Nonprofit Hub Radio

There are plenty of personality profile tests out there. From Meyers Briggs to the Enneagram to Strengths Finders to DISC, the list can go on and on. These tools can be a great way to get to know yourself better and a great tool for team building... if you actually use and learn from them! On today's episode, Meghan sits down with Jon Sarles to talk about the importance of emotional intelligence for leaders, the science behind why these tools help, and the growth an organization can have when the leader knows their team.Jon Sarles is the president of Elevated Learning, LLC, a professional learning consultancy. With more than twenty years of experience in the field of adult learning, Jon is an expert in applying adult learning methodology to simplify challenging concepts and enable a successful transfer of knowledge. Jon specializes in designing, creating, and implementing learning for the telecommunication industry, leadership and team development, and non-profit organizations.  When not in the classroom leading learning, Jon can also be found facilitating keynote addresses, designing learning experiences, and enabling the growth of others.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

When it comes to choosing  a system to manage donors, relationships, and donations effectively, and the results can be overwhelming! A quick Google search of "nonprofit CRM systems" will give you more options that you could have imagined, and each one sounds like it could be the answer to all of your development woes. It can be a dauting task to find the right one, but today's episode may help you do just that! Nonprofit Hub Radio podcast host Meghan Speer sits down with our guest Christine Robertson to look at questions everyone should ask themselves in the process. She has some great tips for picking the system just right for you! Christine Robertson has a strong non-profit CRM background with software experience at varying levels in the Raiser's Edge, Allegiance, eTapestry, Little Green Light, Virtuous, Altru, BB CRM and Bloomerang. With over eight years of experience as a Raiser's Edge consultant and work as a donor database administrator prior to that, Christine has worked with a wide range of non-profits across the verticals as well as around the world . She is also a seasoned speaker, having shared her expertise on monthly giving, data management, and other topics at various conferences, including bbcon 2017, bbcon 2018, and bbcon UK 2019. When she steps away from her computer, Christine enjoys exploring local parks, baking, and watching British murder mysteries with a good cup of tea.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

 The relationship between a CEO or ED at a nonprofit and the folks on their Board of Directors can be one of the most critical for any organization’s success, but that also means it can be a tough one to manage well. On today’s episode, Meghan sits down with Tim Kachuriak to talk about what it looks like to serve well on the board and how key leaders can manage those relationships. Tim gives some great tips for a thriving board! Take a listen and pass it along to your board today as well. Tim Kachuriak is the founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for NextAfter, a fundraising research lab consultancy, and training institute that works with charities, nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity. He is also the co-founder and board member for the Human Coalition, a member of the board of directors for Global Christian Relief, an Advisory Board Member for the SMU Digital Accelerator, an Advisory Board Member for B Generous, and an Advisory Board Member for the Blackbaud Institute for Philanthropic Impact. Tim lives in Prosper, TX with his wife Rebecca, and their four children: Max (17), Charlie (16), Gracie (14), and Joe (8).Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

It’s easy to get caught up in thinking we’re headed for a Jetson’s-like reality when someone starts talking about AI and how it can help us in our work and daily lives. In this case though, we’re not talking about robots who will do you house chores, but more about the productivity AI can bring. On today’s episode, Meghan sits down with Nils Smith to talk about AI, Chat GPT, and other tools that can help us all be more efficient in our work and how to make sure you are utilizing that technology for good.Nils Smith is the Head of Innovation for Dunham+Company. He is a renowned expert in church and nonprofit marketing, specializing in the innovative use of social media, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency/web3 technologies. With a rich background in helping organizations navigate the digital landscape, Nils brings a wealth of knowledge and practical insight. He is the author of "Crypto for Good: Demystifying Cryptocurrencies for Nonprofits" and "The Social Media Guide," books that have become seminal in guiding nonprofits and churches in leveraging digital tools for greater impact. Nils' work is characterized by his forward-thinking approach and his ability to simplify complex technological trends for practical application. Nils' insights are eagerly sought after by organizations looking to effectively engage their communities in the digital age. Nils and his wife Katie of 19 years live in New York City with their 2 daughters and their dog, Dolly. They are active leaders in their church, Hillsong NYC.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

Sometimes in the nonprofit space it can tend to feel like a competition where your organization is fighting against all the others for those donation dollars and grant money or to provide the services better than the organization down the street. But it doesn’t have to be like that! This week, Meghan sits down with Maggie Johnson Richardson to talk about how organizations can collaborate and work together to move their respective causes forward. Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

In this episode, Meghan Speer, host of the Nonprofit Hub Radio podcast, interviews another Megan! Our guest, Megan Donahue shares her wisdom about tweaks and simple things that nonprofits can do to improve messaging. Megan talks about her ideas on improving letters and email acknowledgments,  how to sound personable in communication, and how to move away from organization-centric messaging and toward donor and audience-focused messaging. Megan Donahue is a writer and nonprofit communications consultant, focused on helping organizations create content that connects with their audiences. She specializes in finding the human story within your facts, drawing in your audience, and building your relationship with them. Megan is the host of Love & Robots, a monthly webcast on the intersection of nonprofits and technology, a dedicated theatre nerd, and an enthusiastic pie-bakerGet free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

Nonprofit Leadership Under the MicroscopeWhat traits do you associate with strong nonprofit leadership? Confidence? Persistence? Assertiveness?In speaking with our latest guest, Trent Dunham,  the president and CEO of Dunham+Company, we learned that essential nonprofit leadership traits are often much more humbling.Trent upens up about how his leadership grew as a result of accepting tough feedback, questioning himself, and pausing for reflection. His prevailing mantras "humble aggressiveness, patience, and honor" have helped orient him through the hurdles of being at the helm.Trent contends that the drive to be a leader will always remain, but the path to getting there means honoring the leadership in place before establishing your own and occasionally taking sharp criticism on the chin in order to grow.Stream this episode to get great tips on navigating the leader's journey.Trent Dunham serves as President+CEO of Dunham+Company, providing strategic leadership to its teams around the world ensuring Dunham+Company remains an effective partner to thriving faith-based nonprofit and for-profit organizations. He is a recognized expert in integrated marketing, fundraising, media, and communications.Continue your learning by checking out Nonprofit Hub Radio’s full episodes list.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

How do Plato's models of persuasion hold up with respect to direct email marketing over 2,400 years later? According to our guest Derek Scott, pretty reliably!People who see poor results with their direct email marketing campaigns usually make at least one of the following mistakes. 1) They fail to segment their donors when they should be rewarding the most consistent ones and recalibrating for the MIA ones.2) They excessively manufacture a sense of urgency to the point that recipients are numb to campaigns.3) They over-rely on pathos (emotional appeals) to coax repeat donations without demonstrating the positive impacts of donors' previous gifts.4) They over-invest in the bells and whistles of their campaigns and demonstrate that donations just flow back into lavish automation cycles.  This episode covers how to craft intelligent and persuasive direct mail marketing campaigns. Efforts that appeal to audiences' logical centers in addition to their emotions, and that won't bombard them when they aren't interested. Derek weaves a marketing ethos that prepares fundraisers for discerning donors. Ones who will ask questions like: "I see that there are struggling parties you aim to help, but what good is my donation if it is just reinvested in future email blasts?" Assuring quality and staying consistent while not overmarketing takes finesse. Stream this episode to hear how Derek balances these elements.  Derek Scott is the president of Creator, an agency that specializes in high-powered direct-response copywriting. He founded Creator in 2021 after nearly two decades of writing copy and leading creative teams at agencies serving the non-profit space. Derek has crafted campaigns for thousands of fundraising and marketing efforts, so he knows the art and science of direct response copywriting and design. This means he can lead his team to translate fundraising strategies into creative that empowers non-profit organizations to see the results they want.Website: www.creatorgroup.coGet free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

How can we be more engaged and authentic in our professional lives?Amidst a slew of excellent advice our Guest Bethany Cranfield shares in this latest episode, two mantras stand out.First, we must keep "All bars on green" meaning we optimize our professional practices so that they don't evaporate our energy by day's end. We can do this by prioritizing self-care, but also by setting professional boundaries in ways that might make us uncomfortable at first. Especially if we are habitual overachievers!The second is that we "show up" on our professional social channels. This means taking our true selves and unique perspectives, tailoring them to the professional environment, and then claiming space online by sharing them. Bethany advocates for making connections for connection's sake and allowing networking and business development opportunities to arise as a natural part of it. So just by showing up, we both honor ourselves and nutrify our professional lives.If you are an overachiever who wants to continue getting things done without omitting self-care and connection, this episode is a must-listen. Bethany is passionate about helping leaders and businesses achieve scalable and sustainable growth by prioritizing healthy disciplines. With this approach, Bethany is building Door No. 3’s business development program to achieve its growth ambitions. She’s focused on making new relationships for the agency and building a virtual and in-person community of tenacious marketing leaders. Her career began as a foster care and adoption caseworker. While the shape of her work has evolved significantly, her magic has always been to listen loudly to a client’s presenting challenges and make an actionable plan.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

"There's no excuse for not knowing a little bit more than you do right now about your audiences." (Ben Smithee)In 2024, transparency and adaptability are more essential than ever for the survival of your brand. Transparency, because stakeholders have so many options to pick from that if your marketing material fails to clearly outline what you are offering and what they must do to obtain it, they will distrust you and switch to your competitors. Adaptability, because easy access to information about global pandemics, contentious elections, and technological upheavals puts their values and priorities in a state of continuous flux.According to Ben, if you want your marketing to be effective in 2024, you must invest in results-driven creativity. Converting the adjective 'creative' into a noun, when Ben talks about developing your 'creative', he refers to original marketing that is efficacious instead of merely making art for art's sake. "I've seen really beautiful pieces that have caused nobody to donate and then I've seen artistically not my style [pieces] that have been really great optimizations."Marketing experts cannot rely on the same old best practices in today's shifting landscape, but they have to make sure that their creative efforts actually drive results. Learn how to do both by streaming the full episode.Ben Smithee is CEO of The Smithee Group, a digital growth agency with a mission to empower entrepreneurs and businesses to dream bigger and achieve multi-generational integrity. Ben has spoken to audiences in over 20 countries and is regarded as an expert in the next-gen consumer.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

Having a podcast series and consistent rollout of webinars seems like the price of admission for any nonprofit trying to scale in the digital age. The problem -- these offerings have become so ubiquitous that it's hard to stand out from the noise -- to convince listeners that your content offers value and is not merely another inbound marketing attempt. With his new series, Decoding Generosity, our guest Nathan Hill hopes to set a new standard for how organizations engage, inform, and prospect the internet community. This series invites both casual viewers and nonprofit members to have a look behind the curtain of the science of generosity. It asks them to reflect on what they think the most effective fundraising strategies are, and then tests their assumptions in real time as a form of entertainment and shared learning. If you want to learn how to incorporate outside-the-box thinking in your marketing and fundraising strategy this episode is a can't miss. Nathan Hill is a vice president at NextAfter – a research lab, digital-first agency, and training institute helping nonprofits grow their fundraising. He has trained thousands of fundraisers in proven online fundraising strategies including PBS, Save the Children, The Humane Society, and more.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

If you have been to a nonprofit event or conference in the last few years, chances are you've run into Erik Tomalis from Virtuous. Maybe you've even been in one of his famous LinkedIn selfies. His passion for helping grow generosity is unmatched, and he speaks and shares across the country to help industry professionals do their best work. Erik joins Meghan on the podcast today to talk about practical steps you can take this year to make donor personalization a priority in 2024 by working on your segmentation and listening. He shares some really great insights from giving data in 2023 that will help seasoned pros and nonprofit newbies alike to zero in on their goals and target their messaging for this year and beyond.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

It's a new year and a new chapter for the Nonprofit Hub Podcast! We are excited to kick off the new podcast season by introducing you to your new hosts, Meghan Speer and Cara Godlesky. Both of these ladies share a passion for supporting the nonprofit community and are looking forward to a season of great interviews full of helpful, actionable content. Listen to meet the ladies!Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

James Thorne is a passionate creator dedicated to empowering individuals, families, and communities through entrepreneurial opportunities. In a career that has spanned a range of industries—from hospitality to ministry, from filmmaking to marketing and business coaching—James has managed teams, led departments, and built several businesses from the ground up. Tune into this episode to hear James talk about creating relationships with donors that last, how to create a smooth donation process, and how to add value to email campaigns to secure more donations. Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

 Don’t lose funding because you can’t report on your impact. Cyrus Z. Kazi has been working for over 20 years with tech companies to drive social impact and is here to share more about all the functions of a nonprofit that provides valuable data for moving your supporters to action.  Check out Quanitbly for more information and tools for impact reporting!Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

In this episode of Nonprofit Hub Radio, host Delaney Mullennix interviews Sarah B. Lange, a nonprofit fundraising consultant. Sarah and Delaney discuss their experiences after attending Cause Camp 2023. Sarah shares that this conference was one of her favorites due to the intimate feel, networking opportunities, and timely topics.Over the past three decades, Sarah worked with more than 200 nonprofits and raised over $80mil -- and she's still going strong! With that being said, Sarah also has a created a 2023 State of Fundraising guide for nonprofits. You can download it here.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

This year, the Deaconess Foundation launched the Institute for Black Liberation, a novel approach to developing liberatory consciousness through healing the pains of internalized racism. The leadership development program provides Black Diaspora people in the Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois region with a space to name, reckon with, and heal from racial trauma and grow as leaders who will pursue a just future.Bethany speaks to Delaney about the importance of healing for leaders and activists and how philanthropic and nonprofit organizations can invest in this process.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

How do you raise awareness &  boost fundraising efforts for your nonprofit’s mission & important work? You engage in impactful storytelling.Kristin Sukraw is a professional storyteller, executive producer at StoryFind Films, licensed mental health practitioner, and national speaker. She has worked with large international nonprofits, small shops, and everything in between to bring their stories to life and help them accomplish their fundraising goals.You can find her book, "StoryFind: The Handbook for Finding and Telling Your Nonprofit's Most Impactful Stories", online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Whether you're a founder or employee at a nonprofit, StoryFind will give you the skills to craft your organization's most compelling narratives to engage donors and drive support.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

Immerse yourself in tips that separate a successful nonprofit start up and those who can't move past phase 1. Rebecca Rodriguez is the author of The Nonprofit Workbook: Tips & Best Practices for Start-Ups Serving The Greater Common Good.In this episode, Delaney and Rebecca discuss the steps a nonprofit leader should take before deciding to start a nonprofit and how to make it successful and sustainable. Rebecca has served and worked in the social sector for more than 20 years. Working with nonprofit leaders to ensure program and organizational effectiveness she works with staff to get them to a place of sustainability.With a fundraising background, Rebecca became interested in how to get an organization to a place of sustainability beyond raising more money. Whether it is at the programmatic or organizational level, she will come alongside to support and strengthen the business model, governance, systems & processes, and programs.Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org

Diz Petit is the Founder and CEO of LiquiDonate, a sustainable social impact solution for businesses and nonprofits. The technology tool lets retailers divert excess and returned inventory to nonprofits who need it.In this episode, Delaney speaks with Diz about her impressive background in the technology space and her ability to turn her passion into action. Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org