When you think of innovation, do you also think about accountability? Do you think you need accountability in your infrastructure in order to innovate?

In this episode, Nic shares the second building block about infrastructure and innovation – true innovation requires accountability. Having built organizational infrastructure for years now, Nic sees accountability as the element that heavily contributes to sustained innovation. And sustained innovation transforms worlds and lives.

This episode was inspired by Nic’s conversation with a nonprofit CEO where they talked a lot about how nonprofits and philanthropies often focus on innovation as an outcome or a specific point in time. The conversation really made us reflect.

In the nonprofit sector, we often hear the word, innovation, but we do not talk as much about how an organization “becomes innovative.” And we struggle with determining how to fund innovation or defining innovation in the first place.

In this episode, Nic encourages us to dissect this topic; this episode explains the first of two building blocks about infrastructure and innovation. This first building block is meant to raise questions for you about how you think about and pursue innovation.

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are continuing the grant making discussion, in particular, making grants to individuals. This episode was recorded as an episode from our Fast Build Friday series, a web-series where we quickly build what you know about infrastructure design in the nonprofit sector.  

If you are not making grants to individuals because you do not know how or are afraid of what it might entail, you are missing a key component of your strategy. Making grants to individuals is a critical part of how we change outcomes for vulnerable and marginalized communities. In this episode, Nic shares two key considerations for building sustainable individual grant programs all over the world.  

Over the next two weeks on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are discussing grant making. This week we are focusing on making grants to organizations that are not US public charities. This episode was recorded as an episode from our Fast Build Friday series, a web-series where we quickly build what you know about infrastructure design in the nonprofit sector.   

In this episode, you will hear 3 key recommendations that will help funders and these organizations sustain a movement, ideas, and change. We will also provide a link to a previous Fast Build Friday episode about effectively working with intermediary organizations, which may be another way to fund these organizations, in the show notes. 

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are continuing the discussion on transitioning from concept to public charity. This episode was recorded as an episode from our Fast Build Friday series, a web-series where we quickly build what you know about infrastructure design in the nonprofit sector. 

In this episode, Nic shares the second of two key considerations for transitioning to public charity status. It is part two to last week's Fast Build Friday Episode 41.   

The second key consideration is to take the time to plan your strategy. This planning includes articulating your vision, mission, priorities, proposed activities, and other goals that you have for your organization. Trust us, the time that you take to think critically about your organization will pay off in multiples. 

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are discussing transitioning from concept to public charity. This episode was recorded as an episode from our Fast Build Friday series, a web-series where we quickly build what you know about infrastructure design in the nonprofit sector.   

In this episode, you will hear the first of two key considerations for transitioning to public charity status. The first consideration, which is critical, is to determine if you should, in fact, be a charitable entity. If you skip this step and go straight to assuming you should be a public charity simply because you want to have social impact, you will lose out on a lot of the vision and mission setting that is critical for building infrastructure and will likely be in an inappropriate entity, both of which will ultimately have an impact within the communities you serve. 

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, Nic is talking with Jeanette Adelson and Earl Thomason, founding Board Co-Chair's of Foundation of Freedom. Foundation of Freedom is a community led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on addressing the racial wealth gap by volunteering at Black owned businesses, producing educational programming, and economic activism campaigns.

Jeanette is the Founding Board Co-Chair of Foundation of Freedom. She is an organizer, producer, and recent law school graduate of Northeastern University School of Law. 

Earl is the Founding Board Co-Chair and Executive Director of Foundation of Freedom. Formerly, Earl was a Partner at The Soze Agency, a creative agency that produces large scale social impact campaigns with clients that include the New York Civil Liberties Union, March For Our Lives, fwd.us, HBO, and The Leadership Conference.

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are continuing the discussion on infrastructure considerations for nonprofit or social-impact start-ups. This episode was recorded as an episode from our Fast Build Friday® series, a web-series where we quickly build what you know about infrastructure design in the nonprofit sector.

Before listening to this episode, we encourage you to ponder a few questions. As a nonprofit or social-impact startup, how much can you do with limited capacity? With no capacity? Do you want to find out or do you want to learn how to build your capacity almost immediately? We can tell you that without capacity, your compelling programmatic vision and strategy do not matter. As a startup, it is therefore critical that you build capacity to support your vision and strategy.

In this episode, Nic shares the second of her two fundamental considerations - capacity - and discusses three ways to build capacity almost immediately. It is part two to last week's Fast Build Friday Episode 21. 

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are discussing infrastructure considerations for nonprofit or social-impact start-ups. This episode was recorded as an episode from our Fast Build Friday® series, a web-series where we quickly build what you know about infrastructure design in the nonprofit sector.

We think a compelling vision and strategy is at the core of sustainability for nonprofit and social-impact startups. Many of the guests from past episodes of the Nonprofit Build Up would agree that you cannot transform outcomes or sustainably build without both. It is a topic we have discussed extensively. Still, should a startup really spend considerable time creating a compelling vision and strategy when it has to attract funding and resources from donors, partners, and supporters to survive in those early stages?

In this episode, you will hear the first of two fundamental infrastructure considerations for nonprofit or social-impact startups. Nic shares why you need a compelling programmatic vision and strategy in order to build a strong infrastructure and a sustainable organization.

This week on the Nonprofit Build Up, we are continuing to share practical recommendations for nonprofits for surviving the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This second part of the discussion was originally recorded as a webinar in March 2020 to address the difficult questions that surfaced as a result of the crisis.

In this episode, Nic shares funding conversation fundamentals that nonprofits can use during and post-crisis. You will hear Nic talk about crisis funding conversations, key funding elements, amending grant agreements, and innovative funding tools. All are critical to nonprofit sustainability.