People in Fundraising: A Nonprofit Podcast by Tim Wilson

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 21: Jen Wasem, Puerto Rico

Jen Wasem joined "People in Fundraising" this summer from Puerto Rico, a place of special meaning in her life. It is a fascinating anecdote that Jen shares with enthusiasm and a deep respect for the people and cultures of Puerto Rico. Jen relates that Puerto Rico is "where I breathe the best." She describes living in and traveling to many countries, adding, "If you haven't found your place, at least start looking. Go find it!"She shares how she loves both the community and the business, in particular the strategy, of working in philanthropy, working with like-minded *and* like-hearted people. We also talk about:*Personal archaeology, a term used in Bruce Feiler's book "The Search." Jen adds, "People who don't sit with themselves and who they are, are missing out."*Spirituality and a powerful quote from Arthur Brooks: "There is a cosmic purpose to my work, and yours. We have a divine nature that endows my existence, and yours, with transcendental meaning."*At the 38-minute mark, a quote from the 2023 "Peter Pan + Wendy" movie: "Growing up may just be the greatest adventure of all," and how that relates to Jen raising her sons and me raising my four kids.*The influence of Jen's father and the example he set as a person and a senior U.S. Air Force Figure.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 20: Andy McMahon, D.C.

Originally recorded in summer 2023: Andy discusses:*Artificial Intelligence's impact on our profession and society (a recent NY Times article called this "a land-grab of public opinion about what AI is and what it will do.") And how Andy uses terms such as "predictive model" and "generative model" to help staff better understand Andy's focus on big data.*His motivations for being an active content-generator and knowledge-sharer on LinkedIn*Andy's suggestion to first look at the most narrowly-defined use-cases where Artificial Intelligence can help a fundraising team.*The common rituals in Andy's day to start and wind down a workday and pivot to life outside of the workday.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 19: Andrea Holland, UC-Davis College of Engineering

Originally recorded in summer 2023: I am excited to share my recent “People in Fundraising” conversation with Andrea Holland. Andrea has been in their current role at UC-Davis for about 16 months, going from prospect development to serving as the Chief Administrative Officer for two departments at UC-Davis’ College of Engineering. Andrea talks about wanting to branch out skillset-wise, examining their long-term career goals, and how this opportunity developed. “I still get be a part of philanthropy in my current role, just from a different perspective, focusing on stewardship, fund management, board relations, fund spending/compliance/gift agreements.” This is a fascinating part of our chat, as viewers will learn how Andrea’s role is responsible for the fiscal management of two departments and ensuring that donor gifts are spent appropriately. Andrea’s conversation is going live in honor of Bisexual Awareness Week, which began on September 16th and runs through September 23rd. This week is an extension of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, which is held annually on September 23rd. When Andrea and I first connected about our interview, they replied, “I am super open about being bisexual and non-binary.” I feel honored to share some of Andrea’s story with our audience on this platform.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 18: Janna Lee, Medical U. of South Carolina

Originally recorded in summer 2023: Janna Lee is the first guest on "People in Fundraising" to represent Minnesota! We talk about the October 2023 Apra Minnesota conference and how Apra Minnesota in the 1980s was the origin-placed for Apra International. Janna has been involved with Apra's Minnesota and Maryland chapters, and is also becoming involved with the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP) https://www.advserv.org/
In our conversation, Janna covers the following topics with great insights, candor, and humor:Recruiting and onboarding staff while fully remote (she works for the Medical University of South Carolina);
How Janna creates balance in her workday (walks, gardening, and other activities);
The challenges posed to workplace flexibility by staff working in various time zones;
Burnout and mental health (what she looks for in herself and the people she manages);
Transitioning from prospect development to advancement services (what appealed to Janna about an expanded scope of responsibilities and becoming involved with AASP). 

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 17: Cannon Brooke, Brooke Solutions

Originally recorded in summer 2023: Cannon Brooke covers a fascinatingly broad range of topics in our "People in Fundraising" conversation. It's exciting, and an honor, to share our chat with our audience. We go from working remotely to Artificial Intelligence to "recreational outrage" on LinkedIn to Zoom fatigue, and then to difficult work conversations and creating meaningful meetings and sunk-cost fallacies while name-dropping Arthur Brooks, Noam Chomsky, and Freddie Mercury.Cannon is a data sommelier and data analytics leader who recently launched his own prospect development nonprofit consulting firm, Brooke Solutions. The latter part of our 45-minute chat focuses on A.I., the "hype cycle" of technological developments, and ethical concerns about using these advances in our social impact endeavors. I am so impressed by Cannon's well-rounded and topically current interests in nonprofit and societal issues.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 16: Catherine Flaatten, BWF

Originally recorded in summer 2023: Leading with this gem, "the human interest element of development is really present in prospect research, as much as we like to think of ourselves as data people," Catherine Flaatten, MPH, CFRE is my next "People in Fundraising" guest. Catherine has been elected to the Apra International board of directors and taking on the role in September, and is an outstanding volunteer for our prospect development community.
Recorded near her six-month anniversary at BWF, Catherine loves working with many different nonprofit clients "supporting multiple causes at once." She mentions admiring the work of BWF's CEO, Joshua Birkholz, and BWF's Executive Partner, Philanthropic Counsel Bond Lammey.Catherine shares what drives her volunteer efforts - presenting, writing, speaking on prospect development topics - and the satisfaction she gets: "I have benefitted over and over again from our community's giving nature." 

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 15: Tina Tong, Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

Originally recorded in summer 2023: Tina M. Tong 湯淑敏 shares her story of civic, human rights, and nonprofit activism and various roles in Hong Kong, Boston, and Toronto. She is currently the Grants & Foundations Officer at The Power Plant of Contemporary Art on the Toronto waterfront. We first connected more than a decade ago via NEDRA (New England Development Research Assoc)Tina has worked in independent schools, private higher ed. institutions, arts, and Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong. For all these reasons and more, I described Tina as a global citizen in our interview. Through various roles, shop sizes, funding differences (government vs. private citizens), and locations, Tina has an incredible breadth of experience! She also mentions the mentoring help from Amber W. Countis, bCRE, a "People in Fundraising" guest from season 1. 

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 14: Emily O’Brien and Ian Wells of Ian T. Wells & Associates

Originally recorded in spring 2023: From co-workers to a married couple, Ian Wells and Emily O'Brien take us on their professional and personal paths in this episode of "People in Fundraising." Both Ian and Emily have worked in prospect research & development for years, at Boston College; Salem State University; Boston Children's Hospital Trust; and Mass General, where Ian and Emily started working within a week of each other. They discuss the benefit of working together at prospect development consulting firm, Ian T. Wells & Associates, which Ian launched almost a decade ago. Ian talks about the personal impetus for his entrepreneurial pivot, as well as what had earlier in his career made starting his own firm seem unfeasible. Emily shares her and her family's long connection to Salem State University, experience in higher ed. and healthcare prospect development, and what led her to join Ian's firm in 2023. Our conversation wraps up with Emily and Ian discussing plans for the future, trends Ian sees in prospect development, and Emily's encouragement to ensure that nonprofit databases are kept as up-to-date as possible, because there are wonderful stories in there that development leadership needs to know and act on.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 13: Jess Channell-Iler, UNLV

Originally recorded in summer 2023: "This isn't a job. This is a community. And we all provide a service to the people we work with." Jessica Channell-Iler is my first guest to represent Nevada, joining us from UNLV.Jess has held roles in the center of orgs. in various states and Apra chapters (OPRN, MidSouth, SWARO), bridging the technical gaps between frontline fundraisers and the analytics, research, and database functions. "It's been so cool!" she adds, while dropping the new-to-me term "funky tech."

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 12: Carey Greggila, The Cleveland Clinic

Originally recorded in summer 2023: It's my pleasure to feature as a "People in Fundraising" guest Carey Greggila, who is the Executive Director of Development at Cleveland Clinic, the world's leading heart institute, where "everything that has to do with the heart" is Carey's fundraising outcomes responsibility.Carey discusses how heart disease is #1 threat to human life, the leading killer of people worldwide in every single demographic – and how that sobering static motivates grateful patients and their families to support Cleveland Clinic.