The Nonprofit Power Podcast

Nonprofit leaders spend a lot of time selling to one kind of funder or decisionmaker or another just about every day of the week. We spend a lot of time selling, but we don't necessarily talk about it as sales. And I think that's a bit of a mistake. And here's the thing. When you get into nonprofit leadership, people don't tell you you're going to be a salesperson. They don't tell you that's going to be a big part of the job. Part of what I want to do today is to first of all call out the actual

I hear from so many nonprofit leaders who want to establish themselves as thought leaders in their niche. But the whole process around how you do that tends to be shrouded in mystery. It’s time to demystify! There are 7 basic ingredients, and today we break them down and give you a roadmap to becoming a thought leader. In this episode, we reveal: What thought leadership can do for you Individual as thought leader vs organization as thought leader – how and when to choose How thought leaders t

Identity is one of those things that we really tend to take for granted. We often don't recognize just how much of an impact it's having on how we show up in all aspects of life. When we think to ourselves, “I am…” or “I am a…” Whatever follows, however we finish those sentences, is far more important than we often realize. Because they speak to our identity as we see it. And our identity drives our perspective, our priorities, and perhaps most importantly, it drives how w...

There is no question that voting rights are under extraordinary attack right now in this country. And the people being targeted are pretty much one and the same as the people most of us serve. This is not entirely new, as we know. There have been attempts for years to systematically erode people's voting rights. And there have been multiple attempts at voter suppression in all kinds of ways. We've watched that unfold across the news and in our own lived experience in many of our states. But all

Last week, I tackled how to diagnose exactly what's going on when funders say they love you, but they're still not investing at the correct level. In that conversation (Episode 145) we laid some really important groundwork to help you map out exactly where the problem is occurring, how it’s manifesting with each decisionmaker, and what exactly is causing it. Today, as promised, we'll get into how you fix it. You won't be surprised to learn that this is almost entirely about mess...

I want to talk about a problem that is way more common than you might think. The one where funders say they love you, but still under-invest in your work. Chances are good you know exactly what I’m talking about. You've got these various decisionmakers, and often this is particularly a problem with elected officials. But it cuts across all types of decisionmakers. Whether it's electeds or government agency decisionmakers, foundations, corporate funders, all of them. They know something about you