What the Fundraising

Megan Seamans is a Certified Life & Energy Coach and Human Design Guide. Megan supports women to tap into their magic and confidently lead their life; without people-pleasing or having fear or doubt stand in the way. After navigating the loss of her brother in 2018 and facing burnout on the thing she was the most passionate about, she changed the way she looked at purpose. Now she supports people everywhere to express their sou...

The brittleness, burnout, and even breakdown that so many of us in the nonprofit world experience isn’t just an occupational hazard. It’s symptomatic of a much more far-reaching cultural framework, which is why my guest on this episode of What the Fundraising is all about disruption. Rebekah Giacomantonio, a facilitator and community healer, took a necessary pause from her career in restorative justice to restore herself. And she’s...

It was such a pleasure to welcome Julie Solomon, an amazing brand and pitch expert, on the day of her first book’s publication. In this episode of What the Fundraising she is walking us through the very internal process undergone by the successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and other public figures with whom she has worked over the years. But the real work? It started with Julie herself. She gets vulnerable in sharing her own ori...

Do you ever feel that you’re spinning your wheels or being penny-wise and pound-foolish? My guest on this episode of What the Fundraising is here with some straight talk about managing operations efficiently and effectively. A consultant who helps small businesses scale, Jhana Li is a systems thinker with a gift for optimizing organizations from both the 30,000-foot and three-foot levels. This conversation offers a framework to aud...

Tania Bhattacharyya, Founder of Lumos Marketing, has built her practice around empowering female leaders and their brands. She highlights the many ways that we have it within us to confront and transform the historic and systemic structures that hold us back by owning and telling our story differently. 

As Tania learned through her years of work at a nonprofit supporting women and families impacted by substance abuse, our stories ar...

When an online community goes from 10k to 500k members seemingly overnight, there’s definitely some secret sauce involved. In this episode of What the Fundraising we learn from Diandra Marizet Esparza, the co-founder and Executive Director of Intersectional Environmentalist (IE), about why the platform has resonated so profoundly. It starts with understanding the way that cultural identities shape nature and nature shapes cultural ...

When we garden we are caring for more than a plot of land. It can also be seen as an expression of hope, curiosity, and of interconnectivity. This is the message my guest on this episode of What the Fundraising has evangelized to great success through her books, blog and fierce commitment to greening our planet together. Emily Murphy is here to share with us the inspiration behind her latest work, "Grow Now: How We Can Save Our...

What does it look like to use our power and privilege for good? In some cases it involves us speaking out, in others it involves us getting quiet and listening. How do you know what to do when?

Maggie Doyne and I explore all of this and more in this week’s episode of What the Fundraising. Maggie has been hailed as CNN Hero of the Year and criticized for perpetuating the white savior narrative, and she has something to say about both...

Stepping from a nonprofit career trajectory into a for-profit consulting practice required some adjustment on the part of my guest on this episode of What the Fundraising. Trudi Lebron had to recalibrate in some unexpected and liberating ways, changing outmoded practices that are now helping her change our world.

Today Trudi Lebron Impact Coaching serves a wide variety of leaders looking to get beyond old, harmful power structures a...

Nearly a half-million people and counting have chosen to help Ukrainians by booking Airbnb rentals in that war-torn country. Why? On this episode of the What the Fundraising podcast, my guest Lynne Wester and I untangle some of the factors behind this impulse to give 1:1 rather than through traditional nonprofit organizations. The founder of Donor Relations Guru, her team partners closely with nonprofits large and small to develop ...

If you’re sidestepping cryptocurrency because it seems too abstract or risky, you won’t want to miss this episode of What the Fundraising. It features Veronica Hash, program manager of Belonging at Coinbase, a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing digital currency. Coinbase – among the largest crypto exchange platforms in the world – built a philanthropic mission into the heart of its business plan: ...

If change is hard, massive and meaningful change can seem impossible. But my guest on this episode of What the Fundraising is up to the task. As head of Community Impact and Partnerships for Patagonia, Whitney Clapper is innovating strategies designed to accelerate a paradigm shift in the way we live together and treat the planet. In this episode, much of our discussion focuses on the partnership dynamic between nonprofits and Pata...

This episode dives right into the importance of strong relationships between donors and nonprofits. As someone who has been on both sides, but now works primarily with funders, our guest is keenly aware of what foundations are looking for in their partnerships. 

In this episode of What the Fundraising Podcast…

Sybil Ackerman-Munson and I discuss what nonprofits can do to level up their pitch when asking foundation funders for money. ...

Simone Gordon is a single mother of a severely autistic son and the founder of the Black Fairy Godmother Organization which helps marginalized black and brown families. To date, Simone has helped over 500 families and has housed more than 122. In this episode, we talk about the broken parts of the nonprofit sector and why we need to stop putting people in boxes and really listen to their needs. Simone’s journey is tied to her own e...

Shannon Lohr, Founder, and CEO of Factory45 helps her clients navigate the complexities involved in getting a sustainable clothing brand off the ground. What does this have to do with nonprofits? Well, her pragmatic advice applies to nonprofits too - everything from keeping your mindset right to how to prioritize the right brand and launch activities. We get into the nitty-gritty about things like content polishing, logo massaging,...

Kate Williams is the CEO of 1% for the Planet, a non-profit whose 6,000+ members are integrating environmental giving into standard best business practices. She helps us imagine a world in which every operating budget includes line items to underwrite social causes as routinely as office space or equipment rental. Conjured some 20 years ago on the banks of the Madison River in Montana, the founders of Patagonia and Blue Ribbon ...

Megan Staples Jacob is the Senior Development Director for CSF Philadelphia and has been working in the nonprofit realm for over 13 years. Megan is deeply passionate about the underserved communities in Philadelphia and understands children gain their greatest opportunities through education. 

In this episode, we discuss the drive and curiosity that fuels her openness to try different strategies in an effort to maximize donor retent...

Inside this episode, I touch on a major golden nugget that isn’t about fundraising strategy at all, but rather involves personal growth strategies surrounding human psychology, which is a larger key element we don’t highlight enough. 

I define the comfortable elements of the fundraiser hustle (you’ll get what I mean when you listen) and how that hustle mindset isn’t productive but rather detrimental in how we strive toward accomplis...

Ayelet Fishbach, Ph.D., is the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and the author of Get It Done (surprising lessons from the science of motivation).

In this episode, Ayelet breaks down the intricate details behind donor motivation and how motivation differs based on the segment of donor. She gives us a number of helpful language suggestio...