The Beacon

In this edition of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse Counsel President Jeff Jowdy talks with Gabe Cooper about responsive fundraising and why organizations should treat all of their donors like major donors. And, importantly, how they can.

Gabe offers insights on responsive fundraising and answers questions including:

• What is responsive fundraising and why is it necessary for nonprofits to engage with donors in this way?

• What are the three parts of the responsive fundraising framework?

• What are the biggest obstacles to nonprofits when it comes to responsive fundraising?

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse Counsel Senior Consultant David Snow speaks with Rebecca Moffett, president of Vanguard Charitable, a national donor-advised fund provider and one of the nation's top grant makers.

Rebecca shares her insights on an important topic for nonprofits — how to encourage donors to budget for charitable giving, which results in higher amounts of giving, according to a Vanguard Charitable survey. For example, individuals who budget for charitable giving gave nearly seven times more dollars than those who don't budget, the survey found.

• In the discussion, Rebecca talks about the results of that survey and answers questions including:

• What eye-opening findings did the survey unearth that can help nonprofits engage more deeply with their donors and raise more money?

• How can nonprofits communicate with their donors about budgeting for their annual charitable giving?

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse President Jeff Jowdy talks with Bo Ryles, senior director with the National 4-H Council and an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia.

Bo has committed his career to helping young people deveop leadership skills they will use throughout their lives. In this conversation, he answers questions including:

• As a leader, what is the importance of being able to inspire, support and empower people and how do you achieve that kind of leadership?

• How can leaders draw from their personal passions to become better leaders?

ˆIs nonprofit leadership changing? What are the challenges and opportunities leaders will be addressing in the near future?

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Margaret Gardner speaks with Musicians On Call President and CEO Pete Griffin.

Pete talks about the coronavirus pandemic and how the organization connected with staff and donors. Pete answers questions including:

• How did Musicians On Call change the way it communicated with donors at the beginning of the pandemic?

• How did the organization stay connected with staff to make the transition into working through a pandemic less stressful?

• How did the pandemic inform the organization’s donor engagement and communications going forward? And what takeaways can other organizations glean from Musicians On Call’s experience?

In this edition of The Beacon Podcast, Karen Baldwin speaks to David Snow, a senior consultant with Lighthouse Counsel, about endowment development.

David discusses the importance of having an endowment for nonprofit organizations and outlines how to establish and manage endowments to ensure financial stability well into the future. David answers questions about endowment development including:

• What exactly is an endowment? Are there different kinds of endowments?

• How does a nonprofit know when it’s ready to start an endowment?

• How does an organization communicate with donors that endowment giving is a good thing and explain why it’s important?

In this edition of The Beacon Podcast, Margaret Gardner speaks with Patrice Tanaka, co-founder of Joyful Planet, a consultancy that helps people discover and live their life’s purpose and unleash their greatest success, fulfillment and joy.

Patrice discusses life and organizational purpose and how they can work together to create successful nonprofits and nonprofit leaders. Patrice answers questions including:

• What is “life purpose” and “organizational purpose,” and what is the difference between them?

• Why is it especially relevant for nonprofits to an organizational purpose?

• How should nonprofits communicate their organizational purpose with their donors?

About our guest

Patrice Tanaka is co-founder of Joyful Planet, a consultancy that helps people discover and live their life’s purpose. This is the subject of Patrice’s best-selling book, “Beat the Curve,” co-authored with renowned management consultant Brian Tracy and other business leaders. 

Patrice’s book, “Becoming Ginger Rogers … How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, Better Partner and Smarter CEO,” chronicles how her joy of ballroom dancing led to her award-winning track record in creative problem solving for some of the most successful global brands. 

Patrice was co-founder of PadillaCRT, the largest, employee-owned PR agency in the United States, and co-chair for CRT/tanaka, which she helped found in with Richmond, Virginia-based Carter Ryley Thomas.

Patrice has been honored by many PR, marketing, business and civic organizations, including the PRWeek Hall of Fame 2016, PRSA Foundation, Public Relations Society of America, New York Women in Communications, the Association for Women in Communications, Girl Scouts of Greater New York, Asian Women in Business and the University of Hawaii.

Patrice is the immediate past co-chair and now executive board member of the Diversity Action Alliance and serves on the boards of nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping women and children, including the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, Dancing Classrooms and the American Friends of The Phelophepa Train of Hope (South Africa).

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse Counsel Senior Consultant Karen Baldwin speaks with Howard Cohen, a senior advisor at Lighthouse Counsel who has 50 years of experience in the area of leadership and strategic planning in the higher education sector.

Karen and Howard discuss the importance of strategic planning for colleges and universities, but the advice can easily be expanded to be useful for almost any type of nonprofit organization.

In their discussion, Howard answers questions including:

• Why is a strategic plan review important and what can it accomplish?

• What are the components of a strong strategic plan?

• When, how and why do strategic plans go wrong and how can they be righted?

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse Counsel President Jeff Jowdy speaks with Alice Ferris and Jim Anderson, the fundraising powerhouse team behind Goalbusters Consulting. 

Jeff and the Goalbusters discuss how the pandemic is changing how we communicate with donors and, ultimately, how we raise money for our important causes. Jim and Alice share some great insights and some examples with surprising results. And they answer questions including:

What have you been seeing in regards to non-profits and fundraising over these past nine months of the pandemic?

What are some of the lessons that you've seen that all nonprofits can take away from the pandemic?

What advice would you give to nonprofits as we look to a new year, still filled with some uncertainty and hopefully a bit more hope?

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse Counsel President Jeff Jowdy speaks with Adam Dretler, a principal in the Nashville office of wealth management company Diversified Trust, which designs and implements portfolios that sustain the mission of institutions.

Jeff and Adam discuss a subject that is critically important to the financial health of a nonprofit organization but can seem intimidating. Adam offers a solid overview of investment governance for nonprofits and answers questions including:

What exactly is investment governance and how does it relate to the financial health and ultimately the mission of a nonprofit organization?

What are the three most important questions nonprofit leaders should ask themselves about investment governance?

How has the pandemic affected nonprofits when it comes to investment governance?

In this episode of The Beacon Podcast, Lighthouse Counsel President Jeff Jowdy talks with Russell James, professor of charitable financial planning at Texas Tech University.

Jeff and Russell talk about the important part storytelling plays in planned giving and how it differs from storytelling for other kinds of fundraising. Russell answers questions including:

How do the stories that a nonprofit tells impact planned giving?

What are the element that should be included when crafting a story for planned giving purposes?

What one piece of advice is there for nonprofits trying to incorporate planned giving within their communications?