The right influencer for your mission probably isn't the biggest account in your city. It's more likely someone already following you, already talking about your cause, and already waiting to be asked well.

Trevor Boffone had three months and zero dollars to activate creators for Mental Health America of Greater Houston's new provider-matching platform. His first list of 20 got him one yes. His second approach — an open call and a radically honest ask — got him 26 pieces of content. 🩵

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why "influencer" has nothing to do with follower count — and how that redefinition widens your pool overnight
• The first place to look for creator partners: your own follower list, filtered for local people who already care about your cause
• The activation script most orgs get wrong, and why leading with "we have no budget, we need one post, we understand if you pass" earned roughly 75% yes
• What to offer instead of money — and the moment an ask tips over into unpaid labor
• Why handing over full creative control with no scripts and no edit requests produced better content than a brief ever could
• How 26 public posts with SEO-rich captions became a discovery engine, surfacing the platform in Google and AI search months later

You'll walk away with a repeatable way to identify the creators who already believe in your work — and activate them without a media budget. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (2:49) From the classroom to 750K followers: learning the creator side
• (6:04) Why nonprofit content falls flat — and what creators fix
• (8:10) The assignment: activate creators for Care Connect with no budget
• (10:50) Finding the right creators: the open call that changed everything
• (12:05) Activating without paying: creative control and 26 pieces of content
• (14:48) Why scripts kill creator content
• (15:58) How to find the right influencers for your own mission
• (18:14) Story of philanthropy: Lily's Toy Box
• (19:35) One good thing: don't forget about fun
• (19:58) How to connect with Like Minds

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/737

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"There's so many brands for division in this country. Where's the brand for unity?"

That question is why Us United exists. Adam Mizel spent more than 30 years in finance and entrepreneurship before his wife Tanya asked him the question that ended that chapter: What are you going to do? 🩵

What he did was build a brand — hats, T-shirts, media, storytelling, leadership — and wrap a movement around it. Us United now runs a unity pledge, monthly cross-bubble conversations, Unity Seats at live sporting events, and a sheriff network nearly 100 strong.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why Adam believes a movement without a brand stays invisible, and what he built first
• The three things that still unify Americans, and how Us United turned them into the entire strategy
• Why funding a brand is harder than funding a program, and how he makes the case when there's no spreadsheet to hand a donor
• The one-to-two-minute weekly action he asks every supporter to take, and why he calls it "changing the algorithm"

If you're leading brilliant work that nobody sees or funds, this is a conversation about the gap between the two. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (3:10) Yelling at the TV: the question that started it
• (4:30) Flint, Sheriff Swanson, and the six-hour march
• (5:50) Where's the brand for unity?
• (6:26) Sports, music, and food: the three cultural drivers
• (7:43) Building the on-ramps: the pledge, the algorithm, 30 For Us
• (9:45) Unity Seats and the 25th anniversary of 9/11
• (12:01) Why a brand is harder to fund than a program
• (15:42) If you're not telling your story, nobody is
• (19:42) One good thing: dare to fail gloriously

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/736

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Katie Hannah printed out the rejection email and brought it to the interview. "After careful consideration, our board of reviewers has determined that your application does not make the case for membership at this time."

Most fundraisers file that away and move on. The Director of Development at Momentum Leaders sent one open-ended question instead — and it turned into a $223,000 yes for a leadership nonprofit in Birmingham, Alabama. 🩵

This is Possible in Practice, a limited series of case studies from leaders in the We Are For Good community — the ask they sent, the risk they took, and what happened next.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The exact email reply that reopened a closed door, and why an open-ended question is a near-guaranteed way to get a response
• Why a "no" often means your mission didn't survive the 100-word box, not that the funder isn't interested
• How to treat a rejection like a major donor visit: seek to listen, not to convince
• The in-kind donor who brought toiletries for years, then walked in at Christmas with a $100,000 check
• A leadership reframe from a six-year-old that will change how you think about your own career

You'll walk away with permission to get curious about the next no that lands in your inbox. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (2:22) Katie's path from broadcast to Birmingham fundraising
• (5:34) Inside Momentum Leaders: eight staff, $10.5M in salary gains
• (7:56) The no: driving 90 minutes to a panel, then getting rejected
• (11:44) Why your mission doesn't fit in 100 words
• (13:40) Get curious about the no: perseverance as a fundraising skill
• (15:34) The toiletries donor and the $100,000 check
• (19:15) "No means nurturing oneself"
• (20:05) One good thing: lead like a child

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/735

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

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$1,500 in lifetime giving. A million-dollar gift in the will.

Tony Martignetti calls it the planned giving multiplier — the gap between what a donor gives you while they're living and what they leave you when they're gone. It's often measured in the thousands. And the donors most likely to trigger it aren't your wealthiest. They're your most loyal. 🩵

Tony has spent 29 years in planned giving — as a frontline fundraiser, a director of planned giving at two nonprofits, and now founder of Planned Giving Accelerator, where his clients have secured millions in bequests. His new book exists to prove that unlocking the multiplier at your organization takes about a week.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The planned giving multiplier explained — and why the $35,000 average U.S. bequest is a major gift at nearly every small shop
• Why a top prospect is defined by consistency, not capacity: 10, 15, 20 years of giving beats a big number every time
• Tony's three-step, one-week launch: identify your top prospects, start with gifts in wills, cultivate and solicit
• The six myths keeping small nonprofits from ever asking — including the one that quantitative research flatly disproves
• How a historical society with one employee mailed 200 letters and got six people saying they'd include the org in their will

Your loyalty data is already sitting in your database. Here's how to act on it. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (3:53) 29 years of making planned giving accessible
• (5:02) The book title that takes the friction out of the topic
• (6:40) Six myths that keep the multiplier locked up
• (9:07) The three-step, one-week launch
• (10:07) Loyalty over capacity: what makes a top prospect
• (12:38) One employee, 200 letters, six bequests
• (14:28) Why your toolkit can be minimal
• (17:36) The $35,000 average bequest and the 1,000-program goal
• (18:52) The multiplier in action: $1,500 in, $1M out
• (19:51) A postal worker's $750,000 legacy
• (21:06) One good thing: don't be intimidated

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/734

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One in five adults now get their news from TikTok. Over 40% of adults under 30 do. That same feed is where younger donors are finding the causes they'll give to. Trust has shifted from institutions to individuals, and most nonprofits are still running the old playbook. 🩵

Patricia McLoughlin is General Manager of The Anthem Awards, where she reviews more than 2,000 entries a year from 42 countries. Her team turned that vantage point into the Shared Influence report, then into something more useful: a set of plays any nonprofit can run, whether you have a media budget or a staff of three.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The difference between an influencer and a creator, and why hiring the wrong one wastes both the money and the story
• The four plays for finding and vetting a creator partner: look inward, look adjacent, name the ask, drop the script
• Why a single creator post can carry a $50,000 price tag, and what changes when you steward creators like major gift prospects

You'll walk away with a playbook you can take to your board this week. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (2:30) Patricia's origin story: a 46-hour dance marathon and a career decision
• (6:18) Inside The Anthem Awards: 2,000+ entries, 42 countries, and the patterns in the data
• (8:35) Why trust shifted from institutions to individuals
• (11:32) Influencer vs. creator: the distinction that shapes the whole playbook
• (14:06) Plays 1 and 2: look inward, then look adjacent
• (16:00) Why micro creators often beat millions of followers
• (17:26) Play 4: creators don't want your script
• (18:35) Put creators in your portfolio: the major gift reframe
• (19:30) What a $50,000 post means for your in-kind math
• (20:19) How to measure creator impact
• (21:41) The long game: content that outlives the post
• (23:16) Where creator partnerships are heading
• (26:42) Run one play: start with one local person
• (31:04) Patricia's one good thing: stay curious

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/733

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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Big Brothers Big Sisters has been collecting data for 120 years. When an economist finally studied it, the case for support changed completely: young people who were mentored are 20% more likely to attend college and earn 15% more.

Ginneh Baugh, Chief Impact Officer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, has spent two decades helping nonprofit leaders measure what actually matters. Her system is three steps — know your data, show it as a story, grow the movement around it. 🩵

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Know: Why you don't need 25 data points — you need two you know inside and out
• Show: How to turn a stat into something a human can feel (1 in 3 kids lacks a mentor → in a classroom of 30, only 10 have someone in their corner)
• Grow: What happens when you take that story to funders, volunteers, and businesses — and why 85% of young adults are asking for a mentor

You'll walk away with a repeatable way to measure what matters, no matter the size of your team. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (3:12) Ginneh's origin story: teachers, mentors, and one very clarifying IRS internship
• (5:52) The path to Big Brothers Big Sisters and a network hungry for data
• (7:56) Data maven meets storyteller: why the pairing cuts through
• (9:26) Step 1 — Know: two stats, inside and out
• (13:04) Step 2 — Show: falling in love with your data by getting curious first
• (16:12) The career confidence crisis and the rise of young adult mentoring
• (20:41) Step 3 — Grow: why the future of work won't be automated, it will be mentored
• (23:34) What happens when an economist studies your impact data
• (25:18) A playground in Nashville and a gift from MacKenzie Scott
• (28:44) One good thing: make it sweet

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/732

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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Scott Curran has helped former presidents, Fortune 500 companies, and street-corner nonprofits turn good intentions into real impact. After a decade as general counsel of the Clinton Foundation and ten years building Beyond Advisors, he kept noticing the same thing: the world's most effective changemakers and the hometown hero nobody's heard of have the exact same nine things in common.

So do you. That pattern became his new book, Better Good — a framework any organization can start using today with a Post-it note. 🩵

In this episode, you'll hear:

• What every effective organization has in common — and why the billionaires and major foundations you're comparing yourself to are struggling with the same things you are
• The nine-factor social impact framework: your profile, platform, and passions, plus your time, talent, and treasure, plus scale, sustainability, and storytelling
• How two people with nothing extra — a suburban mom of five and a med student fighting a rare disease — built global organizations from what was already in front of them

You'll walk away with a clear inventory of what you already have, a free action plan, and your next rung on the ladder. No new money, credentials, or permission required. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (3:06) What's lifting for Scott right now: awareness and intentionality
• (4:35) Stubborn optimism and the pattern hiding in plain sight
• (9:22) The billionaire who didn't have it figured out either
• (10:21) Why we undervalue what we already have
• (14:25) The hidden framework: nine factors
• (18:21) Nancy and Watts of Love
• (21:59) Every Cure, hometown heroes, and why success leaves clues
• (26:19) One good thing: someday starts now

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/731

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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Most nonprofit leaders treat capacity like a fuel tank — something you deplete and refill. Brooke Richie-Babbage makes the case that capacity is something you design, and that the strain you're feeling is information about that design, not about your dedication.

She's joined by two leaders who've rebuilt theirs in public: Casey Lardner, Executive Director of Genspace, the world's first community biology lab, and Chidi Asoluka, Founder and CEO of NewComm, which went from a classroom experiment with 18 kids to a student-led organization delivering projects for the NYC Department of Health and Mount Sinai. 🩵

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why sustainability starts with clarity — you can't design the right systems until you know what you're running toward
• The mindset shift from vision holder to architect of systems, and how Chidi stopped being the bottleneck in his own org
• How Casey unlearned "strain equals effort" and started treating burnout as a diagnosable syndrome, not a cost of doing business
• The roles-and-responsibilities work that has to land before shared decision-making or partnerships can actually lighten your load
• What frees up when operational work leaves the founder's plate: time in the field, time to think, time to dream

You'll walk away with a practical way to read your own strain as data — and a starting point for building an org that keeps running when you step back. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (1:18) Meet Casey and Chidi: what feels real right now
• (3:22) The founder bottleneck
• (6:19) Unlearning hustle-as-virtue in a growing org
• (8:09) "It's too soon to panic"
• (9:41) From teacher to architect: building repeatable systems
• (11:52) Clarity first: defining who you're not
• (14:54) Roles, ownership, and Invitation Power
• (17:34) What sustainability actually feels like day to day
• (21:20) Where to stop pushing and start redesigning
• (22:09) Live the lesson

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/730

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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Jenn DeBarge Goonan has sent thousands of pitch emails to editors, producers, and partners. She's distilled what works into four steps — and they work whether you're chasing press coverage, a corporate partner, or a major donor meeting.

Jenn launched Lululemon into the U.S. market, built campaigns for Ben & Jerry's, and now runs JAG Communications, where she's spent 20 years making mission-driven work visible. 🩵

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Step 1: Why every note has to be a one-of-one, and the 10 minutes of research that makes it land
• Step 2: Lead with connection, not credentials — including what to cut (the attachments, the links, the three paragraphs about your org)
• Step 3: Make one specific, realistic ask instead of three, and why "a 20-minute conversation" outperforms everything else
• Step 4: Silence is not rejection — the "10% more value" follow-up that turned two dead pitches into TV coverage
• The one-page message guide that has to exist before any of the four steps work — and how to build it this week

You'll walk away with a repeatable formula for outreach that actually gets answered, plus the foundation that makes it credible. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• (2:44) From high school cheerleader to social impact cheerleader
• (4:48) Why passionate leaders end up sounding like word soup
• (5:30) The one-page message guide north star
• (7:22) How to build it: your ED first, then five anonymous interviews
• (9:43) Partnerships: find the overlap before you pitch
• (12:29) The 4-step formula, steps 1–3
• (15:33) Step 4: don't assume silence is rejection
• (16:41) The formula in action: two follow-ups, two placements
• (18:33) Social math, Substack, and the 57 million
• (20:23) Operation Warm: "This is my first coat ever"
• (22:58) One good thing: make it easy for people to help you

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/729

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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The gap between hope and despair has grown from 4% in 2010 to 27% today. That's the "hope gap" — and it's the reason Jon and Becky spent 10 episodes sitting with eight change leaders who are filling it, one story at a time. 🩵

In this series finale, they pull out the throughlines: what actually made these missions land, and what any nonprofit can copy starting Monday.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why clarity is a superpower — and how to say what you do, who you serve, and why the problem is solvable in 30 seconds without losing the emotion underneath
• The head-and-the-heart formula: why "factually true" and "emotionally true" aren't the same thing, and why your story needs both
• How your personal story becomes your mission story — and how to build a culture where staff, volunteers, and board members feel safe enough to share theirs
• The stats that stopped the room cold — from mental health to caregiving to what social platforms serve kids in under three minutes
• The "one good thing" you can steal from Sesame Street: research + education + creative production, working together
• You'll walk away with three portable lessons and a simple challenge: find the stat, find the human, put them together, and lead with hope. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• How the series came together — meeting Afdhel Aziz (1:44)
• Story as infrastructure: why narrative shapes culture (3:10)
• Theme 1 — Clarity is a superpower (5:42)
• The stats that stop you cold (7:24)
• Theme 2 — The head and the heart is the formula (9:32)
• The Heath story: when a number changed everything (11:23)
• Theme 3 — Your personal story is your mission story (13:04)
• Building the container: safety, dignity, co-creation (16:46)
• Trust is the work (19:56)
• One Good Thing — the Sesame model (21:08)
• Your call to action: share your story (22:52)

Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/728

Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap

Join us at The Spread!

Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛

We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.

Learn more and save your free spot today.

//

Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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