Next in Nonprofits

Project WHY with Arielle Zappia

Arielle Zappia is the Founder and CEO of Project WHY, “to facilitate genuine empathy through understanding homeless people’s individual stories”. Arielle joins host Steve Boland to talk about the importance of story not only in fund development work but in the mission work of connecting communities to the impact of a nonprofit in the community. Arielle discusses this history of Project WHY, working with partner organizations around story, honoring the choices of individuals in telling their own stories and more.

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Let Everyone Advance with Dignity (LEAD) with Latasha Jennings

Latasha Jennings is the Project Lead at Let Everyone Advance with Dignity (LEAD) which "provides harm reduction-based, intensive case management to individuals who come into repeated contact with law enforcement due to unmet behavioral health needs, homelessness, and/or extreme poverty."

LEAD practices have evolved in other cities, and are being brought in a new partnership to the Lake Street corridor in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Latasha joins host Steve Boland to talk about nonprofit organizations work in collaboration in a space which has often been relegated to public safety/civil service employees, how a movement builds trust in a community, and how to measure change.

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The Bold Promise with Fieldtrip’s Jane Pfieffer

Jane Pfieffer is the founder and president of Fieldtrip, "a cause-driven agency that amplifies nonprofits and the impact they make."

Jane joins host Steve Boland to talk about the ideas Fieldtrip uses with charities to move potential supporters or clients to action. Listeners can see Jane talk about some of these ideas in her Mission Multiplier series on the Fieldtrip website (or directly on YouTube). Jane and Steve talk about the idea of the Bold Promise - telling your community how you are delivering on an important and big need in your community.

Federated communication ”Fediverse” with Aral Balkan

Aral Balkan is co-founder of Small Technology Foundation, which is promoting "everyday tools for everyday people designed to increase human welfare, not corporate profits." Aral and his Small Technology co-founder Laura Kalbag have been advocating for regulation of surveillance capitalism, investment in ethical alternatives, and carrying out research and development on ethical alternatives.

Aral joins host Steve Boland to discuss decentralized social communication tools for nonprofit organizations (and everyone else!). Aral talks about federated communications tools (the Fediverse) like Mastodon (microblogging like Twitter but without corporate ownership), PixelFed (more image focused like Instagram) and many other ideas. Aral discusses the problematic relationship between charities seeking to have real engagement with audiences and how corporate platforms interfere at best, or undermine those efforts. Federate tools for communication and the small web in general puts more control in the hands of users and removes algorithms from the communications outreach loop for charities.

A program note: There was a microphone selection problem during this recording which has Steve sounding a bit muffled and far away. Aral sounds great, so please bear with the audio issue to get all the great information from Aral! More info at NextInNonprofits.com/podcast!

Nonprofit sector investments and Candid with Kris Kewitsch

Kris Kewitsch is the executive director of the Charities Review Council, whose mission is "building donor and nonprofit relationships for strong, vibrant, and just communities." Their work helping nonprofits improve transparency and learn brought Kris to the podcast in 2019 to talk about the original news on the merger of the Foundation Center and Guidestar to create Candid.

Candid announced last week they had received a gift of $15 million in general operating support from Mackenzie Scott. Kris joins host Steve Boland to talk about a gift of this magnitude to a nonprofit sector support organization, rather than a direct service charity, and the impact such a gift may make. They talk about the progress of Candid since the merger was announced, the expense of technology platforms to help inform donors and the sector, and much more!

Endowments, big swings, and legacy giving

This episode is a first for Next in Nonprofits: A podcast cross-over episode with A Legacy of Generosity podcast! Kristi Ackley and Carl Newbanks are two of the hosts of that program, "dedicated to provide professional development content for every fundraiser with special attention to planned and legacy giving."

Kristi and Carl join host Steve Boland to talk about the questions and challenges approaching and supporting and large donors in making choices around big gifts to charities. One option would be to create or give to an endowment - earning money for future needs. Another would be to invest in a "big swing" - spending a much larger amount of money all at once to create a larger-scale impact that in turn ripples over time.

Our hosts discuss the conversation with those donors, the focus of Boards in how to pursue larger-scale gifts, community-centric giving models and much more. 

RightGift with Allie Meador

Allie Meador is the Chief Revenue Officer of RightGift, whose "mission is to empower nonprofits and their donors to expand their social impact through conscious utilization of purchases and in-kind donations."

Allie joins host Steve Boland to talk about how RightGift supports charities with tools such as wish-list purchasing from donors, receipts for those donors, bulk purchases, delayed shipping and storage for bulk purchases, logistics support and more.

Expert partners for nonprofits with Holly Rustick

Holly Rustick is "founder of Grant Writing & Funding, and ... create(s) effective systems so grant writers ensure that nonprofits grow capacity, increase funding and advance mission." Holly is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Grant Writing and the host of the podcast Grant Writing and Funding.

Holly joins host Steve Boland to talk about the evolving nature of outsourced support for nonprofit organizations, especially in non-core areas of specialization like fund development and communications. The lessons of the COVID workplace have opened more doors to charities using a remote workforce and to considering leveraging expertise from outsourced partners. Holly talks about educating nonprofit partners on how outsourcing works, the importance of clarity in the work agreement, communicating value to nonprofits from their expert partners, and much more.

Holly is a planning partner in the August 2022 Nonprofit Consulting Conference, providing additional information and sessions about successfully working in nonprofit consultancy.

Social Permitting with Houda Elyazgi

Houda Elyazgi is the Chief Client Officer at Saxum, "an integrated digital agency obsessed for good." Houda is committed to making the world better through her work in diversity, equality, education and public policy.

Houda joins host Steve Boland talk about social permitting, a practice she uses at Saxum to help charities think about engaging with audiences to support nonprofit goals. The focus on permission, multiple entry points, and user feedback builds a more effective strategy over time. One permission to seek is for donations, another may be for access to a supporter's network to expand support for the work. Houda goes over some case studies to illustrate how Saxum works in this space.

Instrumentl grant tool with Gauri Manglik

Gauri Manglik is the CEO and co-founder of Instrumentl, which "brings grant discovery, research, and tracking to one place. With Instrumentl, development staff are more effective and efficient at finding the right grants for their nonprofits."

Gauri joins host Steve Boland to talk about the origins of the tool, and what makes Instrumental different from other tools for grants in the nonprofit sector. Gauri talks about the evolution of their discovery algorithm, features like understanding how much funders invest in new applicants, updating government funding opportunities and so much more.