What the Fundraising

What does it take to let go of pre-established narratives? Duke Stump is a marketing expert and founder of Bonfire With Soul. His approach to business is far from conventional and partly based on nature’s knowledge. In this episode, Duke and I talk about burning dogma, the potential for good in the for-profit and nonprofit world, and the power of cross-sector symbiosis. Tune in now!Episode highlights: (02:21) - Trust your own radar: What does it take to go a different path especially in business? (7:05) - Burning dogma for breakfast: Duke’s experience giving himself permission to be creative and the importance of human connection.(13:40) - Can for-profit businesses be a force of good? How making a nonprofit/for-profit distinction can minimize possibility and shrink your horizons. (36:48) - Duke’s principles and barriers of mutual benefit: Trust, honesty, and our obsession with perfection.(44:00) - Helper energy and martyrdom: Fundraiser’s most common leadership characteristics and what needs to change.  (48:13) - Groundbreaking nonprofits and why the sector needs to tackle debilitating stigma.If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

Our brains work on prediction. Even before events happen, our brains prepare a reaction based on our past experiences. But what if our brains fabricate an incorrect forecast? Just like a weird feeling in your body isn’t necessarily pain, uncertainty doesn’t have to translate into negative emotions. In this episode, I chat with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, an expert in affective neuroscience, psychology of emotion, and social and personality psychology. Lisa and I talk about how our brains work based on prediction and how we can train them away from pain and anxiety and into a brighter present. Plus, she gives life-changing tricks that can radically improve any fundraiser’s experience out there!Episode highlights: (02:01) - Who is Lisa Feldman? Her extensive career in science and understanding brain function. (04:38) - Let’s talk about emotion! How emotions really work and what are some misconceptions around them. (10:20) - ‘Is this really pain?’: Why your brain is constantly anticipating and what happens when it can’t predict correctly.(17:45) - Chronic pain and other ailments that may actually come from a brain disorder. (21:31) - Handling anxiety and uncertainty for fundraisers: Train yourself to make a different sense of the present. (35:04) - Tips and tricks for regulation: Why we have to recognize that we have socially dependent nervous systems. (41:16) - Where to find Lisa + Shout out to her favorite nonprofits! If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

Dulari Gandhi, a Program Officer at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and CEO of D. Gandhi Communications, shares her insights on navigating the nonprofit funding landscape. She discusses common mistakes organizations make while seeking funding and the need for diverse voices in decision-making. Dulari emphasizes the importance of transparency and clear communication to foster better relationships between funders and grantees. She also critiques the scarcity mindset that hinders nonprofit effectiveness and encourages collaborative funding practices.

BJ Fogg, PhD is a Stanford behavior scientist, author of the book Tiny Habits, and one of my absolute teachers and heroes. In this conversation, BJ shares his Fogg Behavior Model plus many useful and simple hacks to defeat fear and create habits for anything we want to achieve. His approach to people is immensely human, compassionate, and positive. (Just like fundraising!) You really don’t want to miss this conversation.Episode highlights:(01:39) - Behaviour Design & the Tiny Habits Method: Who is BJ Fogg, PhD, and his work as a behavior scientist at Stanford.(03:36) - What is the Fogg Behavior Model? A 3-step easy-to-learn model to understand and influence all of your behaviors. (08:56) - Applying behavior science to fundraising and ow to calculate the ideal size of the ask?(12:50) - The key moments of celebration and giving people positive feelings of success (20:55) - Do you feel like you can’t do something? Check for these 5 factors of ability and take a tiny step towards action.(30:15) - Allow yourself to feel successful: Learn how to feel shine on demand for even the tiniest of successes! (34:56) - How to really beat fear with compassion and get to the action.If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

In this episode of What the Fundraising Podcast I talk to the funny, unapologetic, and super authentic Jennifer Pastiloff. Jen is a yoga teacher, coach, and writer of the book On Being Human. Jen and I talk about how to quiet your inner a-hole, #shameloss, and how to keep an abundance mentality both in fundraising and in life in general. Join in this fresh, honest conversation, I promise Jen’s transparency and sense of humor are unmatched!Episode highlights: (01:52) - Who is Jennifer Pastiloff? On being a writer and finding her way out of misery through words, yoga, and overall humanness. (05:12) - How to quiet your inner a-hole, offer compassion to yourself and find the ridiculousness in the mean voices in your head.(09:44) - The brilliant idea of shame loss and how fundraisers can put the shame down (at least for a day).(17:39) - Abundance mentality, transparency, and no sugar coating: How Jen shifted her life around after Covid.(25:45) - There’s a lot of money in the world! Giving people the chance to help and getting rid of the scarcity mindset.(26:49) - Fundraising is not an ask, it’s an offer!(32:43) - Is shame holding you back from becoming your true self? This is what Jennifer Pastiloff says you should do. (41:44) - Visibility, vulnerability, and doing an audit: Jennifer’s No Bullshit Motherhood and how to get away from unnecessary demons.(43:57) - Talking to ourselves and doing yoga to quiet your inner a-holes.If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

Tamika Felder is a woman with dreams plus an awesome speaker, author, cancer survivor, and advocate who has devoted her life to helping others do one simple thing: do what they really want during your one precious life. Listen to this week’s episode with Tamika and get ready for a boost towards taking action and control over your life. I promise Tamika is a cheerleader, not a fear leader, and her energy is sparklingly contagious. Remember, you don’t need to ask for permission or wait for the perfect moment to do what you want!Episode highlights: (03:03) - How Tamika Felder’s life suddenly changed when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at 25, and how coming face to face with mortality gave her a new perspective on life. (08:15) - What is holding you back today? — Don’t wait to be skinnier, smarter, or more connected. Do the things that will make you happy! (16:17) - Limiting beliefs and how to break them by experimenting the world, traveling, and doing what YOU want to do. (22:29) - The importance of making conscious choices and having healthy boundaries.(26:19) - Giving yourself grace and achieving a balance between having pity parties and pushing yourself forward.(28:18) - Catabolic & anabolic energy: Going from tunnel vision to admiring a prism of possibility.(35:43) - Beware of fear-leaders and energy vampires! Why you need to escape people who suck out your energy and project their fears on you.(43:20) - What does balance even mean in today’s crazy hustle culture and why is it okay to stop and reflect?If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

Donovan Taylor Hall is a youth advocate who believes in the power of positive self-talk, growth mindset, and gratitude. His mission is to help kids build positive relationships with themselves through curriculum and content creation. Listen to this week’s episode with Donovan and learn some of the ways he anchors his why and how it helps him overcome moments of doubt, frustration, and judgment. If you are tired of toxic positivity, tune in! This conversation is the real deal on how to do heart-centered work without losing yourself in the process.Episode highlights: (06:35) - The power of why and how to anchor yourself to the superpowers of commitment.(11:20) - Donovan’s absolute dream: “I want to have kids choose me as a teacher”.(13:51) - The 3 superpowers Donovan would give to every kid: Gratitude, positive self-talk & a growth mindset.(16:57) - How to use curiosity for healthy and compassionate self-growth (Be curious, not judgemental!).(22:17) - How to give people an opportunity to develop their personal worth beyond rejection.(29:51) - How to receive hard feedback, recover after messing up, and create your inner sanctuary of safety (39:48) - Burnout and martyrdom: Finding different ways to do things while taking care of yourself. (46:34) - Accepting rejection, building a callous for “NO”’s, and why self-help is such a growing industry. (52:07) - Two critical things to take away from this conversation: Energy transferring and looking for support to ground you back in. (56:29) - What is toxic positivity? The purpose of good and bad and how to recognize it with maturity.If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

It is episode zero of the What the Fundraising Podcast, and I decided to kick it off by sharing with you who I am, what I do, and why I’ve started this podcast. So I asked my lovely friends John and Becky from We Are For Good, one of the top nonprofit podcasts, to interview me to answer the question: Who is Mallory Erickson?The purpose of this podcast is to launch the nonprofit sector into a new way of thinking, connecting, and operating by bringing in experts, thinkers, and doers from outside the fundraising world. There is SO MUCH we can learn from other fields, but first, let’s get to know each other!Episode highlights: (01:51) - My discovery of transformative change and how I fell into the nonprofit world.(08:59) - Big helper energy: On being the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and growing up aware of social injustice. (11:46) - How I put the values of curiosity, integrity, authenticity, imperfection, and vulnerability into everything I do.(16:30) - A gut-check story and listening to your body’s wisdom: The importance of asking yourself ‘Does this feel right?’ instead of ‘Is this right?’.(21:59) - “The human touch in a human-focused industry”: How Forbes named me the leading disruptor in the non-profit sector!(31:00) - How to constantly practice recognition of your own privilege to be able to give a microphone to the oppressed.(32:58) - How being a wife, a mom, and a business owner has grown and blossomed together through the same core values and lessons.(36:48) - Fundraising without fear! How Power Partners was born during the pandemic and the huge benefits anyone can get from this course. (47:50) - My dream to become an inspiration and a safe landing for people through my podcast and my business(51:10) - Get to know me with these quick-hit questions! Favorite, snacks, movies, memories, concerts, and more.If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

Do you hear negative, nagging, bullying voices in your head? Are they telling you you’re a bad leader or fundraiser? That you’ll never raise what you need to grow your organization? In this week’s episode, I talk to Dr. Ethan Kross, psychologist, neuroscientist, professor, and the author of Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters and How to Harness It.There is so much chatter that inhibits action, like negative thoughts and limiting beliefs about perfectionism, scarcity or what someone will think if we ‘ask them for money’. Tune in as Dr. Kross explains a few of the tools from his book to help reduce toxic mental chatter and how we can apply them as leaders and fundraisers in the nonprofit world to move more money into our organization and the sector as a whole.Episode highlights: (02:28) - Dr. Ethan Kross and all the work that went into his amazing book: Chatter(04:27)- Why turning your attention inward can help us solve problems or make us miserable. (06:32) - What does “chatter” refer to? The amazing things our inner voice allows us to do and the negative dark side of it.(10:39) - One of Chatter’s tools: Distance self-talk, using your name and the second person pronoun to coach yourself through a problem.(16:44) - Why single quick fixes don’t exist!: How to mix and match different tools to find healing.(24:03) - Cultivating the witness: Distancing yourself and the ability to step back to approach the problem with more objectivity. (27:40) - Stop zooming into negativity: How the nonprofit fundraising space can benefit from changing the narrative.(33:04) - How to find resources hidden in plain sight for your unique chatter triggers.(40:34) - Minimize the toxic effects of chatter: Why negative emotions aren’t something we want to avoid completely. (47:49) - Shout out to Dr. Kross’s favorite nonprofit: Angela Duckworth’s The Character Lab.If you’re wanting to implement ideas you heard, visit MalloryErickson.com/Podcast for the top tips and tools, full transcripts, quotes, videos, and additional resources from each episode.

What the Fundraising the Podcast is for impact leaders and change-makers who are tired of doing things the old-school way and are looking for a fresh and effective way to raise money, run their organization, and think about the nonprofit sector.