We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

Jai Al-Attas started a record label at 16, sold it to Virgin Records at 24, and never went to college. So when he moved to LA and tried to get people from a reentry program and a homeless youth org into music industry internships, the question that kept coming back — "are these people in college?" — landed personally.He didn't have a plan. He had a chip on his shoulder and $1,800 he needed for rent. He spent it on 10 Chromebooks instead. 🩵Today Creative Futures Collective has moved 3,500 creatives through its programs in 10 cities across three countries — into Nike, Live Nation, Interscope, Forbes 30 Under 30, and one Ralph Lauren artist residency.In this episode, you'll hear:Why renaming "internship" to "futureship" unlocked doors that had been closed for two years — and what that says about the language your org is usingHow Jai and his co-founder funded the first cohort out of their own savings, and why that upfront risk was the only way to get a case study worth showingWhy he refuses to call any of this charity, and how that reframe changed who was asking whom for a favorHow COVID accidentally democratized access to the creative economy — and the alumna who did her placement from a reservation in ArizonaWhat to do when corporate partners write you a check but won't open the door you actually asked them to openYou'll walk away with permission to start the thing you've been waiting to be ready for. 🩵Episode Highlights:(3:33) From a record label at 16 to a one-way ticket to LA(5:48) "Are these people in college?" — the gatekeeping that started it all(7:24) Futureships, and paying for them out of pocket(9:21) COVID, remote work, and Naomi Glasses' path to Ralph Lauren(12:36) Scaling with Amazon, Soho House, and 10 cities (14:38) Why this was never charity — and how Untalent was born(19:13) Best Buy Teen Tech Centers and what partnership looks like(25:10) One good thing: start before you're readyEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/740Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

April Thompson took a grassroots foster care nonprofit from 33% donor retention to 66% — and grew the donor file from about 100 to over 400 along the way.The system behind it was two touches: a personal voicemail within 48 hours, a handwritten note from a board member days later. Both logged in the CRM. That's it. 🩵In this episode, you'll hear:The "one-two punch" gratitude guide that doubled retention, and how to document it so nobody loses track of the last donor touchWhy a ringless voicemail drop is the highest-return, lowest-lift gratitude tool most small shops have never triedHow to batch and schedule 10–15 personal thank-you messages at a time, so gratitude runs on a cadence instead of on your memoryWhy an unscripted message with the "ums" left in builds more trust than polished copyHow the same gratitude practice recovers failed recurring gifts — and keeps the door open for donors who pauseIf you've been waiting for a bigger budget to fix your retention numbers, April's answer is a lot simpler and starts this week. 🩵Episode Highlights:(2:43) April's path: hotel galas, animal shelters, and learning on her feet(4:42) Fractional fundraising before it had a name(6:04) The case study: 33% to 66% with a team of one(7:54) The single most effective tool in her toolbox(10:14) Batching gratitude and recapturing failed recurring gifts(12:08) Voicemail drops in a year-end campaign(13:54) The gratitude guide: the "one-two punch" system(14:56) Start with the capacity you actually have(16:19) A moment of philanthropy: founders(17:49) One good thing: giving gratitude is never time wastedEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/739//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

The film ended and the room went silent. Then it roared. Over the next three years, hundreds of donors gave more than $300,000 to build one young woman a home of her own.That's what belief looks like when it shows up. Max Kringen and Annie Wood of Tellwell Story Co. have spent years studying how it gets built — and it isn't luck, and it isn't a bigger ask. 🩵In this episode, you'll hear:Why a muddy story keeps donors stuck in transaction mode — and how confusion becomes a tax on every dollar you raiseThe Story Seasons framework: introduce, educate, engage, remind — the rhythm that moves someone from curious to committed across a yearWhy most organizations stall in "engage" and skip the season that actually builds reciprocityThe input nobody plans for: your story listening strategy, and how to empower frontline staff to collect what mattersHow Tellwell engineered belonging into the Well Told Conference, down to the name tagsYou'll walk away with a build sequence for turning one-time givers into people who say I want to be part of this. 🩵Episode Highlights:(3:31) Three friends, one bar, and a studio built on listening(4:54) Annie's path from startup ecosystems to Tellwell(7:21) Belief over transactions: what unclear stories really cost(9:24) The build: introduce, educate, engage, remind(13:14) What it looks like when a leader finally has the word(17:26) Designing belonging: shielded vulnerability and place-and-replace(21:37) Making ethical storytelling practical, not academic(22:51) Story listening: the strategy before the strategy(25:33) Belief in the room: Ella's painting and Lizzie's home(30:34) One Good ThingEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/738Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 overnightThe first place to look for creator partners: your own follower list, filtered for local people who already care about your causeThe 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% yesWhat to offer instead of money — and the moment an ask tips over into unpaid laborWhy handing over full creative control with no scripts and no edit requests produced better content than a brief ever couldHow 26 public posts with SEO-rich captions became a discovery engine, surfacing the platform in Google and AI search months laterYou'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 MindsEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/737//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

"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 firstThe three things that still unify Americans, and how Us United turned them into the entire strategyWhy funding a brand is harder than funding a program, and how he makes the case when there's no spreadsheet to hand a donorThe 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 gloriouslyEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/736//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 responseWhy a "no" often means your mission didn't survive the 100-word box, not that the funder isn't interestedHow to treat a rejection like a major donor visit: seek to listen, not to convinceThe in-kind donor who brought toiletries for years, then walked in at Christmas with a $100,000 checkA leadership reframe from a six-year-old that will change how you think about your own careerYou'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 childEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/735Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

$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 shopWhy a top prospect is defined by consistency, not capacity: 10, 15, 20 years of giving beats a big number every timeTony's three-step, one-week launch: identify your top prospects, start with gifts in wills, cultivate and solicitThe six myths keeping small nonprofits from ever asking — including the one that quantitative research flatly disprovesHow a historical society with one employee mailed 200 letters and got six people saying they'd include the org in their willYour 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 intimidatedEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/734//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 storyThe four plays for finding and vetting a creator partner: look inward, look adjacent, name the ask, drop the scriptWhy a single creator post can carry a $50,000 price tag, and what changes when you steward creators like major gift prospectsYou'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 curiousEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/733Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 outShow: 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 mentorYou'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 sweetEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/732Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 areThe nine-factor social impact framework: your profile, platform, and passions, plus your time, talent, and treasure, plus scale, sustainability, and storytellingHow 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 themYou'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 nowEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/731Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 towardThe mindset shift from vision holder to architect of systems, and how Chidi stopped being the bottleneck in his own orgHow Casey unlearned "strain equals effort" and started treating burnout as a diagnosable syndrome, not a cost of doing businessThe roles-and-responsibilities work that has to land before shared decision-making or partnerships can actually lighten your loadWhat frees up when operational work leaves the founder's plate: time in the field, time to think, time to dreamYou'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 lessonEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/730Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 landStep 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 elseStep 4: Silence is not rejection — the "10% more value" follow-up that turned two dead pitches into TV coverageThe one-page message guide that has to exist before any of the four steps work — and how to build it this weekYou'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 youEpisode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/729Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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 underneathThe head-and-the-heart formula: why "factually true" and "emotionally true" aren't the same thing, and why your story needs bothHow your personal story becomes your mission story — and how to build a culture where staff, volunteers, and board members feel safe enough to share theirsThe stats that stopped the room cold — from mental health to caregiving to what social platforms serve kids in under three minutesThe "one good thing" you can steal from Sesame Street: research + education + creative production, working togetherYou'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/728Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegapJoin 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

One client reclaimed 15% of their lapsing donors and added $200,000 by year-end. No new campaigns. No bigger team. Just a stewardship system running quietly in the background. Rachel Bearbower built it.As founder of the Nonprofit Automation Agency, Rachel has helped clients climb from 35% to 50% donor retention in a single year, recover nearly $20,000 in lapsed gifts in 90 days, and hand 20+ hours a month back to overstretched teams — all without losing the human touch. 🤖💛In this episode, you'll hear:The exact case study behind the $200K: what a 15% retention lift looks like when you automate stewardship instead of scrambling to remember itThe five stewardship automations that carry a new donor through their first 100 days — from the instant acknowledgement to the second-gift askHow to automate a thank-you draft straight into your inbox so it still sounds like you — exclamation points and emojis includedWhy your CRM should be your single source of truth, and the quiet data-cleanup mistake wrecking your listThe one thing that has to happen before any AI tool works: clean dataYou'll walk away with a first automation you can build this week — start with the highest-leverage thing you're not doing, test it on one or two donors, then scale. 💛Episode Highlights:Meet Rachel and the Nonprofit Automation Agency (0:52)The two connected problems: retention and capacity (1:55)The five donor-stewardship automations (3:32)Thinking beyond week one: the first 100 days (7:17)Case study: a 15% retention lift worth $200K (8:09)Where to start + why your CRM is your source of truth (9:16)Keeping automation human (11:31)Tools: Zapier, native integrations, and using Claude (14:40)Your first automation today (15:38)One good thing: the DIKW pyramid and clean data (18:06)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/727Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/wsl#podcast//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Most of us picture democracy being decided on Election Day. Hannah Fried spends her life on the part nobody watches — the quiet, local decisions made months and years before a single ballot is cast.Hannah is co-founder and CEO of All Voting Is Local, a national nonprofit working year-round in eight states to remove voting barriers for Black, Brown, and Native American communities. She and her co-founder spent years saying "somebody should start an organization" focused on the local officials quietly deciding how elections run — then realized they were the somebody. They built it from her kitchen table with no money, got incubated by The Leadership Conference, and went independent in 2022.In this episode, you'll hear:Why the decisions that make or break your right to vote — where polling places go, what hours they're open, how vote-by-mail works — get made by local officials long before any ballot is castThe playbook for turning one county-level win into a national conversation — and why story is the engine that does itWhy "it's never too late to get involved" is more than a platitude, plus the concrete ways any person can plug in this yearIf you've ever wondered whether slow, local, unglamorous, years-in-the-making work actually adds up — this conversation is your answer. 🩵Episode Highlights:Hannah's journey: from voter protection to founding All Voting Is Local (1:54)The mission: making democracy's invisible infrastructure visible (5:17)The eight states where AVL works (6:41)The Apache County win: adding polling places for the Navajo Nation (7:08)From local to national: the Day of Action in Selma & Montgomery (10:24)How to get mobilized — where anyone can start (12:39)A moment of generosity: her daughter as her greatest teacher (14:49)One good thing: keep going (17:16)Where to connect + becoming a poll worker (18:47)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/726Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Half the world's coral reefs have died since the 1970s. That's the kind of number that makes a person feel too small to matter. Sam Teicher has built his whole approach around refusing to let it. Sam is the co-founder and Chief Reef Officer of Coral Vita, a company that grows coral in land-based farms and plants it back onto dying reefs. He could have built a nonprofit to do it. He built a for-profit instead — after a UN-funded project collapsed when a small, restrictive grant didn't renew — and started with just $1,000. A decade later, Coral Vita runs farms from the Bahamas to Saudi Arabia and has earned Sam the Earthshot Prize and a Forbes 30 Under 30 nod. 🌊His work is a masterclass in three things every mission-driven leader is wrestling with: how to fund it, how to storytell it, and how to scale it — when the problem itself feels unsolvable.In this episode, you'll hear:Why Sam walked away from a grant-dependent model — and what his frustration reveals about the limits of restrictive, short-cycle funding for any small orgWhy Coral Vita builds with communities (local jobs, free land for partners, on-site education centers) instead of parachuting in — and why the jobs piece is non-negotiable, not a nice side effectWhy "feel first, then think" storytelling beats leading with statistics when your cause feels too big to solveWhat "hope as a discipline" actually looks like when the odds are genuinely bad — from a self-described optimistic realistYou'll walk away rethinking sustainable funding, community-led impact, and how to keep a team going when the problem feels bigger than you. 🩵Episode Highlights:From a DC kid to a lava-rock lagoon in Hawaii: Sam's origin story (2:30)White House climate team to founding Coral Vita (4:43)What coral reefs actually are — and the $2.7 trillion case for saving them (8:54)Why local jobs are non-negotiable, not a side effect (13:06)Storytelling a problem this big without paralyzing people (16:54)Adopt-a-coral and the "optimistic realist" (18:04)What you can do right now (21:29)A moment of generosity: pink booty shorts in Samoa (24:46)One good thing: the shots you don't take (26:18)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/725Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

A 52-year-old man who'd spent too long online reading conspiracy theories walked up to Imran Ahmed's colleague — a member of parliament and mother of two — and killed her, screaming internet slogans as he did it. That was the moment Imran realized the online world and the offline world had quietly become the same world.Imran Ahmed is the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US–UK nonprofit that produces the hard evidence lawmakers, advertisers, and parents use to hold social media and AI companies accountable. 🧠In this episode, you'll hear:Why the algorithms rewarding hate and lies aren't broken — they're working exactly as designed, and what that means for your mission's messageWhat CCDH found when they opened a TikTok account as a 13-year-old girl (the numbers are worse than you think)Why social media is the one industry in America you essentially can't sue — and how that single gap created what Imran calls "technology tyranny"The STAR framework — Safety, Transparency, Accountability, Responsibility — that's giving lawmakers a simple, values-based way to regulate platformsWhy copying the outrage playbook will never work for the good guys, and what a four-star general taught Imran about winning an information war insteadYou'll walk away understanding the information environment your organization actually operates in — and why Imran still believes, without a shred of naivety, that the good guys win. 🩵Episode Highlights:Growing up in Manchester and the road into politics (2:27)What the Center for Countering Digital Hate does (7:41)Deadly by Design: what TikTok feeds a 13-year-old girl (8:51)The one industry you can't sue — and "technology tyranny" (12:43)The information environment every nonprofit operates in (18:15)Fighting an information war: a lesson from a four-star general (18:15)Moving people with data and story (21:11)A story of generosity: Mr. Haydens and Humpty Dumpty (23:10)One Good Thing (24:53)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/724Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegapJoin 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Madge Thomas leads a leadership academy most nonprofit professionals have never heard of — one that's quietly spent nearly two decades and $100M+ training over 165,000 nonprofit leaders worldwide. As president of the American Express Foundation and head of corporate sustainability at American Express, she's built it on a deceptively simple premise: invest in the leader, not just their programs, and the impact ripples outward — to the organization, the community, and long after any single initiative ends.Madge makes the case that the people powering nonprofits are the sector's most under-resourced asset — then shows how the Academy is changing that with funding, peer cohorts, alumni grants, and a curriculum rebuilt for this moment: AI training with Microsoft, storytelling with TED, and resilience for a shifting funding landscape. If you've ever poured everything into your programs with nothing left for yourself or your team, this episode names that tension out loud — and offers a different way through.In this episode, you'll hear:Why investing in individuals instead of just programs creates a "two plus two makes five" ripple effect that most funders never think to measureHow the Academy stacks funding, a peer cohort of ~75 leaders, and alumni grants to attack nonprofit burnout at the root — by removing the impossible choice between developing your people and running your programsWhat today's nonprofit leaders need that they didn't a decade ago, including AI training built with Microsoft and storytelling training built with TEDYou'll walk away with a new lens on where philanthropy should focus — and a reminder that you don't need a $100 million budget to start a ripple. A ripple starts with one tiny fracture in the surface. 🩵Episode Highlights:Little Madge in Perth: the values that started it all (2:28)The ripple effect of investing in leaders (4:00)20 years, $100M, 165,000+ leaders — and the stories behind the numbers (5:12)Why bet on people instead of programs? (10:12)Burnout, and removing the choice between people and programs (12:31)What nonprofit leaders need now: time, network, and dollars (15:49)AI as augmentation: building an AI-confident sector with Microsoft (20:08)Holding AI and humanity together (21:08)A moment of generosity: Mrs. Wilson and the uniforms (25:30)One good thing: start small (30:06)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/723Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

There are 12 million kids in the U.S. with a mental health concern, and four out of five never get treatment — not because the care doesn't exist, but because it takes an average of 15 years for proven research to reach the providers families actually visit.Dr. Lisa Hunter Romanelli has spent her career closing that gap. As CEO of The REACH Institute — and its very first employee 19 years ago — she's helped train nearly 10,000 primary care providers in evidence-based children's mental health care, with a goal of 16,000 by 2027. 🧠 But this conversation is really about storytelling. Lisa has taken a public health crisis and made it feel solvable, and she shares exactly how she does it with donors and partners.In this episode, you'll hear:Why leading with the solution — not the broken thing — is what actually moves donors to actThe "train the trainer" multiplier model: how reaching one pediatrician reaches hundreds of kids a yearHow a single trained provider in Oklahoma City recognized a teenager's hidden anxiety and changed the course of her lifeWhere a leader 19 years into the work still finds hope — and the "whole leader" practice keeping her groundedWhy generosity shows up as far more than cash, and how to recognize every currency your community offersYou'll walk away with a more hopeful, more honest way to tell your own organization's story. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet "little Lisa": From her mom's depression to child psychology (2:56)One psychologist isn't enough: Meeting Dr. Peter Jensen and building REACH (3:02)The 15-year research-to-practice gap and REACH's mission (5:50)Why pediatricians are the front line for kids' mental health (6:22)The story of "Mia": How one trained doctor changed a life (8:13)Lead with the solution: Telling donors a story that creates hope (10:33)Where a 19-year leader still finds her hope (11:40)Generosity beyond cash: A board member's quiet gift (13:17)One good thing: The "whole leader" and finding moments of presence (15:16)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/722Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

The traditional nonprofit playbook is full of defaults nobody voted for: merge only when you're desperate, expect your team to run on empty, soften your mission to stay safe, and treat funders like they're doing you a favor. At the We Are For Good Summit, four leaders sat down to throw all of that out. 🧠Hosted by Stacy Huston, CEO of SixDegrees.org and a social impact strategist working at the intersection of storytelling, influence, and action, this conversation brings together Tammy Tibbetts (She's the First), Lindsey Fuller (The Teaching Well), and Becky Straw (The Adventure Project) — three leaders who each named a default they've refused to accept and shared exactly what they did instead.In this episode, you'll hear:Why a merger can be a strategic first move instead of a white flag — and the single question Tammy asked herself to know She's the First was making the right callHow The Teaching Well retained 100% of its funders three years running by being radically honest about what its team actually needsThe case for treating identity as an asset, not a liability — even while peer orgs were scrubbing their websites in 2025You'll walk away with permission — and a few tactical first steps — to question the defaults that are quietly draining your organization. 🩵Episode Highlights:Three nonprofit myths busted (1:46)Mergers as a strategic first choice (5:28)One tactical first step toward exploring a merger (8:35)The dignity of work: flipping the aid model (10:23)Doubling down on storytelling after the USAID gap (12:40)Identity as asset: leading with Sankofa (14:20)Retaining 100% of funders through radical honesty (16:26)Comfort as complacency (18:09)The "one good thing": self-care and collective care (24:21)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/721Resources Mentioned:SixDegrees.org — Stacy Huston's organization, described as "a nonprofit for nonprofits," bringing organizations together as a collective forceShe's the First — Tammy Tibbetts's organization putting girls front and center worldwideGirl Rising — She's the First's merger partner; the unified brand going forward, led by CEO Christina LoweryThe Teaching Well — Lindsey Fuller's retention-focused organization solving the school staffing crisisThe Adventure Project — Becky Straw's organization creating good jobs in Sub-Saharan AfricaLa Piana Consulting — the firm that "wrote the textbook" on nonprofit mergers; cited for the finding that 92% of surveyed merged organizations called it a success a year laterJoin 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

The Kiki and ballroom scene, built by Black and brown LGBTQ+ youth of color in New York City, has been creating art, designing fashion, performing, and building community for over 20 years.Meet Colby King 👋 He’s the founder of Kiki Arts Collaborative, an economic development platform turning ballroom artistry into sustainable careers in arts, culture, and media through creative mentorship, job training, and internship placement. In 2025, that work earned Colby the David Prize, one of five awarded annually to the most luminary nonprofits in New York City. In this episode, you'll hear:Colby’s personal story and journey to the work he is doing today through KACWhy celebration, not charity, is the storytelling strategy at the heart of KAC's work, and what nonprofit leaders can apply to their own workWhat it looks like to build with a community instead of for it and why that distinction is at the root of everything Kiki Arts Collaborative doesYou'll walk away questioning the scarcity mindset the sector trained into all of us. You'll also be empowered with a sharper sense of how to tell stories that restore dignity instead of trading on need. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet Colby King and Kiki Arts Collaborative (00:44)From Dallas pews to Columbia: the origin story (02:06)The mission: lowering the barrier to creative careers (05:38)"Seeing my art as art": the Inspiration Point exhibit (08:01)Charity vs. celebration: reframing the impact story (09:59)The mom who gave away her bed: generosity that stuck (11:48)One Good Thing: "take care of your blessings" (14:04)How to connect and what KAC needs now (15:43)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/720Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Dr. Sanjay Bindra is a practicing cardiologist who built a $2.5 million endowment at a zero-staff nonprofit in less than four years, with no campaigns and no urgency emails. Then he studied why it worked. The result: the GIVE Study, a 12-month real-time look at how small nonprofits can achieve sustainable recurring giving through trust, behavioral design, and strong governance. In this episode, you'll hear:Why first-time donor retention has been under 20% for decades, and the single most important thing you can do to change that numberThe difference between dopamine-driven fundraising and oxytocin-driven relationshipsThe GIVE framework: Gratitude, Impact, Voice, and Engagement, and how to apply it to build genuine donor relationships that lastWhat your org can do right now to start building a sustainable baseYou'll walk away with a replicable framework for turning one-time donors into lifelong community members. 🩵Episode Highlights:Dr. Bindra's origin story: bananas, bread, and building from community (2:30)How GOSUMEC Foundation went from zero to $2.5M with no staff (4:59)The GIVE Study: what sparked it and what it found (10:10)First gift vs. second gift: transaction vs. relationship (11:33)The GIVE framework: Gratitude, Impact, Voice, Engagement (17:40)Dopamine vs. oxytocin: the science of donor retention (18:59)What small nonprofits can do right now (21:08)Consistency over intensity: the one good thing (27:00)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/719Resources Mentioned:GIVE Study Playbook in partnership with GivebutterGIVE StudyFundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) — cited for the statistic that first-time donor retention is under 20%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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

An 85% graduation rate against a district average of 60% — at a second-chance school in the South Bronx where the primary healing tool isn't a worksheet or a clipboard. It's a professional recording studio. 🎙️J.C. Hall is a licensed clinical social worker, a hip hop artist, and a 2024 David Prize winner (one of just five awarded across New York City). At Mott Haven Community High School, he's spent 13 years building a program where trauma-exposed students rewrite their own narratives — set to a beat. His own path here ran through addiction, psych wards, and a teenage years he didn't expect to survive. Hip hop kept him alive long enough to find the help that did the rest.In this episode, you'll hear:How letting beneficiaries tell their own story (instead of explaining it for them) made J.C.'s documentary land with audiences who'd never touched hip hop cultureThe case for emotion over statistics — why a felt story moves a donor to give when the logic of your mission alone won'tWhat an 85% graduation rate reveals about purpose, identity, and connection as outcomes you can actually trackIf you've ever struggled to make your mission felt rather than just understood, this conversation will change how you tell it. 🩵Episode Highlights:J.C.'s journey to where he is today (01:57)How hip hop therapy began with one kid and a lunch-table beat (07:32)Meeting people where they are (10:50)Ephraim's story: "I'm not gonna get my Monday" (11:44)The data: an 85% graduation rate (16:44)Why the kids — not the expert — are the story (17:22)A moment of generosity that changed everything (20:29)J.C.'s One Good Thing: Don't quit 15 minutes before the miracle (23:08)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/718Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegapJoin 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

"Crisis creates clarity, and philanthropic funding is the best risk capital we have." That's how Hala Hanna reads the moment we're in, and as Executive Director of MIT Solve, she has the data to back it up.MIT Solve has spent a decade brokering the relationship between companies, funders, and the early-stage innovators closing equity gaps in health, learning, climate, and economic opportunity. Their 460 solvers are reaching 430 million lives, have mobilized $87 million in direct funding, and have collectively raised $1.4 billion. And Hala has a front-row seat to the fundamental shift happening in how money moves toward mission.In this episode, you'll hear:Why the most forward-thinking funders are moving from rewarding proximity to power to rewarding proximity to the problem, and what that means for your missionWhat corporate partners actually need from nonprofit partnerships right now, and how to position your org to meet them thereWhy pairing measurable outcomes with storytelling is the real fundraising unlock, and the one question every nonprofit leader needs to answer before walking into a funder conversationYou'll walk away with a sharper read on where philanthropy is heading and a concrete playbook for becoming the partner funders are actually looking for. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet Hala Hanna (01:44)What MIT Solve actually does — and the numbers behind it (03:13)From proximity to power to proximity to the problem (03:37)Why corporate donors are raising the bar (HP & Amazon) (06:59)The full accordion: rethinking philanthropic capital (10:48)Where nonprofits start: data, storytelling, and trust (13:30)Fighting the "single story" of AI (17:23)Amini: building sovereign AI in the Global South (18:02)A moment of generosity: Carrie Morgridge (20:53)One good thing: do today, not someday (22:42)The Solve Effect podcast (24:31)Where to connect (25:23)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/717Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

As Co-Founder of Caring Across Generations and President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen Poo has spent decades working at the intersection of policy and culture — because she knows you can't change one without the other. A MacArthur Fellow, Time 100 honoree, and author of The Age of Dignity, she's now launching a million-care-conversations campaign and a new production label, Give Not Take Media, to get care stories into film and television at scale. 🩵In this episode, you'll hear:Why culture change has to come before policy change — and what that sequencing means for your organization's communications strategyHow Caring Across Generations scaled their story strategy, and what it can teach any org about how media scales missionHow to plug into the 1 Million Care Conversations campaign right nowYou'll walk away understanding why story isn't just a communications tool, it's the strategy that shifts culture, changes policy, and moves people to act.Episode Highlights:Ai-jen's grandfather and the personal roots of Caring Across Generations (2:09)Changing policy and culture — why you can't do one without the other (6:09)Care as infrastructure: the framing that changes the conversation (8:22)Why emotional truth drives behavior more than facts (10:35)Give Not Take Media and the film Take Me Home at Tribeca (13:21)1 Million Care Conversations campaign — how to get involved (16:01)A story of generosity: the donor who honored her nanny (18:07)One Good Thing: reach out to a caregiver in your life (20:19)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/716Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegapJoin 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Most nonprofits treat email like a megaphone. They show up loud when they need donations and go completely quiet in between. Katelyn Baughan has worked with UNHCR, Amnesty International, the Trevor Project, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and she has seen this pattern cost nonprofits thousands in unrealized donations.Her fix: stop thinking about campaigns and start building infrastructure.In less than 20 minutes, Katelyn walks you through the automated email system that works in the background to build donor relationships, nurture loyalty, and raise more money, even when you're not hitting send. 📧In this episode, you'll hear:The difference between email campaigns and email infrastructure, and why most nonprofits are missing the piece that actually builds long-term donor loyaltyThe three foundational automations every nonprofit should have running right now: subscriber welcome, new donor onboarding, and monthly donor welcomeWhat deliverability actually means (it's not the same as delivery), and how to find out if your emails are landing in spam without you knowingStart building your system this week. Your donors are waiting to hear from you. 🩵Episode Highlights:Working Session Intro (0:29)The Megaphone Problem: Rethinking How Nonprofits Use Email (2:20)Infrastructure vs. Campaigns: The Plumbing Analogy (4:18)Where to Start: Building Your Welcome Series (6:08)The Three Foundational Automations Every Nonprofit Needs (7:32)New Donor Onboarding: The Window You Can't Miss (8:23)Deliverability vs. Delivery: What the Difference Means for Your Inbox (13:41)Google Postmaster Tools and How to Use Them (14:35)One Good Thing: Stop Worrying About Bothering Donors (15:49)How to Connect with Katelyn (18:32)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/715Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/wsl#podcast//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Scott Cameron is a two-time Emmy Award-winning creative leader who has spent his career executive producing international adaptations of Sesame Street, bringing this iconic brand to audiences in 190 countries and 31 languages. He joins us for this special episode to talk about what 57 years of research-driven storytelling has taught him about how story actually changes people. 🌟In this episode, you'll hear:How the Sesame model — a Venn diagram of creative production, education, and research — creates content that changes behavior, not just awarenessWhat happened when Sesame Workshop partnered with the IRC to bring Elmo and Cookie Monster into mobile health clinics in conflict-affected Jordan, and why the research surprised everyoneWhy knowing your North Star is the only thing that keeps a mission-driven organization from playing whack-a-mole with every new trendWalk away from this conversation with a framework for intentional storytelling, and a new appreciation for the most trusted institution already sitting in your community. 🩵Episode Highlights:Scott's Origin Story: Growing Up With Sesame Street (2:53)The Origin of Sesame Street: A 1966 Dinner Party (5:57)The Sesame Research Model: Where Story Meets Science (9:35)Funding Disruption and What Sesame Did Next (12:27)Bringing Sesame to Conflict Zones: The IRC Partnership (13:37)The ABCs of Emotion: What Research in Jordan Taught Them (16:02)AI, North Stars, and What to Actually Pay Attention To (19:00)The Most Trusted Institution in Your Community (21:36)Netflix, PBS, YouTube and Going Global (24:07)Creating Digital Ecosystems and What Comes Next (27:00)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/714Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Matt Oh was an engineer with a stable career and a 9-to-5 when a mission trip to India stopped him in his tracks. He saw something he couldn’t unsee — women and children spending 10 hours a day walking to collect dirty water.In 2015, he founded FOREFRONT Charity with a few college friends and one water well. Today, more than 100,000 people across India, Kenya, and East Africa have been impacted through clean water, education, medical care, and empowerment. 105 water wells drilled. A school built, in which 20% of the students once worked in child labor, that now serves more than 250 first-generation students. A 90% program efficiency rate. Clearly, an engineer is running this. 💡In this episode, you'll hear:Why “treating symptoms” is a stewardship failure, and how Matt’s five whys framework helps you fund root-cause solutions that create lasting changeWhat 11 years of local partnerships taught FOREFRONT about trust, and why sustainable change is slow to build, easy to lose, and worth protectingHow FOREFRONT came within $1,000 of shutting its doors twice, and what those struggles taught themWalk away from this conversation with a new lens on donor stewardship, a challenge to stop moving fast when the community you serve needs you to stay, and proof that the long game is worth it. 🩵Episode Highlights:From Engineering to Purpose: Matt's Origin Story (3:36)The Five Whys: Applying Engineering Thinking to Nonprofit Impact (9:15)Root Cause vs. Symptoms: What Real Stewardship Looks Like (10:19)A Decade of Local Partnerships and What Trust Actually Requires (14:10)Persevering Through Hard Seasons (18:14)FOREFRONT Forward: Scaling What Works Globally (19:54)The School Story: What Grit Really Looks Like (25:09)One Good Thing: Play the Long Game (31:29)How to Connect and Support FOREFRONT Charity (33:04)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/713Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

This episode includes themes of combat trauma, mental health, and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.Meet Richard Casper 👋 Richard is a Marine Corps veteran, Purple Heart recipient, CNN Hero, and co-founder of CreatiVets, a nonprofit that helps wounded veterans heal from PTSD and TBI through songwriting, visual art, and performance. His own healing started with one chalk pastel and a tribute to his friend Luke. That moment sparked a mission that led to 700+ songs, 25 million streams, and thousands of lives changed.In this episode, you'll hear:How CreatiVets reaches the veterans who will never ask for help, and the storytelling model that makes showing up irresistibleWhy every song they write becomes a new story to share with the world, and what that means for how nonprofits think about contentThe story of James: a veteran who found hope at a country music festivalHow to build programs that give people tools for life, not just for the length of a programThe vision for a 24-hour creative arts center where any veteran can walk in and start to healEpisode Highlights:Richard's origin story and the call to serve (0:44)Camp David, survivor guilt, and choosing to go to Iraq with his unit (3:42)How a room full of strangers understood Richard’s story before he did (8:46)Meet the mission of CreatiVets (12:51)Designing programs that give veterans tools for life, not just for the program (15:21)James's story: the moment a CreatiVets sign saved a life at a country festival (19:37)Why story is the most underused tool in the nonprofit sector (22:23)CreatiVet’s vision: a 24-hour creative arts center for veterans in Nashville (28:57)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/712Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

What does it actually mean to fund community power? Not a one-time grant, not a single big donor relationship, but real, sustained infrastructure for the leaders closest to the problems. Vincent Jones has spent three decades figuring that out.Meet Vincent Jones 👋 He is the CEO of Beyond Impact, formerly known as Tides Advocacy, a national 501(c)(4) intermediary that serves as fiscal sponsor, funder, and convener for more than 90 projects across 20 states. Beyond Impact sits at the part of philanthropic infrastructure most nonprofit conversations never reach: what happens when giving goes beyond foundations to include how communities build power, influence policy, and drive long-term structural change.In this episode, you'll hear:Why philanthropy's current funding structure is a design failure and what a better model actually looks likeWhat fiscal sponsorship is (explained simply), and why it's the infrastructure that lets community leaders focus entirely on the workA moment of generosity that changed how Vincent sees his own worth, and what he wants every listener who has ever doubted themselves to hearThis one will change how you think about who holds power in your organization and how you fund the work that matters. 🌱Episode Highlights:Meet Vincent Jones (02:09)Why philanthropy's funding structure is a design failure (06:12)Democratizing donors: the Uplifting Change Initiative at Liberty Hill (07:20)The real cost of last-minute, cycle-based funding (10:24)What fiscal sponsorship actually means (12:22)Beyond Impact's 90+ projects (13:16)A moment of philanthropy that changed Vincent's life (20:45)One good thing: "Do good, have fun, and help others do the same." (25:11)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/711Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

There is a growing gap in our world between hope and despair. And storytelling might be the most powerful tool we have to fill it.Welcome to Stories That Fill the Hope Gap, a 10-part limited series created in partnership with Good is the New Cool and We Are For Good. Every Wednesday for the next 10 weeks, we are bringing you a changemaker who is using story to cut through noise, build connection, shift culture, and move people to action.We open with the conversation that started it all: the keynote Afdhel Aziz delivered live at ImpactUp: Story, framing the big idea that runs through every episode that follows.In this episode, you'll hear:What the Hope Gap is, where it came from, and why it matters for every changemaker telling stories right nowWhy pop culture, social media, and news are all feeding despair, and what that means for how we communicateGallup's 2026 finding that hope is the number one thing people want from their leaders, outpacing trust, compassion, and stability combinedAfdhel's 3-step storytelling playbook: start with hope, spark wonder, inspire courageous actionWe need your stories to help fill the hope gap. Share yours at weareforgood.com/hopegap. 🩵Episode Highlights:Welcome to the series: what Stories That Fill the Hope Gap is (0:03)Grief, fear, and this moment we are in (5:19)Storytelling: the single greatest tool to change civilization (8:00)The current crisis of storytelling (9:00)Despair is paralyzing. Hope is galvanizing. (12:00)Gallup 2026: hope outpaces trust, compassion, and stability combined (12:30)Meet The Solutionaries (13:30)The 3-step playbook: start with hope, spark wonder, inspire courageous action (17:30)Share your story at weareforgood.com/hopegap (19:58)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/710Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Christina Martin Kenny 👋 She is a career fundraiser and the founder of Guava Tree Strategies. She has been a fundraising team of one more times than she can count, and she literally wrote the handbook on surviving it: The Solo Fundraiser Survival Guide.In this Working Session, she is bringing the entire playbook to help you figure out what to prioritize, what to let go of, and how to actually move the needle when you feel like you are juggling everything and dropping all of it.In this Working Session, you'll hear:How to stop doing everything and start doing the right thingsHow to match your time to where your money actually comes fromHow to replace your to-do list with three weekly priorities that actually move the needleWelcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let's get to work.Episode Highlights:Outsourcing doesn't have to cost money (5:00)It's okay to do less: the diverse revenue myth (6:05)Revenue matches time: the core framework (8:00)Time tracking exercise: where are your hours actually going? (8:30)The Good Enough Checklist (11:10)Good bones: your donation processing platform (11:30)CRM basics and the three metrics that matter (12:30)Automated acknowledgement letters: plain text beats branded (15:00)From overwhelm to activated: the three weekly priorities (17:00)Revenue driving, relationship building, system strengthening (19:00)Tiny Tasks Before 10 (20:00)One good thing: protecting your time is a strategic decision (21:00)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/709👉 Christina's Good Enough ChecklistJoin 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Amanda Green 👋 She is a journalist turned Communications Consultant with more than 20 years of newsroom and public relations experience, including 12 years in TV newsrooms. She is the founder of In Your Voice Media Works, where she helps cause-led organizations build their own internal newsrooms: the systems, the workflows, and the editorial instincts that turn scattered content into a sustained story engine.Her take? Content calendars and campaigns don't build momentum. If you want storytelling to drive real change, you need to think like a media organization.In this Working Session, you'll hear:Why nonprofits need to stop asking "what should we post this week?" and start asking "what is the story, and how do we work it?"Amanda's 5-step story framework: define your beat, work your story pipeline, report and produce, publish and distribute, and measure and adjustHow to run a 10-minute editorial meeting that gets every department contributing stories, from your board to the person who sweeps the floorsWelcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let's get to work.Episode Highlights:Meet Amanda Green (1:22)Think like a media company: the mindset shift (2:30)Stop asking what to post. Start asking what the story is. (2:50)The editorial mission statement and guidelines (4:00)Audience analysis and building editorial judgment (5:00)How to run a 10-minute editorial meeting (7:00)Step 1: Define your beat (8:00)Step 2: Work your story pipeline: story leads and channel leads (8:30)Step 3: Report and produce (10:00)Step 4: Publish and distribute (10:30)Step 5: Measure and adjust (10:45)Community as storytelling: the "everybody has a story" approach (11:00)Story is the heartbeat of connection (13:00)The 3-tab spreadsheet story planner (15:00)One good thing: listen to the people in your community (16:47)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/708//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Is philanthropy stuck in hypothesis mode?In science, there are two kinds of research: hypothesis-driven, where you predict the outcome before you run the experiment, and exploratory, where you map the landscape and stay open to what you find. The biggest breakthroughs almost always come from the second.Meet Casey Lardner 👋 She is a neuroscientist and the Executive Director of Genspace, the world's first community biology lab in Brooklyn, New York. Part biology lab, part design studio, part classroom, part community space, Genspace has been opening the doors of science to artists, entrepreneurs, students, researchers, and curious humans since 2009.In this episode, you'll hear:Why philanthropy is stuck in hypothesis mode and what the sector is missing because of itWhy uncertainty isn't a problem to solve. It's the work.How to lead your organization with the curiosity and rigor of a scientistThis one will change how you think about impact, innovation, and what we might be leaving on the table. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet Casey Lardner (0:37)What Genspace is: lab, classroom, studio, community (8:16)Hypothesis-driven vs. exploratory science: the difference (10:00)What hypothesis-driven philanthropy is costing the sector (11:09)Who carries the risk of uncertainty? (15:00)How Genspace secures exploratory investment from funders (17:52)How to start thinking like a scientist as a nonprofit leader (20:59)Casey’s One Good Thing: Curiosity as a habit of mind (26:32)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/707Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Linsey Fuller and Marisol Pineda Conde 👋 Together, they have spent five years turning around an organization that started with one month of runway, rebuilding it from the inside out with new curriculum, new revenue streams, new systems, and a set of staff blessings that are rewriting what it looks like to actually live your values as a leader.The wellness stipend. The physical health screening. The financial literacy program with a 401k match. The micro sabbatical arc that guarantees every person on the team protected rest at every milestone.In this episode, you'll hear:How Lindsey, Marisol + team rebuilt The Teaching Well from the inside out: new curriculum, new revenue model, new brand, new systems, all while keeping the lights on with one month of runwayThe Five Blessings: the wellness stipend, the physical health screening, the financial literacy program, the 401k match, and the micro sabbatical arc that guarantees every team member protected rest at every milestoneWhy "desperation does not drive donorship," and how earned revenue became the most liberating source of funding The Teaching Well hasThis one will change how you think about what it means to lead. 🩵Episode Highlights:The honest state of The Teaching Well five years ago (7:31)What they rebuilt: curriculum, brand, revenue model, systems (10:00)Financial sustainability vs. financial solvency: understanding the difference (11:19)Building an earned revenue reserve as a staff protection reserve (14:29)Why they call them Blessings, not benefits (16:19)Blessing 1: Physical health, wellness stipend, and the medical screening (20:00)Blessing 2: Financial freedom, 401k match, and collective financial literacy (25:00)Blessing 3: The micro sabbatical arc (29:28)Fear, funders, and the business case for investing in your people (35:00)The Teaching Well's earned revenue model (38:15)"Healing is messy work. Choose each other." (45:00)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/706Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Dave Raley 👋 He is the founder and CEO of the Center for Sustainable Giving, author of The Rise of Sustainable Giving, and one of the most trusted voices in the recurring giving space. He has worked with thousands of nonprofit leaders to grow their monthly giving programs. In this Working Session, he is tackling two of the most overlooked opportunities in monthly giving: reducing churn and upgrading the donors you already have.In this Working Session, you'll hear:Why churn is a more powerful metric than retention, and why the reframe from "I retained 42% of my donors" to "I lost 58% of my donors" changes everythingThe two types of churn and how to fix them: involuntary (credit card failure) and voluntary (donor chooses to leave), plus the systems to address bothHow to keep monthly donors engaged using three words: affirm, engage, and appeal, and why your recurring donors are actually your best additional gift prospectsHow to upgrade your existing monthly donors with a timely, specific ask, and why most organizations are leaving this on the table entirelyEpisode Highlights:Meet Dave Raley (0:43)Churn vs. retention: the reframe that changes everything (2:17)58% of donors don't give again: making it real (4:17)Monthly donor churn vs. single gift churn (4:32)Involuntary churn: credit card failure and what to do (6:40)Two solutions: automate and outreach (7:55)Voluntary churn: acknowledge, affirm, and save the gift (9:16)Three words for monthly donor retention: affirm, engage, appeal (13:15)Recurring donors give 25% more annually on average (16:21)How to upgrade your monthly donors (19:19)Dave's one good thing + free resource (26:54)Welcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let's get to work.Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/705Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Nathan Cook 👋 He is the Chief Information and Technology Officer at Special Olympics International, where he is using technology to do something remarkable: help a movement that serves 5 million athletes across 172 countries finally operate as one. He is building a digital center of excellence, co-creating AI tools with athletes, and asking a question that should reshape how every nonprofit thinks about technology: what if we built this with the people we serve, not just for them?In this episode, you'll hear:How Special Olympics went from fragmented, program-by-program systems to a unified digital platform, and what it meant when 50% of athletes could suddenly self-register and own their own information for the first timeThe story of Med Buddy, an AI-powered healthcare assistant that sits in the room with athletes during medical visits to translate, advocate, and improve care for people with intellectual disabilitiesWhy AI has an ableism problem: the research Special Olympics has conducted on bias in large language models, and what organizations need to know before AI gets embedded in more decision-makingEpisode Highlights:Meet Nathan Cook (2:33)Nathan's path to this work: programming robots as a kid (3:04)Why Special Olympics' fragmented systems were limiting the mission (4:16)Technology at scale: how 50% of athletes can now self-register (5:04)Building with athletes, not just for them: universal design in action (9:04)Meet Med Buddy: AI as a healthcare advocate in the room (13:34)Advice for nonprofits hesitant about AI (18:07)AI bias and ableism in large language models (22:04)A generosity story: a mom who finally talked with her son (25:08)One good thing: eat the water beetle (28:03)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/704Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

We're living in the loneliest moment in modern history. And at the same time, people have never been hungrier for hope, for joy, for meaningful connection. Your volunteers are at the center of that tension. And if you're not treating people power as a strategy, you're leaving your mission's most powerful asset on the table.Recorded live at the We Are For Good Summit, this conversation brings together four extraordinary leaders: Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies and author of The Lost Art of Connecting; Nicole Stewart, Executive Director of Boston CASA; Nicole R. Smith, Executive Director of ALIVE, the National Professional Association for Leaders in Volunteer Engagement; and Sara Lomelin, CEO of Philanthropy Together.In this episode, you'll hear:What ALIVE's data shows about organizations that treat volunteers as strategy vs. afterthought: 80% more volunteers, 60% higher engagement, and donors who are twice as likely to giveBoston CASA's three non-negotiables for scaling a volunteer program without burning people out: exceptional training, strong supervision, and a mission-anchored cultureHow to operationalize people power right now: from launching a giving circle to giving volunteers a role, not a receiptWhy skills-based volunteering is surging even as companies go quiet on CSR, and what that means for nonprofitsPeople are looking for hope. They're looking for joy. They're looking for meaningful connections. You are the one they've been waiting for. 🩵Episode Highlights:How volunteer expectations have shifted post-Covid (3:00)People want belonging, not transactions (4:09)Volunteers as your best marketing money can't buy (8:21)Volunteers as ambassadors, donors, and storytellers (10:42)Boston CASA's non-negotiables for scaling without burnout (16:37)CSR in 2026: skills-based volunteering and what companies are doing quietly (22:58)Operationalizing people power: giving circles, storytelling, clarity (24:11)Episode Shownotes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/703Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Pedro J. Rivera 👋 In 30 years at the intersection of law, philanthropy, and fundraising, he has launched three planned giving programs and raised $150 million for nonprofits and universities. In this Working Session, he's here to give you a clear entry point into planned giving, no matter where you're starting from.In this Working Session, you'll hear:How to talk about legacy giving in a way that feels naturalHow to find your best planned giving prospects with data you already haveA 30-day action plan to move planned giving from overwhelming to doableEpisode Highlights:What is planned giving, really? (0:21)Why right now: The Great Wealth Transfer (3:18)How to talk about legacy without making it weird (4:48)Finding your best prospects: the 7-10 rule and more (5:50)Weaving planned giving into what you're already doing (8:21)The 30-day starter plan (12:05)One Good Thing: stop assuming donors don't want to talk about this (14:07)Welcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let's get to work.Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/702//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

At 4am on April 3, 2025, Jennifer Rupp's phone wouldn't stop buzzing. 93% of Michigan Humanities' budget. Gone overnight. What happened next is a story about crisis leadership, radical transparency, and why connection isn't a soft strategy. It's the only strategy. 🙏In this episode, you'll hear:What Jennifer did in the first 24 hours after losing 93% of her budget, and why transparency was her most important toolHow she decided which programs to cut and which were non-negotiable (and the framework you can use to make those calls)Why "when division is the crisis, connection is the strategy" isn't just a philosophy at Michigan Humanities, it's their entire operating modelJennifer’s One Good Thing: flip the funding triangle. 85% of your money comes from individuals. Are you spending 85% of your time there?This one's going to stay with you. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet Jennifer Rupp (00:48)The 4am email that changed everything (09:44)How federal humanities funding actually works (10:46)The pivot: transparency, triage, and staying mission-aligned (13:55)What programs fell and which were non-negotiable (17:09)Crisis leadership lessons you can only learn by walking through it (22:28)From front porches to back decks: why we've lost the art of gathering (25:15)The Great Michigan Gathering: a three-year plan to rebuild community (26:43)A powerful story of generosity in Jennifer's life (33:10)Jennifer's One Good Thing: flip the funding triangle (35:05)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/701Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

700 episodes felt like the kind of moment that deserved more than a LinkedIn post and a few dancing emojis. So we sat down to talk about what this journey has taught us about generosity, the stories that haven't left us, and what we're still learning.We're so grateful you're here. Come celebrate with us. 🩵-Jon + BeckyEpisode Highlights:Two powerful stories of generosity we are still carrying with us (5:00)The ripple effect and what generosity has taught us (10:00)Low ego, high impact: what the best leaders share (15:00)Jon and Becky’s One Good Things (19:00)//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Jeremy Bouman, Founder of RISE in Omaha 👋. Today, RISE operates in seven Nebraska prisons with a 90% graduate employment rate and a recidivism rate a third of the state average. And Jeremy has spent the last decade building a leadership team, a sabbatical policy, and a succession plan designed to outlast him.In this episode, he breaks down exactly how, including the internal leadership academy, the innovation program open to every employee, and their newly approved sabbatical policy.Plus: the story of a man serving a life sentence who donated $500 so someone else could take the same program that changed his life. 🩵Tune in to hear:What the "Inside Out" model actually looks like, and why starting the relationship inside prison, years before release, is the thing that makes everything else workRISE’s human-centered internal policies, leadership academy, and innovation project + the impact on their team Episode Highlights:Meet Jeremy Bouman (00:38)The Inside Out model: building trust before release (09:05)70% system-impacted staff and why lived experience leads (09:05)Founder-proofing: humility, culture, and getting out of the way (14:10)The sabbatical policy and what happened when Jeremy took five weeks off (16:29)Succession planning: Rise Leadership Academy and Rise Innovation Project (21:14)Two generosity stories that say everything about this mission (27:29)One good thing: visit a prison, practice second chance hiring (29:57)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/699Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Kyle S. King started his nonprofit journey as a college junior, raised $100K, and never stopped. Eight books, a publishing company, a keynote career, and the Growth Alliance later — he's spent over a decade helping mission-driven organizations do the deeper work first: aligning leadership, tightening operations, and sharpening the stories that actually move donors to act. 💪In this episode, you'll hear:Why burnout isn't a wellness problem or a leadership problem — it's an organizational culture issue, and that distinction changes everything about how you solve itThe three pillars of "contagious culture" (kindness, community, capital) and why skipping step one means you'll never reach step threeThe counterintuitive advice Kyle gives every leader who wants to grow: stop adding. Play defense first. Stop the leaks.This conversation will challenge how you think about culture, leadership, and the small moments where real impact actually happens. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet Kyle King (00:41)Roots: Sankofa and the backstory that built everything (3:15)Contagious Culture: Kindness, Community, Capital (6:44)The root cause mistake nonprofit leaders keep making (10:00)Why burnout is an organizational culture problem (15:05)Leading with heart when you're running on empty (20:00)Play defense: building momentum by stopping the leaks (25:30)The barbershop story and the $800 check (30:26)One good thing: better people build better organizations (35:01)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/698Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

"You don't manage volunteers. You have to inspire them."Jeff Byard figured that out after 14 years in Alabama emergency management, six years as a senior leader at FEMA overseeing 185 presidential disaster declarations, and now as Chief Programs Officer at Team Rubicon — the disaster response organization with 200,000 Greyshirts deployed across the country and around the world.In this episode, you'll hear:Why the shift from volunteer management to community building changes everything — and exactly how Team Rubicon made that shift at scaleHow 3,500 volunteer leaders lead a Greyshirt nation of 200,000 — and what that organizational structure teaches every nonprofit leaderJeff's One Good Thing: don't let perfection get in the way of good.Episode Highlights:Jeff's origin story: Marine Corps to FEMA (3:08)Joining Team Rubicon and the "for impact" sector (6:36)You don't manage volunteers — you inspire them (7:48)What Team Rubicon does: 1,000 service projects a year (9:14)Volunteer management vs. community building (12:00)Veterans + "kick ass civilians": the 50/50 dynamic (14:51)Making volunteers your core capacity at scale (16:13)10 simultaneous operations in Hurricane Helene (16:51)The philanthropy moment that made Jeff cry (20:55)One Good Thing: don't let perfection get in the way of good (25:04)Resources Mentioned:Team RubiconTunnels to Towers FoundationJeff Byard on LinkedIn Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/697Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Trust is not a soft skill. It's the whole job.Today we're bringing you something special: Aila Malik's live keynote from the We Are For Good Summit, followed by a real-time coaching Q&A with our community.Aila has spent nearly a decade working alongside nonprofit leaders at their most defining moments: leadership transitions, burnout, mergers, and organizational inflection points. Her firm has partnered with hundreds of organizations, and her framework for building trust has changed how leaders think about culture, credibility, and change.In this episode, you'll hear:Why trust isn't a soft skill — and why treating it like one is silently breaking your organizationThe three layers of trust (workability, credibility, vulnerability) and exactly where most leaders get stuckHow to rebuild trust after a leadership transition, a broken promise, or a loss of confidenceWhat Aila told a room full of summit attendees about why people resist change — and why the answer isn't strategy, it's safetyEpisode Highlights:The Sector as a Response to Broken Narratives (1:42)The Three Layers of Trust (8:15)Building Credibility (10:10)The Vulnerability Layer (12:47)Live Q&A: Trusting Funders and Long-Term Partners (17:33)Navigating Trust in Organizational Transitions (20:00)When Stakeholders Have Different Goals (24:27)Trust Repair and Apology Tours (30:03)What Young Organizations Should Know About Trust (33:47)Middle Management as Trust Infrastructure (35:00)Aila's One Good Thing (40:01)Resources Mentioned:Connect with Aila + Venture Leader CollectiveFull Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/696Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Sara LaBarge grew up on the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin, won a Gates Millennium Scholarship as a teenager, and went on to lead strategic partnerships at Native Forward Scholars Fund — the largest direct scholarship provider to Native students in the country. When MacKenzie Scott called (twice), their organization was ready. This conversation is about what that readiness actually looked like.Native nonprofits receive less than 0.5% of all philanthropic funding. Native Forward has been building anyway — for 55+ years. And the frameworks Sara uses for partnerships, accountability, and trust-based giving are some of the most practically useful we've heard for any fundraiser navigating high-stakes funder relationships right now. 🩵In this episode, you'll hear:What the "dreaming phase" looked like inside Native Forward after their first MacKenzie Scott gift — and how they moved from scarcity thinking to strategic deployment fastHow to identify true alignment with a partner before resources change hands, and why accountability to that alignment is what makes partnerships compound over timeHow Native Forward is handling a 35% surge in scholarship applications while protecting 55+ years of mission integritySara's One Good Thing: why passion alone isn't enough, and what discipline and alignment unlockEpisode Highlights:Sara's origin story: growing up on the Menominee reservation (3:00)Winning the Gates Millennium Scholarship (3:31)What scholarships unlock beyond financial support (7:07)The funding gap + MacKenzie Scott gifts (10:39)Building readiness to absorb and deploy a gift at scale (13:03)Strategic partnerships and the 35% surge in applications (15:25)What authentic partnerships look like in practice (17:06)Relationships as currency and values in action (20:15)The philanthropy story that changed Sara (22:03)One Good Thing: discipline and alignment (24:43)Resources Mentioned:Native Forward Scholars FundYield Giving — MacKenzie Scott's giving platform and essaysFull Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/695Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Meet Eliza Blank, the new CEO of The Farmlink Project 👋  We’re exploring what happens when a founder-CEO mindset collides with one of the most urgent food systems problems of our time.Eliza bootstrapped and scaled The Sill from a single idea to 12 stores across seven markets and $25M raised. Now she's applying that same startup lens to Farmlink, which rescues and redistributes over a million pounds of food every week.In this episode, you'll hear:Why Eliza's team talks about their own obsolescence every day, and what that mindset unlocks for mission-driven orgsWhy growth for growth's sake is a red flag, and how Farmlink thinks about scale vs. depth insteadHow to build a community of fanatics around a cause most people don't even know exists yetEpisode Highlights:From The Sill to Farmlink: Eliza's origin story (3:22)What the startup model has to teach the nonprofit sector (6:14)Brand building and community as a growth strategy (9:16)Scale vs. depth: why Farmlink talks about its own obsolescence (13:19)The Field Fellowship: investing in the next generation of food systems leaders (16:41)One Good Thing: pick a lane and compound it over a lifetime (26:01)Resources Mentioned:The Farmlink ProjectAbundanceGod's Love We DeliverFull Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/694Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

In today's episode, Jon and Becky sit down with Afdhel Aziz, founder of Good is the New Cool, to unpack why the way most nonprofits tell their story is quietly killing their impact, and what the new playbook looks like.Afdhel has spent 30+ years advising brands like Disney, Coca-Cola, Gap, and Adidas on purpose-driven storytelling. But his most urgent work right now is closing the hope gap - a measurable 27% chasm between hope and despair in society, tracked by Yale. He believes nonprofits sit at the center of the solution. And he's here to show you exactly how to get there. 🩵In this episode, you'll hear:The Yale data behind the 27% hope gap and a reframe for your whole team A three-step storytelling playbook that any org can put to work immediatelyHow to reach the 90% of people who want to help but don't know where to start (hint: it's not another heavy documentary)Episode Highlights:Afdhel's origin story: From Sri Lanka to 30 years of brand storytelling (3:08)Why "Good is the New Cool" - and why that message is more urgent than ever (5:01)The 27% Hope Gap: What Yale's data tells us about where society is right now (6:53)The 90/10 problem in nonprofit storytelling - and the shift that changes everything (12:57)The Solutionaries: What impact storytelling can learn from Hollywood (19:09)Activists vs. advocates + the three-step playbook: Hope → Wonder → Courageous Action (24:33)Afdhel's One Good Thing: The top regret of the dying — and why authenticity is Afdhel's answer (32:41)Resources Mentioned:Explore Afdhel's work and connectChoose LoveThe Solutionaries"Hope at Work" by Barbara Perry + Harry Hudson"The Book of Hope" by Jane Goodall"The Top Five Regrets of the Dying" by Bronnie WareFull Episode Landing Page: www.weareforgood.com/episode/693Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

In this Working Session, Jon and Becky are joined by digital strategist Josh Burns to rethink how nonprofits approach online giving — moving beyond quick wins and into strategies that actually build momentum. Together, they explore why so many organizations feel stuck growing digital revenue and how a shift toward relationship-first thinking can unlock more sustainable, long-term results.From understanding the “digital donor gap” to building a simple growth framework rooted in human behavior, you’ll learn how to align your digital presence with real-world connection — and turn passive audiences into engaged, giving communities.Top 3 Takeaways:Online Giving Starts With Human Connection — Not Conversion: Digital channels may be the medium, but people are the mission. Learn how to ground your strategy in empathy, proximity, and real relationships so your messaging resonates beyond the screen and inspires meaningful action.Use a Simple Growth Framework to Guide Strategy: Break down your digital ecosystem into three key stages — awareness, consideration, and action — and understand how each channel (social, website, email) plays a role in moving supporters toward deeper engagement and giving.Play the Long Game With Story + Community: From email nurture to community-building spaces, discover how consistent storytelling and intentional engagement create the trust that leads to higher conversion over time — not just one-off gifts.This episode is packed with practical, low-lift ways to strengthen your digital presence — whether you’re just getting started with email, refining your storytelling, or rethinking how you engage donors online.Welcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let’s get to work.Episode Highlights:  Understanding the “Digital Donor Gap” (04:47) Why Data + Humanity Must Work Together (06:52) Digital Should Drive Real-World Action (07:27) Breaking Silos: Learning From Programs + Donors (10:30) The Feel–Know–Do Storytelling Framework (13:19) The Digital Growth Framework: Awareness → Action (14:47) First-Party Data + Building Direct Relationships (18:10) Community-Building as a Growth Strategy (20:14) Playing the Long Game With Email + Story (23:11) Tracking Metrics + Setting Realistic Goals (25:05) One Good Thing: Get Out of Your Comfort Zone (30:02)Episode Shownotes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/692Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

In today's episode, Jon and Becky sit down with Nicole R. Smith, CVA, Executive Director of AL!VE (Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement), to talk about what it really looks like to treat volunteers as a strategic powerhouse, not an afterthought.Nicole has spent her career championing the people who champion volunteers, and she's here to close the gap between organizations that say volunteers are vital and the ones that actually build systems to prove it. 💪In this episode, you'll hear:Why volunteer engagement is a leadership issue, not just a logistics oneWhat structural elements every org needs to make volunteers a core capacity The metrics most organizations are leaving on the tableHow investing in your volunteer engagement professional changes everythingIf volunteers have ever felt like an untapped superpower in your org, Nicole will help you see exactly what's possible—and where to start today. 🩵Episode Highlights: Faith, Dance & Falling into Volunteer Engagement (02:29)The Volunteer Strategy Gap: Vital but Under-Resourced (07:14)Top-Down Support for Volunteer Managers (11:32)Key Infrastructure: Training, Tech & Culture (15:59)Hidden ROI: Capacity, Community & 3-6x Returns (24:35)Nicole’s One Good Thing: Random Act of Kindness (Even for the "Undeserving") (36:45)Episode Shownotes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/691Join 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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter