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

Further Together: Fundraising Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations

Episodes

Mentioned books

undefined
Nov 16, 2020 • 33min

that dreaded question about sustainability with Kylie Hutchinson

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 behindLet 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.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 sustainabilityShow 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. 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.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 episodePost 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 EpisodeThe Good PartnershipFind Kylie at Community SolutionsFinally, a Guide oLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Nov 9, 2020 • 36min

discovering your donors with Allen Davidov

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 behindYou 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. 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 donorsTrack 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. 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 episodePost 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 EpisodeThe Good PartnershipAllen on LinkedinEnvironics AnalyticsPRIZM - with a free online postal code look-up to understand Canadian neighborhoodsLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Nov 2, 2020 • 45min

grow your fundraising through stewardship with Rochelle and Roxanne

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 behindStewardship is a lot of work. Great and consistent stewardship can save you work from stressing over how to get donors and make asks.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. 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 fundraisingYour 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. 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. Be personal in your communication. Connect with your donors authentically with your own voice. Put away template letters with ultra-professional and corporate tone. 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 episodePost 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 EpisodeThe Good PartnershipFind Roxane and Rochelle at Story PointLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Oct 26, 2020 • 45min

sharing the responsiblity for decolonization with Tim Fox

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 behindIf 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. 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 learningRecognize 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. 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. 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 PartnershipThe Calgary FoundationIndigenous Ally ToolkitTim FoxLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Oct 19, 2020 • 36min

hack your brain for fundraising success with Cindy Wagman

“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 behindFundraising 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. 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 successAlign 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. 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. 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 EpisodeThe Good PartnershipLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Oct 13, 2020 • 41min

Embracing Advocacy with Cathy Taylor

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 EpisodeFREE Webinar - Fundraising SecretsThe Good PartnershipOntario Nonprofit NetworkCathy on LinkedinLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Oct 5, 2020 • 42min

Overhauling your fundraising mindset with Yvonne Harding

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!Liked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Sep 28, 2020 • 40min

"What I learned from my daughter's COVID wedding" with Nneka Allen

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.Liked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Sep 21, 2020 • 43min

real-life succession planning with Mike Prosserman

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.caLiked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show
undefined
Sep 14, 2020 • 34min

managing imposter syndrome with Mimosa Kabir

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! Liked this episode? Have an idea? Send us a text HERE :)Support the show

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
 Get the app