.jpg)
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
The We Are For Good Podcast brings nonprofit professionals + everyday changemakers into conversations with the most innovative, heartwired leaders in social impact. Hosted by Jon McCoy + Becky Endicott, each episode unpacks fresh mindsets, practical skills + inspiring stories designed to help you work smarter, build healthier cultures + accelerate our collective impact.
Join our value-aligned community—it’s free—at weareforgoodcommunity.com.
About We Are For Good
We Are For Good is a storytelling, learning + activating community built for nonprofit professionals + everyday changemakers. Through our podcasts + media, purpose-driven activations + global gatherings, we equip for-good leaders with the connection, skills + inspiration to grow their impact. Because we believe community is everything—and together, we can create an Impact Uprising.
Learn more at weareforgood.com.
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
695. How to Build an Organization Ready for Its Biggest Moment - Sara LaBarge
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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 fast
- How to identify true alignment with a partner before resources change hands, and why accountability to that alignment is what makes partnerships compound over time
- How Native Forward is handling a 35% surge in scholarship applications while protecting 55+ years of mission integrity
- Sara's One Good Thing: why passion alone isn't enough, and what discipline and alignment unlock
Episode 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 Fund
- Yield Giving — MacKenzie Scott's giving platform and essays
Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/695
//
Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com