Mission Forward with Carrie Fox

Learning, practicing, and excelling at anything requires that we start somewhere. This week on Finding The Words, Carrie explores the journey from there... to here.

Thanks for listening. This is the 23rd article in a year-long series called Finding the Words. If you liked this week's essay, we hope you'll forward it along. And a reminder that your family, friends, and colleagues can subscribe to Finding the Words too — along with every episode of our podcast — simply by clicking this link.

A brief note on our plans for the coming summer months with Carrie!

We spent this season talking with a great mix of nonprofit and foundation leaders, and we can think of no better guest to wrap up our fifth season than our guest today: Nadine Gabai-Botero, President of Focus Fundraising.

Nadine has an incredibly diverse background in fundraising. Prior to establishing Focus Fundraising, she supported culture and arts organizations toward community development, and led capital campaigns and branding projects for clients across the spectrum. Her firm is only the latest chapter in a career dedicated to leading innovation in donor engagement and results. 

Along the way, she earned her credentials as a Certified Fundraising Executive and serves as the Secretary of the Board and Development Committee chair of the Catalogue for Philanthropy in DC. Originally from Lima, Peru, she is a proud Latinx fundraiser and brings her diverse background to our conversation as we try to pin down trends driving nonprofit giving after a tumultuous few years. 

Nadine is a cherished member of our community and we're honored to have her on our last show of the season to help us set the stage for what's to come. 

• (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward

Nicole Engdahl is a park person. 

In January of 2015, Nicole joined the National Parks Foundation charged with formalizing the organization’s planned giving department. By 2016, she was tapped to lead the efforts of three major fundraising groups all under one big umbrella including direct response giving, mid-level giving, and estate gifts. That means her department is responsible for all park giving from the nickle in the point-of-sale jar to bequests. 

See? Nicole Engdahl is a park person. 

She’s been practicing her nonprofit fundraising craft for over twenty years having helped grow the domestic estate giving program for Special Olympics International and planned giving for the National Geographic Society. It takes an extraordinary set of communications skills to navigate nonprofit giving in our current global context. How do you communicate your mission in such a way as to inspire and connect with donors, motivating them to generosity and benevolence for your organization when there is so very much need in the world all around us? 

We love Nicole’s exuberance for her work, her passions for the parks and all the things we do there, and her love of telling the National Parks Foundation’s stories in a way that inspires us all. Thank you, Nicole, for sharing your wisdom with us this week.

Did your workplace offer paid time off for the first time on election day in 2020 so that you could be free to navigate the polls without worry? Then you have today's guest to thank.

Stephen Levine is co-founder of Meteorite, a social impact firm that builds coalitions and campaigns that drive social transformation. Among those coalitions is the Civic Alliance, which together with its 1,200-plus member companies, rallied to champion civic participation leading to historic engagement in the 2020 elections.

Steven is a bona fide expert in social impact and corporate communications. He's held prominent positions at the White House where he as the White House Associate Director of Communications under President George W. Bush, where he was responsible for executing every single presidential media event held on White House grounds. 

This week, Steven introduces us to his work, and how he channels his experience in media toward driving participation, access, and pride in every American's access to free and fair elections at every level. Their efforts have brougt about the Civic Alliance and the Corporate Civic Playbook, and tool to help every company and organization empower employees and customers to be active and engaged in civic life. 

Thank you Steven, for joining us on the show and sharing your work with our community. Connect with Steven on LinkedIn to learn more.

• (00:00) - First: A request...

Jim Knight has led Jubilee Housing since 2002 and joins us this week to share their commitment to building compassionate communities for everyone to thrive.

• (00:00) - "Justice Housing"

This week, we’re talking to someone with big ambition who recognized the greatest change started small. 

Temi Bennet, Esq. is Director of Policy for if: a foundation for radical possibility, where she is responsible for engaging local government in the DC metro region in developing racially equitable policies that enable Black people and people of color to thrive. 

It was her influence and leadership at if that moved the organization to take a distinctly different approach in their own branding. What was formerly known as the Consumer Health Foundation evolved into a new, provocative name and brand, bold and explicit in its mission to eliminate systems of oppression in favor of racial justice.

Temi is in a position to make big change, and if is an example of an organization working diligently, showcasing the impact of brand in clear and powerful advocacy. But we hope you’ll take another message from our conversation with her, too. She went to Washington looking to influence change from the top. What she learned is that the real power to make change started locally, right where she was. Thinking small to make big waves. And today she’s moving a big mission forward, removing barriers all along her way. 

• (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward

We’re taking a break from our longer-form interviews for reflection. This week, we offer a selection from Carrie’s column, “Finding the Words,” in which we explore the space that emerges when there are no words to be found.

We’ll be back next week. Until then, we hope you find peace in the quiet.

• (00:00) - Finding the Words: No Words