People in Fundraising: A Nonprofit Podcast by Tim Wilson

People in Fundraising season 3, ep. 15: Meredith LaPierre, Phillips Exeter Academy

Volunteer management gets its topic time in the spotlight thanks to Meredith LaPierre, a terrific fundraiser whom I first met when we worked together at Harvard Business School. Meredith suggested this topic after viewing prior "People in Fundraising" episodes and seeing this as an area that viewers and listeners would be interested to learn more about.
In our conversation, Meredith discusses:
* The foundational fundraising aspects of class giving and class affinity in higher education, which was Meredith's first role in development
* Her exposure to development shops of various sizes (HBS, Southern New Hampshire University, and Phillips Exeter Academy)
* Her focus on recruiting, managing, training, and retaining alumni volunteers to give back and encourage their alumni classmates to support Phillips Exeter Academy - including a focus on how to be successful with meeting dollars raised and participation goals
* The importance of understanding and meeting volunteers where they are, as Meredith's focus is on alumni who are now young professionals embarking on grad school, careers, and starting families - all of which impact one's time, energy, and resources
* Generational differences across her alumni volunteer cohorts and how they generally wish to be engaged and informed about the impact of their giving and their time
* Her involvement with the CASE Leadership Academy, which includes a monthly video call with philanthropic leaders from around the world
 
Thank you Meredith for a terrific conversation! I really enjoyed reconnecting with you.

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 14: Children's Miracle Network Hospital's Matt Jennings

To help bring awareness to Children's Miracle Network's annual Children's Hospitals Week - starting today and being celebrated at Walt Disney World - I am delighted to feature Matt Jennings of Children's Miracle Network (CMN). Matt is the Senior Director of Business Development for Salt Lake City, Utah-based CMN, where he works with corporate sponsors and donors for CMN funding initiatives.
In our conversation, Matt discusses:
* His role at CMN, where he has worked for just over one year, and what led him to join CMN. CMN was founded just over forty years ago.
* How he learned about and entered the nonprofit profession while working at his alma mater, Texas A&M University ("Gig 'em Aggies!"), what it meant to work for A&M, and how his fundraising career grew there over a two-decade span.
* Realizing that he, as a Texas A&M student, and I, as a prospective student visiting the College Station campus from Massachusetts, were at the same Texas A&M football game against Rice University in the fall of 1992!
* His thoughts on this Brene Brown quote, "If we're not practicing gratitude and allowing ourselves to know joy, we are missing out on the two things that will actually sustain us during the inevitable hard times." As CMN's mission is to support local children's hospitals in the U.S. and Canada, treating thousands of children facing dire medical conditions each year, Matt's thoughts on how this quote applies to his work is moving and meaningful.
 
Thank you, Matt, for a truly enlightening and enjoyable conversation. Best wishes for a successful Children's Hospitals Week! 

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 13: Goodwell Banda of SAFI, Malawi

"Life is about making sure there is support for other people."
Season 1 guest Marci Romney of CoAfrica strongly encouraged me to interview today's featured guest, Goodwell Banda. My conversation with Goodwell was informative and covers his nearly 30 years in nonprofit work in his native country of Malawi, in southern Africa.
Goodwell discusses:
* The nonprofit orgs. he has worked with, and their focus on agricultural development, forestry, and other initiatives seeking to improve the economic circumstances for people in a country where more than 75% of the 21 million-plus population lives in rural areas.
* Collaboration between the Malawian government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to strengthen nonprofit impact, as well as between Goodwell and CoAfrica.
* The School of Agriculture for Family Independence (SAFI), at which Goodwell and his family work, is 100% funded by donors, especially by the Utah-based Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation.
* Goodwell's personal background and how his life experiences (born in a village, the first of 12 children born to subsistence farmer parents; wore his first pair of shoes at ag 18) influenced his desire to give back to other people.
Thank you Goodwell for sharing your inspirational story with our audience!

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 12: NonprofitAF author Vu Le

Vu Le is a prominent social impact activist who brings clear-cut insights and humor to our nonprofit world. Welcoming him as a guest on "People in Fundraising" is a total honor, and so much fun!
Vu is the author of the website NonprofitAF.com, from which he published a selection of posts in a 2003 book, "Unicorns on Fire: A Collection of NonprofitAF Posts, Finally Edited for Spelling and Grammar." And if you're not following "Crappy Funding Practices" on LinkedIn, do so TODAY at https://www.linkedin.com/company/crappy-funding-practices/.
Vu covers a great array of topics in our interview, with enthusiasm and hilarity and passion, including:
* As an avowed Trekker ("Star Trek," for the uncool), what lessons can be drawn from this universe of shows and characters and applied to our work in philanthropy.
* Vu' post that made me get over my podcast insecurities for the last 18+ months and invite him to be a guest: "Hey white colleagues, we need to talk about these non-inclusive lists and panels you're always putting together." As a white guy, it re-affirmed my goal as a podcaster to be more intentional and thoughtful with representation among guests now and into the future.
* Vu talks about needing "over-representation of people from marginalized communities," and how white colleagues like myself can avoid tokenization in our efforts to feature a much more inclusive and broader representation of our communities. This includes guests with less-visible indicators of being from "not dominant groups," as he has written.
* Vu's reaction and thoughts to a quote from psychiatrist Carl Jung (I try to weave in quotes from past and current thought leaders in various disciplines): “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Among other societal contributions, Jung championed the anima/animus concept, that there's a feminine side to men and a masculine side to women.
* How he thinks about and chooses social impact/nonprofit topics to write about on his website and LinkedIn, including topical subjects like the Israel- Hamas conflict.
* Vu's thoughts on what he'd like to see as one new fundraising best practice that would be adopted by all nonprofits, and conversely which one currently in use needs to be banned.
Enjoy Vu's awesome conversation, and thank you Vu for being an outstanding guest!

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 11: Olga Woltman of LemonSkies

Interviewing another nonprofit podcast host, Olga Woltman, was a terrific and very enjoyable time! Among her many contributions to the social impact sector, Olga is the founder and host of "People of Substance," a nonprofit podcast similar in theme to my "People in Fundraising." I became aware of Olga and her podcast through LinkedIn, and welcoming her as a guest was a treat.
Among our topics of conversation, Olga shares:
* Her career in the nonprofit and nonprofit-adjacent sectors, at agencies or at nonprofit shops - including Olga launching fundraising communications and marketing company LemonSkies about 5 years ago. She also shares the lessons learned in starting this business with purpose, nimbleness, and trying to be fearlessly objective.
* Olga's volunteer leadership role and tenure at The ALS Association, BRAWS (which provides resources for women's shelters) and Special Olympics Virginia.
* "It is hard to exit the nonprofit world because there is such a sense of purpose" in what we do.
* How launching LemonSkies contributed to Olga's suite of skills development to find optimal solutions for her clients, including the need to quickly shift and re-focus as well as how compartmentalization can crop up in this work. "Structure yourself for your work so that you optimize your results."
* The impetus for Olga to launch her LemonSkies-affiliated podcast, "People of Substance." So many great insights here about being deliberate, pacing yourself, and the joy of connecting with other people.
Thank you Olga for a fascinating conversation, and I appreciate the energy and enjoyment that you put into our profession through your volunteering, your client work, and your podcast!

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 10: Jessica Balsam, University of Washington

Artist, longtime Apra volunteer, and prospect management leader Jessica Balsam joins "People in Fundraising" to talk about all of these topics and more! One of the topics I was really interested in hearing from Jessica about was the Inclusive Design Framework and centering marginalized people in feedback loops in her development work.* Her background in a variety of art forms (glass blowing, etc.) and working in the food service industry before serendipitously working in the development shop at an arts office. She oversaw data management work, "which is funny, considering I was an arts major who avoided any class that wasn't in the Humanities!"* Why prospect management "calls to" Jessica due to its opportunities for analysis and data-wrangling.* Why Jessica's involvement with Apra has kept her in prospect development, instead of other interesting areas such as institutional research. Among initiatives Jessica has helped to compile and share is Apra's Advocacy Toolkit.* Outside of work, Jessica's interests in art and music, including karaoke (paging season 1 guest James Cheng!), mentioned around the 29-minute mark. She sang karaoke with a bunch of friends at the Apra PD conference in New Orleans!

People inFundraising, season 3 ep. 9: Peter Hayashida,

I am honored to feature Peter Hayashida, with whom I had breakfast this morning at the CASE District VII and District VIII Conference in Anaheim, CA! It was so great to meet Peter in-person.
The first guest to represent Hawaii in "People in Fundraising," Peter's interview is a delightful and really engaging overview of his extensive fundraising career. We cover a variety of topics, including:
* Peter's first year as a Senior Consultant and Principal at renowned development consulting firm Marts & Lundy.
* Peter's passion for and commitment to the intersection of diversity, equity, and inclusion in fundraising/social impact.
* Peter's lengthy involvement as a leading volunteer with CASE, and how additional commitments of time, effort, and attention actually can be recharging.
* Being a storyteller and someone who, throughout Peter's career, has sought to help others realize their potential - and who did the same for him when Peter's career was beginning.
Several "People in Fundraising" guests mentioned to me that they follow and admire Peter for his longstanding commitment to the fundraising world and to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts in this space.
I am grateful that Peter agreed to be a guest so our audience can hear from him on this crucial topics. Thank you, Peter, for a fascinating conversation!

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 7: Sharise Harrison

A native of D.C., philanthropy game-changer Sharise Harrison joins "People in Fundraising" to talk about her extensive career experience in nonprofit prospect development. I was really excited to welcome Sharise as a guest, because among other attributes, Sharise is a frequent public speaker on a wide range of social impact topics and has volunteered at the highest levels in our profession. Her conversation is rich with detais about her career journey.
Among other topics, Sharise discusses:
* Working as an Apra International board liaison to Apra's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, Justice, and Access (DEIBJA) Committee. Specifically, Sharise talks about the committee's work to create space for DEIBJA offerings in all of Apra's content offerings.
* Sharise's professional involvement with nonprofit organization The Inclusion Firm.
* How Sharise first became acquainted with nonprofit work as a career.
* Sharise being a student of metaphysics and how this shapes her worldview.
* How Sharise's involvement as a panelist with what is now called Apra's "Data Science Now" led her to become even more focused on data science in her career.
* Mentorship provided by Sharise's former manager Amy Carrier, and what she's applied to her career from interacting with Amy.
Thank you Sharise for such a broad, deeply moving, and fascinating conversation! I am honored to share your insights with our audience.

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 6: Vanessa Boyle of Hoag Hospital Foundation

Vanessa Boyle joins "People in Fundraising" to talk about, in her own powerful words, "reflection and feeling joyous in a career that so many of us adore and love." And she does a terrific job describing those sentiments in our conversation!
Vanessa also discusses:
* Going from prospect development in a higher ed setting to healthcare, and hitting her one-year mark at Hoag Hospital Foundation in Newport Beach, California.
* The importance of showcasing prospect development in all-staff fundraising meetings, getting a seat at the table, and being seen as valued partners with development leadership - as well as a shift from "administrative" prospect research (such as event bios) to "analytical" prospect development to "create efficiencies and precise reporting."
* Her reaction to this quote from Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel: "We love to talk about kids’ personalities, how unique and weird and joyful they are. We don’t grow out of those characteristics so much as subsume them with duties. But they remain building blocks of our humanness, the enduring difference between us and robots. We must preserve [and rediscover those] not because they allow us to rest and, as such, make us better workers – because they anchor us to who, at heart, we’ve always been." Vanessa provides an excellent answer that ties in to Artificial Intelligence, differences of opinion, speaking up, and other dynamics.
Thank you Vanessa for your warmth, expertise, and insights about your career to-date! This was such a fun and informative conversation,

People in Fundraising, season 3, ep. 5: Mark Egge of Itasca Partners

Mark Egge covers a fascinating array of topics with great insights and humor in our "People in Fundraising" conversation. We talk about his founding role at his prospect development, reporting, data, and dashboards firm Itasca Partners.
(Mark: "It's named for the headwaters of the Mississippi River." Tim: "Cool! I thought it was named for the ship that was the last to be in contact with, and helped search for, Amelia Earhart.")
Rolling with my history-loving geek-ness, Mark discusses:
* His career in prospect development and what led him to launch Itasca Partners
* His involvement with Apra at the local chapter level and later as President of Apra International. "Getting involved with the Apra is the single best career decision I have ever made."
* The importance of presence and intentionality in his work.
* How to build and maintain social connections in work and life, and creating little moments of connecting, "like a little piece of art, in conversation."
This was a really fast-paced, hilarious, and engaging interview, Mark! Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for prospect development and larger nonprofit work, and for your volunteer leadership example in Apra.