Giving Report. 

Jacob’s highlights of 2021 giving trends 

1. Charities are adopting digital giving rapidly. During the pandemic, online giving grew 86% while overall giving decreased by 10%. While many charities needed to put a stop to their in-person fundraising efforts, they are seeing significant growth to their online giving. There is huge potential for charities that have not yet adopted online giving to make that shift. 
2. Young donors are giving to causes they deeply care about. Young donors who don’t necessarily have a very high income have stepped up in major ways during this pandemic. Not only are they giving to individual charities, they are also donating to cause based funds that will benefit a larger number of charities. 
3. Because of the diversification of donors, important issues and sectors are being supported in more significant ways. For instance, we’re seeing an increase for individual donation to Indigenous charities and arts and cultural sector

6

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Young people are really engaged with the issues that are top of mind right now, and that's playing out across the board in all the given trends.”

“From a financial perspective, the shift from big checks to community-based giving is much more sustainable and less volatile, when you have 1000 donors versus one funder as your source of funding.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with Jacob on LinkedIn

Read The 2021 Giving Report by CanadaHelps

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

How can we actively create the future we want to see beyond the COVID-19 pandemic? On today’s podcast, André Pawan Vashist, ecosystem facilitator, system solution designer, and seasoned nonprofit leader, shares with us his insights on how to move from a transactional way of thinking and doing to bringing about transformational changes in our sector and in our society as a whole. 

André’s insights on how we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic 

1. Move beyond transactional based processes. Recognize the limit of the transactional processes (like a grant application for funding) in our system and assess how they can better reflect relationships and perspectives from different communities. 
2. Actively learn different ways of knowing and thinking. To bring about transformational changes, We must learn not only the different ways of doing but also the different ways of knowing. In the episode, Audre gives the example of learning from Indigenous communities and how they view ways of knowing.
3. Hold space to heal our intersectional identities. We see through experiences from our different lived experiences and identify. It is important to not only recognize the different identities and perspectives that co-exist, but also celebrate that identities are intrinsically intersectional. 
4. Increase transparency and openness. Say goodbye to job postings that don’t disclose salary range. Question the lack of transparency and what kind of structure and value they try to uphold that no longer fit into the equitable world we want to see. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“To go from transactional to transformation - in the middle of that is our relationships”

“Revisit what it means to be an actor in society and not having to always be structured within a hierarchical organizational structure, it's okay to have those structures because they’re foundational in terms of holding space and resources, but they also interact in terms of transformation that requires actors moving in between those spaces"

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with André 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Despite all the research that shows the untapped talent and capabilities of neurodiverse population, neurodiverse individuals are still facing significant barriers when seeking employment and adapting to workplace culture and practice that is not made accessible to them. How can employers proactively design a healthy workplace to support neurodiverse individuals to shine with their incredible talents? On today’s podcast, Isabella He and Isabelle Hsu, two young leaders of advocacy for neurodiversity, join us to share their insight and experience. 

Isabelle and Isabella’s tips on making workplace accessible for neurodiverse individuals: 

1. Adopt a strength-based approach. Neurodiverse individuals might need specific accommodations to equip them to work in the style they feel comfortable with and show their amazing strengths. Focus on their strengths when you communicate and work with neurodiverse individuals. Adopt the mindset of how you can design the workplace to unleash the amazing strengths of your neurodiverse teammates. 
2. Raise general awareness and literacy about neurodiversity. The literacy around neurodiversity is still relatively low in our society. Seek resources that raise awareness at your workplace to learn more about neurodiversity so that you and your team know how to
3. Seek help to design the accessibility policy and practice at your workplace. There are professional accessibility specialists that can help you design your workplace practice and support your workplace to be certified neurodiverse workplace. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“I founded SN Inclusion after realizing that some people I knew that I had no idea were neurodiverse were actually neurodiverse and they had such struggles getting into the workplace and face so many adversities due to a lot of the stigmas that still perpetuate yeah in our world today. Unemployment rates among individuals with autism spectrum disorder is at 85%. I was shocked by that statistics.” - Isabella

“One thing to keep in mind is that so many of us with neurodiverse conditions have unfortunately learned to keep our conditions private and try not to bother others or to advocate for our specific needs. Of course, there are also people who are the complete opposite of that. But in general, if an employer wants to make a workplace more friendly, I suggest they approach it in a more proactive way to ask what needs to be done instead of waiting for employees to approach you and tell you what they need.” - Isabelle

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

SN Inclusion

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

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Is your organization starting to plan for going back to the office? Or is your team going to continue working from home as we slowly transition to post-pandemic reality? Whichever option you’re thinking about, there are considerations for how to ensure your staff has a safe and healthy working environment. On today’s podcast, Alice D’Abreu, an HR expert and founder of Monday Morning, shares with us what employers should be thinking about, planning for, and starting to roll out now. 

Alice’s tips on going back to the office

1. Develop plans and strategies to ensure workplace health and safety at the office. Consider strategies such as installing plexiglass and implementing a shift system and pay attention to details that people might get exposed to health hazards.
2. Have a work-from-home policy. It’s likely that for every organization, working from home will play a part in the post-pandemic reality. So if you don’t already have a work-from-home policy in place at your organization, start planning and implementing one. 
3. Make sure that you also consider how to ensure staff working from home have a safe and accommodating work environment. Just because staff are working from home, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to consider their working conditions. Check in on if they have the right equipment and resources to work with and if there is the accommodation that they need at home. 
4. Provide targeted support to address the main challenges your employees have faced. Understanding that people have different levels of experiences and challenges during the pandemic, first get a pulse check on what are the specific challenges that your staff have faced, and then look into providing targeted resources, training, or workshops to support them. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Before COVID, there were a lot of businesses that didn't even consider work from home and it's just become a fundamental reality for people that this is not going anywhere and this change might be here to stay.”

“Think about how this whole pandemic experience has had an impact on people during these very trying times. Get a pulse of what are the main challenges that people have faced and might face going forward and then look into providing targeted support.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Find Alice at Monday Morning

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

With everything that’s happening in the world right now, work can feel heavy and onerous. How can we bring back the joy in our work and feel aligned? On today’s podcast, business coach extraordinaire Lianne Kim shares with us her insight and tips on how to show up to work with a joy oriented mindset.

Get your copy of Lianne’s new bookhere Building a Joyful Business a 15% percent discount code exclusive to our listeners. Simply enter the code GOOD when you’re checking out to get the discount. 

Self-talk that Lianne wants us to walk away from:

1. “What should I be doing today?”: Rather than operating from the place of asking yourself what you should be doing, try to shift to what you would like to do. That simple mindset shift will bring more joy and meaning to your day to day.  
2. “I have no control during these unprecedented times.”: Yes. We don’t have control over how and when many things are happening in the world, but we do have control on how we respond to them. Our response is a choice that we make. 
3. “I have to serve everyone.”: You don’t have to serve every donor, client, or person in the world. Honing down in your strength and being very specific about the community of people you serve is going to make your work that much more aligned and joyful. 

Lianne’ tips on bringing back joy in our work:

1. Learn to let go. Learn to say no to projects, clients, donors that do not align with your values and vision and make space for things, people and tasks that truly matter. 
2. Cultivate the mental awareness for the mindset trap of “I am not enough.” Often when we spend so much time and energy in doing the things we think we should do, we are informed by the mindset of not-enough-ness. Building awareness to the existence of this mindset is the first step to put some distance to it. 
3. Stop playing the comparison game. Pick a lane, focus on your strength, doing things the way that you’re great at and feeling great from it. Don’t pay so much attention to what other people or organizations are doing. Think about how much you can accomplish can do with the time and energy that you spend on playing the comparison game. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Every single choice that we make can bring us closer to joy or further away.”

“I'm a big proponent that mindset really does need to be the foundation for all success. There’s no one tactic or strategy that is going to overcome a crappy mindset.” 

“It’s in the letting go of the stuff that really isn't serving us, the stuff that is going to serve us shows up.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Lianne Kim

Get your copy of Lianne’s new book Building a Joyful Business with our 15% percent discount code GOOD 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

As part 2 of Collecting Courage, we invited several white leaders in the sector to talk about how to be real and active allies for anti-racism work. On the podcast today are Mazarine Treyz, Fundraising Author and Coach, Chris Conroy, Partner at the Wellspring Group, and Scott Russell, Chief Executive Director at the Alzheimer Society of Toronto. 

Mazarine, Chris and Scott’ tips on being active allies: 

1. Commit to lifelong learning and listening. Allyship and anti-racism work is not a quick fix - it’s a lifelong commitment. Look for resources to help yourself learn and talk to people around you. 
2. Stepping Back and Calling Out. When you’re invited to a panel or speaking engagement that includes only white people, do the work to ask questions, call out the organizers, and step back. Acts like participating in all-white panels is perpetuating the system at work that disproportionately supports white voices over other’s. 
3. Get comfortable with confronting your own complicity. We are all complicit one way or another in participating in a system that is racist. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of coming face to face your own complicity. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Highlight people of colour and their work. Pay them if you’re inviting them to speak. Ask the questions that people don't want to ask. Like, why is the sector not a safe or good space for a lot of people of colour?” -  Mazarine

“We have to be willing to go deeper and to look at things with critical eyes and questions. We have to be honest with ourselves that we don't see our bias and complicity very well and see it very clearly.” - Scott

“Getting comfortable with getting uncomfortable is about getting comfortable with letting go of your own empowered worldview, which has come at the expense at the oppression of people with different world views and differing identities, which whiteness has itself framed and named and defined for itself.” - Chris

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with Mazarine

Connect with Scott

Connect with Chris

Feral Visions Podcast

The Mother of All Questions

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On today’s podcast, editors of the book Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love -  Nneka Allen, Camila Vital Nunes Pereira, and Nicole Salmon - share with us their insight and wisdom on how to confront systemic racism in our sector by starting with speaking up and sharing stories. 

Ways that Nneka, Nicole and Camille encourages us to confront systemic racism:

1. Recognize that we are all part of a racist system. Centre the conversation on the system, and recognize that we all live and breathe in racism. Good people or organizations trying to do good can be actively participating in reinforcing systemic racism too. 
2. Recognize that both action and inaction have impact. Not only do words have an impact in making changes or perpetuating harm, silence also can have significant impact. Think about what your silence means and reinforces. 
3. Leverage collective power for change. Collective courage and power will mobilize changes. Click the links in the resource section to join and support the community of Black fundraisers or host a book club at your workplace. 
4. Show commitment to philanthropy and community that do not subject to the tradition of Western and white philanthropy. Don’t let the tradition of Western and white philanthropy speak for all philanthropic and community endeavour. The Black communities’ love for community, making a difference, and connecting with people through giving predates Western philanthropy. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“The word racism is so charged because we've attached a good, bad binary to the word. And that's problematic and false. Racism is the water we swim in. So we're all infected. The question is what are we each going to do about our own infection?” - Nneka Allen

“The impact of your action and inaction lands somewhere. Words you use have a lasting impact on people.” - Nicole Salmon

“When I joined the collective, I was looking for a community, because most of the time you feel alone and you feel like you're the only one. We’re here. This is an invitation. If there's any, anyone out there in the nonprofit sector, and you're looking for a community, a place to really feel like you were at home, connect with us.” --Camila Vital Nunes Pereira

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Collecting Courage

Donate to the Black Philanthropy Fund

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

On today’s podcast, David Love, seasoned fundraiser also known as the Godfather of Good, shares with us his take on the role of fundraisers in achieving change in the world. When we centre our work around the mission and the journey that we are on as an organization and how that aligns with the journey our donors are making - we can impact meaningful and lasting change in the world.

Myths that David wants us to walk away from

1. The nature of a fundraiser's work to raise money. What fundraisers actually do is create value and make connections - connecting donors to the causes that matter deeply to them. 
2. Less people are donating nowadays. Donors are stepping up again and again for different causes. Less people are donating just for a charitable receipt, but more people are giving to causes they are deeply passionate of regardless of the tax receipt. This is why we don’t yet have a great metric on the current state of philanthropy.

David’s tips on working with donors:

1. Recognize that the donors’ journey already started and you’re here to support them on their journey. No hard sell is needed. There is a reason that a potential donor is interested in the organization's mission and vision. You’re just here to support them on a path that they’re already on, guided by their own values, interest, and passion.  
2. Help them to find and support initiatives that speak to their values and the changes they want to see in the world. Ask questions or guide the donors to hone in what is it that will make them feel the spark or the connection with the impact that matters to them. 
3. Show passion and authenticity in your communication with your donors. Do away with aloof and formal language and focus on showing that you too deeply care about the mission and vision that your donors are invested in. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“It’s a fallacy to think that fundraisers raise money. What fundraisers spend their lives doing is creating value. Fundraisers make dreams come true. Small organizations with difficult causes need to find ways to make the values that are at the heart of what they do come alive in a donor’s soul.”

“Donors are already on a journey. We as fundraisers didn't actually start that journey. They come to us because they're on a journey and they're actually trying to find out whether the road that we’re showing them is one we want to go down or not.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with David on Linkedin

David’s new book: Green Green: Reflections on 51 Years of Raising Money for Nature

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

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How do we recover from the exhaustion and pain of the pandemic? How do we lead our organizations into the post-pandemic world with responsible leadership in service for our communities? On today’s episode, social impact leader Chi Nguyen gives us the real talk on how to approach our leadership and the way we show up with a feminist and inclusive lens. 

Chi’s tips on approaching leadership from a feminist and inclusive lens:

1. Caregiving is deeply feminist. Caregiving translates into leadership at all levels of our society. Leaders who understand the value of caregiving have the potential to transform how we are organized and governed. 
2. Purpose and responsibility driven. Think about responsibility not just for ourselves and our immediate community, but our collective responsibility for this planet and future generations. 
3. Show up as our whole selves. We carry what’s going on in our lives, our identities, and our values to the table and so let our authenticity and experience shine through our decision making and leadership. 
4. Be ok with the discomfort when wrestling with power. Disrupting systemic privilege and power structure is uncomfortable but a necessary part of the work in service for our communities. And it’s not just about disrupting power structures outside of our own organizations and our sector. We have to be able to look inward as well. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“When I think about inclusive leadership and feminist leadership, it's about bringing that whole person and all of the weight of that into decision making, into how we run our organizations with lots of forgiveness and resiliency, and frankly, real humanity.”

“The best community programming and best response to community initiatives is a program that is for us by us - fundraised, led, designed, implemented. That is the model for ownership of community solutions, but it is not how our systems have been built. We need to move from a charitable model to collective impact model.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Chi Nguyen 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

How can I close that sponsorship deal? This is the question that keeps many fundraisers and Executive Directors up at night. On today’s episode, Charmaine Hammond, partnership development expert at Raise a Dream, shares with us an easy-to-follow, 7-step framework for building long lasting partnerships.

Myths that Charmaine wants us to leave behind

1. You have to shoehorn your nonprofit into a partnership. Have a discovery call with a potential partner and assess if there is an alignment before proceeding further. You don’t have to pursue a partner that has no value and impact alignment with your organization.
2. If there is a problem with partnership deliverables, let’s not report the problem until the point of no return. Engage your partner early on with the problem and invite them to be part of the solution. Your partner is invested in the success of the partnership just as you are. 

Charmaine’s tips on building partnerships

Listen for the full episode to get all of Charmaine's tips and the complete 7-step framework. 

1. Go beyond the obvious for partnership research. Try to see where your partners are speaking at, what social media engagement they are doing, and what campaigns they are involving themselves in. 
2. Let the partnerships/sponsors tell you what to include in a proposal. Ask them explicitly what would be helpful to include, what should not be included, who else will be involved in the decision making process and viewing the proposal etc. 
3. Continue to consistently engage your partners after the partnership is concluded. Get in touch with partners and see how they’re doing. Keep tabs on what initiatives they’re engaged in. Share program updates from your side. Keep in touch with them like your friends and the relationship will flow organically. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“I don't want any surprises when potential partners read the proposal and contract I send over. So when a potential partner asks for a proposal, I say absolutely, I can put it together and ask these questions: what would you like me to send you? Who else is going to be looking at it just you? Okay. Oh, you've got to bring in some other team members, what will they want to see? How many pages? What do I not need to cover? What do I need to ensure is in there for you to take this forward and sell it?”

“What I have learned is the earlier you bring a possible issue forward to a partner, the more support you get in the solution, because nobody at this point wants to see  failure. Everybody is committed to make the partnership successful. So, let people be part of the solution.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Raise a Dream

Connect with Charmaine on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

We’re so busy taking care of everything that often we forget to take care of ourselves first. How do we create space for ourselves in our day to day so that we build resilience in the long run? Tune in to this amazing conversation with Komal Minhas, a resilience educator with a mission to help people rise through adversity 

Myths that Komal wants us to leave behind

1. We need to build resilience or learn to be resilient. You’re already resilient. We’re all resilient by being able to live through life and overcoming difficult things. Believing that you already have resilience in you is the first time towards building an even more resilient system of habits and behaviours for yourself. 
2. We need to avoid burnout and low points in life. Instead, accept that we will inevitably experience burnouts and low points in life, and focus on when we do experience those difficult periods, what is the system in our life that will help us get back to baseline, and how fast. 

Komal’s tips for cultivating resilience in the long run

1. Celebrate what we have overcome. Celebrating moments that you have exercised resilience and perseverance to overcome difficulties is just as important as celebrating the positive moments in your life. Only when you start seeing and recognizing your incredible resilience that you can cultivate it further.
2. Create space in your day to day for yourself. Are you reserving time and space for yourself to move, eat, relax, breathe? Be a better friend to yourself every day, rather than waiting for your mind and body to be totally burned out to step up your self care game. 
3. Cultivate your identity and wholeness outside of work. Find joy and fun things that nurture your soul outside of your work so that work and productivity are not the only things that define you and confine your life. 
4. Build wellness habits that you enjoy and have an accountability buddy or community. The key is to focus on wellness habits that you truly like to do. Start with small things, and try to find a buddy or a community of people to keep you accountable. That will likely make the habits stick. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“We often say celebrate your birthday; celebrate the promotion; celebrate the good things. How often do we encourage each other to celebrate those difficult things? But it's equally as important, if not more important, because we expect only positivity to be celebrated when in fact like that tenacity, perseverance, resilience we have for overcoming difficult things is really what makes those positive moments matter that much more.”

“How do we cultivate a wholeness in our identity outside of work when we are confined to our homes. This is the challenge we face in this pandemic. And if instead of feeling victimized by that, we can flip the switch and say, I'm going to rise to this challenge. I'm going to make game nights with my friends online or with my family. I'm going to constantly move my body, I'm going to find pockets of joy, I am going to turn off my laptop at six o'clock. I'm going to set boundaries with work. We can almost gamify developing our wholeness, outside of our productivity, and for me that's a big aspect of resiliency that we need to talk about in our work-addicted culture.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Komal’s website

Connect with Komal on Instagram

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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We often think about branding for our organizations as something that speaks to communities we serve and stakeholders we answer to. We forget to count our staff and prospective staff in that list. How is your organization speaking to current and future employees? On today’s podcast, Laura Tolhoek, President of Essential HR, shares with us how to build your employer brand and recruit and keep the talents your team needs. 

Laura’s tips on building your employer brand

1. Understand and clarify your organization’s value proposition to employees and show that in your job posting.  What experience are you offering to your team? What are your values and what is your culture like? Answer these questions internally and make sure you communicate these in job postings. 
2. Build a pay compensation framework. This will help guide the leadership team in hiring, and if you are confident in your pay compensation framework, there is no reason why the organization cannot share salary range in job posting. Pay range transparency is what candidates look for as an indicator of the organization’s value in pay equity. 
3. Amplify what’s working and aligned with your employer brand. So often we focus on what is not working in our HR practice and our culture, and forget about things that are working. Lean into what is already working so well and amplify those aspects in your organization. 
4. Make onboarding a priority. The onboarding process can make or break a new hire’s experience. Don’t just hand off a bunch of documents and policies to the new hire. Make sure to have someone introduce the organization and be available to the person. If you are the hiring manager and you do not have the capacity, that’s ok. Assign this task to people in your company who are keen on doing this and love meeting new people. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“If you can provide yourself with the pay compensation framework that you're confident in, and if you're confident in those numbers, then there's no problem providing those numbers to other people and include in job posting, because you can give the reasons why they're there.”

“Anything to do with HR, top to bottom, is about communication. There is no such thing as over-communication in the recruitment process.” 

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Essential HR

Laura on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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More and more organizations are prioritizing diversity and inclusion as their strategic priorities. But how are organizations actually doing this work? On today’s episode, Trish Mandewo, Founder & CEO at Synergy on Boards Consulting Group and Coquitlam City Councillor, shares with us how to distinguish D&I tactics that are lip service and perpetuate harm from those that have a lasting and meaningful impact. 

Myths that Trish wants us to walk away 

1. If we have diverse representation in our leadership team and on our board, our organization will be inclusive. Tokenism is far from diversity and inclusion. As well, don’t automatically assume BIPOC people have the expertise or responsibility to push for diversity, inclusion and equity at the organization. 
2. We will do a D&I training and we will have done “the work.” If your mindset is that D&I work is something to be done within a short span of time with limited effort and resources, you’re already starting at the wrong place. Diversity takes time, and diversity, inclusion and equity is a commitment, not a temporary goal. 

Trish’ tips on building diverse and inclusive culture

1. When you recruit, look outside of your own circle. If you’re struggling to look for diverse talents, it’s not that there are none. Most likely, it’s because your organization has been looking at the same places or engaging the same exec search firm that doesn’t include diverse talents in their network. Get out of your familiar circle and cast the net wider.
2. Assess your inclusive framework with all kinds of inclusion in mind. Don’t limit your equity and inclusive framework and policy to inclusion based on race. There are many kinds of discrimination, gender based, age based, disability based etc. Look at everything with an inclusive lens. 
3. Don’t do preferential hiring based on diversity measures and then shove all the EDI responsibilities to those employees or board members. This in itself is perpetuating the narrative and culture of discrimination. No one wants to be seen, valued or hired solely based on their race, gender, age etc. Trust and value diverse talents for their competencies and apply true meritocracy. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“We need to not wait to be invited to come to the circle. We need to invite ourselves into the circle. Because when you experience inequity over the years, you get to a point where you just think you’re just going to stand outside the circle and look in. Keep inviting yourselves into the circle.”

“Inclusion starts now, and diversity takes time. Show me that your company actually has an inclusion framework so that when the person that you're looking for comes in,  they're going to come into your place that’s welcoming, where they can feel like they belong. If your organization is just going to hire diverse candidates and do nothing else, then you might be bringing in people into an environment which is not ready or welcoming for them.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Trish on Linkedin

Synergy on Boards

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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How can charities become “investment-ready”? On today’s podcast, Narinder, Managing Partner at Marigold Capital, shares with us what impact investors, grantors, and other funders, are looking for when choosing charity partners, and how charities can assess whether an investor or funder is the right fit for them. 

Myths that Narinder wants us to walk away 

1. We have to fit a program into funders’ objectives. If you are tweaking a program so much to fit funders’ objectives to the extent that it does not align with your organization's mission and vision anymore, you have to pause and ask yourself what is the long term value that this funding will bring to your organization. 
2. Never say no to money. It takes courage for the leaders of a nonprofit to assess any given funding is aligned with their mission and vision. Be very clear of what your vision is. If there is no alignment, it is ok to walk away. 

Narinder’s tips on becoming investment ready:

1. Do your research on similar charities in the space and highlight your unique value proposition. Your understanding on who else is doing similar work as your charity and rationale for why your organization’s work is different, unique or needed will show to the funders that you have a deep understanding of the space you’re in and what your organization’s role in the space is. 
2. Celebrate your leadership team’s lived experience. More and more, funders and impact investors are just valuing the leadership team’s professional experience. They also assess the lived experience of the board and staff to get a sense of their potential community expertise and perspective. 
3. Have a clear vision on how the investment will fit into your strategy, not the other way around. Constantly inventing programs to fit a funding requirement not going to work. Impact investors care about the sustainability of your organization’s business model. They would be less likely to invest in your organization if they don’t see themselves adding value to your work in the long term. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Asking a simple question of who else is doing what you're doing and how is your approach different sometimes is the most revealing. If what your organization is doing is unique that no one is coming close to what you're doing, but you don't have a sense of your neighbor who's doing a similar program, that tells me a lot about the actual work that you're engaging in and potentially the why.”

“As a funder, I most appreciate when the executive directors say - this is my strategy, and this is your funding bucket and this is how it fits into my strategy that I've already defined. That way you're not unintentionally getting into mission drift and find yourself creating many different programs that may or may not drive value for the organization.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Narinder on Linkedin

Marigold Capital

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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What do funders really look for in a proposal? How do they decide what to fund and what not to? These are the burning questions we have when laboring hours and hours of work for a funding application. On today’s podcast, we go behind the scenes with a funder and connect with Stephanie Rebello, Manager of Sustainability and Inclusion at LoyaltyOne to tackle all your burning questions. 

Myths that Stephanie wants us to walk away 

1. Getting a corporate grant is a cheque exchange. Gone are the days that corporate philanthropy is transactional relationship. Corporate funding managers like Stephanie care deeply about how corporate and charitable partners can co-create sustainable values.  
2. Don’t report on bad news. Trust that your funders value resilience and adaptability and have faith in your expertise. When facing problems like the unexpected impact brought about by the global pandemic, be transparent with your funders, tell them the problems you’re facing, outline your pivot plan, and let them know how they can support you. 

Stephanie’s tips on building partnership with funders

1. Propose joint value proposition. Whether it’s for a pitch or a funding application, do your homework in thinking about what the funder can bring to the table and what your charity can bring to the table to co-create values for each other. Oftentimes, charities will have insights into specific communities that the funders would never have, and funders will have certain capabilities and capacities in a specific sector that the charities don’t have. Think holistically and creatively about how those cross sections can bring about collaboration and impact. 
2. Take a co-design approach. One size does not fit all. Understand specific funders’ needs, objectives and capabilities in partnering with you and design the partnership proposal with both your charity and the funder’s perspectives in mind. Be open to get feedback and design with the funder. This process might take longer but the result will be rewarding for both parties in the partnership. 
3. Lean in to your community insights and subject expertise. These are valuable assets that the funders won’t have or won’t know. Lean in your strength and inspire your funders in both your proposal and reporting. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Ask what are some joint value propositions of what we're doing and what you're doing. One thing I love about working with some nonprofits is that deep knowledge that they have on their community members that I will never have. But I have some of the products, services, some of the data analytics and some of the powerhouse tools and resources. When you put them together, it’s really awesome and you can see some amazing sustainable impacts” 

“We’re seeing such a transition and such a disruption in both the corporate social responsibility sector and the philanthropy sector, because we're no longer looking at transactional relationships. We're now more actively involved with purpose driven work products and services that give back.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with Stephanie on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Social media is one of those things that almost everyone has, but very few use it well. On today’s podcast, we invited Brock Warner, fundraiser and author of the book From the Ground Up: Digital Fundraising for Nonprofits to walk us through how to build a consistent and effective social media strategy. 

Myths that Brock wants us to walk away 

1. All my followers will see every post I post, right? Only about 10% of your followers will see each of your organic posts. For your posts to make it to more people’s feeds, it needs to attract engagement (sharing and commenting)
2. There is a secret for making viral posts: there are so many factors that will inspire people to share, and different audience personalities behave differently. There is no one strategy that will work all the time other than consistently trying, testing, and understanding your audience. 

Brock’s tips on increasing social media engagement 

1. Empathize with your audience and be intentional in your social media posts. Who is your donor base? What are they interested in? What is it that you would like your posts to do for your audience? Take time to come up with hypotheses for these questions and let the answers guide the way you craft your posts. 
2. Build loyalty consistently over time. Post consistently, be available and be transparent to your followers. When people interact with your posts and ask you questions, be there to socialize with them. Test out different kinds of content and see what works. 
3. Connect your social media strategy with your email marketing strategy.  Email remains one of the most effective ways for storytelling and converting audiences to become donors. Plan for evergreen content on your social media with a call to action for them to subscribe to your email list. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“The golden rules apply now more than ever. In fundraising, people give to people telling good stories, relating on a very human level, being open and honest and transparent. These are the things that no matter what the algorithm is people like and are going to resonate with.” 

“For a smaller organization, you can quickly come up with what 40% of your donor base tends to look like and sound like and be interested in. So if you start with putting yourself in that person's shoes. What would that person want to see. Let that guide your decisions about the tone, the voice, the length you use in your social media posts.” 

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Brock’s Linkedin

Brock’s book: From the Ground Up: Digital Fundraising for Nonprofits

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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If things are not broken, why change?

But what are some fundamental assumptions and myths that we believe in working in the charitable sector that hinder us from enabling changes and delivering impact? On today’s podcast episode, Rickesh Lakhani, Executive Director of Future Possibilities for Kids and a passionate champion of grassroots organizations, joins us to bust these myths and question status-quo that does more harm than good. 

Big questions about the sector we tackle on this episode 

1. Is it ethical to invest in our staff? Investing in our staff and our team is key to the long term sustainability of our organizations. Moreover, investing in the organization’s infrastructure, system and process is equally important. 
2. Do we have to choose between being donor-centred and being community centred? Fundraising is supposed to enable us to do our work for our communities, not hinder it. Donor-centricity doesn’t mean to please donors at all cost. Do not be afraid to have difficult conversations with donors when their approach of philanthropy does not align with your values and might cause harm to the communuty. 
3. Who can give?  We often make assumptions about who has the capacity to give and who doesn’t. We also often normalize the practice of 100% staff and board giving but don’t customize the strategy and approach for the organization. There are many ways people can contribute to the organization, and there are also donors that can and will give but the organization precludes them right from the prospecting stage. 
4. Can charities do harm? Just because charities set out to do good, it doesn’t mean they can’t do harm. Doing good and doing harm can co-exist. If we let people in the sector get off the hook just because they intend to do good, we are reinforcing racism, seixsm, and other systemic issues.
5. Is our work political? By law, charities’ work needs to be bipartisan, but it doesn’t mean our work is apolitical. By nature, our work is political as we push for social changes. Charities can add values to enabling social changes and responding to societal crises like the pandemic by being nimble innovators and community connectors.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“If we are not investing in our infrastructure, our system, our process, our people - our future, how are we going to tackle the magnitude of the work that we set out to do?” 

“I don’t want the kind of fundraising that donors can have so much power that they can harass a staff member and walk away.  I don’t want the kind of fundraising that reinforces the stereotypes of communities. I don’t want growth that is at the expense of our employees.” 

“People who do community work are some of the most resourceful people I know. Imagine giving them enough funding and resources - what might be the impact and changes they bring?” 

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Connect with Rickesh

Rickesh’s Twitter

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Good financial health is the cornerstone of a sustainable nonprofit. As nonprofit leaders, we all know the importance of financial management, but budgets and audits still give us the worst headaches. How can we build up our financial management muscles and confidence? On today’s episode, Betty Ferreira, Founder of GoodCasting who has trained and coached many nonprofit leaders on financial management, shares with us how we can figure out our organization’s finances without headaches and tears. 

Myths that Betty wants us to walk away

1. You have to be good at math to manage your finances. Managing finance doesn’t necessarily require you to be good at math. A lot of it is exercising your logical thinking muscles. 
2. You have to have all the answers whenever you’re talking about finance with your board. Don’t aim for perfection. Aiming for perfection will trap you into the habit of avoiding talking about your organization’s finance with your board of directors. No one has all the answers. Work with your board together on figuring out your finances. 

Betty’s tips on figuring out your finance

1. Know that you can transform your organization’s business model and financial structure. Many inherit the business model and financial structure from their predecessors and assume that they can’t change them. You can (and in some cases, should) absolutely make changes to the financial structure to suit the changing needs of the organization. 
2. Have a thorough and transparent discussion about finance with your board. It’s tempting to provide the minimum and most succinct version of your financial statements to your board. But in order for them to do their job of providing financial oversight, you should present them more comprehensive information including the financial position statement of your organization. Expect that this process will take time and effort in going back and forth with your board. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Doing the match and sorting out your finance is connected to social justice -- they’re about your organization’s resilience and impact.”

“For both fundraising and finance management, don’t wait for the crisis to build the competencies” 

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Find Betty at GoodCasting

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Donating with cryptocurrency is an emerging trend. With a lot of information (and hype) out there about cryptocurrency, it can be confusing and even a bit scary when considering whether your charity should start receiving cryptocurrency donations. On today’s episode, two experts in this field, Anne Connelly and Jason Shim, share with us how to get started with cryptocurrency fundraising. 

Quick facts about cryptocurrency donations

1. You can sell the donated crypto currency right away, or you can hold on to it and sell it to harness a higher profit. Note that cryptocurrency is more volatile than stocks or bonds but charities can leverage on the volatility. 
2. You issue a tax receipt for cryptocurrency donations at fair market value at the time of donation. Crypto currency donations are currently considered as in-kind donations in Canada. 
3. You’re not the first charity to do this. There are Canadian charities that have already started to accept cryptocurrency donations. Pathway to Education Canada, Simon Fraser University, and more.  

Anne and Jason’s tips on getting started with cryptocurrency donation

1. Set up your system to receive cryptocurrency. Start with choosing a platform that can receive cryptocurrency and embedding the system to your website. After that, think about what are other ways in your communication channels and touch points that you can set up the receiving of crypto donation and promote it. 
2. Reframe about the way you think about who can give and the way they give. Crypto donors are often young and digital minded. They may behave and think quite differently than traditional donors.
3. Evaluate perceived risk versus actual risk. Don’t get caught up in sensationalism in media headlines. Do your research. Try buying one bitcoin on your own to see what the process is like. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“This is something that every charity is going to have in the next 10 years. When you look back on the adoption of credit cards, the charitable sector also had people who were really afraid of that at first. With Bitcoin right now, people are nervous about it but I guarantee within the next 10 years if your donor database doesn't integrate crypto currency donations, you'll be finding a new database.” 

“Here’s a really amazing window of opportunity right now, where if you build it they will come. And that's because there's so few charities out there that actually do accept cryptocurrency donations. With wealthy crypto donors, their first step in finding a charity to donate to is literally googling charity that accepts Bitcoin and then picking from five or six that are on the list.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Anne Connelly 

Jason Shim

Anne and Jason’s new book: Bitcoin and the Future of Fundraising 

Anne’s Blog (including guides on how to buy cryptocurrency)

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Dealing with conflicts often invokes uneasy feelings or even fear. But healthy debates and conflicts can bring thought diversity and new perspectives to the table. So can we stop avoiding conflict and manage them with more ease and courage? On today’s episode, personal development coach and mediator Claudia Aronowitz shares with us practical tips on conflict management. 

Myths that Claudia wants us to leave behind

1. “I need to know what to say during an argument!” Don’t listen to the other person in conflict with you just so that you can have the perfect come-back line to prove your point. That is not constructive for moving along the conversation. Don’t be afraid of silence in an argument. Give space to listen. Ask more, talk less. 
2. We need to leave emotion out of the door when we try to de-escalate a conflict. Acknowledging the emotion in a tense conversation is key to de-escalation. When emotion runs high, it is ok to take a time-out break. 

Claudia’s tips on managing conflicts 

1. Acknowledge the other side and agree to disagree. Listen and acknowledge differences of opinion and perspective and stay curious. You do not have to agree with everything, but you can always acknowledge the other person’s point and emotion.  
2. Understand and anticipate your triggers. Observe what kind of behaviour, signals, and patterns trigger yourself. If you can get a better understanding of your trigger points, you will be able to anticipate when and how you get triggered. 
3. Paraphrase what the other person is saying and summarize it out loud. If you can paraphrase what the other person engaging in a conflict with you is saying, you are showing the other person you're actively listening and understanding the person’s point of view. This is helpful for de-escalation in a difficult conversation. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“There are always two sides in a conflict. Ask yourselves what are the things that you’re willing to do to deal with that conflict. Because if we change, the relationship changes. If we start dealing with conflict differently, the other person on offense will come around and start understanding that something's shifting.”

“To prepare yourself for a conversation involving conflict, you really need to work through the steps of what do you want to say? How are you going to listen? How are you going to get the information you need? And in a situation involving power dynamics, do you need somebody else to come to the meeting with you? “

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Claudia Aronowitz

Values Exercise Worksheet

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Send us Fan Mail

Prospect research, or prospect development, often seems to be one of those fundraising “best practices” that feel exclusive to charities with more resources. How can small charities do meaningful prospect research and development without draining their bank account? On today’s podcast, prospect development expert Preeti Gill shares some practical tips for small nonprofits to kickstart their prospect research and challenges us to rethink the notion of philanthropy through the process of prospect development. 

Myths that Preeti wants us to leave behind

1. You always have to look outside for prospects. Be curious about your own donor base first. Look at the donors who have made a gift larger than you expected in the past, reach out to them, and get to know them and why they support your organization. 
2. More information means more dollars will be raised. Gathering external information and research about donors and donor prospects must be coupled with action in order to yield results. Don’t expect any donor research database or tool will solve all your fundraising problems. 

Preeti’s tips on prospect research

1. Actively and consistently capture data on who is interacting with your organization. Collect data on who is subscribed to your e-newsletter, who comes to your event, and who volunteers for your organizations - your best donor prospects are those who already support your organization. 
2. Leverage external information to fill in the information gap about your existing donors. There might be information that your donors do not want to share with you explicitly. For instance, how much are they giving to other charities. If you can leverag donor research to fill these information gaps, you will have a better picture of your donors. 
3. Don’t do prospect research just from your desk - meet with people! Communities everywhere are filled with diverse donors who are eager to support and engage with their community initiatives. You’re missing a big part of the picture if you only rely on an online database to look up past giving history. You might also fall for the dangerous trap of having a narrow definition of a philanthropist and philanthropy. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“It is not enough to have beautifully crafted and presourced prospect development. You also need to be investing in training your donor facing colleagues to get to know their donors and understand that it is their job to foster philanthropy and secure philanthropic support from donors supported by the prospect research.”

“Prospect researchers play an important role in broadening our definitions of what philanthropy is beyond seeing an old white guy's name on the top of a building. Really think about what philanthropy means to a broader subset of Canadians, because I would argue newcomer Canadians and first generation Canadians have a different definition of philanthropy and how philanthropy is practiced and viewed in North America.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Preeti Gill on Linkedin

Preeti Gill on Twitter

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Managing the board often gives EDs a headache. When a board functions effectively, it can be an organization’s greatest asset, but when it doesn’t, it becomes an extra burden for the ED and the rest of the staff. So how do you build your dream board from inside out? On today’s episode, Andrea Shirey, CEO of One Nine Design and expert on nonprofit board management, shares with us step-by-step tips on improving your board’s experience and impact. 

Myths that Andrea wants us to leave behind

1. People with tons of board experience are going to fix your board. Bringing in someone who is sitting on multiple boards is not necessarily going to fix things. Assess whether this board member even has the capacity to support your board, and be mindful that sometimes positioning a new board member as “the fixer” of problems can set the board member up for failure and create unintended friction within the board
2. “We need to train our board!” - instead of focusing so much on training your board, focus on untraining them on bad habits first. Assess what they are doing right now that is not a good use of time and resources. See the tips below for some of the examples on how to “untrain” them. 

Andrea’s tips on increasing board engagement 

1. Improve communication with your board with the ED’s executive report. Avoid pages of long content without focus. Instead of writing the ED’s report the night before the board meeting, keep a document throughout the month to keep track of highlights and items you need the board’s support. When presenting the report, be very clear what kind of support you’re trying to get from the board members. See below for Andrea’s free Executive Director Board Report template. 
2. Flip your board agenda upside down. Make the board meeting engaging and interesting by sharing a good story right at the top and have the most important discussions at the beginning. Leave the procedural stuff at the end. 
3. Leverage your existing board members to recruit board members with authenticity and specificity. When you’re writing out a board recruitment posting for public distribution or your board members to share, avoid jargons and give a succinct summary of your organization’s theory of change and what is the expected commitment of your board members. Don’t be afraid of specifying the skill sets and expertise that you’re looking for. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Start with your current board, understanding what you need to move forward, and take the right steps to recruit the right people. An ideal board is made up of the right people for the right time for the organization who understand why they're there and understand what's expected of them.”

“Improving the current board members’ experience and recruiting the right people to the board needs to happen simultaneously. When you improve the current board members’ experience, you’re setting them up to help the organization effectively. A good and specific place to start is with the Executive Director’s report.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Andrea Shirey at One Nine Design

Better Board Strategy Guide

Executive Director Board Report Template

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Reaching and engaging the changing demographics in communities is often on organizations’ strategic agenda. But when it comes to developing the actual strategic tactics and implementing them, organizations often face a set of questions:  where do we begin? How do we reach new communities authentically and meaningfully? And how long will our strategies start to show results? 

On today’s podcast, Bobby Sahni, Partner and Co-Founder of Ethnicity Matters, joins us to answer all your burning questions about engaging diverse and multicultural communities. 

Myths that Bobby wants us to leave behind

1. There are universal strategies for building a D&I program. The make-up of communities are shifting and organizations must pay ongoing attention to shifting trends to build a thoughtful diversity and inclusion practice. 
2. “do immigrant communities give”? According to the recent study that EthnicityMatters conducted with Imagine Canada, across the board, immigrant communities have the willingness to give more but they currently feel like they’re not being spoken to directly by charities. 

Bobby’s tips on building a multicultural philanthropy program

1. Develop a long term strategy and give yourself permission to fail. Don’t try something in the short term and then easily fall back to the good old way of doing things just because one or two strategic tactics do not work out. 
2. Start from the top. Driving diversity, inclusion and belonging is an internal journey and must be led by the leadership level of the organizations in order to have long term, sustainable outcomes. 
3. Know the communities you want to reach and serve. While this may sound so intuitively obvious, do a gut check and be honest with yourself and your organization whether you truly know the communities you want to serve. Go out in the communities to meet people and get to know them. Be curious and open. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

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“The only thing we have in common is that we’re different. Let’s be curious and open and talk about all of our differences”

“Building a multicultural philanthropy program is not a one-month, two-month, or one-year, or five-year project. It's constantly evolving and changing. Every organization really needs to first develop a strategic mindset and understand that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy.” 

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

EthnicityMatters

Report on Multicultural Canada and the Future of Giving

Bobby Sahni on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

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Myths that Bruce wants us to leave behind

1. Because corporations have shrinking budgets, they can’t support the charitable sector.  Many corporations have digital expertise that charities might not have. Corporations can share their digital expertise and help charities to assess their digital infrastructure needs to support them to adapt to the pandemic and post-pandemic world. 
2. After we survive this pandemic, it will be back to normal and business as usual for the charitable sector. It is clear that the ways we work and collaborate and the way we deliver our impact in the sector is rapidly changing. Charities must start thinking about what is their future business model and consider how to design their workspace (physical and/or digital), work culture, and service delivery model. 

Bruce’s tips on how can charities be equipped to face future storms

1. Build digital infrastructure. Whether it is through sharing resources and expertise with partners and funders, or hiring digital specialists on the team, charities need to act now to build digital infrastructure that will ensure the sustainable health of their organizations. 
2. Diversify or maintain a diversified pool of funding support. We need a mix ecology for what is supporting the charitable sector, including support from the government, corporations and communities.  The coming together of different stakeholders will allow for the charitable sector to thrive. 
3. Continue to invest in impact sharing and storytelling. Continued and effective communication of the impact of charities and our sector as a whole has a profound impact on building and deepening trust with the general public. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

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“It's time to shift the conversation to health and well being as opposed to overhead and administration. I've been using a tree analogy. We all understand that we need to deepen the roots and have a strong foundation. If several branches of the tree break off in a storm, for organizations whose roots are not strong, the storm will break the trunk of the tree. Part of building foundational strength is investing in the kinds of things like digital infrastructure and digital technology that are going to last in the long run.”

“I’m hopeful that some of the practices that we've seen emerge through a crisis can shift our DNA and become part of how we as a sector work together more effectively going forward. With 2.4 million Canadians working in this sector, 13 million volunteers and 8.5% of GDP, we are a force to be reckoned with in Canada, and should be reckoned with. And if there's one thing we can do something out of this is to leverage our ability to use that strength for good.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Imagine Canada

Bruce MacDonald on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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We all want to do a good job. Especially in the nonprofit sector, sometimes there’s immense pressure to do an outstanding job because we need to answer to the community we serve. But trying to do a good job does not equate to the endlessly pursuing perfection. In fact, perfection doesn’t exist and we learn the most when we fail. On today’s episode, our guest Nikki Bell, fundraising consultant and founder of Pizza for Losers, will share with us how we can learn from the smallest to the biggest failures and how to build a growth-oriented relationship with our fear of failure. 

Myths that Nikki wants us to leave behind

1. Failure shows our weakness. Moments of failures show our real potential. If you have not failed at anything, it means you’ve been playing too safe. 
2. Only big failures can guide us to learn. Our work and lives are made up of many small failures more than big, catastrophic failures. Some of the biggest learnings can come from the smallest failures. 

Nikki’s tips on failing forward

1. Take space and time for reflection. Failing gives us an opportunity for introspection. Make sure that you allow yourself to sit with the uncomfortable feeling and observe what is going on and reflect what is your biggest takeaway. 
2. Have a toolkit ready for facing fear. Dealing with fear of failure and pressure to succeed takes practice. Use methods like free writing to dissect your feelings and nurture habits to make you feel comfortable with these stressful and uncomfortable feelings. The more you practice, the more you will become aware of it and know how to respond instead of react to it. 
3. Don’t play the comparison game. Practicing failing forward is a journey, and everyone’s journey is different. Avoid comparing yourself with others or else you might fall for the trap of thinking the person you compare yourself with doesn't seem to have fear or failures, but in actuality you don’t know another that person feels. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“With failures, we tend to blame elsewhere. It’s really important to get comfortable with uncomfortable feelings. Reflect, work on yourself, and love yourself.”

“Quitting something that’s not working is not failure. The failure is sticking in it and festering there long term just to save face.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Nikki Bell 

Pizza for Losers

Fundraising Everywhere

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Offering a naming right opportunity to donors can be a daunting process. From making the right offer to negotiating the terms of the naming, how might we think holistically and act strategically about it? On today’s episode, Vincent Duckworth, seasoned fundraiser and CEO and President of the ViTreo Group, reframes our fear and worry around donor naming rights and provides practical advice on how to manage this process, regardless of how big or small your organization is. 

Myths that Vincent wants us to leave behind

1. Naming rights only benefits the donors. Having a major donor’s name on a campaign or program can help drive momentum to the campaign and establish credibility for the program. 
2. Donors who want naming rights only care about visibility. Many donors actually don’t care about visibility as much as they care about impact. Understand every donor’s unique needs and design the naming right opportunity to meet those needs. 

Vincent’s tips on managing donor naming rights 

1. The property you associate the donors names’ with is a reflection of the relationship. The more tangible the named property is, the more that it shows you value the relationship. For example, a physical donor wall reflects more permanence in a relationship than a virtual donor wall. 
2. Be adaptable with your recognition strategies as your organization evolves. There is no one golden rule that is always right when it comes to naming right opportunities. When your organiatin starts out, it might make sense to provide more donors with naming rights. As your organization grows, you can also decide whether or not to reserve naming rights to be more exlcusive. 
3. When confirming naming terms, be aware of the impact it has on the communities you serve. While it might make sense to limit the naming rights’ to a term, for certain programs, sustaining stability and longevity is important and changing their names from time to time can have a negative impact on your community. Engage your community in the process if possible and be aware of the impact it has if you need to change the naming of a program, an offering, or a property. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“In the nonprofit sector, some organizations suffer from thinking that their brand is not as important as those in the for-profit sector. And that’s just not true. But we don’t realize this until we make an abrupt change like renaming a property or program without talking to the community. Be aware that naming things has an impact on community dynamics.”

“Sometimes, donors like naming right opportunities that are only seen by program recipients and staff. They do this not because of ego and not because of brands. It’s about making people know others care.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Find Vincent at ViTreo Group

BrainTrust Philanthropy Podcast

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

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How can we have a real conversation about systemic racism and white supremacy, especially at our workplace with power dynamics involved? On today’s podcast, Hawa Mire, strategy and equity consultant and community organizer, walks us through how we might build up our muscles and emotional intelligence for having these important conversations. 

Myths that Hawa wants us to leave behind

1. If I do better individually, racism and oppression will go away. Racism permeates our society and culture on a systemic level.  While individual actions matter immensely, recognizing systemic racism and oppression exist and continue to exist is a starting point for us to tackle and dismantle white supremacy together. 
2. Only bad people will do racist things. Everyone has blindspots and unconscious bias perpetuated by systemic racism. Assuming that only bad people are racist pigeonholes conversations about race to be about individual character and risk neglecting the whole picture of systemic racism and power dynamics at play. 

Hawa’s tips on building up your muscle for talking about race, racism and white supremacy:

1. Get out of passive learning. Reading a book is very different from engaging with real people and engaging with the community. Get out there to engage in experiential learning and connect with people and understand their lived experiences. 
2. Don’t react to a conversation with the sole intent of self-preservation. Conversations about race and racism are much more complex than one person’s good or bad. Allow people to come talk to you about their experiences without making the conversation about you. Respond mindfully and don’t be afraid to recognize you don’t have the language or answers. 
3. Recognize you’re responsible for the harm of your action and words. Intentions and outcomes can be very different. Having good intentions does not automatically preclude you from inflicting harm. Take responsibility for the impact and outcome of your actions and words. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“It’s hard for people to get out of this sense of: I'm only a racist if I'm a bad person, not racist if I'm a good person. When you start the conversation around white supremacy there, you don't get very far because people are much more interested in preserving their sense of themselves. If the conversations involve BIPOC people responding rightfully about their lived experience, then suddenly we've got groups of people having conversations about themselves, but only one of those groups of people has any significant power to change the condition of the other”

“In the context of a work environment, a charity, or an organization especially charities and nonprofit, what often happens is that staff or clients bring forward concerns around race and senior leaders bring in unconscious bias training. And what that does is it, it suggests that everybody in the room has the same level of power to engage in uncovering their bias, and it's just not the truth. We have to recognize the power dynamics: some of us have the power to do things about our bias, and some of us don’t.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Hawa Mire

Find Hawa on Twitter

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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How are you going to make this program sustainable after we stop funding you?

Most people who have written a grant have been asked that question, and guess what, most people just improvise the answer.

There’s a lot to unpack about program sustainability. Is it a fair expectation to ask from nonprofits? If nonprofits do want to sustain a program, what factors should they consider.

Today’s guest on the podcast, Kylie Hutchinson from Community Solutions, has spent many years researching and trying to understand more about this subject. She even has a book specifically on this topic. 

Give it a listen, and know that next time when you’re scratching your head trying to answer that million dollar question about program sustainability, you’re not alone. 

Myths that Kylie want us to leave behind

1. Let us run the pilot, then we will think about sustainability.  If you want your program to sustain, start planning for sustainability now. There’re many external factors that will help shape that, and although those factors can vary from program to program and organization to organization, it is never too early to think about sustainability, given that sustainability is aligned with your organization’s strategic goals.
2. Sustaining a program means sustaining all parts of it all the time. Sometimes, like right now during the pandemic, even with the best intentions, it’s unrealistic to sustain all parts of a program. Instead, Kylie advises to focus on sustaining the core components of the program that can reignite momentum for the whole program.  

Kylie’s tips on program sustainability

1. Show and talk about your impact. No matter how great your program is, no external stakeholders will know unless you tell a compelling story about your impact. Showing and talking about your impact is instrumental to bring attention to why your program deserves support and should be sustained. 
2. Build community support through partnerships and collaboration. Kylie recognizes that partnerships and collaborations take work and require capacity, and sometimes it is very tempting to roll out a program all with internal support and no external collaboration. However, having community partnerships is like gaining legs for a table that is harder to shake down. Do the upfront work of collaborating now and your program will be stronger in the long run.
3. Find your program champions in your community. Program champions are usually those who are at an arm-length with your organization (so not your board or staff) and believe in your impact. They have the connections and resources in local communities that you roll out your program, and so can contribute to your program needs in a practical way (like connecting you with a local media) or in a reputational way. These champions can have a huge impact in supporting your program in the long run.

My favourite quotes from this episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“Don’t wait till you have a month left in your funding, start planning for sustainability now.”

“Ask yourself what are the embers of your programming absolutely need to maintain? So that when you are in a position to start rebuilding, you can blow on those embers and get your services back to where they were.”

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Find Kylie at Community Solutions

Finally, a Guide on Program Sustainability!

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

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Conversations about data, databases, and CRMs often surface fear and insecurity. Are you doing enough? Are we missing out just because we can’t afford an expensive database? How can we leverage the tools out there to help our fundraising efforts? 

In this episode, Allen Dadvidov, VP of Business Consulting and Nonprofit Sector Lead from Environics Analytics, shares with us tips on how to leverage our existing donor data (yes, spreadsheets included!) to look for indicators that can help grow our fundraising and how general behaviour trends of the populations can support our understanding of donors’ engagement and giving potential. 

Myths that Allen want us to leave behind

1. You need a fancy database to understand your donors. Even if you’re using an excel sheet, if you’re clear about what indicators you’re looking for to tell you more about your donors, you will be able to look for those insights. On the other hand, even if you have a very comprehensive database, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you will just be sitting on data that tell you no story. 
2. Income level is not the sole indicator of a donor’s giving potential. On one level, income is a non-comprehensive data to reflect wealth, as people with high income can also have high debt. On another level, just because someone has a lot of wealth, it does not mean that person will make a large gift. Donor engagement is a bigger indicator for whether a donor will give than that person’s income level or wealth. 

Allen’s tips on using data to learn about your donors

1. Track and look at what triggered a reaction. Don’t just track who gave and when. Look at whether there is a spike in donations after an email appeal is sent out. Or, try doing an A/B test with an appeal to see what kind of stories or tone works with your donors. 
2. Leveraging existing tools to understand the general behaviour of our population. For example, Environics has a tool called PRIZM that has a free online postal code look-up component that allows you to understand the persona of the Canadian population based on the neighbourhood they live in. These data can give you a good sense who your donors might be and what’re potential ways to engage them. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“The first great step to understand your database is to ask the question: how are people responding and engaging? There might be a group that's very specific to just eblasts and wanting to know about awareness about a specific part of what you do. And there might be a part of your database that could be very tied to fundraising or advocacy. Mapping out these segments and keeping tabs on them are very good starting points to understand your database”

“Oftentimes, when we look at fundraising data, we focus solely on how much we raise or how many people responded to an appeal, versus, what or who in an appeal triggered a reaction, because something obviously triggered a reaction. Understanding that is very important.” 

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Allen on Linkedin

Environics Analytics

PRIZM - with a free online postal code look-up to understand Canadian neighborhoods

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

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Donor stewardship is something that most of us know is important, but for some reason, it always gets pushed to the bottom of our to-do list. 

What ends up happening is when it comes time that you need your donors, you realize you haven’t talked to them in forever!

This is why donor stewardship is not a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have if you want consistent fundraising growth. 

Today, Roxanne Tackie and Rochelle Greaves from Story Point Consulting share with us their expertise on what makes great stewardship and how you can leverage it to grow your fundraising.

Myths that Roxanne and Rochelle want us to leave behind

1. Stewardship is a lot of work. Great and consistent stewardship can save you work from stressing over how to get donors and make asks.
2. We need to constantly find new donors. Instead of constantly feeling pressured to find new donors, fish in your own pond. Your existing donor base is the best place to start deepening relationships and engagement. 
3. We need big data to observe donor behaviour. You don’t need a fancy database or meticulous dataset to understand your donors. Even if your donor data is sitting in a spreadsheet, look for important indicators such as how often donors give and what their gift size. 

Roxanne and Rochelle’s on leveraging donor stewardship to grow your fundraising

1. Your volunteers are great potential donors. Overcome the fear of asking your volunteers to give. They already have invested interest in the organization. A lot of times, they’re just waiting for an opportunity to give. 
2. Equip your board or fundraising committee with great stories. A lot of organizations struggle with mobilizing the board or volunteer fundraising committees to do fundraising. The first step is to equip the board members and committee members with great personal stories and experience they have with the organization so that they can paint a compelling picture of why others should support the organization too. 
3. Be personal in your communication. Connect with your donors authentically with your own voice. Put away template letters with ultra-professional and corporate tone. 
4. Tailor recognition to your donor’s needs. Everyone wants to be recognized or not recognized according to their needs. Listen to your donors' needs and provide the thank you and recognition in the way that suits them. 

My favourite quotes from this episode

Post your favourite quote on social to share with us!

“We really don’t want donors to only hear from us when we’re asking for money. If we’ve been communicating to our donors, celebrating our successes with them, and letting them know how the programs are going, by the time we ask them, they should already be aware of where you’re going. Now you’re setting up a situation where your donors are ready to talk about the support you need.” - Roxanne

“Once you look at your donor database, you can really see which donors are really engaged. Look at things like: how often are they donating? How long have they donated? Do they volunteer with your organizations? Once you learn who are the most engaged donors, you can start develop plans for stewarding these donors, and maybe eventually move them up to become major donors at your organizations” - Rochelle

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

Find Roxane and Rochelle at Story Point

Free Resource for Your Organization To Manage the COVID Crisis

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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How do you go beyond the land acknowledgement?

In recent years, we see more and more nonprofits including decolonization as their strategic priorities. But if we do a gut check, how’re we actually committing to decolonization everyday?

On today’s podcast, Tim Fox, Vice President of Indigenous Relations and Racial Equity at Calgary Foundation, shares his lived experience of facilitating the Calgary Foundation to commit to transformative changes and learning. Tim urges us to challenge us to think beyond decolonization as a short term project that has easy fixes. He encourages us to reflect on how we might make ourselves open and vulnerable in sharing our responsibilities for decolonization and commit to life-long actions. 

Myths that Tim wants us to leave behind

1. If we do this and that, it will get us to decolonization. There is no quick fix. Systemic oppression has existed for hundreds of years, and decolonization is generational work. It’s not enough to just do land acknowledgements. It’s not enough to just include indigenous communities in your funding catchment areas. With actions like that come responsibility to intentionally learn and understand the Indigenous communities. 
2. Indigenous, black and people of colour have all the answers for decolonization. It is not the responsibility for BIPOC people to lead decolonization. BIPOC people are there to walk alongside with settlers to facilitate change. The responsibility for leading change rests with settlers. As well, the idea that some people are experts and have all the answers in and of itself is an assumption encoded with settlers’ logic. 

Tim’s tips on transformative unlearning and learning

1. Recognize and try different processes of learning. Shifting away from the linear learning process of getting knowledge from experts or listening in workshops, Tim encourages us to be open to different methods and ways of learning, such as the circle learning process and art of hosting. 
2. Letting go of the idea of perfection. Don’t set a deadline for decolonization work, and walk away from the mindset that there is a perfect way to do this. Allow yourself and your organizations to make mistakes, acknowledge them, and keep push through. 
3. Be open and vulnerable. If you’re not an Indigenous person or a BIPOC person, put yourself in situations and settings where you’re the minority. Be vulnerable and don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable. 

Resources from this Episode

 The Good Partnership

The Calgary Foundation

Indigenous Ally Toolkit

Tim Fox

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

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“Just because we've been told one story about philanthropy, or about ourselves as fundraisers, it doesn't have to be true. We can change the narrative.”

We become what we believe in. In this special episode, Cindy Wagman, the Founder and CEO of The Good Partnership and host of our podcast talks about why it is so important to tackle our mindset when fundraising, and how to do that without compromising our values and authenticity. 

Myths that Cindy wants us to leave behind

1. Fundraising is hard and icky. The more that we tell our brain that fundraising is hard, the more that our brain will reinforce this notion and make it feel icky. It's a negatively reinforcing loop. 
2. You have to become someone else to fundraise successfully.  Having a growth mindset for fundraising does not mean you need to be inauthentic or sell out your values and mission. Pretending to be someone else when fundraising is exhausting, and no one can sustain that in the long term.

Cindy’s tips on hacking your brain for fundraising success

1. Align your mindset first, then build habits and tactics. No matter how many tactics you learn for fundraising, if you’re putting on the brake (ie, negative mindset), you’re not going to get the results you want. Align your mindset first then lean into the tools and tactics. 
2. Give your brain space to change. The more you force yourself to change, the harder it is to change. That’s natural survival mechanisms. So when trying to create new pathways of thinking for your brain, be patient with yourself and set aside self judgements. 
3. Stay true to your values.  One of the biggest turning points for many students at  Flipside Fundraising is gaining the understanding that their values and mission are what inspire funders and donors to support them. So stay true to your values as you align your mindset for fundraising success.

Want to learn more about Cindy’s secrets for raising over 8 million dollar for small nonprofits, join her on this FREE live webinar on October 20 1 pm EST. (If you can’t make it, sign up anyway to get the recording afterward)

Resources from this Episode

The Good Partnership

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Advocacy is in the DNA of our sector. Every day, whether it’s a front line social agency, or an arts organization, nonprofits are doing great advocacy work at the community level. 

How can we as a sector lift each other up and support each other’s advocacy efforts? 

Joining us today for this discussion is Cathy Taylor, the Executive Director of the Ontario Nonprofit Network.


Resources from this Episode

FREE Webinar - Fundraising Secrets

The Good Partnership

Ontario Nonprofit Network

Cathy on Linkedin

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

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In this special episode of the podcast, one of the students from our spring 2020 Flipside Fundraising cohort, Yvonne Harding, Resource Development Manager at Assaulted Women’s Helpline, to share the transformation she has experienced after she changed her fundraising mindset with the lessons learned in Flipside Fundraising. 

If you want to be like Yvonne and turn fundraising from something you dread into something that is meaningful, productive, and successful for you and your small nonprofit, apply for the Flipside Fundraising scholarships today. The scholarship recipients will receive life-time access to the program and its materials, launching in November. Deadline for scholarship applications is October 9 11:59 PM EST. The application will only take you 3 minutes!

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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In fundraising, we often talk about surprising and delighting donors. Sending them updates, creating special experiences, writing them cards etc.. But let me ask you this instead: have your donors ever surprised you?

Whether it is a gift made unprompted at the time that your organization really needs it, or it's a simple message to check in on how you and your team are doing - our donors often go beyond our expectation, especially those who truly care about you and your work. I’ll never forget the donor who hand-knitted me a baby blanket when I was pregnant with my first born. It made my heart sing!

When a relationship is aligned and authentic, your donors have your back. You wouldn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable reaching out and having an honest conversation with them, especially when your organization has a need your donor can help with.

So how can we cultivate authentic relationships with donors? Nneka Allen, the guest on today's podcast, asks us to look no further than in our own lives. You're familiar with Nneka's incredible work. In the summer, we shared the amazing series that she curated, Our Right to Heal, a series that features inspiring stories and journeys of Black women fundraisers.

I am so excited to share with you this conversation I had with Nneka, in which she turned observations that she made at her daughter's wedding during the pandemic into nuggets of wisdom about meaningful relationship-building. Give it a listen, and keep up the great work.

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Your organization is like your baby. And that is exactly why you have to make sure that it can grow on its own without you. In order to get to that state, the organization needs you to build in some great planning and set up the right culture and systems. 

On today's podcast, our returning guest Michael Prosserman shares his insight on how to lead an organization from the ground up to planning for succession so that it continues to thrive beyond his tenure. Michael urges us to think and act: succession planning starts today.

Mike P is also hosting a FREE book launch party on Oct 24th! Here is the link to join: https://buildingunity.eventbrite.ca

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

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Imposter Syndrome - we don't talk about it very often. But when we do, there's so many nodding heads and people in agreement saying “of course, I experienced that too.” 

Imposter syndrome seems to be more prevalent for people who don't see themselves reflected in the leadership around them. There's no role model so how do I know I'm doing things, right? With representation, diversity and anti-oppression work becoming more prevalent, it can be easy to wonder whether we were hired for our skills or simply to be that “token” employee within your organization. 

On today’s podcast, I am excited to have Mimosa Kabir share her perspective to help us unpack the conversation. Tune in as we tackle topics like what imposter syndrome looks like in action, imposter syndrome and risk-aversion, how this can actually contribute to relationship-building and much more! 

If this episode was useful, grab the 30-Day Board Fundraising Challenge at gofurthertogether.ca/boardchallenge — it's free and it gives your board actual structure.

Book a Discovery Call with Further Together if you need help raising money in a way aligned with your values. 

Check out the What The Fundraising podcast here.

Support the show