201: Financial Transparency and Building Impactful Relationships in Fundraising with Lisa Maynard-Atem

Today's guest champions the art of transparent financial conversations and strategic relationship-building. She encourages starting discussions with financial priorities, framing money as a transformative tool, and embracing proactive action while fostering genuine dialogue and understanding to drive impactful social change. Meet Lisa Maynard-Atem, an entrepreneur, public speaker, and member of the General Assembly of the University of Manchester. As a founder member and former Managing Director of the award-winning Black United Representation Network (BURN CIC), she focuses on the economic and social empowerment of the Black community in Northern England. With a strong marketing and social media background, she led Harrods' social media growth from 30,000 to over 2.5M followers. She was also part of the leadership team at Acacia Training as Director of Marketing & Inclusion. In this episode, you will be able to:  Address money topics directly in social justice settings. Frame Funding Requests: Emphasize the impact and clarity of financial asks. Adapt Discussions: Tailor financial talks to individual board members' comfort levels. Engage Investors: Take investors on a journey rather than waiting for ideal timing. Act Timely: Prioritize proactive communication and manage rejection. Support Allyship: Use honest dialogue and reverse mentoring to better support diverse fundraisers. Get all the resources from today’s episode here.  Support for this show is brought to you by Pledge. Our friends at pledge have just launched a super easy way to get your campaigns up and running using some pretty cool AI technology. Check out their newest tools pledge.to Connect with me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_malloryerickson/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthefundraising YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@malloryerickson7946 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/mallory-erickson-bressler/ Website: malloryerickson.com/podcast Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-the-fundraising/id1575421652 If you haven’t already, please visit our new What the Fundraising community forum. Check it out and join the conversation at this link. If you’re looking to raise more from the right funders, then you’ll want to check out my Power Partners Formula, a step-by-step approach to identifying the optimal partners for your organization. This free masterclass offers a great starting point