Tellwell: The Podcast

Jenny Olson left Microsoft twice, built a state government office from scratch with no background in the field, and now leads the advancement team at Concordia College. Her grandma asked why she’d forsake a bird in the hand for two in the bush, and she walked away from the sure thing anyway. Six leaps in, she sat down with Max Kringen to talk about authentic leadership, managing your emotions at work, and why she still calls a mentor she hasn’t seen in years before she decides. 🎯 This one is for anyone staring down a change they don’t feel ready for.

Before you listen, ask yourself:

• Whose career are you watching to figure out your own next move?
• When you weigh a big risk, who do you actually call?
• Are you dampening your personality down to fit a room?
• When you walked away from a sure thing, what did the fear sound like?
• Who refills your bucket, and are you keeping that thread alive?

By the end, you’ll know how to:

• Pick your next move by watching where leaders you admire spend their energy
• Call a mentor you’ve lost touch with and keep that relationship alive
• Set up a hard conversation by putting all your cards on the table first
• Coach your team from what works for you, offered as a perspective and not a playbook
• Bring your full personality to work instead of filing it down to fit in
• Refill an empty tank by turning outward, the way a runner at mile 10 thanks the volunteers and gets the energy back
• Walk away from a golden-handcuffs job when the calling in your gut won’t quiet down

Key quote highlights:

“I’ve always followed good leaders in my career. I fundamentally believe in the principle you are what you surround yourself and what you will become.”

“I did not know you could be inspired in your work, actually feel the feeling and the emotion of being inspired literally five days a week.”

About Jenny Olson: Jenny Olson grew up in Cokato, Minnesota, graduated from Concordia College in 2001, and built her career in the Fargo-Moorhead region. She spent years at Microsoft and Great Plains Software, then left to launch Recovery Reinvented, North Dakota’s initiative to eliminate the stigma of addiction, before returning to Microsoft to lead the Fargo campus. Today she leads the advancement team at Concordia College, her alma mater, where she describes herself as a confetti cannon in a sector known for moving slowly. Learn more at [CONCORDIA URL]

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 Who the heck is Jenny
05:00 The gutsy leaps and the golden handcuffs
09:10 What it looks like to follow a good leader
14:35 Emotions at work, and why self-awareness is the job
19:53 Recovery Reinvented and the heroes in her backyard
26:39 How every road led to Concordia
34:46 Showing up when the energy is hard to bring
43:40 One good thing: everybody wants to help

📌 Resources Mentioned

• Concordia College: [CONCORDIA URL]
• Recovery Reinvented: https://www.recoveryreinvented.com
• The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

🔔 Stay Connected
Subscribe wherever you listen so you catch the next conversation, and send this one to someone weighing a leap they don’t feel ready for.
Website: https://wetellwell.com
Tellwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wetellwell/
Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxkringen

📣 About Tellwell: The Podcast
Tellwell: The Podcast is a weekly conversation with nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and mission-driven storytellers about building trust and belonging. Host Max Kringen, Chief Storyteller and founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, North Dakota, talks with the people doing the work about what worked, what didn’t, and what they learned along the way.

#followinggoodleaders #nonprofitleadership #authenticleadership #sayingyes #concordiacollege #tellwellpodcast

99% of nonprofits are fighting over 1% of the pot. That is cash. The real money sits in everything else a donor owns.

Most fundraisers ask for a check and stop there. Eric Wilke has spent 25 years in the nonprofit sector, first in the trenches at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, now leading the FM Area Foundation in Fargo. In this conversation he walks through non-cash giving the way donors actually experience it: the farm nobody wants, the second home in California, the appreciated stock, the IRA that gets taxed to pieces when it passes to the kids. He also makes the case that generosity is harder work than most people think, that a planned gift can outlive the donor, and that the best major gift conversations often never mention money at all. He also tells the story of a million dollar gift that turned on a book left in a milk crate. Get this right and a modest giver becomes a major one. 💡

Ask yourself:

📌 Are you only ever asking for cash?
 📌 Do you know which of a donor's assets are good to give and which are bad?
 📌 When someone offers an unusual gift, is your first instinct yes or no?
 📌 Are you listening for the gift, or waiting for your turn to pitch?
 📌 Would you keep showing up for a donor even if you knew there was no gift coming?

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Spot the non-cash assets sitting inside almost every donor's estate
• Explain why an appreciated asset gives more to the cause than the cash left after tax
• Compare good gift assets against bad ones, starting with the IRA-versus-life-insurance question
• Reframe the conversation around the donor's need to give instead of your need to have
• Listen for the story that opens the gift, the way Wilke did across a milk crate and an aunt from the 1930s
• Make the ask without apology, because people genuinely want to be asked
• Position a community foundation as a donor's charitable checkbook without overselling it

Key quote highlights:

"99% of the nonprofits are fighting over 1% of the pot because not all of them will only take cash."

"Giving has to be about the donor's need to give and not the charity's need to have."

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 The 1% problem, and why cash is the wrong fight
02:30 The nonprofit trenches, and what program work teaches you about the money that funds it
06:47 What people get wrong about giving, and why it is rarely transactional
12:22 Maximizing philanthropy through appreciated assets, plus the California home nobody would take
19:45 Good assets, bad assets, and why the IRA should go to charity
25:50 What a community foundation actually does, and who it says no to
31:54 The million dollar gift that started with a milk crate, and why the ask is a gift in itself

📌 Resources mentioned

• FM Area Foundation: areafoundation.org
• Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch
• Fargo Theatre (a nonprofit, in case you did not know)
• Seasons of Story by Max Kringen
• WellTold Conference, featuring keynote Clay Buck
• Edwin Markham, "Outwitted" (the circle poem Wilke closes on)

🔔 Stay connected
New conversations with nonprofit leaders every week. Subscribe so you catch the next one.

• Web: wetellwell.com
• Tellwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wetellwell/
• Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxkringen

📣 About Tellwell: The Podcast
Tellwell: The Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Max Kringen, Chief Storyteller and founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, North Dakota. Every week Max sits down with nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and mission-driven storytellers to talk about the work of building trust and belonging. You get real conversations, honest advice, and ideas you can put to work on Monday morning. If you raise money or lead a mission-driven organization, this is a table worth pulling up a chair to.

#nonprofitfundraising #plannedgiving #majorgifts #communityfoundation #nonprofitleadership #philanthropy #donorrelationships

What if the grant application is the thing standing between a small town and the money it needs? Megan Langley of StrengthenND asked that, then scrapped the application entirely.

This episode of Tellwell: The Podcast is a working session on rural philanthropy and what it takes to move resources into communities the funding system skips. Megan leads StrengthenND, a North Dakota organization supporting smaller communities through grant making, an incubator farm, local foods work, and a People Power AmeriCorps program. She makes the case for community-owned capital, trust-based grant making, and systems change that starts with one small lever. If you raise money for a mission, fund other people's work, or fight for a town most maps ignore, this one is for you. 🌾

Ask yourself:

📌 Does your grant process reward good writing more than good ideas?
 📌 Are you funding the prettiest brochure, or the org closest to the problem?
 📌 When a project changes mid-grant, can your grantee call you, or are they stuck to a promise from nine months ago?
 📌 Who in your community gets left out before they ever hit submit?

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Rethink the grant application as a barrier instead of a default
• Design funding that lets a town of 150 compete with a fifteen-million-dollar org
• Build trust-based relationships that survive a change in scope
• Find the one lever of change worth pushing in a community
• Structure community-owned capital that treats a town like an entrepreneur
• Spot the difference between efficiency fixes downstream and systems change upstream
• Lead like a builder when tearing things down would be easier

Key Quote Highlights:

"What's that one lever that we could push to make things easier for everybody, to make it more equitable for everybody? Get rid of a grant application."

"It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. We're just gonna have to try. Everything is figureoutable."

Guest Bio:

Megan Langley leads StrengthenND from a farm outside Souris, in a community of about 35 people. She started at the Minot Area Community Foundation, where she kept a dream book of ideas the system was not ready for yet. Today she runs grant making and rural development across the state, including the Creative Community Solutions program that has funded 44 of 45 projects by getting to the root of what people actually need. Learn more at strengthennd.com

⏱ Timestamps (estimated, verify against the final edit):

00:00 Meeting in Williston and why rural gets overlooked
 04:11 Why rural is a choice worth defending
 07:09 The dream book and parking ideas that are not ready
 11:09 Finding the one lever of change in a community
 12:16 Killing the grant application and what changed
 17:08 A 44 of 45 success rate and why trust beats brochures
 21:05 The rooster, the wiffle ball bat, and figureoutable

📌 Resources Mentioned:

• StrengthenND: strengthennd.com
• Creative Community Solutions grant program
• Cheyenne Grit, the community-owned financing pilot in Cheyenne, ND
• Northwest North Dakota Community Foundation
• Minot Area Community Foundation
• The Arnold Bezran Fund

🔔 Stay Connected:

Subscribe for weekly conversations with nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and mission-driven storytellers. New episodes every week.

• Website: wetellwell.com
• Tellwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wetellwell/
• Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxkringen

📣 About Tellwell: The Podcast:

Tellwell: The Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Max Kringen, founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, North Dakota. Every episode is a real conversation with the people building trust and belonging inside mission-driven work. You get honest talk and usable ideas that change how you show up for the people you serve.

#ruralphilanthropy #nonprofitleadership #grantmaking #northdakota #ruraldevelopment #communityfoundations #missiondriven

Scaling a nonprofit usually means working harder until something breaks. Missy Heilman found another way.

She spent 15 years in marketing and tech before launching BIO Girls in 2013, and she brought a business mind to a mission most people lead with their heart alone. The result: one Fargo church program grew into 120 locations across five states, reaching thousands of girls every year. In this episode, Missy Heilman breaks down nonprofit strategic planning, how she avoids mission drift, and why she still shows up as a hands-on site director while running the organization. She talks openly about the teen program that failed, the EOS operating system her team runs on, and the stretch goal they missed on purpose and still call a win. 💡 If you lead a nonprofit and you want to grow without burning out your people or losing your why, this one is for you. 🌱

Ask yourself:

• Are you chasing shiny new programs that pull you off your actual mission?
• Does your strategic plan live in a binder on a shelf, or does it run your week?
• Are you afraid to call a pilot a failure when the data says it is?
• When did you last get out of your CEO chair and back on the ground?

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Scale your programs without becoming surface-level or burning out your team
• Build a three-year strategic plan that actually drives quarterly decisions
• Protect your mission when every good idea wants a piece of your capacity
• Run an operating system like EOS inside a nonprofit, not just a business
• Reframe a missed goal as progress instead of a verdict on your worth
• Stay connected to the people you serve when you could delegate it away
• Lead a team that treats failure as a point in time, not an identity

Key Quote Highlights:

"My friends and coworkers, they dreamed big for me before I was willing to."

"Failure is a point in time. It doesn't define who you are, and the best thing you can do is remember the lesson, forget the mistake."

Guest Bio

Missy Heilman is the Founder and CEO of BIO Girls, a nonprofit that helps second through sixth grade girls build self-esteem and understand that they matter. Before going all in on BIO Girls in 2018, she spent 15 years in marketing and technology, including CRM and marketing automation work that shaped how she scaled the organization. Under her leadership, BIO Girls has grown to 120 program locations across five states and now reaches roughly one in eight North Dakota girls every year. She is also a mom of three and a half Ironman triathlete.
 Learn more at biogirls.org

⏱ Timestamps (estimated, verify against the final edit)

• 00:00 The marketing mind behind a mission
• 03:30 From two girls to 120 locations across five states
• 08:50 Why every decision at BIO Girls is mission first
• 13:36 Avoiding mission drift and the teen program that failed
• 17:50 What makes a strategic plan you actually use
• 24:28 Leading without fearing failure
• 31:32 The postmaster mom who set the example

📌 Resources Mentioned

• BIO Girls: biogirls.org
• EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System
• Olivet Lutheran Church, Fargo
• North Dakota Youth Risk Behavior Survey

🔔 Stay Connected

Subscribe for weekly conversations with nonprofit leaders and mission-driven storytellers.

• Website: wetellwell.com
• Tellwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wetellwell/
• Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxkringen

📣 About Tellwell the Podcast

Tellwell: The Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Max Kringen, Chief Storyteller and founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, ND. Every week, Max sits down with nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and mission-driven storytellers about the real work of building trust and belonging. You get honest conversations and takeaways you can use in your own organization.

#scalinganonprofit #nonprofitleadership #strategicplanning #missiondriven #biogirls #nonprofitpodcast #storytelling

Most leaders think they're self-aware. Most are missing the mark, and the gap shows up in how their teams feel about them.

In this episode, Kara Jorvig, Founder and CEO of Allegro Group, sits down with Max to unpack why self-awareness in leadership is the foundational skill most executives skip. Kara advises CEOs and senior teams across the country on building clarity, alignment, and trust through feedback. She names the leadership gap plainly, explains how boss holes actually get formed under pressure and pace, and makes the case that personal growth is what drives real business results. Kara has spent her whole career studying people, leadership, and clarity and alignment, and she brings that lens to every CEO she advises. This one gets honest fast. 🎯 Max even owns his own "asshole-ish tendencies" on the record. 🪞

Ask yourself:

• Do you think you're self-aware, or have you actually tested it?
• Who in your life is willing to hold up the mirror, and do you trust them?
• Are you applying what you learn, or just collecting books and podcasts?
• Has success started to feel a little empty?
• When did you last admit you didn't know something?

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Spot the self-awareness gap that keeps confident leaders stuck
• Build the kind of trust that makes hard feedback possible
• Receive a mirror without getting defensive
• Separate "I'm aware of this" from "I'm doing something about it"
• Lead through pressure without projecting it onto your culture
• Temper your intensity instead of trying to rewire who you are
• Anchor your work in values when success stops feeling like enough

Key Quote Highlights: "Success without fulfillment would be the ultimate failure." (Kara Jorvig) "The most important part of being a storyteller is actually being a story listener." (Max Kringen)

Guest Bio Kara Jorvig is the Founder and CEO of Allegro Group, where she serves as chief advisor to CEOs and presidents navigating growth, scale, and leadership transitions. She has spent her career studying leadership, business, and human behavior, starting with a decade of interviewing and placing people in jobs. Her work pairs strategy and team performance with a deep belief that personal growth translates into business results. Rooted in North Dakota values of work ethic and humility she learned from her mom, a kindergarten teacher, she now advises leaders across the country on the skills and behaviors that drive culture. Learn more at [GUEST WEBSITE URL]

⏱ Timestamps (estimated from transcript; verify against the final edit) 00:00 Meet Kara Jorvig 01:08 What Allegro Group actually does 04:35 The self-awareness blind spot, and how boss holes get formed 10:00 Trust, mirrors, and the courage to give feedback 20:51 Midwest values, work ethic, and lessons from Mom 27:00 A loss that changed everything 29:02 Lead with love, every day

📌 Resources Mentioned

• Allegro Group: https://allegro-group.com/
• Adam Grant's podcast work on vulnerability and feedback
• Brené Brown on curiosity and vulnerability

🔔 Stay Connected New conversations every week. Subscribe so you don't miss one.

• Website: wetellwell.com
• Newsletter: Start with Story
• Conference and community: WellTold
• Tellwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wetellwell/
• Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxkringen

📣 About Tellwell the Podcast Tellwell: The Podcast is a weekly conversation with nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and mission-driven storytellers about the work of building trust and belonging. Hosted by Max Kringen, Chief Storyteller and founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, ND, every episode gives you practical thinking and real stories you can bring back to your own mission. Less theory, more of what actually works when you're trying to lead people well.

#selfawareness #leadership #nonprofitleadership #fundraising #trust #feedback #missiondriven

How do you rebuild university brand trust after a massive transition? In this episode, Meloney Linder (VP for Marketing & Communications at the University of North Dakota) breaks down 8 years of building brand consistency, shifting to data-driven storytelling, and earning community belief. 

Checklist before you watch/listen:
✅ You lead marketing for a college, university, or mission-driven institution.
✅ Your brand got reset, and buy-in still feels shaky.
✅ Athletics or one program defines you more than your actual mission.
✅ You want data to settle the "everybody's a marketer" debates.
✅ You believe stories should come from your community, not your committee.

Higher education branding fails when nobody believes it yet. Here's how UND earned belief. 

When Meloney stepped into her role in 2018, the university was navigating a historic brand reset. The Fighting Sioux logo was retired, the brand was entirely new, and community buy-in had to be built from the ground up. What she did next is a clinic in university marketing. 🎯 She shows how a "Leaders in Action" positioning went from a document to something people felt in their bones.

By the end, you'll know how to:
• Inherit a half-written brand and find where to start.
• Give people new reasons to believe when athletics no longer carries the brand.
• Tell stories that reaffirm what's already true about your institution.
• Build a data culture from zero so opinions stop running the room.
...

⏱ Timestamps
00:00 – Meet Meloney and the UND brand evolution
02:25 – Fergus Falls, two daughters, and Sophie the Havanese
03:50 – Inheriting a brand fresh off a major reset
08:22 – The moment the brand became real
10:37 – Why a logo and tagline are not your brand
14:41 – Building a data culture from scratch
19:52 – The UND stories that surprised her
22:00 – Selling higher ed's value in a TikTok world
24:24 – Feedback is a gift

If your donor engagement strategy is louder than it is listening, this episode is for you.

Nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and executive directors: Scott Holdman shows you how slowing down builds the trust your campaigns are missing.

Recorded live at the WellTold Conference in Fargo, North Dakota, this conversation between Max Kringen and Scott Holdman digs into what actually moves nonprofit fundraising forward.

Scott has coached hundreds of organizations across the Upper Midwest as the founder of Legacy Logic. You will hear why listening builds trust faster than pitching, how to lead with fundamentals, and why eldership and community belong at the center of nonprofit leadership today. ✨

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Listen for the priorities buried inside a donor conversation
• Identify the fundamentals your role keeps skipping
• Sculpt your strategy by removing, not adding
• Invite multi generational voices into your fundraising
• Spot the difference between change and real evolution
• Use the TALK framework to run better donor meetings
• Build community in a culture that defaults to alone

Key Quote Highlights:

Guest Bio

Scott Holdman has spent more than two decades helping nonprofits and givers close the gap between good intentions and real impact.

He is the founder of Legacy Logic, where he works as a philanthropic butler, a trusted partner walking alongside givers and the organizations they support. Around the Upper Midwest, Scott is considered fundraising royalty.

Learn more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottholdman/

⏱ Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome to a live episode
• 03:30 – Why listening is as powerful as speaking
• 08:00 – Fundamentals vs. dopamine distraction
• 13:15 – Change vs. evolution
• 18:45 – The hardest fundamental Scott learned
• 24:00 – Eldership, authenticity, community
• 32:30 – Life tasks and life quakes

📌 Resources Mentioned

• Scott Holdman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottholdman/
• Legacy Logic, Scott's advising practice
• The TALK Framework by Alison Wood Brooks
• Bill Plotkin on the role of elders
• Seasons of Story framework by Tellwell
• WellTold Conference, Fargo, ND

🔔 Stay Connected

Subscribe to Tellwell: The Podcast so you never miss a conversation built for mission-driven leaders.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tellwell-story-co
• Website: https://wetellwell.com
• Newsletter: Start with Story by Max Kringen

📣 About Tellwell the Podcast

Tellwell: The Podcast is hosted by Max Kringen, founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, ND. Two people, two microphones, one real conversation for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and mission-driven thinkers.

#nonprofitfundraising #donorengagement #nonprofitleadership #storytelling #fundraisingstrategy #welltold #tellwellpodcast

If you lead development work and you're tired of the grind, this nonprofit fundraising podcast episode is for you. Fundraising doesn't have to feel heavy. It can feel like joy.

In this episode, host Max Kringen sits down with Tesha McCord Poe, founder of Joy Raising, for a candid conversation about joyful fundraising, inclusive philanthropy, and donor engagement that actually builds relationships. 💛

Tesha is a former lawyer, banker, journalist, and chief advancement officer who now coaches leaders to raise more money with more people and more joy. She unpacks boundaries, belonging, ego, and the moment she realized she was excluding herself from the ask. ✨

You'll Learn

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Reframe fundraising as a relationship practice, not a performance
• Stop excusing yourself from asks where you belong in the room
• Build boundaries that protect your wellbeing and your team
• Prepare well enough to walk in with honest confidence
• Find points of connection with donors beyond wealth or status
• Choose joy as a daily, practiced leadership muscle
• Lead with courage even when the work feels heavy

Key Quote Highlights:

"If you have the capacity for joy right now, don't you dare keep it to yourself."

"Boundaries are the space between you and I that allows me to love us both."

Guest Bio

Tesha McCord Poe is the founder and CEO of Joy Raising, a consultancy helping mission-driven organizations raise more money with more people and more joy. She holds a JD/MBA and has served as a lawyer, banker, journalist, school administrator, and chief advancement officer. Tesha is a sought-after keynote speaker and coach known for her work in inclusive philanthropy and donor engagement. Learn more at https://joy-raising.com

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome and how Max and Tesha met 02:30 – The meaning behind Tesha's name and middle name Joy 05:45 – From the Bronx to Barnard, and learning about access 09:15 – Choosing joy through profound personal loss 12:30 – Boundaries as love, not distance 16:00 – Why fundraising felt terrifying, and what changed 21:45 – The ask she excused herself from, and what it taught her

📌 Resources Mentioned

• Joy Raising: https://joy-raising.com
• Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
• The dash poem, the origin of Joy Raising's URL
• Connect with Tesha: [email protected]

🔔 Stay Connected

Subscribe to Tellwell the Podcast wherever you listen, and leave a review if this episode moved you.

Follow Tellwell on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/tellwell-story-co Follow host Max Kringen: https://linkedin.com/in/maxkringen Visit us: https://wetellwell.com

📣 About Tellwell the Podcast

Tellwell the Podcast is a show for mission-driven leaders who believe story is the most powerful tool they have. Hosted by Max Kringen, founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, ND, each episode features honest conversations with nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and storytellers about the work of building trust, belonging, and impact.

If you're in nonprofit leadership and wondering how to build real connection with your community, this episode will change how you think about growth.

Kelly Krenzel turned recycled jars, donated flowers, and a spark of inspiration into Hope Blooms. A Fargo nonprofit that has delivered over 115,000 bouquets to people facing isolation and hardship. Her approach? Leading with vulnerability and showing up with intention every single time.

Kelly sits down with Max Kringen to unpack what intentional kindness looks like inside a growing organization. She shares the story of building a 100% community-funded nonprofit, attracting thousands of volunteers and creating a culture where generosity is the operating system. If you care about donor engagement or doing meaningful work without burning out, this one is for you.

✅ Checklist

• A framework for leading with vulnerability instead of polish
• How to build trust through authentic, non-transactional relationships
• The mindset shift that turns small acts into a sustainable mission
• Why surrounding yourself with the right people matters more than having all the answers
• Practical ways to sustain your own energy while giving your heart to the work

By the end, you'll know how to:

• Lead with intentional vulnerability to attract high-hearted supporters
• Move past transactional fundraising into relational donor engagement
• Use a simple, repeatable act of kindness as the engine for growth
• Build a volunteer culture rooted in authenticity and genuine connection
• Identify when to invite others into the conversation instead of going it alone
• Protect your energy while leading mission-driven work that demands full presence
• Turn everyday moments of connection into long-term community investment

🌸 About Kelly Krenzel

Kelly Krenzel is Founder, Executive Director and Chief Joy Maker at Hope Blooms in Fargo, North Dakota. Over nine years she built a 100% community-funded nonprofit that repurposes donated flowers into bedside bouquets for people experiencing isolation, grief and hardship. Hope Blooms has delivered more than 115,000 bouquets, built nearly 100 community partnerships and mobilized thousands of annual volunteers. Learn more at https://hopeblooms.org

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Meet Kelly Krenzel and the Hope Blooms mission 

03:00 – What "more than flowers" really means after nine years 

11:00 – Leading a mission built entirely on generosity 

14:30 – How nonprofit leaders sustain joy without burning out 

20:00 – Balancing heart-led work with organizational structure

 27:45 – The Mavis story: what one visit taught Kelly about showing up 

33:00 – What Hope Blooms wants to teach this community

📌 Resources Mentioned

• Hope Blooms: https://hopeblooms.org
• Hope Blooms on Facebook: https://facebook.com/hopebloomsnd
• Kelly's first podcast appearance: Episode 15, Season 1
• Blog post: https://wetellwell.com/2025/03/welltold-kelly/
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott

🔔 Stay Connected

Subscribe to Tellwell the Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube so you never miss an episode. Connect with Tellwell on LinkedIn and follow along at wetellwell.com.

📣 About Tellwell the Podcast

Hosted by Max Kringen, founder of Tellwell Story Co. in Fargo, ND. Real conversations with nonprofit leaders, community builders and mission-driven professionals about fundraising, storytelling and organizational growth.

#nonprofitleadership #intentionalkindness #donorengagement #nonprofitpodcast #communityimpact #volunteerengagement #hopeblooms

Why fundraising feels hard isn't about effort. It's about clarity. If you're a nonprofit leader drowning in shoulds, this episode will show you how to focus on what actually moves the needle.

Noah Barnett, Chief Strategy Officer at DonorDock and speaker at the WellTold Conference, believes the real villain in fundraising isn't lack of resources or strategy. It's the question haunting every fundraiser at night: Am I doing enough?

In this conversation, Noah walks through his framework for nonprofit focus, donor engagement, and strategic clarity. You'll learn why the best fundraising strategy isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters most and actively choosing what to omit. This episode is for executive directors, development teams, and nonprofit leaders tired of adopting every "should" from the outside world.

Checklist

✓ Stop chasing shoulds and start defining what matters most
 ✓ Use the omissions list to reclaim agency and reduce stress
 ✓ Focus on three priorities per time period, not thirty
 ✓ Align strategy with mission before adding tactics
 ✓ Put your head on the pillow knowing you did something that mattered today

Key Quote Highlights:

"I think that's what's at stake. This deep uncertainty and letting this villain survive, which is, am I enough? Am I doing it enough? Is this the right thing to do? That villain loves to keep you distracted."

"If we can help our users put their head on their pillow at night and say, I got done today something that mattered, that's what we're doing here."

Guest Bio

Noah Barnett is Chief Strategy Officer at DonorDock, where he helps nonprofits use technology to scale growth without losing their humanity. He's spent over a decade in nonprofit technology after seven years in international relief and development. Noah is a builder, conversationalist, and strategist who believes the best work happens when you focus on what matters most and intentionally omit the rest. He'll be speaking at the WellTold Conference on April 30th in Fargo. Learn more at https://toolry.com/walk

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – The villain keeping fundraisers distracted
 03:15 – Noah's journey from international relief to nonprofit tech
 08:00 – Where the focus framework came from
 13:30 – The omissions list: deciding what NOT to do
 19:00 – When it's never going to be enough
 23:00 – What we lose when we're scattered
 26:00 – The Eastern Europe story that changed everything

📌 Resources Mentioned

• DonorDock CRM platform for nonprofits
• WellTold Conference (April 30, Fargo): https://welltoldconference.com
• Book a virtual walk with Noah: https://toolry.com/walk
• Friend of DonorDock promo code: 20% off WellTold registration

🔔 Stay Connected

Subscribe to Tellwell the Podcast wherever you listen. New episodes every week with mission-driven leaders, fundraisers, and storytellers who are actually doing the work. Follow Max Kringen and the Tellwell team on LinkedIn for more stories that move people to action.

📣 About Tellwell the Podcast

Hosted by Max Kringen, Chief Storyteller at Tellwell Story Co., this podcast gets to know the humans behind the campaigns, brands, and causes that move people to action. Every week we talk about what worked, what flopped, and the moments that changed the way our guests think about fundraising, storytelling, and inviting people into a story worth joining.

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