Next in Nonprofits

(This is an encore episode from last year - please enjoy!)

Allison Wagstrom is the Senior Loan Officer for Propel Nonprofits, whose mission “fuels the impact and effectiveness of nonprofits with guidance, expertise, and capital.”

Allison joins host Steve Boland to talk about the risks nonprofits face, and steps and tools they can use to manage that risk. Allison encourages charities to think in terms of revenue mix, program costs, infrastructure, and capital. She and Steve talk about examples in such areas of the emotional labor of program costs (because that is really people in most cases), the new risks where government funding is no longer as secure as it used to be, and how a cashflow projection may not ameliorate all fears but provides a way to examine fears on paper. Allison discusses the role of the board in these times, and both of them caution that now is still a year to consider building cash reserves, because the future may have even more risk on the horizon. Sunsetting, mergers, and acquisitions may be on the table in order to preserve mission impact. Propel Nonprofits manages a Resource Library for charities to use in learning about their own options.

Listen now by clicking the player above, download the file for later here, or subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page.

Laura Hinrichsen is the Senior Vice President of Integrated Media Solutions at AGP, a full-service agency that works exclusively with nonprofits. Its services include direct mail, web, email, and the paid media work that Laura’s team leads, both online and offline.

Laura joins Steve for a primer on paid advertising for small and mid-sized organizations that may assume it’s only for the big nonprofits. She explains why “we tried Facebook and it didn’t work” usually means an organic post rather than paid social. She also makes the case for keeping fundraising asks off your organic page, since low engagement can shrink who sees your posts. Boosted posts and small paid campaigns are an accessible entry point.

The conversation covers how Google Ad Grants and paid search work together. Grant accounts can now run Performance Max campaigns, and Laura discusses how AI search and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are changing the picture. Laura also explains why your website and landing pages need to be ready before you spend. The conversation also includes programmatic advertising, which buys audiences and behavior rather than specific websites. They also look at audio, video, and streaming placements, low-production authentic video, and affordable influencer endorsements through Cameo for Business. Laura emphasizes the advantage nonprofits already have: first-party data. Your donor profiles, website visitors, and social followers can feed targeted campaigns and lookalike audiences.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Godni Amir is the Founder and Executive Director of A Free Bird, whose mission is "to empower children affected by cancer to discover their inner artist."

Godni joins host Steve Boland to talk about building and sustaining a nonprofit powered almost entirely by volunteers. After being inspired by his voice teacher's experience with cancer, Godni launched A Free Bird 18 years ago with a single Craigslist post and a free first event at Bloomingdale's, and has since been honored six times by NYC Service for volunteer engagement. He shares how the organization now coordinates 20 to 60 volunteers and interns from around the world across eight departments, using tools like Slack, Salesforce, and Google Workspace (plus a custom community dashboard in progress) to protect volunteers' time so they can focus on relationships. Godni talks about recruiting for passion first, pairing newer volunteers with experienced ones, and holding to clear policies and procedures while treating volunteers like family. He stresses the ideas of offering job references, learning opportunities, and appreciation events long after their service ends.

Listen now by clicking the player above or subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Robert J. Bolton Jr. is the President and Executive Director of The Interchurch Center (TIC), whose mission is " to foster interreligious engagement and promote social good, The Interchurch Center remains rooted in traditions of hospitality, community care, and meaningful exchange."

Pastor Belton joins host Steve Boland to talk about the mission of shared-space organizations using The Interchurch Center as an example in the New York City community. Robert shares examples of how providing space for nonprofits (in this case below-market rents) can impact multiple missions. Organizations like Metro World Child is a story of a mission leasing more space for less financial costs. The nature of space-use after the COVID pandemic has changed, and The Interchurch Center has operating largely on earned revenue, but is considering fundraising to expand the mission. They serve nonprofits of all kinds - not necessarily faith-based groups - which come together under the one roof.

Listen now, download the file for later here, or subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Chloe Akers is the Founder and CEO of the Best of Tennessee, "is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering a more representative government because Tennesseans deserve leaders who reflect the priorities and values of the communities they serve."

Chloe joins host Steve Boland to talk about the work of nonprofits to encourage participation in primary elections as a means to impacting government support of nonprofit missions. Chloe shared the history of the Best of Tennessee making the decision to build participation at the primary level because in a post-gerrymander world where districts are now intentionally structured to exclude competitive general elections. Chloe shows how increased participation in primary elections is a more impactful option for charities seeking to engage government partners in their issues.

The Best of Tennessee ran several advertising campaigns (display ads, streaming video, social media) to help potential voters understand the importance of primary campaigns especially compared to the non-competitive gerrymandered general election. The range of messages is part of the strategy. While the Best of Tennessee is a 501 (c) 4 nonprofit, 501 (c) 3 nonprofits are absolutely allowed to encourage people to vote in primary elections, just be aware of prohibitions of advocating for specific candidates or parties.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Michael Thatcheris the President and CEO of Charity Navigator which “helps millions of people take action and support the causes they care about by connecting them to the best charities that align with their passions and values.”

Charity Navigator has made new changes to the Encompass system to help people understand charities. Encompass has dozens of metrics that fall into four beacons: impact & measurement, accountability & finances, culture & compensation, and leadership & planning. The True Impact partnership is looking to effectiveness assessments, and Charity Navigator is working on how data sharing can be allowed across other platforms with permission.

Hear our podcast about generative engine optimization here. We have more about logic models and evaluation in this podcast. Listeners can also hear the previous episode with Charity Navigator’s Noelani Pearl Hernandez and Carly Bad Heart Bull, the Executive Director of Native Ways Federation,

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Dr. Lindsay Whorton is the President of The Holdsworth Center, whose "mission is to impact, over time, the quality of PreK-12 public education for all Texas students by supporting and developing educational leaders."

Dr. Whorton discusses her work building long-term talent and support in the education world across many school districts in Texas. This involves patience and a process of dealing with creating change over time in larger-scale systems. She talks about the importance of understanding the output and work of the day, Government stakeholders have a different response Different funders have different time horizons. Some challenges also arrives when focus creeps too broadly to keep a mission moving over time.

Host Steve Boland asks Dr. Whorton about systems change issues that are both about program and policy changes which may be needed over the longer term, and she talked about challenging the notion that there is a zero-sum choice in these arenas. The question is about bringing your supporters forward without accepting the idea that others must need to be shut down in order to move forward.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Maria Bryan is the Partnership Marketing Manager at Donorbox, which offers "Robust online and on-location fundraising with meaningful donor relationship management, so your mission thrives."

Maria joins host Steve Boland to talk about her work with trauma-informed storytelling. She begins with the idea to first, protect and support people we work with in telling stories. The lines can get fuzzy with the big video at the donor gala, and it is important to practice a "Hippocratic oath" of ensuring we do no further harm when talking about trauma. We can share impact stories without harming either the people who's story your telling or the person who may be listening for the first time.

Maria cautions us to slow down and take time to tell those stories. Consent forms (with expiration dates!) are good and important, but conversations about the impact of sharing is important. Trauma responses can include fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. A slow consent process includes asking what is the goal of the person telling their story. Each person has their own agency (listen for the conversation about agency versus "empowered""). Trauma comes in many different forms, including vicarious trauma. Simple content warnings, and scaling content warnings are helpful ways to move forward.

Maria is the host of the When Bearing Witness podcast, where listeners can hear more about her work. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Allison Wyatt is the Founder and CEO of Edgility Talent Partners, which "helps mission driven organizations bring practice and structure in alignment with values. Through our compensation and talent management consulting services we partner with clients to achieve great outcomes."

Allison joins host Steve Boland to talk about succession planning for nonprofit organizations, and all the steps that precede that work. Alison talks about the challenge of organizational founders and the first leadership transition, using deputies as a transition step to the permanent transition and much more. Allison discusses building capacity in the board of directors to fill things the lead staff can't do when it turns out there is no unicorn person out there who has all the qualities in a single person.

Allison has several recommendations, including examining the current leader taking a sabbatical to stress test a period for the organization. She uses a metaphor about tissue rejection in a transplant metaphor, and how that can reverberate past a first hire, as well as new models like co-leadership.

Steven Shattuck is the Director of Engagement and Technology at Capital Campaign Pro, a consultancy that specializes in supporting nonprofits in capital campaigns. Steven has been part of a new report, 2026 State of Capital Campaigns.

Steven joins host Steve Boland to talk about the finds in this report, including the role of a volunteer campaign chairs perhaps being less important, the fact that most campaigns are successful and don't harm annual fund giving, that capital funds can be raised for physical assets or program growth or stability and so much more. Steven shares about the staffing the work of the campaign and the role of lead staff in raising dollars, the importance of lead gifts and where those gifts may come from, and additional findings. Click the link above to get the full report and read still more!

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Kendra Garagan is the Founder and CEO of https://givly.ai, "a specialized agentic AI system built for the nonprofit sector. Givly helps small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations automate funding workflows, manage grant processes, and coordinate their teams — without the clunky, disconnected software tools that most nonprofits have cobbled together over the years."

Kendra joins host Steve Boland to discuss the difference between an AI tool and an AI agent, how Givly's central "Brain" component maintains an organization's institutional context across its entire technology stack, and why generic AI models like ChatGPT often fall short for nonprofits doing complex work like grant writing. Kendra also explains how Givly's partnership and research agents help organizations identify in-kind opportunities, map their networks, and stay on top of policy changes — all without replacing the human staff who carry that knowledge today.

Givly.ai is transitioning out of beta and opening for public access in mid-June 2026. Interested nonprofits can sign up for priority access at https://givly.ai and will be guided through a short onboarding process to get their organization's account initialized.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Ben Gose is Senior Editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, "an independent organization that provides nonprofits and foundations with trustworthy information, actionable insights, analysis, and training, all with the goal of helping sector professionals advance their critical missions."

Ben reported "Lessons from the Flipcause Collapse" describing the failing and eventual bankruptcy of Flipcause, a donation and website solution that advertised to nonprofit organizations as a low-cost solution to needs. The article details the impact on nonprofits as well as helpful tips to investigate nonprofit tools to ensure your organization is getting reliable, as-described services. Ben talks about the impact of this collapse on some specific organizations and the ongoing bankruptcy struggle for nonprofits seeking access to their own funds.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Fredrick Riley is the Executive Director of Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute. Weave "tackles the problem of broken social trust that has left Americans divided, lonely, and in social gridlock. Weave connects, supports, and invests in local leaders stepping up to weave a new, inclusive social fabric where they live. "

Fredrick talks about the nature of an ongoing crisis is relationships, and an overall erosion of trust. These are concerns the Aspen Institute has seen for some time, and has started a concerted effort to encourage people to use tools to build more trust and connection across social "threads" weaving together. One of the tools available from Weave includes https://trustmap.org, which allows users to see strengths for their social fabric, but also opportunities for improvement.

Fredrick goes on to share some examples from his own history as well as the work of Weave in encouraging nonprofits to connect people in community across mission and goals. Fred urges individuals to find opportunities to connect to people in their community, as well as urging nonprofits to provide volunteer opportunities not only for their own work but to provide connection for new people. Weave encourages charities to think about connected services as a model to strengthen the social fabric.

Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Steven Aguiar is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ad Grants Pilot, which is "Ad Grants on easy mode.
Turn Google's $10,000/month in free ads into real donors and impact — without hiring an agency." Steven is also the Founder of BlueWing Digital, a media company with a focus on community missions.

Google for Nonprofits offers a free grant for Google search ads up to $10,000 of total value for a month. Approximately 300,000 nonprofits have a Google for Nonprofits account, but nearly 10 million could be using it. A recent M+R benchmark reported the average nonprofit may be getting $1300-1400 in value against the $10,000 offered.

Ad Grants Pilot is designed to help nonprofit organizations actually leverage the grant using AI tools to help manage the process. Steven talks about the Ads Grants process requiring things like conversion tracking, the need to use keywords correctly, quality scores on ads and website for conversion goals. Steven further describes how the tool helps avoid common problems that have occurred in the past and prevented many nonprofits from using the grants. He also describes how maximizing search ads can improve GEO, Generative Engine Optimization (AI summaries inserted into search) as well.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Carly Berna is the Fundraiser in Residence at Virtuous, a "modern fundraising platform that creates inspiring moments for donors and grows giving."

The State of AI Adoption Report is a free download that details the findings from a study of hundreds of nonprofits regarding their use of Artificial Intelligence tools. The big finding: "92% of nonprofits have adopted AI. Only 7% say it’s actually expanded what their team can accomplish. The rest are stuck on the efficiency plateau: faster drafts, quicker emails, same results." There are some commonalities of organizations which are seeing meaningful impact that are detailed in the report.

Carly urges some basics of these success metrics. Elements such as creating and documenting policies, having a cross-functional AI team, and more. The report expresses some urgency to get on board as the tools are changing and becoming more capable. Carly and Steve talk about when and how to use data, such as taking great care to not put identifiable donor data into public versions of LLM (Large Language Model) tools.

Dr. Beth DaPonte is the author of the new edition of Essential Evaluations and a consulting serving nonprofit organizations from Social Science Consultants. Dr. DaPonte has served with the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the United Nations and been a Lecturer, Yale School of Management amongst many other roles.

Beth joins host Steve Boland to talk about the new edition of her Evaluations Essentials book, and why and how nonprofit organizations can develop and use program evaluation in their work. She discusses the basics of a theory of change, logic models, and more. The book covers ideas including early literature reviews, the use of a program evaluation reference group to provide a broad array of stakeholders to prioritize questions and access in evaluation. Beth talks about how unexpected challenges over time in evaluation (COVID shut downs for example) can become part of the evaluation story. (Also, thanks to XKCD for the causation v. correlation cartoon!).

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Janie Heitz is the Executive Director, and John Kelsch is founder and Curator, of the Judy Garland Museum. The Museum is home to an eclectic Judy Garland and Wizard of Oz collection and is housed in the 1920’s restored birthplace home of Judy Garland in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. #Podcasthon is an annual event asking podcasts to highlight the work of a single charity

John and Janie tell the story of the founding of the museum, the evolution of the work over the decades since it's founding over fifty years ago, and much more. One of the more unusual stories of the Museum involves the theft of the Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz, which were in the Museum at that time for display. The slippers were eventually recovered, and documentaries about that part of the story have been made since that time.

The Museum is a part of the Grand Rapids community, but also a larger fan community across the world. Learn more at their website about how to visit the museum and learn more. Donations are welcome!

Listen now by clicking the player above, download the file for later here, or subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page.

Alan Harrison is the author of the Scene Change book series, and has worked for 30 years in the nonprofits arts sector.

Alan begins his book series with the first Scene Change book emphasizing the importance of community impact in their missions. The next book speaks to the role of boards of directors in this mission work, and now there is Scene Change 3, with stories of nonprofit arts organizations which can show their impact in community.

Alan says art is essential for human beings, and artists are magical in their creation. He goes on to emphasize the need for metrics of success for nonprofits that goes beyond just the production of art and public participation through things like ticket sales. Scene Change 3 contains examples to help charities focus on their changes in community.

Subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page.

Brittan Stockert is a fundraising coach with DonorBox, a donor management platform with a mission "to do everything in our power to support nonprofit organizations in their efforts to make a difference." Brittan's role is to help "nonprofits and social-impact organizations build sustainable fundraising strategies by strengthening donor relationships, improving CRM systems, and simplifying day-to-day fundraising."

Brittan joins the podcast to talk about the evolution of thinking in mutual aid - direct giving from donor to recipient without a formal charity in the loop. Brittan talks about the history of mutual aid, and the changes in how mutual aid is moving forward since the pandemic, uprisings, and resistance movements in 2026 and beyond. Britt talks about trust as a key factor in both mutual aid giving and giving to support formal charities.

Mutual aid support in the present moment relies on community-based trust, but also relies on traditional nonprofits to eschew "main character energy" and center the immediate needs with trust in community. Younger or new donors may be quicker to let go of control or power, and institutional charities may do well to follow suite and let go of some power in these situations. NEXT in Nonprofits has a blog post on mutual aid in 2026. People interested in connecting with Britt on coaching can view her contact page here.

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page.

Carlo Cuesta is a co-founder of Creation in Common, "Growing Social Impact with Nonprofits, Foundations, and Government since 2002." Strategic planning is one of the core services offered by Creation in Common.

Host Steve Boland asked Carlo to join to discuss the state of strategic planning in 2026, when the level of chaos feels so overwhelming. Carlo reinforced the idea that strategic plans are for tools to help make better decisions today, and looking back at the last 90 days can be a key tool - especially in times for volatility - can help. Carlo notes a thought from Bill Gates "Most people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years" and how it can apply to thinking longer term in planning if that is what is called for in the day.

Carlo goes on to suggest we need to put plans into a resource context - how will this work be resourced? Another favorite quote from this conversation is "All models are wrong, but some are useful." "what happens when assumptions that were long-term reliable end up being unreliable?" Listen to the full episode to learn to expect "more is not a strategy" t-shirts sometime soon!

Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page.