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

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If you’re a regular listener, you will know that we love exploring brain science.  And I am so excited to be exploring that in the context of branding. While I’ve been diving deeper into my own study of neuroscience, I haven't seen it applied to branding ever before. 

In today’s episode, Chloé Nwangwu, Brand Scientist, Digital Diplomacy Consultant, and Conflict Mediator, shares with us the brain science behind brands and how you can leverage that to connect more with your audience and create more impact with your small nonprofit. 

Myths that Chloe wants us to walk away from:

• You can’t fundraise without rebranding.  Before rebranding, think about how it contributes to the memorability of your brand and how it impacts your mission or the work that you do because if it doesn't, it's best not to do it.
• Branding is about your personal preference. Knowing the preferences of your organization's most important stakeholders is essential when developing a brand for your nonprofit. If you're familiar with these patterns and trends in your industry, you'll have a better idea of how to stand out from the crowd.

Chloe’s thoughts around brain science branding 

• Brand vs Branding: A brand is simply a system of ideas that influences the behaviour of others. Branding is brand assets that are memorable. So the job that your branding is meant to do is meant to capture attention because that's how the memory process starts. And then it's meant to be stored within the right part of your memories, your memory network.
• Brain Science of Branding: The definition of brand building from a scientific perspective is creating memories for people to recall or remember.  If you want your brand and your branding to be effective to do the job that you need them to do, if you are looking to have the kind of impact in the world that shapes the future, repetition is required.
• Behavioural Design: We figure out the steps that our stakeholders usually take between where they are now and the kind of behaviour that we would like to see from them. We can create an effective branding strategy once we know what the uncomfortably specific behaviour is and once we understand where they currently are. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“A brand's branding is really anything that can serve as a memory anchor for that brand. That just brings us back to the idea of memorability and attentional capture. If it captures attention, it stands a chance of getting past the brain's filters, which means it stands a chance of getting sorted into the right part of the memory network. Once it does that, it can serve as a memory anchor so that when people are making decisions about who to vote for, who to donate to, who to support, who to buy from, you stand a chance of being on that short list of people that they're considering are their considerations.” 

Resources from this Episode

NobiWorks.com

Nobiworks Instagram

Chloe Ngwangwu LinkedIn 

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These days it's easy to feel like we're not passionate about our work. Very often we get into the sector because we are passionate about changing the world. And then something happens over time and we lose that passion. And now we layer over COVID and isolation (and now a new global conflict) and all the other things, and that passion feels like a very distant memory. 

In today’s episode, Shilbee Dhalla-Kim, Passion and Social Enterprise Coach, talks about how we can reignite the fire within us and find balance in doing our passion without burning out. 

Myths that Shilbee wants us to walk away from:

• Passion is always a good thing: When there’s only one thing that makes us feel good and we give all our energy to it but less energy to other important aspects of our life, this kind of passion becomes obsessive and not harmonious.
• Passion is always about your profession: Very often we determine our worth based on our job. And then what happens is our passion for our job becomes the only thing that we identify as a passion. And then we don't find worthiness and meaning and value for other elements of our lives, where passions can also exist. 

Shilbee’s thoughts around Passion 

• Harmonious vs Obsessive: To recover from passion burnout, you need to identify which of the passions in your life currently, or passions that you had before, may have lost their essence. Which of these passions would you describe as harmonious? Or obsessive?  
• Practice detaching our identity to the passions: Attachment of our identity to passion can prevent us from seeing other things that we might be passionate about. When our passion is so linked to our identity, it can create fear and prevent us from doing something new or different.  We must be mindful of how our realities and beliefs might come up to prevent us from exploring other things that we are passionate about. 
• Embodied values: We need to identify what are those values that will help us stay anchored and grounded towards this better world. Passion can be one of our access points to help clarify our embodied values. We need to ask ourselves, what's the value that I'm willing to fight for? 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“So we determine our worth based on our job. And then what happens is our passion for our job becomes the only thing that we identify as a passion. And then we don't find worthiness and meaning and value for other elements of our lives, where passions also can exist, like me drinking this tea and drinking it mindfully and enjoying this to me, activates passions. But I think we don't give ourselves permission or that time and space or the language to call it that.“

“ We need to shift those values in order to create systems and structures and policies and laws and cultures and relations that can ensure that all of us can not only survive but thrive. And so, what are those values that will help us stay anchored and grounded towards this better world? I believe passion can be one of our access points to help clarify our embodied values.”

Resources from this Episode

Shilbee.com

Shilbee Kim Instagram

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Strategic planning is one of those seemingly boring things that we need to do every once in a while to have a vision and clarity around where our organization is going. But I've never seen it done as an exciting or innovative process in most small organizations.

In today’s episode, Jennifer Riel, IDEO’s global director of strategy (and probably one of the smartest people I’ve met), talks about how you can actually use that process to think about innovation and really have a strong impact on your organization.

Myths that Jennifer wants us to walk away from:

• Strategy is about updating old plans: Doing the status quo may look risk-free, but it may be extremely risky because the world has changed, or we lack the capabilities, or whatever the case may be. Holding the same standard hinders us from seeing other possibilities that could lead us to where we want to be.
• Strategy is all about budget and a thick binder full of initiatives:  Strategy is a set of choices. And a choice means yes to some things and a no to other things, giving things up, trading things off. Real choices. And those choices are about how you are going to try to win in a particular way.

Jennifer’s thoughts around Strategy 

• “Winning” for nonprofits: Strategy is about making choices that will allow you to win and for nonprofits, winning means achieving ambitions and creating the change that we want to see in the world. Jennifer encourages not for profits to think of choices about what they can uniquely do and what should they uniquely do to create the change that they are after?
• Start with human-centeredness: Understanding the context in which you are operating is important for nonprofits.  You need to know what's happening in the community,  what are the folks that you are working with, and what is it that is working for them or not?  And use that to define the problem to be solved.
• Competitive advantage: For nonprofits, the competitive advantage is a reason a donor would give you the dollar instead of someone else, a reason to believe that you can achieve the outcome you're after more effectively or less expensively than someone else could. 
• Knowing Your Capabilities:  You need to know the capabilities and systems that you will need as an organization in order to implement your strategy. Be honest about where you are.  

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“The starting place is to use your existing understanding of the world, your collective wisdom as a leadership team to say what is the problem we need our new strategy to solve. Start there, then explore the possibilities. So don't try to get to that answer right away, diverge a little bit and explore different playing fields, different potential sources of advantage. Those are the two fundamental questions. “

Resources from this Episode

Playing to Win by Roger Martin 

Jennifer Riel LinkedIn 

Jennifer Riel Twitter

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LinkedIn is known for being a professional social media platform that can help you find a job and make stronger connections with individuals in your industry. However, it’s also a great place for nonprofits to make new connections or do prospect research, or find people who can help or volunteer.

In today’s podcast, Dee Boswell-Buck, Digital Marketing Strategist and Consultant of Boswell-Buck Creative, will talk about how nonprofits can leverage LinkedIn to advance their mission and grow visibility online. 

Myths that Dee wants us to walk away from:

• LinkedIn is only good for job seekers: LinkedIn is also a great way to build a business, share your content, connect with individuals who are aligned with your organization, start a conversation and move those conversations off of the profile. 
• You can’t create meaningful connections on LinkedIn: If you are looking to build your online network, LinkedIn is a great place to start. In building meaningful connections, you have to be genuine with your message and engage intentionally with your audience.

Dee’s thoughts around leveraging LinkedIn

• Optimize Your Profile. Choose a great image for your profile picture. Include some important keywords about what you do in your banner or headline. In the summary section, highlight keywords about how you help, what your skills are, or other relevant services you offer. 
• Build genuine connections. With LinkedIn, you can make connections with individuals within your industry or who share similar interests. You can engage with them by learning more about them before you send personalized or intentional messages. 
• Be active and consistent. Dee suggests sharing content in your profile at least four times a week, by sharing relevant posts, and spending time to engage with your connections. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“There's no set of rules, but you want to spend time on LinkedIn where you're actually engaging with those who you have connected with, or, you know, when you're surfing through engaging with posts that you like, because when you are engaging on content of others, and even if you're not connected with them, then that opens it up for others to connect with you. ”

Resources from this Episode

deeboswellbuck.com

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Have you ever seen this in an organization?  Maybe the executive director or founding executive director leaves and they hire someone to replace them, but that person may last six or eight months because the transition is just too hard. It's too hard to take over from long-standing ED or a founding ED or maybe you are the ED and you're really struggling with how to create a succession plan where your organization can be in really good hands after you leave. 

In today’s podcast, Jane Garthson, President of  Garthson Leadership Centre and experienced interim executive director, will talk about how interim leadership can help nonprofits navigate change and organizational transition. 

Myths that  Jane wants us to walk away from:

• Internal promotion is always beneficial for the organization. Most small organizations do not have a lot of people who are ready to step into an executive director role and promoting someone without enough skills and experience to handle an executive role can be overwhelming for the person and can have a negative impact on the organization. 
• Interim leaders are just like consultants. Executive consultants always give advice to organizations, but interim leaders not only give advice to the board but also become part of the management team that implements the goals and objectives of the organization. 

Jane’s thoughts around Interim leadership 

• Navigating change An interim executive’s role is to help any organization have a smooth transition when there’s a need to recruit a new executive. Interim leaders make sure that the organization continues to operate and do its mission, that board members have the time to make decisions on the changes and to make the new executive successful in the role. 
• Managing relationships Being hired externally, not all people in the organization will like the interim executive. If the leader speaks the truth about an issue, it should be related to how it is affecting the mission and how it reflects the organization’s values. 
• Success Measures It is important that the board member and interim ED be always on the same page. It is the role of the board to make sure that the ED understands what is expected of them, but also listens when the interim ED has any suggested changes. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“An interim executive forces them basically to accept change and be resilient and ready for more change. New person comes, they're not fighting that same level of we've always done it that way. They've seen change and they've seen that some of it is at least starting to work. ”

Resources from this Episode

Janegarthsonleadership.ca

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Fundraising is all about mindset. And if you don't believe that, chances are actually that you need to work on your mindset. If you've heard me speak about my fundraising origin story, you’ll know that I have loved fundraising right out of the gate, but I know that that's not the case for everyone. And so today you're going to hear from someone who hated fundraising and learned to love it by focusing on changing the mindset. 

Mallory Erickson, CEO & Creator of the Power Partners Formula, joins us in the podcast to discuss how you can change your mindset about fundraising and raise more money for your nonprofit. 

Myths that Mallory wants us to walk away from:

• Mindset has nothing to do with fundraising.  How we feel and think about fundraising ultimately impacts how we show up and the results that we see. We can overcome the barriers to fundraising success by reframing our mindset and developing new habits.
• Great fundraisers don’t get rejected. Good fundraising is a job that involves regular rejection and it takes a lot of intentional building of resilience to be able to not internalize that rejection or make it about you, or have it relate to your stories about yourself that get in the way and keep you in a paralysis and perfectionist state.

GAIL: four primary types of thoughts that hold you back from successful fundraising

• Gremlin or self-critic is the voice in your head that says  “I am not good enough. I am not smart enough. I am not pretty enough. I am not enough” which plagues all of us.
• Assumptions this is the result of our belief that when something has happened before, we believe it's going to happen again. For example, one donor didn't give last year, now we think that they're not going to give this year. But in reality,  the data shows the exact opposite.
• Interpretations are the stories that we make up about someone’s behavior that is not based on facts.  
• Limiting beliefs are things that society puts on us that restrict our ability to think outside the box. The hundred percent model is a great example of a limiting belief, where we have been trained to think that there’s too much money to overhead. This is simply the limiting belief that we are all continuing to perpetuate, even as fundraisers. However, once you begin to challenge these beliefs, they disappear. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

“Good fundraising is a job that involves regular rejection and it takes a lot of intentional building of resilience to be able to not internalize that rejection or make it about you, or have it relate to your, um, stories about self, um, that that often sort of get in the way and keep us in a sort of paralysis and perfectionist state. ”

Resources from this Episode

What the Fundraising Podcast

Power Partners Formula 

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Major gift fundraising can be very intimidating for so many small organizations. Oftentimes we think we don't know anyone who can give, or we think of a major gift as a hundred thousand dollars where very often it can be 500 or a thousand dollars for your organization. But I think the most intimidating part of major gift fundraising is the idea of a face-to-face ask that gets people running and hiding. I think that is truly the number one thing that many people think of as the worst part of fundraising. 

In today’s podcast, Rhea Wong, experienced nonprofit consultant and coach, will talk about how you can make bigger asks for bigger gifts to fully fund your small nonprofit’s vision and mission. 

Myths that  Rhea wants us to walk away from:

• You can ask anyone to give. Building a relationship with donors is a process. To determine whether they align with your organization’s mission, you must first identify and understand the type of person you are approaching, their capacity to give and know their values and interests. 
• Only rich people have the capacity to give.  Rhea suggests that the best way to know whether someone is inclined to give to you is to simply ask.  Just because someone has a hundred million dollars doesn't mean they're going to give you a hundred million dollars. These donors could give you a thousand or five hundred dollars if your mission does not resonate with them.

Rhea’s thoughts around major gift fundraising

• Fundraising is just a math problem.  It's asks minus no’s equal yeses. The more asks you put out, the more nos you're going to get, but the more yeses you're going to get.  
• Learn to listen. In conversations with donors, remember the 75:25 ratio, where 75% donors talking and 25% you listening. People who are nervous about money, about the conversation, they overtalk, they create a deck as a crutch but there's no substitute for being present and being vulnerable and asking really good questions to people. 
• Give value. Every time you talk to someone and you're asking them for something, you're probably not going to get callbacks. But you can cultivate a relationship where you are also offering value and that could be in the form of companionship, giving information, opportunity to get more engaged or involved in a meaningful volunteer experience. Every meeting should be about engaging further, but that engaging further, it doesn't have to be about them giving it can also be about you giving.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

“ I build a whole business around major gift fundraising training, and I'm like, here's the big secret you guys, I'm training you to have a conversation. That's the secret. Like, it's not like some deck, it's not magical words. It's not like anything other than like, can I as a human being have, sit with you and understand who you are as a human being. And see if the thing that you care about is the thing that we're doing. And if so, can we build something together? Like, that's it, that's the big secret, right? ”

Resources from this Episode

Rhea Wong Consulting

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Running a small nonprofit can be pretty lonely. Very often, whether we're the executive director or a senior manager or leader in the organization, we don't have peers in our role. In small shops, we're often the only ones responsible for our area of work. And that can be hard, especially when we feel like we might not be as competent, confident, or content with ourselves as leaders in the work that we do. 

In today’s podcast, we’ve invited Kathy Archer, a leadership development coach, to share her insights on how to lead your small nonprofit with confidence. 

Myths that Kathy wants us to walk away from:

• Leaders know everything. The most effective leaders are learners and they not only focus on professional development, but they focus on personal development. You can continue to grow and learn all of the stuff you need in your organization, your field, your sector, but as you move up the ranks, there's a lot of inner growth that needs to happen as well.
• Small nonprofit employees can’t have leadership skills.  Leadership is not about job title or job description. This is about becoming the person you want to be and as a leader.  You can think of your future career path and make a decision. Forget about the victim mindset and take responsibility for your own learning and growth.  

Kathy’s Inner Guidance Cycle in Mastering Confidence as Nonprofit Leader

Pause – Stop and pay attention to your thoughts. As leaders, we're always on the go, like whacking moles or sending emails and going to a meeting and we're getting this done and taking this off the to-do list, but we never step back and stop. The first thing we should do is step back and pause. 

Ponder – Consider the messages in your thinking. True pondering is forward motion. Stop a moment and check where you're attuned to your body or your body sensations, your thoughts, and where you want to be. Think about your goals. Ask yourself: how do I want to develop? What do other people say? What's the feedback?  What are my own desires? What's the direction my career wants to go?

Pivot – Shift your thoughts. This is the stage to think about the direction you are going and to review your goals. Break it down into those more reasonable steps so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. 

Proceed – Move forward again, intentionally and mindfully. This stage is actually doing the work you said you were going to do and recycling that process again. Pause, think about your goals, review, and proceed. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“The most effective leaders are learners and they not only focus on professional development, but they focus on personal development. And so you can continue to grow and learn all of the stuff you need in your organization, your field, your sector, but as you move up the ranks, there's a lot of inner growth that needs to happen as well. And so we have to align the two.”

Resources from this Episode

KathyArcher.com

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In today’s podcast episode, we’re going to talk about influencer marketing with Christina Edwards, the founder of Splendid Consulting, a marketing expert, and a coach, and she will show you how to work with influencers to grow your small nonprofit and amplify your social impact. 

Myths that Christina wants us to walk away from:

• Influencer marketing doesn’t work with small nonprofits.  Influencers are used to being paid but a lot of these people, especially on Instagram or TikTok, want to be part of change, they want to be part of making their world or their community or their neighbourhood, a better place. We just need to find influencers who care and resonate with our cause and highlight the benefit to them. 
• Influencers need to have large followings. Micro-influencers, who have 900 or 2000 followers are also powerful and sometimes even more powerful than influencers with 5 million followers because that person usually has a higher engagement level and is also very specific to what they talk about and that could be specific to your location or a cause of your organization. 

Christina’s thoughts around influencer marketing for nonprofits

• Make it fun and easy. Working with an influencer should feel fun and easy for the influencer. If it's not fun and it's not easy, then this is a business opportunity and we need to pay them for their time. This should feel like an added value for them because they're partnering with you. 
• Connect with influencers. Meet them where they are. Start by warming up before you make the ask. Interact, share and comment on their content in an authentic way.  This should be a partnership that feels well aligned, fun, and easy for both people. You can also develop relationships with influencer agencies, managers, or publicists. 
• Make influencers your brand ambassadors and partners.  Influencers are used to being paid for and they typically need to create a lot of content. In this sense,  it's not a heavy lift for them if you give them done-for-you assets. The second thing is that we're really highlighting the benefit to them. They want to be part of something that is giving back to the community. They want to be a part of this social change. Lastly, start with an initial ask for one time, where you bring them in on for one of your campaigns. So that might be two or three times a year. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“We didn't really talk about like the power of the influencer who has 900 followers or 2000 followers, because that person is so powerful. Arguably sometimes more powerful than the person who has 5 million followers because that person usually has eight engaged community that has a higher engagement level and is also very specific to what it is they talk about.”

Resources from this Episode

Splendid Consulting

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Small nonprofit organizations face the same fundraising challenges over and over again. They often believe that one fundraising strategy can solve all of their problems and look to large organizations for inspiration. Better marketing, major gift campaigns, corporate sponsorship- they have so many ideas, but most of the time, those solutions are not aligned with what will raise their organization's money today and in the near future and grow it into a sustainable program.

If you want to learn how to raise more money for your small nonprofit that is aligned with your organization’s mission, our very own Cindy Wagman will share the key strategy to your fundraising success in our upcoming FREE online training on January 18, see you there! 

Myths that Cindy wants us to walk away from

• A donor meeting is an ask for money. Donor meetings are not an ask for money. It is not a pitch and it's not talking about your organization very much. This is an opportunity for you to get to know your donors, why they support you, what they care about. Maybe they even have feedback around your fundraising or ideas to help you raise more money.
• It’s okay to make assumptions about your donors.  We make so many assumptions about our donors based on our beliefs around fundraising and the value of our work, and almost always we're wrong. And then we use these wrong assumptions to then drive our fundraising strategy and decisions, which leads to us making bad fundraising decisions, which leads to us not raising the money we want to make or raise for the organization. 

Cindy’s thoughts around fundraising 

• Get to know your donors. Most of our fundraising decisions are made by people sitting in a boardroom or around zoom and we make assumptions about our donors. And almost always these assumptions are wrong. We need to stop making assumptions and start verifying information about our supporters. The more information we know the more we can think about fundraising strategies that make sense for their donors and of course for our mission.
• Donor meetings help you find more donors. By getting to know your donors, it will help you see patterns and learn about their values. They have probably shared these values with their friends and networks.  Your donors are one of the biggest untapped resources in finding new donors to your cause so the more you get to know them and build that fundraising strategy in line with them, you're also creating opportunities for them to welcome more people and introduce your organization to more potential donors.
• Communicate with donors. Getting to know your donor is an opportunity to understand how to communicate with them. By leveraging tools and technology, you can find ways to connect more with them. 

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

“We always get so caught up in elaborate fundraising plans and strategies, and we have to do these big things. It's not fundraising. Success comes from consistency and finding those points of intersection between your organization, its mission, and your donors.”

Resources from this Episode

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