Meet (Becky) Straw. This tenacious social entrepreneur is the co-founder and CEO of The Adventure Project, a nonprofit movement “adding venture” capital to empower entrepreneurs in developing countries. This Diane von Furstenberg People’s Voice Award for female founders and recent recipient of a $1M bitcoin donation is chatting with us about creating movements that marry good intentions with measurable impact.

Meet Chris. This Fortune 500 CFO left his job to chase purpose, and he's never looked back. He's leading one of Southern California's largest nonprofits serving foster youth. Join us and the CEO of the Orangewood Foundation to talk about the plight of foster youth in our country and which for-profit skills are helping his nonprofit thrive like a business. Tune in🎧🦋

Meet Tina and Mark. These two Stanford classmates helped build Snap and Pinterest, then left the for-profit tech world behind to launch a groundbreaking social giving platform, Every.org - it's a nonprofit making giving accessible for all nonprofits 🎉

Meet Amy. She's the rockstar executive director of Shoes That Fit providing new athletic shoes to underprivileged children nationwide. You may think why shoes? But when a family has to choose between rent, utilities, food AND shoes, shoes often come last especially recently as families struggle during COVID-19. Their mission is to tackle this variable, as one of the most visible signs of poverty in America, by giving children-in-need new sneakers to attend school with dignity and joy, prepared to learn, play, and thrive.

Meet Jake. Every wondered what possesses someone to run 50 miles? For Jake - it's about passion. After learning about the plight of women and children who are trafficked around the world, he redirected his career in persuasive sales firmly toward helping the nonprofit sector. Join this convo with someone who's knocked on nearly 100,000 doors and is leveraging those corporate sales methods for good.

Meet Manuela. We met this L.A. founder in our Community and in PRO, and we positively fell in love with the simple beauty in her nonprofit's mission. After rolling up her sleeves to work on the frontlines of orgs she believed in, she moved from a homeless foundation to running Prince's foundation (yes, you read that right. "That" Prince💜☔️) before starting her own foundation, "In A Perfect World" empowering young people around the world to take action and be kind. She's talking about how to co-create natural empathy in Generation Alpha and how she's seen education be the great equailizer of human vibrancy. Her life 's story is fascinating, heroic, empathetic and reveals one of those amazing founders stories where top brass is first in line and deepest in the trenches - for good. Inspiring! 💡

Meet John. He's tired of seeing donor advised funds sitting around unspent. He's democratized the DAF world, and he wants you and your kids to be an active part of the giving community. You see, once he recognized a need to make giving more accessible and more effective, he launched Charitable Impact which nurtures generosity within each person and bring resources for creating change in the world to everyone. In short, it's a super cool giving platform that makes even a $5 feel like a serious investment in philanthropy. Together, we're talking basics (what the heck is a donor advised fund?) but also talking about how to make our personal philanthropy intentional rather than reactive.

Meet Sally. She began her career on the advancement team at her alma mater, Washington State University, before running one of the country's largest and most respected development recruitment firms today. Her true passion is great leadership, which drives her to get the right leader in the right seat to inspire successful teams. She's talking us through how to recruit top talent and what the Great Resignation means for those entering and leaving the nonprofit sector.🎧

Meet Rebecca. She's bringing her expertise in building donor experience events to the table for a conversation around virtual and hybrid fundraisers. Her advice: it's all about empowering modern fundraisers. She's breaking down the 4️⃣ different types of events, when to diversify the event and when to allow it to stand firmly on its own. Virtual? Hybrid? In-person events of the future? We're breaking it down here💃🕺(you saw what we did there, right?!)

Meet Eric. As a pediatric cancer survivor, he's all too familiar with the battle a family faces when their child is diagnosed. And that’s what drove him to start the Roc Solid Foundation building hope for kids fighting cancer by offering opportunities for them to do what they do best – PLAY. Tune in to hear their story, and hear about Eric's goal to inspire people to start businesses based on significance and success. It's an inspiring story of resilience and self-discovery.

Meet Amy. She turned a holiday trip into a fundraising challenge, and $17,000 later, everything changed. Today, the Village Impact is unleashing the power of education to transform communities in Kenya, and Amy's dreams are still growing. Her wanderlust for travel and embracing new cultures found its way into her business, and today she's empowering others to find their purpose. She's outlining seven steps to shed self-doubt and chase the thing that pairs your passion with purpose. If you're struggling through your Why right now, this episode is sure to put some fuel in your tank to do good.

Meet Cindy. She's had a heartfelt goal to unlock the potential of small nonprofits through fundraising. Having spent her entire career in fundraising, Cindy knows how to make it accessible to small nonprofits in a way that is mission-enhancing and empowering. Join us as we break down how to set up small shops for success. There are incredible lessons here for orgs of all sizes, and Cindy's even giving tips on using volunteers to make your life easier. We found a growth mindset friend in Canada, and we are here for all she's teaching🙌

Meet Katelynn. When you've helped to build one of the most iconic, viral campaigns-turned-nonprofit like Movember, you know a thing or two about building digital community. We're talking mobilizing volunteers and crowdfunding campaigns as well as creating innovative marketing strategies to meet millennials / GenZers. Tune in to learn how to be an agent of remarkable experiences from the world's first digital-only nonprofit.

Let's be real for a hot moment. Working with foundations is intimidating. Writing a grant is intimidating. And when you're not entirely sure of the process, it all seems like an incredible mountain to climb. Don't worry! We're walking through all the questions our junior-selves wanted to know about foundation relations when we were younger: the step-by-step process of a grant cycle, testing your grant readiness, and that ever-present We Are For Good arc to the conversation challenging you to be human, wholly engaging and building partnerships rather than just relationships. Join us as we chat Back to Basics: Foundations & Grants and change everything you thought you knew about this process.

Meet Mitch. He left his Wall Street job to pour into something deeply meaningful in the nonprofit world, and thus became the launching pad of Pond, an incredible space pairing nonprofits with the right digital products. Everyone who’s ever hated researching tech solutions 😵‍💫- this episode is for you! Mitch is also a beacon of light addressing gay bias in the nonprofit industry, and sharing his story as a gay man and passionate do gooder in the sector. 🎧Listen in now for tech + heart in this convo celebrating inclusive communities.

Meet Sybil. She's a nonprofit purist on a mission: to help you do the most good when it comes to your personal philanthropy. It starts with building a personal giving strategy, aligning values and narrowing your giving goals. We're chatting about how to channel passion, creating focus and giving away money with humility. We believe everyone - especially nonprofit professionals - is an important philanthropist. Start here, and let's allow our collective giving to improve our world.

Well, we had to bribe Becky with chips and queso to have this conversation, but even she agrees that regardless of how you feel, events are about as basic to fundraising as it gets. Join us as Jon + Becky walk us through Back to Basics: Fundraising Events. We're talking all things event fundraising, staging, volunteers, messaging, production, follow-up, and we're even advocating for diversifying your event offerings (Welcome to the party, hybrid-events! Please grab a chair and stick around awhile. A chiavari chair, of course🧐)

Meet Taneshia. She's a social change agent and community developer who centers cultural equity in her work. As the President and CEO of Newark Symphony Hall, a historic performing arts center, she's using arts and culture as an economic development tool for the resurgence of Newark, N.J. She's also talking about how employing an entrepreneurial mindset for social change has created jobs, community engagement, and - of course - fueled donations for her nonprofit. We are cheering her ingenuity and creativity as a disruptive leader in our sector!

Meet Jeremy. This author and digital marketing expert believes now more than ever, digital fundraising is both essential and critical for advancing missions. He's walking us through some key steps for launching a digital fundraising program in 21 days. Then he's throwing some icing on that cake by sharing how to refresh a Giving Tuesday or other digital fundraising campaign this year. If you're looking for a quick online solicitation campaign blueprint - this episode is for you.

Back-to-Basics continues this week with the topic with diving into the ultimate realization of playing the long game: Planned Giving. Planned giving is the convergence of some of our favorite topics - value alignment, having meaningful conversations and telling incredible stories of quite possibly our most rabid fans. We discuss a starting point, Pro Tips and even provide a glossary of terms for those words you've never been brave enough to ask about in a staff meeting. If we can do it, so can you.