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.

Raise your hand if you're still trying to figure out how the heck cryptocurrency and philanthropy intersect? 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ We've got you! Meet Pat. He merged his nonprofit experience and passion for Bitcoin trading to create The Giving Block, a company helping nonprofits transact cryptocurrency donations. He's giving the simplest explanation into the ins and outs of cryptocurrency, blockchain and the underlying technology needed to accept this new form of currency. Tune in to hear which orgs are doing it well.

Meet Carol. She's one of the world's pioneers of social impact connecting businesses to purpose. You might have heard a couple of her campaigns like Go Red for Women and Grow Up Great among others who have yielded more than $2.5B for various social causes. She's talking through the future of social purpose and how to build movements of believers. And if you're a sucker for a feel good story, her partnership to create the My Aflac Duck for pediatric cancer patients is a joyous one.

Back-to-Basics this week is diving into one of the brightest spots in our sector: donor relations. We're talking all things stewardship, acknowledgment, recognition and engagement, but naturally we're putting that WAFG spin on them to ensure you're not diluting the experience for those who are not in your top 1%. In short, we're talking about how to love on your people while also showing impact. It's one of those awesome feel-good conversations - where you can also learn!

Meet Chris. This marketer, entrepreneur and digital impact leader strongly believes honest business holds the power to create change for good. And he's channeling that notion into helping nonprofits leverage the incredible tool of Google Grants. We've all heard about it, but few of us know how to fully execute one well. Chris is breaking down the steps and throwing in some awesome tips on how to maximize search engines.

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.

[cue the confetti cannons and heel kicks🎉💃] It's nonprofit marketing and branding day!! aka: the only topic we love chatting about more than our respective kids and dogs. You're probably thinking to yourself, "I'm not a marketer; this doesn't apply to me." Friends. IT MATTERS! But don't feel intimidated, because we're taking your hand, and walking you through the ins and outs of building your organization's brand ethos, top marketing hacks to bring your mission's story to life, and providing that subversive We Are For Good bent to the conversation on how to stand out while still maintaining our humanity.

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.

Meet Travis. This nonprofit ED spent years in the women’s microcredit movement in Asia and Latin America, which taught him a couple of critical lessons: how a mother has an unyielding commitment to improve her family’s situation, and how education plays a pivotal role in breaking free of cyclical poverty and making informed choices. We're talking about creating a launchpad for donors and fundraisers to talk about the power dynamics in their relationships that help break the victim-hero narrative. It's one of our most moving convos yet. Tune in!

We all love our boards. But are we really leveraging them to their full potential? They just might be the volunteers closest to your mission, and knowing how to engage them (rather than simply talk at them) possesses the key to unpacking next level connections but also cultivating them toward their gift in the process. Join Jon + Becky as dive into Back to Basics: Boards. We're talking through basic board responsibilities, board mapping and common governance mistakes. Tune in 🎧

Meet Dominic. He's a humanitarian and innovator, and he knows how to mobilize massive audiences toward good. At the age of 20, he founded Missions.Me and began organizing strategic outreach campaigns in cities across Latin America. Today, his Love Has No Limits grassroots org has an audacious goal: calling all to be part of the greatest display of love Southern California has ever experienced through volunteer efforts addressing homelessness, poverty and other crippling community issues. Learn how to inspire and mobilize rabid fans, or join the Love Has No Limits event this month!

Meet Sianne. Her passion is simple: bring the philanthropic community together working toward achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Why? Because we know unified efforts lead to greater global equity for all. As a Chief Impact Officer and dual qualified lawyer in the UK and in her native South Africa, Sianne builds more impact equity for the London-based Maanch organization through an impact-platform uniting philanthropy, impact investors and corporations. We're talking impact investing and how to check off the world's Honey Do list. Tune in!

Just when we thought we had Corporate American figured out, the world went and threw a global pandemic at us, and everything flowing from that experience has reshaped what we all know about corporate giving. Join us as Jon + Becky walk us through Back to Basics: Corporate Giving. We're talking through types of corporate philanthropy, CSR, reimagining corporate engagement and trends we see looming post-pandemic for employee-driven, socially-minded businesses. Spoiler: How you meaningfully partner with companies matters now more than ever.

Meet Brian. He's the host of the Self Improvement Daily podcast (you know, a podcast with a casual 8M+ downloads where each episode lasts less than 2 mins 😲😱🤗) as well as the founder of For Purpose - a social impact platform modernizing what it means to make a difference. This self-professed Social Impactivist is breaking down how to capture impact and amplify it for good. Tune in and learn how to activate everyday philanthropists for your mission.

Meet Cheryl. This founder and CEO of Creative Breed, is an award-winning filmmaker who now applies her human-centered storytelling to marketing to help brands and organizations drive connection, engagement and action. In fact, she feels so passionately about how story can transform a person that she's leveraging her best tips to help nonprofits elevate their video storytelling game. Tune in and hear her tips for casting and building a narrative story arc.

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 Elizabeth. She's answering the questions we've all been wondering the past year: what happened to philanthropy in 2020? This seasoned fundraising pro is breaking down the 2021 Giving USA Report on Philanthropy, which dropped last week. Beyond the headlines and major takeaways, she's giving us some actionable steps to provide focus - no matter the size of your fundraising shop. Tune in and hear where the sector is moving and how you can level up your preparedness.

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!

Back-to-Basics this week is diving into one of the brightest spots in our sector: donor relations. We're talking all things stewardship, acknowledgment, recognition and engagement, but naturally we're putting that WAFG spin on them to ensure you're not diluting the experience for those who are not in your top 1%. In short, we're talking about how to love on your people while also showing impact. It's one of those awesome feel-good conversations - where you can also learn!

Meet Stephanie. She's a nonprofit purist with a passion for numbers and making them work for you in a most non-intimidating way. We're learning how nonprofit leaders can use their numbers to tell a more robust story, and how transparency around your numbers can lead to greater contributions. Numbers can do that?! You bet they can. Tune in and learn how.