Small Nonprofit: Fundraising Tips, Leadership Strategies, and Community-Centric Solutions for Canadian and American Nonprofits

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Most leaders don't talk about what actually happens the day you walk into an ED role. They talk about the vision and the strategy, not the fact that your admin manager just quit, the reserves are empty, and you're going to have to let people go before you've even found the bathroom. This episode is about that first year as an ED, unfiltered. On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, I sit down with Lenny Sweeney, Executive Director at SHORE Centre and a fundraiser of nearly 20 years across community services, gender-based violence, disability, and reproductive justice work. If you're a first-time ED, considering becoming one, or currently in the middle of a challenge, this episode will make you feel a lot less alone.

• Connect with Lenny Sweeny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenny-sweeney-cfre-a8309b11/
• Learn more about SHORE Centre (Sexual Health Options, Resources and Education): https://www.shorecentre.ca/

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Search engines were never built with equity in mind. The organizations that show up first are the ones with money for ads, not necessarily the ones doing the most impactful work. For small and grassroots nonprofits, that means decades of good work can go unseen by the donors, program officers, and advisors who'd want to support it if they only knew it existed. It's clear the playing field was uneven long before AI entered the picture. But AI is also changing who gets found, and not always in the direction people assume. 

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, host Maria Rio sits down with Brandolon Barnett, Chief Innovation and Philanthropy Officer at Giving Compass, to unpack why small nonprofits struggle to be discovered and what it actually takes for donors to find you in a AI-first digital landscape. Nonprofit leaders will walk away understanding why "just post more on social media" isn't the fix it used to be and what steps they can take instead without needing a tech team or a big budget.

• Connect with Brandolon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandolon/
• Visit their website: https://givingcompass.org/ or https://gg.givingcompass.org/
• Learn more about how donors and funders find you in the age of AI: Free self-paced course here

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Ever felt pressure to chase every funding opportunity that crosses your desk just because the deadline lines up and the dollar amount looks good? This episode is your permission to slow down. You'll learn why "does this person have money" is the wrong first question, and what to actually look for before you sink hours into an application or a pitch. You'll hear the real cost of chasing misaligned funders (hint: it's not just your time), and get a practical framework for spotting values alignment before you're locked into a partnership. 

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, host Maria Rio is joined by Caitlin McBride, a certified fundraising executive with close to 15 years of experience helping small nonprofit leaders make fundraising feel easy, ethical, and less chaotic. Together, they unpack how experienced fundraisers actually assess whether a funding opportunity is worth pursuing, and nonprofit leaders will walk away with a clear-eyed way to evaluate funders before committing time, energy, or their organization's reputation.

Connect with Caitlin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caitlinmcbride-ethical-fundraising/

The Unbearable Hypocrisy: Fundraising in a World of Compromised Integrity: Read here

CHAPTERS

00:00 Why Not Every Funder Is Worth Chasing
01:43 Meet Caitlin McBride: Making Fundraising Ethical and Less Chaotic
02:35 The "Looks Good on Paper" Trap — Money, Deadlines and Program Fit
03:41 Not All Money Is Good Money: Hidden Time and Reputational Costs
05:58 How to Check a Funder's Real Giving History (CRA Website Tip)
07:27 Values Alignment: Vision, Tactics, and How Donors Treat Your Staff
09:11 Closed-Door Funders: Why "They Won't Talk to You" Is the Answer
12:14 Scarcity Mindset vs. Being Strategically Picky About Funders
13:21 The "Ends Justify the Means" Debate in Nonprofit Fundraising
14:49 Funding Should Follow Mission, Not the Other Way Around
15:27 Assessing the Grant Application: Is It Worth Your Time?
16:23 Sneaky Recognition Requirements (Christmas Gifts, Logo Wars, and More)
18:41 Sponsorship vs. Donation: Know What You're Actually Signing
20:00 Why Being Picky Is the Strategic Move

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Most nonprofits pour everything into the people and causes they serve, and forget the staff doing that work every single day. This episode flips the script. We're talking about what it actually looks like to take care of the caretakers, especially when your team is dealing with trauma, grief, or emotional burnout as part of the job. You'll hear how one nonprofit built a staff wellness program from the ground up, fueled almost entirely through community donations, not big budget line items. We also get into what happens when a founder hits her own breaking point, and what she changed because of it.

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, Maria sits down with Laurie Hood, founder and CEO of Alaqua Animal Refuge, a 20-year-old organization that rescues and rehabilitates animals from cruelty and neglect cases. Nonprofit leaders will walk away with a real framework for supporting staff wellbeing without needing a bigger budget, and a reminder that modeling rest starts at the top.

Visit their website: https://alaqua.org/

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Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) are the fastest-growing way to give in Canada, the US, and the UK, and most nonprofits still don't have the words "donor-advised fund" anywhere on their website. This episode isn't a case for DAFs. It's a case for having a strategy for them anyway, so that money moves toward community instead of sitting in an advisor's spreadsheet.

In this episode, Mike Todd (Transform Philanthropy) breaks down what's actually happening when a DAF gift lands in your mailbox, why "anonymous" almost never means what you think it means, and how to stop losing gifts you didn't even know you were being considered for.

• Connect with Mike:  [email protected]
• Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miketodd/
• Visit their website: https://www.transformphilanthropy.ca

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Posting on social media and hoping donations follow? You might be setting yourself up for disappointment. In this episode, we get into why social media is often a top-of-funnel tool, not a direct-response one, and why that's not a bad thing once you understand how to use it right. We talk about the algorithm problem nobody wants to admit: that even your own followers might never see your posts. We also dig into what actually makes content land, from ditching jargon to using strength-based framing that invites people in instead of guilt-tripping them.

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, Maria sits down with Farra Trompeter, co-director and worker-owner at Big Duck, who has spent over 30 years helping nonprofits use communications to build brands, run campaigns, and grow sustainably. If you've ever wondered whether your org "should" be on every platform, or worried your content isn't landing the way you hoped, this conversation gives you a clearer way to think about both.

• Connect with Farra: [email protected]
• Connect with Farra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farra/
• Visit their website: https://bigduck.com/

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If your fundraising calendar is back-to-back grant deadlines and event planning, you might be stuck on a treadmill that's working against you. Grants and events share something that doesn't get talked about enough: they're two of the highest time investment portfolios in the fundraising world. The good news? If you're good at grants, you're already sitting on a foundation of skills that translate directly into individual giving, corporate, and social enterprise.

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, Maria Rio is joined by Caitlin McBride, CFRE, a Certified Fundraising Executive with over a decade of experience who is on a mission to make fundraising feel less chaotic and more doable for small nonprofits.

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Your fundraiser just handed in their notice. Now what? Before you dust off that three-year-old job description and blast it out, there are a few things you need to know. Fundraiser turnover is one of the most disruptive events a small nonprofit can face. Donor relationships go quiet, grant deadlines get missed, and someone who already has a full plate suddenly inherits a whole new set of responsibilities. If the hiring process that follows is reactive rather than intentional, you risk losing good candidates, burning out your team further, and making an expensive hire that doesn't stick.

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, Maria sits down with Brittny Wilson, CEO and founder of Rooted Hire, an executive search firm built specifically for nonprofits. With over 20 years of in-house fundraising experience and six years running her own search and interim services firm, Brittny knows this terrain from every angle. In this episode, she walks Executive Directors through the real cost of skipping the assessment stage, why the "starry-eyed" hire from a big shop usually doesn't work out, and what you can do differently starting today.

• Visit Brittny's website: https://www.rootedhire.com/
• Connect with Brittny:
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittnywilson/
  • https://www.instagram.com/rootedhire
• Hiring Process Audit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q7ax3DqErnzNmepydJEx5ncjuCJHoKh4/view
• 10 Pitfalls of Nonprofit Hiring: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dBnxhytGuSyAB55G7e21YYq4iVtRqIas/view

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A burnt-out Executive Director doesn't just affect themselves. The team feels it. The culture shifts. The bold, brave decisions that your community depends on? They stop happening. And yet, so many EDs stay well past their limit because the tools, staffing, or board support to do anything differently simply don't exist. If you're an ED who's been running on fumes, or a board member wondering why your leader seems like a different person than the one you hired, this conversation is for you.

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, Maria sits down with Jocelyn Helland, a nonprofit leadership consultant with over 20 years of Executive Director experience. Jocelyn now works with small and medium-sized organizations through coaching, fractional fundraising, and interim ED leadership helping them solve the sticky problems that keep great leaders stuck. 

• Visit Jocelyn's website: https://www.jocelynhelland.ca/
• Connect with Jocelyn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelynhelland/

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Most nonprofits are good at issuing apologies, but terrible at actually changing. There's a difference between saying "I'm sorry" and doing the work of repair, and that gap is exactly where trust goes to die. In this episode, we get into what accountability actually means, why so few organizations do it well, and what it looks like when it's done right.

On this week's episode of The Small Nonprofit Podcast, Maria sits down with Chris Talbot (they/them), Communications Lead for Community-Centric Fundraising, and a queer, transmasc, non-binary, mixed race, autistic advocate who has spent years working to make spaces genuinely safe for marginalized people. Nonprofit leaders listening to this episode will walk away with a concrete framework for taking accountability, a clearer picture of why changed behavior, and not apologies, is the actual measure of accountability, and a harder look at the double standard of who gets held to account in our sector.

• Shahem Mclaurin's page, which has links to their socials, podcast, and work: https://www.5hahem.com/
• Christabel Mintah-Galloway's page, which has links to her relational toolkit, relational skills workbook, workshop, and socials: https://www.christabelmintahgalloway.com/
• Book: Turn this world inside out: The emergence of nurturance culture: https://bookshop.org/p/books/turn-this-world-inside-out-the-emergence-of-nurturance-culture-nora-samaran/012f25ca4db67954
• Chris's website: https://www.mxchristalbot.com/
• Twitter: https://x.com/mxchristalbot
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mxchristalbot/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mxchristalbot/
• Them's Wild podcast: https://dashboard.rss.com/podcasts/themswild/

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