Nonprofit Lowdown

Are you giving money too much power in your fundraising efforts? Are desperation and scarcity sabotaging your fundraising success? 😣 You’re not alone, my friend. Many leaders try tactic after tactic, only to come up short again and again. Exhausting, right? But what if the real barrier isn’t your savvy strategy, but your mindset? 💭 On this week’s episode of Nonprofit Lowdown, we’re diving deep into money mindset to discover how trauma and the stories we tell ourselves about money affect our fundraising for better or worse.  Here are a few of my takeaways: 🔑 Trauma and money experiences get encoded in our brains and bodies, affecting our fundraising mindsets and results 🔑 Attaching heavy emotion like desperation or scarcity to money activates our fight-or-flight response 🔑This traps us in survival mode rather than abundance - and donors feel that! 🔑By unpacking our money stories and shifting to an abundance mindset, our outer results can transform. This is where the real work starts. We have to go inward to unearth our subsurface money narratives. What did your family say about money? What emotions come up when you fundraise? When you uncover the answers to these questions and shift your mindset, you’re going to see a huge transformation in your numbers too!  Ready to address inner blocks and finally hit your fundraising goals?  Important Links: https://go.rheawong.com/money-quiz https://go.rheawong.com/big-ask-gifts-program

Is it going to take over the world and make nonprofit work obsolete? Some peeps seem hyped, while others wanna unplug the mainframe, Office Space-style. 💻🚫 Well, never fear!  With experience from computer engineering to working for the FBI in the White House (?!?), my guest Afua Bruce knows her bytes from her bits. Afua decrypts how bias gets baked into algorithms and breaks communities. But she also shares how nonprofits can responsibly use AI as a force for good and level up their impact with AI’s help. 👩🏿‍💻 Some of the key takeaways: Top AI concerns include the invisibility of marginalized groups and scalable bias due to historical data and speed/scale of deployment. Everyone can educate themselves on AI by trying tools, asking questions, and knowing when to turn systems off if they don't serve you. Guidance for using AI ethically includes clarifying your strategy and values first, then evaluating if tools align. AI may risk loss of critical thinking skills but it also presents opportunities like predictive analytics to improve services. Bottom line: We got this, people! 💪 Ask questions, set guardrails, but don't let fear leave you behind. The tools ain't perfect but we can influence and improve. As Afua says, "...you still have agency in this process." ✊ Listen to the full episode to learn more. 🎧 Important Links:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/afua-bruce/ https://thetechthatcomesnext.com/

With the first blooms of spring comes our annual opportunity for renewal. Time to clear out the old and make way for new growth! In this solo episode, I'll share my best tips for spring cleaning every aspect of your NPO - from refreshing stale programs to pruning unengaged contacts.  Get ready to plant the seeds now for a fruitful year ahead! Here's what we'll cover:  ✅ Breathing life and inspiration into your impact data with impactful storytelling ✅ Pruning and cleaning your email, communications, and database  ✅ Cultivating supporters with strategic messaging  ✅ Planting the seeds for efficient systems, processes & database moving forward ✅ Sprinkling your day with tasks that energize you and removing the ones that zap your energy.  And because we lead best when we lean into self-care, I'll also share my recipe for a quarterly mental vacation to blossom into the healthiest version of you! Whether you need serious weeding or just some strategic fertilizing, let this episode seed a sustainable way forward. Now get growing by tuning in! 🌱🎧 Important Links: https://go.rheawong.com/big-ask-gifts-program

This week on the podcast, I had an illuminating discussion with spiritual healer John Jacob Mubarak - a spiritual advisor with a heart for integrating soulful practices into everyday life. Our deep dive was enlightening, revealing how to pour into the causes we're passionate about without draining our own spirit. Key Takeaways: Embracing nature and holistic practices like plant medicine isn't just about healing—it's about unlocking a deeper understanding of who we are. It's a call to nurture our inner selves with the same vigor we use to champion our causes. We explored the impact of our pasts and the "I must" mentality that often fuels us, highlighting the power of crafting new, life-affirming stories for ourselves. It's a journey to discovering our true "why" and embracing it fully. Trusting in the grand journey of life, whether that's through the universe, a higher power, or something else entirely, empowers us to persevere. Adopting an abundance mindset reveals a beautiful truth: serving others actually fills our cup. Feeling the burnout? This episode is your gentle nudge to take a step back, breathe, and realign with what truly matters. 🎧 Tune in for a dose of soulful wisdom and a reminder that self-care and service go hand in hand. Important Links: https://junglegayborhood.com/retreat-index/508/remembering-wholeness-a-gbtqia-wellness-retreat

When we're scraping by each month, it's natural to get transactional with donors. But people give to people, not causes.   The good news? By shifting your mindset and strategies, you can move from survival mode to stability and even abundance. 🙌  In this episode, I’ll outline the top mistakes nonprofit pros make that lead to fundraising fatigue and give you my signature science-backed solutions for…  🚨 Why you can't find the right donors  🚨 How to engage supporters who aren't ready 🚨 Building trust and partnership If you’re tired of icky, salesy tactics and ready to start granting wishes and helping donors realize their dreams, first you have to learn what YOUR donors really want. I’ll show you how to connect, engage, and cultivate with all the tools and confidence you need for executive-level fundraising.  Whether you’re leading an established organization or building a fundraising machine from scratch, you'll walk away fired up and ready to connect donors to your mission. Important Links:  https://go.rheawong.com/big-ask-gifts-program

In this enlightening discussion, Sarah Medina Camiscoli, Assistant Professor of Law at Rutgers and co-founder of the Peer Defense Project, dives into Gen Z's revolutionary approach to fundraising and nonprofit structures. She explores how this vibrant generation challenges traditional norms, advocating for mutual aid and participatory budgeting. Sarah highlights the power of network multiplication and emphasizes the need for organizations to embrace consent-based decision-making. Her insights offer practical strategies for integrating Gen Z perspectives into established nonprofits.

Itching to make your passion project a legendary nonprofit? It might not be as straightforward as you think.  I sat down with my gal pal Tiffany Allen, founder and president of Boss on a Budget, to spill some piping hot tea about the real deal when it comes to starting up your own nonprofit. And let me tell ya…it ain't as easy as just slapping a 501c3 on your passion project and watchin' the donations roll in! We debunk some major myths around funding and control that trip up many founder executive directors. The key is building relationships, people! Donors are community too. Tiffany shares straight truth about the pitfalls nonprofit newbies face, like lacking systems and support early on. We dish out some real talk around trusting others to carry the vision, finding the right "who's" for your board, and avoiding burnout. Even us visionary bosses need help sometimes! Overall, an enlightening convo you don't wanna miss if you're thinking about jumping into the nonprofit battlefield. Tune in and leave a review!  Important Links:  https://www.youtube.com/@BossonaBudget https://bossonabudget.lpages.co/purposeprofitsociety/  Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork - by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy - https://www.amazon.com/Who-Not-How-Accelerating-Teamwork-ebook/dp/B0867ZJ151

Does your nonprofit have a “part-time” fundraising problem? As an ED, I learned the hard way that hiring well-meaning but inexperienced junior development folks often wastes precious resources. 💸 Their lack of strategic chops yields scattershot efforts and little ROI…leaving us with a half-baked revenue recipe. 🍳 But Cindy suggests a secret ingredient to bake up some major gifts – fractional fundraisers! 💡 These seasoned specialists bring targeted plans and efficient implementation to quickly elevate fundraising. It’s like adding an entire strategic department without the burden of permanent staff. 😍 For small shops stuck in survival mode, fractional fundraising could fast-track stability and growth. Cindy explains what to expect, how to track results, and why it beats blowing your budget on the wrong hires. 💥 So who else wants to take their fundraising from fractured to fully funded? Let’s level up together! 🙌 Hit play to explore fractional fundraising now. Important Links: https://www.fractionalfundraising.co/

Sick of shame sabotaging your fundraising? 😣 Turns out our money baggage builds invisible barriers between us and the resources we need. But together with my soul sister Shulamit Ber Levtov, we're busting through old stories to unlock flow! 💸 In this week's episode, Shula and I get real about how oppressive systems and early traumas wire our minds for lack - and why fixing feelings is the fast track to funding. We explore simple but powerful practices like self-compassion, boundary setting, and rewriting scarcity scripts that help shift stuck energy inside and out.  The truth that transformed my money journey? Healing shame and embracing our worthiness is an inside job, but community makes it possible. So if pesky inner blocks have you chasing (not attracting) dollars, join us! With compassion and clarity, we can rewrite old narratives into sources of strength for serving true abundance. 💗 Now let's drop faulty core beliefs to unlock core purpose! Hit play as Shula schools me on reconciling mind, body and money for good! 🎧 Important Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shulamitberlevtov/ https://www.instagram.com/the_entrepreneurs_therapist/?hl=en

Does chasing big donor bucks leave you feeling shook? Here’s a little secret to flip the switch on our inner dialogue so you can start bringing in major gifts: When you fix your mindset, you fix your money probs.  But don’t take my word for it! I’m all about a case study too.  Once upon a nonprofit, Emerald felt like an imposter around donors. But together we unpacked limiting money stories and reframed fundraising as an adventure, not a burden. Soon after, she received her first record $2.5 million donation for her nonprofit, Moves and Grooves, inc., and her budget has been growing strong and steady ever since. Tune in as Emerald shares her journey as a woman of color from scarcity to confidently leading with inspiration. You'll hear how one bold conversation and the power of authentic connection sparked her inner transformation and opened the floodgates of support.  The moral? All we need to unlock our inner fundraising rockstar is inner permission plus a solid plan. 💥 So if pesky money blocks feel like obstacles, let's shatter them! Abundance awaits, friends. Now…click play! 🎧 Important Links:  Big Ask Gifts Program: https://go.rheawong.com/big-ask-gifts-program  Book - Get that Money, Honey!:  https://go.rheawong.com/get-that-money-honey Connect with Dr. Emerald Mitchell  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-emerald-mitchell-37a93679/