People in Fundraising: A Nonprofit Podcast by Tim Wilson

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. 

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 11: Robby West, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Originally recorded in summer 2023: Robert West joins my "People in Fundraising" webcast just before his 1-year anniversary of working at the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He entered fundraising from experiential education and admissions before first working in prospect research.
A University of New Hampshire alum, Robby also talks about the joy and challenge of working for his alma mater for several years.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 10: Rachell Brandell-Mayers, Virginia Commonwealth U.

Originally recorded in summer 2023: In the 50th published "People in Fundraising" interview, I am so pleased to spotlight Rachel Brandell-Mayers! She and I currently are co-heads of Apra International's Online Content Committee. We manage a team of great volunteers from the prospect research & management sector of fundraising, working to generate content ideas; line up speakers; and deliver the content to our wider Apra community.Rachel leads by sharing a lyric from singer Ani DiFranco that has been a driver for Rachel's diverse career: "I do it...because the world owes us nothing, and we owe each other the world."

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep.9: John Beckvold, CFO and VP, West Virginia

Originally recorded in spring 2023: My friend John Beckvold is the first "People in Fundraising" guest to represent the beautiful state of West Virginia. In our wide-ranging conversation, John catalogues his nonprofit and for-profit experience in various states.
Doing so, John discusses how he creates the narrative about his career journey in interviews, focusing on the opportunity and his enthusiasm for new challenges.

People in Fundraising, Season 2, Ep. 8: Krissy Cannizzo

Originally recorded in spring 2023: In this "Friends and Family" edition of People in Fundraising, I welcome Krissy Cannizzo to the program. Krissy and I were in the same grade all the way through high school in Massachusetts. Our interview purposefully is airing on Monday, June 19th - the birthday of her step-father, George Mitchell. George was an amazing early education teacher and passionate advocate for whole-child educational, emotional, and social development.Happy heavenly birthday, Mr. Mitchell.Krissy movingly talks about George's impact on her life and some of the wisdom he shared with her. She dreams about buying a new school bus and stocking it with STEAM resources to bring classroom/lab learning to under-developed school systems in southeastern Massachusetts, where she lives and works. This is influenced by a goal Krissy and George had many years ago.Krissy also talks about her passion for STEAM education as the Director of Education and Outreach at The Children's Museum in Easton, MA. She has a STEAM board with info behind her during our interview, and enthusiastically talks about the importance of including "A" for Arts in the STEAM acronym.