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
decolonization in fundraising with Martha Awojobi
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The nonprofit sector has a problem with racism and white supremacy. Well, not just the nonprofit sector - a lot of sectors and really, society in general. But hey - this is a podcast for the nonprofit sector, so we’re going to be focusing on that in today’s episode with Martha Awojobi, the curator of #BAMEOnline Conference, a series of online events that centers fundraisers of colour, showcases new talent, and gets to the heart of how we can dismantle structural racism in fundraising and in the wider charity sector. Martha is a consultant for non-profits specialising in event curation, recruitment and income generation with an anti-racist lens.
The truth is that philanthropy has a long history of excluding people of color from their missions and communities—and it's not just about money. It's also about how we think about making change.
Myths that Martha wants us to walk away from:
- Wealth is a product of individual hard work. The wealth in our sector didn’t come out of “hard work”. There was a history of wealth accumulation based on the theft of knowledge and on slavery that has built the riches that we see in philanthropy.
- White supremacy doesn’t exist in our sector. As a sector dedicated to “good work”, it’s hard to see that racism is also perpetuated. This is made worse by the fact that many people just put their head in the sand and don’t engage or want to talk about their privileges and how these systemic issues affect people of colour. We have to acknowledge that it exists and reflect on how we participate to create change.
Five Stages of Decolonization
- Rediscovery and recovery. Acknowledging racism, colonial practices and harm is hard work. This is all about learning and unlearning and discovering the ugly truth of colonization. We are all products of a white supremacist society and the first step is to recognize it in yourself and really dedicate yourself to learning.
- Mourning. This is the social process that we are supposed to do together. It involves grief, anger, and sadness. It's not just for people of color, white people have to dehumanize themselves in order to participate in the system of racism. Learning to let go in sadness and anger is part of the process.
- Dreaming. This is about decolonizing the mind to bring in new ideas instead of using the same ideas that have been introduced by colonizers. This is perhaps the hardest stage, but also exciting.
- Commitment. Establishing the intention to manifest your anti-racist vision.
- Action. Select the steps that you want to take and do what you have to do.
Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
Post your favourite quote on social media to share with us!
“The lack of lea
The Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) Family Reunion is back! Register here to lock in your spot before they sell out.
- 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.