The Difference: Nonprofit Fundraising in a For-Profit World

In this episode of 'The Difference', join host Jay Werth, and guest, Tom Ralser, Convergent Nonprofit Solutions' Principal and Director of Asking Rights. Tom Ralser has a three-decade career in fundraising. He’s consulted with and added value to numerous nonprofit organizations, and pioneered applying return on investment principles to nonprofit fundraising. In this episode, Tom will give an overview of "asking rights" and how it focuses on the value outcomes that nonprofit organizations deliver to donors or investors, a term Convergent stresses in its communications. For more information to assist you with your fundraising efforts, visit convergentnonprofit.com.

Tune in to hear Jay Werth's latest conversation on 'The Difference' podcast with Convergent's Project Director, Andy Brubaker. Brubaker just finished an incredible two-week volunteer deployment with the American Red Cross in Georgia, where he supported disaster response and relief efforts. He describes what it was like to help Georgia’s communities affected by Hurricane Helene and witness the resilience and strength of those impacted.

Mike Goorhouse, Founder of Inspiring Impact, explains how planned giving can be transformational for nonprofits. Speaker Bio Mike Goorhouse is Founder and Lead Consultant at Inspiring Impact, LLC, a firm dedicated to helping nonprofit and philanthropic organizations effectively inspire change in their community. He has spent his entire career in philanthropy including working with Family Foundations, Community Foundations and Youth Grantmakers while at the Council of Michigan Foundations and serving as President/CEO for the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area (CFHZ) for 10 years. Mike’s most notable accomplishments during his time at CFHZ include successfully completing a $35 million unrestricted endowment campaign which included 100 new estate gift commitments and launching a multi-sector collaborative effort to significantly improve the affordability of local housing options. During his leadership, CFHZ tripled its assets from $40 million to $120 million, grew annual gifts from $5 million to $20 million and expanded its community impact strategies to include significant investments in strengthening the local nonprofit sector, impact investing and an equity focused grantmaking strategy. Over the years Mike has been recognized for his commitment to philanthropy and the community. In 2011 he was named one of the top 30 Civic Leaders under the age of 30 in the nation by the National Conference on Citizenship. In 2017 he was named Young Executive of the Year as part of the MiBiz Best Managed Nonprofit Awards. Finally, he has been recognized as one of the Grand Rapids Business Journal's Forty Under 40 Business Leaders six times and three times has been named one of GRBJ’s top 200 most influential business leaders in West Michigan. Mike has served on numerous local, state, national and international nonprofit boards including: Association for a More Just Society, Bread for the World, Housing Next, Movement West Michigan, Grand Valley University Foundation and Kids Food Basket. Mike has a degree in Secondary Education from Calvin University and a Masters’ degree in Public and Nonprofit Administration from Grand Valley State University.

In this episode of 'The Difference', Convergent's Jay Werth is joined by Gabe Cooper, Founder and CEO of Virtuous, a Responsive Nonprofit CRM & Marketing Platform. Cooper and Ralser discuss the importance of listening and connecting to your donors, and how fundraising automation technology can give your organization valuable insight. Guest Bio Gabe Cooper is the Founder and CEO of Virtuous, a Responsive Nonprofit CRM & Marketing Platform helping nonprofits build lasting relationships with their donors. He is also the author of the top-selling books Responsive Fundraising and The Responsive Nonprofit: 8 Key Practices for Scaling Impact. After serving in a leadership role at a large nonprofit, Gabe went on to help build a series of successful software products in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. His team's products have been featured in Wired, USA Today, NY Times, and Apple's WWDC. His drive stems from a passion to create market-defining software and help charities reimagine generosity.

In this episode of The Difference podcast, Dan Rogers, Senior Project Director and Consultant at Convergent joins us for a discussion on redefining homelessness as a humanitarian crisis. Discover why this shift in terminology is significant and gain insights into the challenges nonprofits face in the social services sector when it comes to fundraising. Learn from Dan's experiences coaching nonprofits and how his insider perspective informs effective fundraising strategies. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that explores the intersection of social issues and fundraising.

Join us on this episode of "The Difference" as we engage in a captivating conversation with Michael Papa, consultant at Convergent and Head of School Emeritus at Bayside Academy. With an impressive tenure of over four decades as an academic leader, Michael Papa possesses a profound expertise in formulating effective funding strategies for independent schools. In this enlightening podcast, we will delve into crucial subjects such as the fundamental pillars of strategic planning, maintaining a steadfast trajectory towards achieving objectives, and optimal approaches to fundraising. Discover the significant role that seemingly humble school bake sales play in bolstering the financial resources of independent schools.

Join Convergent Nonprofit Solutions for a discussion with Horton Hobbs IV, Vice President of Economic Development for the Greater Springfield Partnership. As a highly successful economic development leader, Horton has helped to guide Springfield, Ohio through a dramatic revitalization. Thousands of jobs have been created and that’s created an increased need for workforce development and attraction. As an organization, the Greater Springfield Partnership decided to begin by engaging youth in middle and high school. Listen to their strategies, best practices, and how the plan is working. Horton also discusses, at a high level, how economic development has changed and how The Greater Springfield Partnership has tackled issues like child care and housing.

Join Convergent Nonprofit Solutions for a discussion with David Thornell, author and expert in economic development, as we discuss his newly released book Small Town Solutions. In this podcast we discuss strategies from Thornell’s new book like how to network your small town, along with his thoughts on new challenges small communities are facing and how to overcome them. Also find out why David Thornell himself prefers to live in small towns.

Join us in a discussion with John Hull, Executive Director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, as we discuss workforce attraction. Is your community struggling to find its brand for workforce attraction? Then this is the podcast for you. In this conversation with Convergent Principal Jay Werth, he explains the importance of finding your community's brand and how that helps to bring in businesses and workers. John Hull also talks about the importance of attracting workforce through the “boomerang effect”. John Hull talks about his own experience and programs that Roanoke offers to help with talent attraction.

Is your communication strategy leading to significant donations for your organization? If not, Tom Ahern, a noted nonprofit copywriting genius, may have the solution you’re looking for. In this conversation with Convergent Principal Jay Werth, Tom explains how to shift your copywriting to deepen donor relationships, turn donors into investors, and how to avoid the “7 deadly sins of writing the appeal or case statement.” He also elaborates on the power of storytelling and how nonprofits can use stories to create connections and engage an investor audience. If you have anything short of a 100% success rate with your donor communications, this podcast is for you!

Quality of life initiatives are essential in defining a community's sense of place and attracting and retaining residents. They are also crucial for attracting business investment - a key goal for any economic development organization. Convergent recently partnered with economic development marketing agency Golden Shovel on a whitepaper titled Strengthening Your Community's Competitive Potential By Improving Quality of Life. This episode dives further into this topic with Convergent Principal Andy Coe and Golden Shovel CEO Aaron Brossoit. We discuss successful examples of quality-of-life improvements, their importance, measuring their impact, and proving their ROI to investors.

Two former nonprofit and chamber of commerce leaders who are currently in the field fundraising for major organizations join Jay to discuss the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that so many are feeling today and how it is (or is not) affecting their funding efforts. Dan Rogers and Doug Croft provided excellent insights in this episode on what investors and stakeholders want to know about a nonprofit in order to fund its future. We talk "worry fatigue" and close with a great analogy on how a nonprofit can weather this economic storm.

From steel to a gallon of paint or even the tires for your car, supply chain disruption is being felt all over the country. We welcomed Chris Gullickson, Director of Development and Transportation Policy for the Port of Virginia, and Dennis Fraise, CEO of Lee County Economic Development Group and host of the popular DevelopThis! podcast, to discuss this issue in this episode. Chris and Dennis offer their viewpoints on how communities and businesses are dealing with the friction points in the supply chain. How did we get here? What went wrong and what will help bring about change?

We are joined in this episode by Tina Winner, CEO and Founder of Winner Partners, an executive search and recruitment firm in the economic development, chamber, and nonprofit space. Tina and Jay discuss the importance of being a "super collaborator" and activating relationships as a leader in your community. Tina also shares her experience with the changing face of public-private funding and how that is affecting leadership today. And, of course, we had to dig in to Tina's favorite recruiting questions and how she would answer them!

Tim Kachuriak joins us in this episode for an interesting discussion on Why People Give. Tim is the Founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for NextAfter, a fundraising research lab consultancy and nonprofit training institute. He has spent his entire professional career digging into this question. Hint: he thinks it's an irrational decision that doesn't make sense. Tim is adamant in his belief that human connections are at the core of philanthropic donations, and there is ONE thing that leads to more donors and higher levels of investment.

Antony Bell started his consulting firm, Leadership Development, Inc. after noticing that there were more than 64,000 books on leadership and yet still so many of the CEOs and leaders he was working with were struggling. He has consulted for Nike, Bank of America, the Girl Scouts, March of Dimes, the US Treasury, and more. In this episode, he tells us about his leadership framework that applies systems thinking to help drive success at any level, in any environment. It starts with two buckets that encompass everything about being a good leader: Competence and Character. Listen to Tony tell us more!

Bethany Quinn, VP of Content and Strategy from Golden Shovel Agency, joins us to unpack the topic that is on everyone's mind these days: workforce shortages. Golden Shovel has helped hundreds of EDOs and Chambers shape and tell their stories through services including branding, marketing, strategy, web development, and online communications. Workforce shortages are a primary concern for their clients today. Bethany talks about some new solutions she's seeing in tackling this issue from mobile learning labs and virtual reality to using local ambassadors to spread the word about your community.

Tom Berquist, CMO of one of the largest financial institutions in the Northwest, joined our podcast for an interesting conversation from a funder's point of view. Tom discusses how he developed Boeing Employee Credit Union's philanthropic strategy over the last 20 years—and especially in the last 18 months—aligning their giving with their area of expertise and interest in impacting social justice. Who Tom meets with, who they decide to fund, how much support (and what kind) is offered. All of this is predicated on the goals of the economic development, education, or general nonprofit organization aligning with the intersection of financial wellbeing and equity. Tom walks us through the evolution of this strategy, how collaboration factors in, and how it has shaped their support for today and the future.

An expert in community growth, author, and respected chamber leader, Casey Steinbacher was a guest on this episode of our podcast. Casey's book, From Relevant to Essential, talks about how chambers, EDOs, and nonprofits can ensure the critical status they achieved during COVID and work to combine their mission and model for success. Casey shared a few of her mantras on the symbiotic relationship of businesses and communities plus her thoughts on what's on every community leader's mind today—workforce development, livable wages, affordable housing, and more. She offers current examples, interesting trends she's noticed, and thoughtful insights on these topics and more in this episode.

Bonnie Lowe, CEO of The Chamber of Lawrence, Kansas, joins us in this episode to talk about Rising Together, their five-year, $2.5 million economic development plan with the EDC of Lawrence. The feasibility study paving the way for stakeholder input, leadership from Bonnie and key community partners, campaign management expertise from Convergent--all of these ingredients led to an extremely successful capital campaign with strong commitments from investors. Bonnie discusses timing, solicitations, partnerships, and ensuring her Chamber's transformational role in the future growth of her community.