Most board packets are full of numbers boards don't act on.

New research looked at a decade of financial data from the largest nonprofits in the country and asked a simple question: which financial signals do boards respond to? It turns out, many of the indicators we build our reporting around, including revenue, expenses, profit margin, and savings margin, show no measurable effect on board action.

There's one measure boards do respond to, but by the time it moves, the financial decline has usually been underway for years. Boards catch the problem late enough that fixing it means cutting programs instead of adjusting course.

In this episode we get into what board capture is, why it happens without anyone acting in bad faith, and what to do with all of it depending on which chair you're sitting in.

Is your organization as ethical on the inside as it is on the outside? Most nonprofit leaders answer yes without hesitating, and they're usually thinking about the mission. But a workplace isn't ethical just because the organization does good in the world. It's built or lost in the small moments like who gets interrupted, who gets the benefit of the doubt and how conflict gets handled.

In this episode, we dig into research that asked 74 nonprofit employees to describe a real moment when ethical values were at stake in their workplace. The patterns across those stories produced a framework built from four relationships.

You'll learn the four pillars of an ethical workplace climate, how to figure out where your own climate is thin, and what to do when you're the one living inside a workplace climate that isn't working.

Sitting in a budget meeting defending your numbers can be brutal, especially when the honest answer to "how did you land on these?" is "last year's budget, adjusted by feel." You run a lean operation, but the same pattern shows up every year: too much of one thing, not enough of another.

For-profit companies solved this with a tool called demand forecasting. The catch was always cost and expertise, which kept it out of reach for nonprofits. Until now. In this episode, we dig into new research on forecasting for nonprofits, and a surprising finding about which method actually works.

You'll learn how to predict what your programs need using data you already have, what to do when that data is a mess, and how the same approach strengthens grant budgets, in-kind asks, and the case you make at budget time.

What if the storytelling practices you were trained on are quietly causing harm and you don't even know it? In this episode, host Sheela Mahajan sits down with Diana Farias Heinrich, founder of Habra Marketing and host of the Ethical Nonprofit Summit, to dig into the ethics of nonprofit storytelling. They cover the power dynamics hiding in everyday language, why "donor as hero" is more problematic than it sounds, the difference between false urgency and real urgency in fundraising appeals, and Diana shares her four-step framework for making sure the people whose stories you're sharing actually have a say. If you've ever felt like the storytelling norms you inherited don't quite sit right, this one's for you.

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Ethical Nonprofit Summit

If you're tired of icky-feeling, transactional storytelling, the Ethical Nonprofit Summit is where you'll find your community. Join us May 6-7, 2026 (9 AM-1 PM PST each day) to learn from expert speakers and connect with fellow fundraisers and storytellers who are transforming the sector. Head to ethicalnonprofitsummit.com/science to register.

Use code SCIENCE15 to save $15 on regular price tickets!

How do you know your program is working? You know it works and you see it every day. But translating that into evidence that satisfies stakeholders? That's where things get complicated.

In this episode, we dig into peer-reviewed research to understand why impact measurement is so challenging and what works. We explore the five factors that make measurement credible, why starting with purpose beats starting with methods, and how learning-oriented cultures turn data into real decisions. Plus, we use the SIGNALS framework: a seven-step approach for tackling measurement challenges systematically.

Whether you're struggling with funder requirements, drowning in data that doesn't get used, or just looking for a smarter approach, this episode offers research-backed strategies you can apply immediately.

"Collaboration" has become one of the most diluted words in the nonprofit sector. Funders push for it, grant applications require it, and yet most partnerships are coordination at best, administrative burden at worst.

Dr. Priyanka Brunese and Pallavi Gupta of Saath Partners have spent years researching why some cross-sector partnerships create genuine value while others stall out. In this episode, they break down the spectrum from cooperation to true partnership, explain why most nonprofit collaborations get stuck in transactional mode, and introduce the concept of collaborative advantage.

We dig into real examples, including how one homeless shelter built a network of shared-value partnerships that expanded services without expanding budgets. We also get honest about what goes wrong: operational misalignment, power dynamics, and partnership fatigue.

If collaboration has felt like more trouble than it's worth, this episode offers a different path forward.

We talk a lot about best practices in this sector, but what if the better question is: how do we keep getting better?

In this episode, I sit down with Leah Kral— author of Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results—to explore how nonprofit organizations can embrace experimentation without big budgets or safety nets.

Leah shares her journey from the for-profit world to the Peace Corps in Jamaica to two decades of helping nonprofit teams think more strategically. We dig into the relationship between scientific thinking and an innovation mindset, why running small experiments beats betting big on a single idea, and how to know when something isn't working.

We also tackle a provocative question: Is innovation actually an ethical obligation for nonprofits? Leah makes the case that staying curious and questioning our assumptions isn't risky. It's due diligence. In fact, as she says, "every nonprofit is a hypothesis."

Whether you're leading an organization or working on the front lines, this conversation will challenge how you think about trying new things.

What does it really mean for a nonprofit to succeed? How do you build trust with funders, and does celebrating wins help as much as we think? In this year-end reflection, I share five research articles that genuinely changed how I think about nonprofit work.

We'll explore why impact is only one piece of organizational health, what transparency does for donor relationships (spoiler: it's not what you'd expect), why radical innovation requires totally different conditions than incremental change, what makes AI in fundraising work, and how identity shapes giving in ways our models often miss.

Whether you're an executive director, development professional, board member, or just someone who cares about making this sector stronger, these insights offer fresh perspective heading into the new year.

As the year winds down and your finance team fields last-minute reports, board meeting materials, and budget questions, it's worth asking: is your organization's relationship with money working?

In this episode, I sit down with Sean Hale, founder of Nonprofit CFOs, to talk about what healthy financial management really looks like. We dig into why year-end is a particularly tough time for nonprofit administrative teams, why sharing bad financial news builds more trust than hiding it, and how visual dashboards can transform a disengaged board into strategic partners.

Sean also challenges some conventional wisdom that caught me off guard- like why a fifth-grade math teacher might make a better treasurer than a CPA, and when running a deficit is actually a sign of smart leadership.

Whether you're prepping for year-end board meetings or rethinking how your team engages with finances heading into the new year, this conversation is full of practical shifts you can make right now.