December is a big month for most nonprofits in terms of donations but how do you know you’re making the best of the giving season?  What plans do you need to have in place and how far in advance?  This episode I’m speaking to marketing expert Monica Pitts about the support she provides to nonprofits in planning their end of year campaigns.  It’s never too early to start (of course) but it’s also not like you’re starting from scratch.  Dust off what works, repurpose things that have resonated with your donor base and decide who’s doing what.  And don’t forget volunteers and having seasonal fun with peer-to-peer projects.  Monica has great advice for small teams with limited resources as well as those hoping to build and grow their end of year campaigns from previous years.  Before we hear from her and how to get her end-of-year checklist and other resources, let me give a shout out to this episode’s nonprofit partner, Journey to Esquire, who supports women and people of color to get their law degrees and pass the bar.  Support them at journeytoesquire.com.  

So last time we heard why most nonprofits who’ve been around at least a year should consider the Google Ads Grant.  This episode, paid ads specialist Silvia Coletto returns to discuss what you need to have in place to be successful with the grant.  And interestingly, most of those things have nothing to do with google or the grant.  They’re all about how you position the use of Google within your own marketing objectives.  Why bring people to your website, for example, if they’re not going to find what they’re looking for?  And that’s why they’re searching on google - for some type of answer or content that responds to their google search.  So how does that fit into your marketing?  Let’s hear from Sylvia.  And like last time, our nonprofit partner for this episode is Toybox, find out more at toybox.org.uk.

Welcome to season 4 and we’re going to start with something a bit different - a two part podcast over two episodes because our first topic is so big, so huge, so potentially complicated that we need two shows to cover it.  Our topic is Google Ad Grants, which gives $10,000 of google ads to nonprofits every month.  How much fundraising can you raise with $10,000 of free google ads?  Sounds like a no-brainer.  Paid ads specialist Silvia Coletto walks us through all the things you need to have in place to qualify and then all the things you need to think about to make sure this program is for you.  Next time we’ll pick up the question of making it work well.  Our nonprofit partner is Toybox, the global effort to get children off the streets.  Visit toybox.org.uk. 

What people often forget about corporate partnerships is the fact that they are, in fact, partnerships.  It’s easy to focus on the funding you might get from a corporation but there’s much more to a successful partnership than money, and you have to ask, why would a corporation partner with you?  What do you bring to the table?  Today’s guest is Tammy Charles, who has been building corporate partnerships for a decade.  She tells us what you need to do to get them right, and when they’re not right for you at all.

When you think of volunteers for your nonprofit, what are you hoping they’ll achieve for you?  Yes, of course there’s no wages to pay but just like free puppies, there’s a ton of work involved if you want any chance of success.  And if you’re putting in that work, don’t you want to get the most out of it?  Volunteer management guru - and yes I mean guru - Dana Litwin joins me to walk through at least half a dozen golden secrets to success with volunteer programs.  It may be seven or eight, we literally lost count!

You’ve probably heard of the “feedback sandwich” where you put criticism in between two positive or flattering comments.  Well Beth Wonson wants to rid the work world of that model because we’re now so trained to hearing it that it undermines the whole experience.  She has a completely different approach to feedback - and challenging dialogue generally - rooted in a safe, honest exchange of facts in a way that empowers both the giver and the receiver.  This episode is a thought provoking introduction to having better conversations that reduce the drama and emotional drain of conflict.

18 months ago no one was talking about virtual events but we’ve learned so much in doing them that now that we can plan for in-person events, why give up the virtues of online?  In this special feature edition of the podcast, I moderate a panel including yotme founder Barry Hinckley, events producer and founder of Saphier Events Jennifer Whitman and Nic DiBella, Director of Experience at Stage Edge an events and content producer.  Let’s hear the panel explain how to make hybrid events work as a double event, a combination of a fantastic in-person event with an equally fantastic online experience.

How much of your day is spent firefighting?  How much time do you spend on things that aren’t urgent or - just as you get to the really important tasks - you get interrupted by colleagues who just want to have a quick word about something.  Today’s guest, Kally Gagnon is a nonprofit coach who helps people create systems and processes that focus on the most important things.  We talk about the causes of chaos, how to tell the difference between positive, constructive chaos and negative, destructive and distracting chaos and some straightforward steps you can take to better manage not just your own time but other people’s too.  

Seems like there’s always at least half a dozen jobs going for senior fundraisers or directors and the turnover rate is scary, the average time someone stays in one of those jobs is around 18 months.  My guest today is Kimberley MacKenzie, one of Canada’s premier nonprofit coaches who’s done the fundraising gig herself, more than once.  She explains what Exec Directors and fundraisers themselves can do to keep people in post for longer doing their best work.  That’s a win for everybody.  Let’s tune in. 

You’ve got your nonprofit mission and vision, and if you follow me anywhere else you’ll know about having an impact statement.  But what about your Wow Factor?  Nonprofit founder and coach Katie Blomquist tells me how valuable it is to have not just a distinguishing feature for your nonprofit but one that really grabs attention.  Not a gimmick, but a genuine stand-out feature that comes from the core of your mission.  If you don’t have a wow factor, listen to Katie explain so you’ll know how to create one for your nonprofit. 

We tend to think of marketing as a way to tell people about our nonprofit or our services or maybe an event.  It’s one-way communication.  Especially with digital marketing, where we’re sending emails or posting on social media.  Digital strategist Chris Barlow takes a different approach, which is about using digital marketing to serve donors.  I ask him what he means by serving donors, and not only does he answer, he has plenty of useful examples that you can put into practice immediately.  

We don’t have a crystal ball to tell us what to do over the next year to re-emerge from lockdowns and other Covid restrictions.  But we do have leadership expert Heather Wolfson, and she talks to me about what these situations really demand from us as leaders.  She tells me how to get a good perspective on what’s happened in our nonprofits during the pandemic and how to use that information and learning to prepare for - that is, lead - whatever the next normal looks like for you. 

Today’s episode is about the totally irrational and emotionally driven decision to donate.  The question isn’t why do people give, but why do they give to your nonprofit?  Or why should they?  Founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer at Next After, Tim Kachuriak, has run hundreds if not thousands of experiments to see what works in digital marketing for nonprofits.  And he’s found lots of ways we make giving harder - that’s right - harder than it needs to be.  Nonprofits consistently make the same mistakes online.  Listen out for some simple steps you can make to vastly improve your online giving.  

Can your nonprofit survive on major gifts alone?  Do you have enough loyal donors to keep you afloat?  Maybe in your case they’re the same people but it’s easy to separate the size of a gift from the frequency and take for granted the people who give us $10 or $25 month in, month out.  Today I discuss with fundraising coach Amanda Moore how and when to choose one group of donors over another because, as always with nonprofits, it depends.  

We all want to be influential when we’re communicating with others  But mindset and leadership coach Maryanne Dersch will tell us to think about how we’re communicating to ourselves, first.  Are we being consistent?  Is our internal voice in alignment with our external voice?  If not, that disconnect is going to show up in our messaging and we can undermine whatever influence we might have.  So how can you retune your internal and external voices?  Let’s listen to Maryanne model what it’s like to be authentic and vulnerable while exerting influence.

Where are you with grants?  Have you been spending hours and hours filling out forms, shooting them off and hoping for the best?  Have you been successful with small grants and now need to step up your game?  Grant expert Rachel Sacks walks me through the strategic thinking nonprofits need to do before they even think about grants.  Sort of like online dating.  Sort of.  And then there’s the whole other piece about handling the grant well when you get it.  Let’s hear from Rachel about succeeding before, during and after getting a grant.

Let’s admit it, folks, we in nonprofits have a money problem.  Not the one you’re thinking of - not enough money - but not enough talking about money and money management.  Today we address that with Tosha Anderson, whose rapidly growing accounting firm works only with nonprofits. Were you aware that major donors review your tax forms to see how financially viable you are?  That means being on top of your cash flow, your reserves and your accounts receivable.  If that sounds intimidating, help is here, in the form of TheCharityCFO Tosha Anderson.

How often do you tell yourself you’re not quite good enough?  Over half of the actions we take every day are done out of habit, including how we talk to ourselves.  In this episode Dr Tamsin Astor, Chief Habit Scientist, explains how detoxing isn’t just green smoothies but also includes resetting our self-talk, especially around our personal expectations, which we know in the case of nonprofits can be astronomical.  We’ve come to expect super long hours and in some cases we wear burnout like a badge.  Let’s hear Dr. Tamsin explain how we can reset our habits and our expectations.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” then you may be familiar with today’s topic.  I’m talking to consultant Maseta Dorley about strategic planning and ways we’ve seen nonprofits do it right, or better, but also how they can get it spectacularly wrong and end up undermining their own survival.  As we come out of lockdowns, we can’t just go back to the old normal - so how should we approach nonprofit strategy in a Covid and post-Covid world? 

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a nonprofit say that now they’ve been running their programs for a while, or someone’s finally asked to see their results, they’re going to start measuring and monitoring outcomes.  Hint - if you’re not measuring, start now!  You’ll probably use a spreadsheet to get started, but how long will that serve you?  Evaluation Expert Michelle Molina chats to me about the signals that tell you when it’s time to move on to dedicated software or - actually - just make better use of the spreadsheets you already have.