Creating Community for Good

My guest today is Jordan Langer, a wildly creative and successful business entrepreneur, and a high-school dropout. As the founder of Non Plus Ultra, best known for hosting large-scale parties or conferences in its myriad portfolio of properties, Jordan works 20-hour days, but still found time to invest in the community. His desire to do something truly impactful for people and his own story with the American education system led him to create Project Wreckless, a San Francisco-based capacity development non-profit organization centered around the restoration of badass old American classic cars.

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways, and episode resources.

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There are so many issues, local to global, that it seems almost impossible to find a solution to all of them: poverty, access to education, clean water, housing, human trafficking… you name it. Furthermore, there are a ton of other issues that seem to be reaching a tipping point like climate change and the refugee crisis. 

But you know what? We already have the solutions to many of these problems. The nonprofit space exists to mend these issues through participation and programming. It’s a matter of time, energy, and resources to make it happen. This is a hard question: if there is enough money out there, are we fundraisers doing enough to activate extraordinary giving? Organizations need stability. They need overhead funding. And they need ambitious goals to fulfill their missions. If we have the guts to solicit bigger gifts, we can see the change. 

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways, and episode resources.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind. WITH THE INTENTION TO inform, inspire and evolve.

What would it be like to be a fly on the wall as a nationally recognized, 9-figure donor talks to an executive director about giving motivations and priorities? This episode does just that (with consent and some gentle guidance from yours truly, of course.) Our goal in this episode was to make it a working meeting – and to share it with you! We talked about how to refine a case for support, activate best practices for capital campaign engagement, consider how to cultivate potential prospective donors, and learn about foundation giving at large – especially during a spend-down. 

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways, and episode resources.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind. WITH THE INTENTION TO inform, inspire and evolve.

In this episode, Rick Happy, renowned philanthropic advisor for over 35 years— and a mentor to me — shares wisdom and advice all members of nonprofit leadership would benefit from considering. Take a listen to the first interview Rick did with me at the height of the pandemic, episode 8. In that episode, we talked from the eye of the hurricane about techniques to find funders and stay afloat. It’s been almost 18 months since then and things have definitely changed. Today I am interested in exploring with him what humanity has learned in this time about giving, and about our own human behavior when it comes to times of crisis. Join in!

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways, and episode resources.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind. WITH THE INTENTION TO inform, inspire and evolve.

In this episode of Creating Community for Good podcast, I talked to Ryan Marshall and Bill Tortorici. Both are talented fundraisers from different parts of the country and in different roles in the sector who were laid off during the pandemic. And they were not the only ones who met this same fate: 926,045 nonprofit jobs were lost by the end of February 2021. With an average recovery of 39,520 jobs per month, it will take the sector around two years to return to its pre-covid level of employment, according to the March 2021 updated estimates following the procedures laid out on Candid’s December Report.

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways and episode resources.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind. WITH THE INTENTION TO inform, inspire and evolve.

In today´s episode of Creating Community for Good I was joined by criminal defense attorney and author, Shanti Brien. Being a defense attorney is a work of tremendous responsibility and pressure since your client’s life is essentially in your hands. Shanti specializes in criminal appeals and post-conviction proceedings; the very last instances of the criminal justice system like the habeas corpus. Shanti’s clients are those who have already been convicted and are fighting the system from the inside; many of them convicted to life in prison.

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways and episode resources.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind. WITH THE INTENTION TO inform, inspire and evolve.

In this episode of the Creating Community for Good Podcast, Ashley Dittmar shares how she uses technology paired with the human instinct to engage and retain giving to organizations, year-over-year. That repeat giving is called donor retention. Ashley is the Director Of Development at Crisis Text Line and a specialist in digital campaigns, donor retention, and storytelling. In this conversation, she shares techniques of building rapport with donors, perspectives on the value of retention, and the power of automated technology for meaningful interactions.

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways and episode resources.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind. WITH THE INTENTION TO inform, inspire and evolve.

On today’s episode of Creating Community For Good, I was joined by Mallory Erickson, a certified fundraising coach with experience serving over 50 fundraisers and organizations. She, like myself, believes in the importance of changing the narrative of nonprofits around money, engagement, and donor-organization relationships. It is not about begging or chasing donors for money anymore, it’s about providing people with an awesome opportunity to join a cause and fuel a movement!

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways and episode resources.

In this episode a fellow consultant and dear friend of mine, Tiffany Williams, and I explore a day in the life of a consultant. In this interview you’ll hear the challenges we grapple with in terms of what clients we will take, and what we won’t; how to prioritize the assignment while opening the space to pressing current events and societal demands; and techniques of building trust.

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways and episode resources.

Now, I know a lot of you are glad you don’t have to go to any more (proverbial) rubber chicken dinners. Not me! I loved galas! I’m a social butterfly who liked connecting with new and old friends, experiencing delight of an orchestrated festivity, and then floating away lit up about the cause we rallied to support that evening. I’m not really one for TV in general, so, when I tell you I did NOT enjoy pre-recorded, virtual Zoom events in Q1 of SIP, believe me, I mean it.

Good news! Creativity wins again!! I am jazzed by the astute genius that has proven me wrong: virtual events can be captivating, dynamic, and ...dare I say, fun! The entertainment- and community-engagement-experts of the world pivoted and innovated quickly to enchant us, all from the comfort of our PJs. No doubt some of these new strategies will inform how we connect in person or virtually going forward.

Welcome to Creating Community for Good, a podcast dedicated to philanthropy: the love of humankind (...and nature and animals and environment and all the things.) With the INTENTION to inform, inspire and evolve, allow me to introduce to you my new go-to social / virtual / positivity gal: Dana Snyder. Dana is a bad@ss. Just listen to her! Her enthusiasm and optimism are contagious. She rolls through this interview spilling creativity and solutions effortlessly. As someone who thought she was allergic to virtual events, I’m sincerely excited to know what we saw months ago is not what we’ll see going forward. Innovation abounds and Dana’s got all the juice you need to hook your event up with something your audience will be talking about for the ages.

Head to http://CreatingCommunityForGood.com for full show notes, key takeaways and episode resources.