Nonprofit Lowdown

Today I'm chilling with the Big Poppa of the New York nonprofit world, Rich Berlin.  Rich walks us through the quick history of Harlem RBI that has since become multi-service wraparound school called Dream.  Rich tells us how his organization went from almost closing to its current $40M a year budget.  He shares his thoughts about board recruitment, board management and how to prepare a board to punch above its weight.  One day, I would like to be able to say "We're not talking to you for less than a seven figure gift."  Listen, learn and LOVE it.  This has got to be one of my very favorite podcast episodes (I love them all like my children.) For more about Rich, check out their website: https://www.wearedream.org/

As we careen towards year-end, we know all you fundraisers are out burning the midnight oil.  Annual appeal, Giving Tuesday, making budget, oh my!  My guest Patrick Kirby FEELS YOU.  Take a quick 30 minutes to take a listen to this fun episode.  Patrick and I talk about why people dread fundraising, what happens when boards and executives don't know how to fundraise (spoiler alert: unreasonable much?) and how to create a culture of philanthropy in your org.  Patrick is fun, caffeinated and HERE FOR YOU. For more about Patrick, check him out: https://www.dogoodbetterconsulting.com/

This month, as we head into the holiday giving season, we're featuring podcasts about fundraising!  This week, I'm chatting with Crystal Leochko Johnston, Founder of Eclipse Research to talk about how to identify and validate donor prospects.  Do you ever feel like fundraising is trying to find your way in the dark?  Ever hear your board tell you that they don't know anyone wealthy?  Think that you could target your current donor list for bigger gifts?  Don't miss this episode.  Today's $100 donor could be tomorrow's $100,000 donor if you have the right data. For more about Crystal click here: www.eclipseresearchgroup.com/ Free prospect research sources: NOZA Search - listing of Canadian and U.S. donation records (paid subscription) - www.nozasearch.com Newspaperarchive - newspapers from Canada, U.S. and 27 other countries (paid subscription) - www.newspaperarchive.com U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - U.S. Securities information (free) - www.sec.gov SEDI (System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders) - information on Canadian insiders (free) - www.sedi.ca SEDAR (The System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval) - Canadian securities documents (free) - www.sedar.com Federal Election Commission - U.S. political donations (free) - www.fec.gov

Any ED will tell you that it feels like stress and pressure are part of the job.  Constant worry and panic got you down?  Join me and my buddy Shalini as we talk about strategies and tactics to make the time for self-care, how to use that four-letter word "H-E-L-P" and being responsible for your own energy.  Shalini is, like me, a recovering Executive Director and coach to leaders.  Make yourself a cup of tea, give yourself a little break and hang with us.  We FEEL YOUR PAIN, y'all! For more about Shalini, check out her website: www.shalinisomayaji.com/

This week, I'm interviewing CEO and Co-founder of New Classrooms Joel Rose.  Joel started his career as a math teacher and created an organization that is re-thinking the classroom experience with technology.  While building New Classrooms, he shares his lessons learned about building an organization, the single most important practice for his team and the importance of being useful over being right.   For more information about Joel and New Classrooms, check it out here: https://www.newclassrooms.org/

Daniel Oscar: educator, nonprofit exec, marathoner.  Listen in to Daniel's gems of wisdom for staying the course in the nonprofit world.  Daniel helped Wendy Kopp build Teach for America and has been in various roles in the nonprofit/education reform sector since then.  He shares his tips on how to run the marathon and not the sprint, how to prioritize self-care and his best advice to young people starting out in nonprofit.  My favorite takeaway: focus on being helpful instead of being right. For more about Daniel and Center for Supportive Schools, check it out here.

Have you ever walked away from a hard conversation feeling like a bomb went off and you didn't take cover?  Join me and my friend and mentor Jen Mayer, Founder of Becoming Better Together to talk about how to have hard conversations with fierceness and kindness, how to learn how to know thyself and how to be in the world even when it's uncomfortable. Jen is the queen of resources and offers this resource as thought-starters and tools for fierce conversations.

Join me for a chat with master coach and my former Board Chair Ted Federici to discuss the common pitfalls of leaders and the mistakes they make.  The job that we have as leaders is daunting and we sometimes do ourselves a disservice by being our own worst enemies.  Learn how to tame the ego, build trust and have the meeting before the meeting.  Bonus: you'll learn some of my favorite "Federicisms" like: "Everyone caters to the craziest person in the room," or "It's just a fart in a windstorm." To learn more about Ted and his work, visit Ted at federicicoaching.com.

Happy Birthday to Nonprofit Lowdown!  Thanks, listeners, for hanging with me for a year.  It's been a blast and a JOURNEY! For today's pod, I'm reviewing three books that have really taken my game to the next level.  There's something for everyone.  For organizational design geeks, there's Brave New Work.  For productivity and people who just need to get to work, there's Free to Focus.  And for managers and leaders who want to give better feedback, there's The Feedback Fallacy: Why Feedback Rarely Does What It's Meant To and the companion book Nine Lies About Work. It's been an honor and pleasure to be in your earbuds this last year.  Let me know if there are topics you'd like for me to review and thank you for listening!

We're back with our resident Technologista Emily Hicks-Rotella!  In today's pod, we talking about our favorite tech tools, tips and books for how to wrangle our to-do lists, get to inbox zero and manage our focus.  Too much to do and not enough time?  Join the club.  This is a must-listen if you're trying to get to work and for tech to work for you, not against you.   Some of our favorite tools: Airtable Assistant.to Sanebox Slack Trello Boomerang Freedom Zapier Streak Notion Tettra Books we love: Getting Things Done (classic!) Free to Focus Atomic Habits