Connected Philanthropy

Calculating and communicating the return on investment for a large software purchase is no easy task. This episode explores some useful marketing and selling strategies that can be applied to internal purchasing decisions.

Lori Finch, Director for Nonprofit Sales and Sales Enablement | Foundant Technologies

Lori is a dynamic and creative executive, strategist, and builder with an entrepreneurial spirit and skilled in sales, coaching, partner development, relationship/account management, and communications View her LinkedIn here

Links:  

• Webinar: Communicate For Good
• Q&A: Nonprofit Q&A: How to Communicate for Good
• nonprofitlearninglab.org
• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram

Hear expert insights from Foundant's copywriter on how to craft compelling copy. In this episode we cover the importance of considering your audience, writing for different mediums, where to find inspiration, adding personality when you are writing for an organization, and the power of stepping away.

Katie Sproles, Marketing Copywriter | Foundant Technologies

Throughout her 30-year career in marketing and communications, Katie feels fortunate to have been able to dedicate her skills to writing compelling copy about organizations that serve others or enable the work of those who do. Before joining Foundant’s team in 2021, she focused her efforts on writing about the programs and services offered by a public university art museum, a customer-owned utility, and local government in Eugene, Oregon—all of which make a difference in the lives of those they serve. That’s what brought Katie to Foundant.

She is energized every day by the work its clients are doing to make the world a better place. A mountain girl at heart, Katie is happy to have finally planted her roots in the city of Foundant’s headquarters, Bozeman, Montana. When she’s not working, you’ll likely find Katie outside, looking for different ways to explore the local trails, rivers, and lakes. It’s hard to say whether she has more photos of Bozeman’s breathtaking sunrises and sunsets or her beloved dogs, Moby and Max. One thing is sure—she has fewer photos of her husband and two teenage daughters whom she loves deeply but are far less willing subjects.

Links:  

• "Everybody Writes" by Ann Handley: annhandley.com/everybodywrites/
• Ann Handley Newsletter: annhandley.com/newsletter/
• Wordifier: claxon-communication.com/wordifier/
• "Communicate for Good" Recorded Webinar with Erica Barnhart: resources.foundant.com/education-webinars-for-grantmakers/communicate-for-good-raise-awareness-revenue-and-impact-one-word-at-a-time
• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram

In this episode, we dive into the numbers and data behind grants, uncovering some interesting philanthropic trends.

Holly Rustick , CEO & Bestselling Author | Grant Writing & Funding

Holly has been writing grants for 15+ years, immersing herself in the grant world and securing millions of dollars for nonprofits around the world! Holly is also an Amazon bestselling author, podcast host of Grant Writing & Funding, and world-renowned grant writing expert.

Holly has been on both sides of the grant writing coin – writing them and winning grants as well as managing and reviewing them on behalf of numerous organizations. Using this experience, she has created an extensive database of grant writing and funding-related online courses. she also offers workshops and provides coaching for people who want to transition into freelance grant writing to earn a full-time income.

On the nerdy side, she holds a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She is also a professor at the University of Guam, Past President of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and editor of the Storyboard journal.

Links:  

• Website: www.grantwritingandfunding.com
• Hub Haven (free grant writing and freelance grant writer resources and newsletter): https://grantwritingandfunding.com/get-started/
• Past Connected Philanthropy Podcast: https://www.foundant.com/podcast/grant-consulting-what-it-takes-to-be-successful/
• Grant Writing & Funding YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GrantWritingandFunding
• Grant Writing & Funding Podcast: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/grant-writing-podcast/
• Nonprofit Consulting Conference: https://fundingforgood.org/npcc-online/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-rustick-0765b817/
• National Council of Nonprofits Employment Survey: https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/nonprofit-workforce-shortages
• Federal grants awarded (2019 - 2023) trends: https://www.usaspending.gov/
• How Nonprofits & Freelance Grant Writers Can Leverage the Great Resignation: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/how-nonprofits-freelance-grant-writers-can-leverage-the-great-resignation/
• Pros & Cons of Hiring Freelance Grant Writers Vs. Employees: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/pros-and-cons-to-hiring-a-freelance-grant-writer-vs-a-staff-grant-writer/
• Health of the Nonprofit Sector in 2022: https://independentsector.org/resource/health-of-the-u-s-nonprofit-sector/
• Sean Kosofsky's 4 Day Work Week Blog: https://www.nonprofitfixer.com/nonprofit-fixer-blog/the-complete-guide-to-implementing-the-four-day-workweek
• Health of the Nonprofit Sector in 2022: https://independentsector.org/resource/health-of-the-u-s-nonprofit-sector/
• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com

Learn how an abundance mindset can help reduce burnout, underinvestment, and high turnover within your nonprofit organization.

Brittny Wilson and Nia Wassink | The Nonprofit Reframe

Between them, Brittny and Nia have over 30 years of working in nonprofits. They’ve worked on the program side, the business side, fundraising, and even sat on Boards of Directors. Their vast experience, primarily with local and regional organizations, gives them an authentic voice on behalf of the sector.

Brittny and Nia are able to bring forward topics and discussions that are often hidden or not discussed within the sector.

Links:

• Email: [email protected]
• Podcast: The Nonprofit Reframe
• Facebook:@nonprofitreframe
• Instagram: @nonprofitreframe
• Prismatic Consulting (Nia's Firm): teamprismatic.com
• Brittny Wilson Consulting: brittnywilson.com
• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com

Whether you work with a nonprofit organization, community foundation, grantmaker, or scholarship provider, the key to maximizing your impact is the same: building meaningful relationships through successful communications.  

Learn tangible tips and resources to help you better serve your mission by communicating in ways that are good for yourself, your team, your organization, and the world.

Erica Mills Barnhart, Founder & CEO | Claxon Communication

Erica Mills Barnhart is a communication expert, speaker, author, and coach. She is Founder & CEO of Claxon, a company focused on teaching companies and leaders how to use words to change workplaces and the world. Erica also serves as an Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Washington. She now calls Seattle, Washington home, but a piece of her heart will always be in Vancouver, Canada, where she was born.

Links:

• April 19th Webinar: Register Here
• Quiz
• Books mentioned: Recharge, Purpose mindset
• Erica's Email: [email protected]
• Erica's Podcast: Communicate for Good
• Bridges Transition Model
• purpose-mindset.org
• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com

do-si-do

/ˌdōsēˈdō/

noun

(in square dancing, and other country dancing) a figure in which two dancers pass around each other back to back and return to their original positions.

How can you rapidly deliver value to your clients/community? In this episode, Aarron Szalacinski, Director of Engineering, describes how Foundant Technologies uses the Agile framework - and how this methodology could be valuable for the philanthropic sector.

Aarron Szalacinski, Director of Engineering | Foundant Technologies

Aarron is proficient in Domain Driven Design principles, Software Documentation, Web Applications, Micro Service Architecture and Agile Methodologies. An extroverted people person who is always looking for the opportunity to coach and manage team members to maximize their potential and bring value to an organization.

He is a detail-oriented software engineer and leader who is an expert in collaborating with companies to architect full-stack applications and the teams that build them. Aarron's job is to help maximize revenue potential and deliver business value.

Topics:

1. Agile work methodologies
2. Value mindset
3. Daily standups
4. Monotasking

Links:

• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Webinars: register here
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com

How can we plan and facilitate effective and engaging meetings? In this episode, we explore strategies for getting the most out of the time spent together with your teams.

Rachel Myers, Founder

Rachel has over 23 years of experience working on all sides of philanthropy. She served for 12 years as an Executive Director for two nonprofit organizations and has worked for the past 9 years on the funder side at her local community foundation. Along the way, she's also served as a trustee for 11 years for her local public library board. The experience of working both as a staff member, and as a volunteer board member has provided her with unique insights on how boards and staff can effectively work together to make more good things happen.

As a consultant and collaborator, she offers expertise in strategic assessment, board training, communications strategy, fund development, planned giving, meeting facilitation and more.

3 things that need to happen for an effective meeting:

1. The purpose of the meeting is clearly defined, and we achieve that purpose during our time together
2. The meeting time is valuable (and enjoyable/energizing/bonding) for all the participants
3. All the meeting attendees are engaged and contribute to the work and outcomes of the meeting. Researchers have found that the strongest predictor of meeting success is active involvement by the participants!

4 P's:

1. Purpose - Why are we meeting? What problem are we trying to solve and could we accomplish this in another way? (Loom, shared doc, online collab tool like Miro, etc.)
2. Product - What will we produce together? What outcomes will we have from this meeting? Specific decisions, direction, strategy, choice, etc
3. People - Who needs to be present to make this happen? What’s in it for each of them? What is their role and how will they contribute? Do they need to participate, or can we update them in notes or Loom?
4. Process - How will we spend our time to meet our purpose and outcomes? AKA: the agenda. Here’s a mind-blowing tip – challenge yourself to never send out a meeting request without including an agenda – or at a minimum a clear summary of the meeting purpose. Another important part of this step is to think through what tools you are going to need for the meeting – if it is virtual, will you need a whiteboard like Jamboard or Miro, do you need to poll the group, or collect notes in some shared format during the meeting? Make sure you have all of the tools you need to be successful. Add a “purpose” column to your agenda – Time, Agenda Item, Presenter/Lead, PURPOSE, Outcome.

IEEI:

1. Inform – Ensure that everyone in the meeting understands your objectives and purpose. “When we leave this meeting today, we will ___________”
2. Empower – Describe the role the attendees will play and the power they will have (you will have articulated that in the 4Ps above). Make sure they understand why they are there and what contributions you need from them.
3. Excite – This is the “What’s in it for them” part. Share the benefits of the meeting and why it is important to each person – and to the organization as a whole.
4. Involve – engage attendees early and often with a question or activity that connects them to each other and the meeting purpose.

Links:

• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Webinars: register here
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com

Time is our most valuable asset and we don’t want to give it away without thought. In this episode, we discuss how to use time management strategies to better organize our calendars and make sure we prioritize the work that matters most.

Sammie Holzwarth | Product Manager Grants and Scholarships, Foundant Technologies

In her time with Foundant (since 2011) Sammie Holzwarth has taken on many roles in her path to becoming the Product Manager of Grants & Scholarships. Starting as an intern with Foundant’s Marketing Team, Sammie then moved into a Client Success Manager role - successfully implementing well over 150 clients. Her Foundant adventure next took her to the Sales Team as Foundant’s GLM/SLM Product Implementation Engineer. Her breadth of knowledge and extensive experience working with a plethora of clients and in varying roles at Foundant fuels her passion and excitement to continually improve GLM/SLM, and herself which she now brings to her role as the Product Manager for Grants and Scholarships! Sammie has a passion for youth philanthropy and has spearheaded the Youth Giving Project in Bozeman, MT as well as serving as an Exponent Philanthropy Next Gen Fellow for 2016.

Montana holds a special place in Sammie’s heart as she is a born and raised Montanan; from rolling plains to mountain tops, this is where she feels most at home and takes every opportunity to soak in the outdoors. When traveling beyond the Big Sky State, Sammie loves anywhere with a vibrant culture, and delicious food. Connect with Sammie directly at [email protected].

Topics:

1. The power of the pause
2. Calendar best practices (blocking off time for tasks and meeting prep/ reflection)
3. Office hours

Links:

• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Webinars: register here
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2016/12/12/throw-out-your-to-do-list-fix-your-calendar-double-your-productivity/?sh=26f7ee6949f2  
• https://www.loom.com/blog/cost-of-context-switching 

Tool Mentioned:

• Calendly

Say NO to what is not essential, so that you can say YES to the work that matters most. Prioritization is not about getting more things done, it is about getting the RIGHT things done. Learn strategies and frameworks to help you better prioritize in this episode.

Andrea Stevenson | Solutions Engineer, Foundant Technologies

Drea is a dynamic and analytical professional with 15+ years of experience in operations management and marketing/communications across a variety of industries. She has held just about every position one can hold in the nonprofit world including Executive Director. She is a natural leader with a proven history of driving revenue, executing successful projects, and strengthening positioning by navigating the intersection between business strategy development, integrated marketing, and operations.

Drea's Strategy Screen:

• Does this align with our mission and support our strategic plan?
• Must leverage our mission advantage
• Does this communicate our vision?
• Must engage our key stakeholders
• Is this accessible/ inclusive?
• Must support people in reaching their full potential beyond meeting their basic needs
• Impact must be measureable (both qualitatively and quantitatively)
• Must be financialy sustainable through earned or contributed revenue
• Strategic consideration of the allocation of our resources must be determined before a program is added.

Topics:

1. Saying no
2. Making time for self-care and letting your mind wander
3. Email
4. Trade-offs

Links:

• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Webinars: register here
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com
• Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous prioritization framework: https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/eisenhower-matrix
• Tangible tactics for prioritizing your work: https://www.lifehack.org/858070/how-to-prioritize

Books Mentioned:

• Essentialism
• 4000 weeks

Working smarter, not harder means knowing how to get the most out of technology. Learn strategies for better evaluation, adoption and cohesion of your software tools.

Cory Brester | Director of CRM and Information Systems, Foundant Technologies

Cory supports a fast-growing team focused on maximizing the philanthropic community. As a software solution provider for grantmakers, grantseekers, scholarship providers, and community foundations Foundant is tasked with supporting the infrastructure of philanthropic programs everywhere; in order to be successful at this, Foundant needs a reliable infrastructure of its own.

Cory manages Foundant’s internal corporate IT infrastructure and systems as well as leads the company initiatives on cybersecurity. Since starting at Foundant in 2011, Cory has spent much of his efforts planning and developing efficiencies and systems to support Foundant’s growth. His 8-year history with Foundant has allowed him to participate in sales and support - providing the internal experience necessary to provide a framework and continuity to information system processes and data integrity. Outside of his daily management work, Cory also enjoys sharing his cybersecurity knowledge through Foundant education resources, such as blogs and hosted webinars. Cory came to Bozeman from the agricultural community of Laurel, MT to pursue degrees in Finance and Accounting at Montana State University.

Topics:

1. Getting the most out of the technology you using
2. Evaluating new software
3. Being open to new tools and ways of working

Links:

• Compass: Connect with other members of the philanthropic community at Community.foundant.com
• Webinars: register here
• Social: Follow Foundant Technologies on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram
• Website: Foundant.com

Tools Mentioned:

• DocuSign