Recently, I published a blog post about some of my accomplishments (and setbacks) in 2019.

One of the accomplishments was the fact that I read 46 books this past year—the most I’ve ever read in a year. That equals almost a book a week, and this year, I’m aiming for 52.

How did I read that many books and still retain enough information to apply to my work context? That’s some of what we’ll be covering here.

What we talked about:

• Why nonprofit marketers should read more
• How to read more, faster
• My top 10 nonprofit marketing/fundraising books from 2019

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the Nonprofit Growth podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

People like to use the word "strategic" to describe whatever they're doing. But what actually makes something strategic? And how does strategy inform marketing?

Mark Slezinger, marketing director at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, joined the podcast to talk about the critical, high-level questions you need to ask before considering any type of tactical, execution-level questions.

What we talked about:

• What makes something strategic
• The process to becoming a strategic marketer
• How a strategic process results in growth
• Mark's advice about strategy for other marketing leaders

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the Nonprofit Growth podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

Data leads to insight, and insight leads to dollars. As a nonprofit organization, your data structure and products need to turn the information they hold into stories and those stories into valuable relationships. When selecting the right product and building a new data structure, however, you have to consider how people relate to technology and change. 

Matt Schmitt serves as digital technology manager at Bethany International. In this episode, he talks about how we migrated the organization's donor management software from Blackboard's Razor's Edge to Salesforce.

What we talked about:

• Why flexibility is key to supporting complex systems
• Why Salesforce won Bethany's business
• How to get all the stakeholders on board with a new process and product
• Practical steps for transitioning from one CRM to another
• How to know if you should work with a data consultant

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the Nonprofit Growth podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

Dr. Randy Dirks has done a lot of grant writing for Bethany International. There may be no better person to explain what a grant is, when nonprofits should apply for them, and what major mistakes they should avoid in grant writing.

Randy is Vice President at Bethany International. In this episode, he shares expert advice on how nonprofits can use grant writing for long-term growth.

What we talked about:

• What are grants? What is grant writing?
• Why would a nonprofit apply for a grant? Why wouldn’t they?
• Where to find grants
• Common grant writing mistakes
• How to better your chances of receiving more than one grant from a foundation

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the Nonprofit Growth podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

How do you define branding? There are two aspects:

1. Your look, which is what everybody thinks of. A logo, colors, a business card.
2. Your message. This is the other side: the story, the community connections, the voice you have. 

Today’s guest is Brandon Crist, Owner and CEO of Brand Mentors. Brandon tells nonprofits how they can collect the branding elements they have scattered about and pull them together to form a cohesive, consistent brand.

What we talked about:

• How to define branding
• The elements of a nonprofit’s brand
• Successful branding strategies for nonprofits
• Brand guidelines
• How nonprofits can get started with branding

Resources:

• BrandMentors.com  
• Donald Miller’s StoryBrand
• [email protected] 

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the Nonprofit Growth podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

There’s nothing that can’t be accomplished from a digital perspective. 

For a nonprofit leader, especially, this is something you need to consider, because digital is where anybody you will ever want to work with lives.

On this episode, we’re joined by Brandon Lilly, Senior Brand Director and Digital Marketing Strategist at Madwire and Marketing360. Brandon talks all about digital ads and gives advice ranging from basic to advanced.

What we talked about:

• The current state of digital ads
• Why a nonprofit would consider ads
• Common mistakes running ads
• Search ads
• Retargeting
• Facebook ads
• Other ad platforms
• Advice for getting started (and/or outsourcing)

You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the Nonprofit Growth podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts.

What’s the low-hanging fruit many nonprofits are missing?

The answer may surprise you — it’s email marketing.

On this episode, we’re joined by Kenny Ortiz, Associate Pastor at Cities Church, where he oversees communications & connections. Kenny tells us all about email marketing, which tools to use, why it’s effective for nonprofits, and so much more.

What we talked about:

• Email marketing at nonprofits
• Which tech tools to use
• Why you need to add value first
• Social media

According to YouTube, users view over 1 billion hours of video each day on its platform.

Why is it that so many nonprofits are still not leveraging the power of video?

In this kickoff episode of the Nonprofit Growth podcast, I caught up with Travis Sanchez, the Communications Director at FIRM (Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries).

Travis and I discuss:

• The value in emotional marketing for nonprofits.
• 3 videos every nonprofit organization should have.
• Examples of best-in-class video marketing.
• Advice for nonprofits who want to get started in video marketing (because you really should).

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Charity Water YouTube Channel
• Pencils of Promise (PoP) YouTube Channel
• Invisible Children KONY 2012
• FIRM Shabbat Shalom // An Invitation to Come Home

Nonprofit Growth is a podcast dedicated to helping nonprofit leaders achieve explosive growth for their organizations.  If you’re looking for insights from industry leaders and up to date recommendations on books, tools, and resources, this podcast is for you.

Episodes will feature topics like: digital marketing, marketing strategy, Modern fundraising tactics, process development, lean methodologies, management, and leadership.

In this episode we interview host Dan Sanchez on the direction the podcast will go and what to expect as you tune in for each episode!