Small Nonprofit: Fundraising Tips, Leadership Strategies, and Community-Centric Solutions
Welcome to Small Nonprofit, the podcast designed for leaders, fundraisers, and advocates in the nonprofit sector who want to create real change. We provide small nonprofit organizations with strategies to enhance their fundraising campaigns, improve nonprofit governance, and implement ethical fundraising practices that resonate with today’s values-driven donors.
Hosted by an experienced nonprofit consultant, Maria Rio, this show delves into the unique challenges of nonprofit fundraising and community-centric fundraising, providing tools for donor engagement and major gifts fundraising.
👤 Who Should Listen?
This podcast is perfect for anyone involved in a small nonprofit seeking practical advice on fundraising strategy, nonprofit leadership, and board accountability. Whether you're looking for innovative fundraising ideas for nonprofit organizations or trying to create an impact measurement framework that demonstrates your organization’s value, Small Nonprofit is here to guide you.
🎤 Core Topics We Cover
Community-Centric Fundraising: Learn how ethical fundraising practices can strengthen donor relationships, enhance donor engagement, and align your organization with values-based major giving principles. We’ll help you shift from a donor-centric model to one that prioritizes the community.
Systemic Change and Governance: From participatory budgeting to nonprofit board of directors best practices, we explore how to navigate the nonprofit industrial complex and embrace structures that foster diversity in nonprofit leadership and board accountability.
Preventing Nonprofit Burnout: Tackle topics such as nonprofit burnout prevention and learn how to cultivate a healthy, anti-oppressive work culture that supports your team’s well-being.
Nonprofit Storytelling: Understand how to measure your nonprofit’s effectiveness through nonprofit impact measurement strategies and leverage nonprofit storytelling to create compelling narratives that attract donors.
📣 Engaging Conversations and Real-World Advice
In each episode, we bring you insights from experts in fundraising consulting, nonprofit grant writing, and capital campaign strategies. From interviews with fractional fundraisers and major gift officers to deep dives on fundraising tips and innovative fundraising ideas, we offer actionable advice that you can implement immediately to strengthen your organization’s impact.
💰 Learn How to Build a Sustainable Nonprofit
Every nonprofit leader faces the challenge of achieving financial sustainability. Our episodes address critical fundraising strategies for nonprofit organizations, providing insights on volunteer management, capacity building, and nonprofit marketing strategy. Gain access to tools that help you execute successful fundraising campaigns and build a foundation for long-term growth.
🤝 Join the Movement for Systemic Change
At The Small Nonprofit, we’re committed to transforming the nonprofit sector from the ground up. Our focus on systemic change and community-centric fundraising aligns with our mission to support nonprofits in creating equitable, sustainable communities. By addressing topics like values-based decision making and nonprofit transparency, we’re working to build a more ethical, inclusive sector.
❤️ Stay Connected
Subscribe to Small Nonprofit on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your preferred podcast platform. Don’t miss an episode as we explore everything from fundraising tips to nonprofit social media strategy, and learn how you can become a stronger advocate for your organization’s mission.
Small Nonprofit: Fundraising Tips, Leadership Strategies, and Community-Centric Solutions
the smart nonprofit with Beth Kanter and Allison Fine
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It's no secret that nonprofit organizations are a bit behind the times when it comes to technology. There are many reasons why nonprofits are slower to adopt new technologies, from a lack of funding and resources to the fact that many of them work on tight budgets, which can make tech seem like an unnecessary expense. Add to that the fact that as humans, we don’t generally like change - adopting new technology at small organizations can feel insurmountable.
In today's episode, I’m talking with Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, authors of the new book “The Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in An Automated World” to share with us how we can integrate smart tech into nonprofit work to work more effectively and improve the impact of our work on the sector.
Myths that Beth and Allison want us to walk away from:
- Smart technology is neutral and infallible. There are two things that can make smart tech biased. One is the assumptions and biases of the computer programmer who made the tool, and the second is the datasets on which the AI is being built, which it uses to learn and create its patterns.
- Cost is the main barrier for nonprofits to using smart technology. The number one barrier for nonprofits is not the resources and cost of the tools but the knowledge about what the tech does and how to use it to free up time for staff to work effectively.
Beth and Allison’s tips on integrating smart tech into nonprofit work
- Readiness: The first step is really pinpointing the pain point from the end user's point of view. We have to go through radical prioritization of what the pain point is and make it tiny especially if you're a smaller organization.
- Setting: Know what are the tools or the technical partners that we should look for. The vendors that you select with smart tech have to have values that are aligned with your organization.
- Mitigation of bias problems: Be aware of the bias of the tools and try to mitigate the problems that it creates. One way you mitigate is to ask the developers what assumptions were built into it, how it was tested and then you can test it yourself.
- Go: This is where we start to implement. We implement it in really small pilots and set it up, learn as we go, and make it better.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
“It's really focusing on this reset, focusing on making the shift to smart tech so you can improve the culture of your organization. And both of them take this intentional work. And our dream is that organizations will embrace this because what we see if they do it again, this time to think time, to
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Visit https://www.gofurthertogether.ca/ to learn more.
- Connect with the show: Watch the episode on YouTube; follow Maria Rio on LinkedIn for more conversations and resources. Or support our show. We are fully self-funded!
- Book a Discovery Call with Further Together: Need help with your fundraising? See if our values-aligned fundraisers are a fit for your organization.