133: How Design, Creativity and Relationships Intersect With Budget Transparency: Interview with Sherry Quam Taylor, Nonprofit Finance Strategist

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How to Shake Up the Status Quo and Raise Funds for Your Nonprofit

I talk with a lot of nonprofits each week, and of course they all have one thing in common they need: more funding! That’s why I like to bring in experts in other types of fundraising too. We need to understand the bigger picture of how the strategies fit together. 

Today I’m talking with another nonprofit expert who is fantastic at what she does. Sherry Quam Taylor is good at shaking up the status quo and challenging people to think bigger, better, and with excellence to raise funds to serve your nonprofit fully.  

Listen as Sherry and I do some myth-busting about fundraising. We also discuss advice on scaling nonprofits. 

Transparency and the Gift of Asking, "Why?"

Sherry and I discuss the importance of bringing creativity to work. Design and creativity not only help us take care of ourselves, but they also help our organizations grow and build. This can insulate us from becoming stagnant. 

The experience Sherry brought from the for-profit world to the nonprofit world helped her tremendously, and that transition helped her learn a lot by simply asking, “Why?” “Why can’t we say that?” Why can’t we spend that?” These questions challenged Sherry and the teams she worked with to look at “why” they were doing things a certain way, and build toward securing donors' best gifts.

Giving the Gift of Time in Nonprofit Relationship Building

Relationships take time. Rushing relationships does not build strong foundations. As board members, development teams, or even grant writers, relationships are at our heart. 

Sherry also shares tools we can use to build those relationships, specifically with investment-level donors. First of all, we need to ask questions and listen with interest. Sherry suggests this gem, “How did you become so generous?”

As I share in my TEDx Talk, building relationships means being conversational and getting to know the person, not just the dollar. Slowing down and being relational with donors can lead them to their best gift. That process can take 12-24 months or more, and that's okay.

To read today's full episode: How Design, Creativity and Relationships Intersect With Budget Transparency 

 

Challenge Question:

What five people can you start building relationships with now? Make that list today. 

 

Meet Sherry Quam Taylor:

Sherry Quam Taylor works with business-minded Nonprofit CEOs who want to scale their organizations’ budgets by 2-5X but need larger amounts of general-operating revenue to do so. The organizations Sherry works with want to reduce dependence on government, earned, or contracted revenue and increase unrestricted revenue from investment-level donors.

To achieve this, Sherry helps leaders align their organization's charitable revenue initiatives with their business, programmatic, and strategic growth opportunities. This is the step that most skip! It ensures the funding challenges are solved at the root of the issue and attracts investment-level donors that get this!

As a result of learning her methodology, Sherry’s clients know how to fund their Strategic Plans and add 7-figures of gen-op