Whether you are a startup looking for investment, or a nonprofit seeking to build momentum by attracting a larger donor, getting your story dialed in is clutch.

On this week’s Relish THIS, David Cohen from Techstars joined me to discuss his experience with investing and what purpose-focused businesses can do to ensure that they are able to attract the capital they need to take their organizations to the next level.

David sees three items as paramount to attracting and securing investment: 

1. A good team with a proven track record
2. Traction: some momentum toward your goals
3. Genuine enthusiasm for your mission

These three, core elements are the ingredients for an amazing story. And stories are what help people get excited about your programs.

David has a long history of investing in early-stage companies in both the for- and nonprofit spaces. He’s been around the block so to speak when it comes to understanding how these three, core elements combine to produce success. 

If you are looking to up your game by attracting investors or are looking for tips to improve your ability to bring on larger donors to fuel your organization’s success, this is a great episode.

I hope you enjoy it.

Links: 

Techstars 

Book - Do More Faster

David’s Website 

Ask: 

Help an entrepreneur succeed. You have special knowledge so help someone learn that so we can make the world a better place. 

Volunteers are the fuel that keeps nonprofit organizations humming.

Not discounting volunteers' hard work to serve nonprofits’ missions, volunteers and how they talk about their experiences working with their favorite organizations provide the thrust that brings an abundance of donations, interest, and other volunteers into the system. 

In short, when you treat your volunteers well and create an experience that a) positions them as the heroes in your mission story and b) treats their time as an invaluable resource not to be wasted, you’ll be on the path to real success.

See, many nonprofits position the organization as the hero of their story. In this narrative, the organization is cast as the creator of the majority of the thrust leading the charge to fulfill its mission.

Turning that framework on its head to position the volunteer as the hero is a fantastic way to encourage better engagement and attract more volunteers to your organization. It’s a subtle shift that can be challenging, but magic happens when you get it right. This shift in messaging helps bring volunteers into the system as they see themselves cast that the hero. Who wouldn’t want to work with an organization that views its volunteer force through that lens?

Once you have enticed your volunteers to take action to engage with your organization is the next area in which planning and process development works wonders.

Crafting an onboarding process and following that process each and every time a volunteer offers to engage with your organization is paramount. Have a plan, make the volunteers feel welcome and valuable, and ensure they don’t feel that their time was wasted.

When you nail these two elements of your organization, you will see an uptick in your repeat volunteerism, your helpers will start recruiting for you, and you will see referral-based donations start rolling in.

That’s a long introduction to this week’s guest on Relish THIS, Karen Knight. Karen has worked in the nonprofit space since first volunteering at age 11 and has been helping nonprofits improve their volunteer engagement ever since. Her consulting business helps nonprofit organizations knock their volunteer engagement out of the park by developing proven, repeatable processes and a better understanding of effective volunteer engagement and management.

If you leverage the talent and hard work of volunteers, this episode is tailor-made for you.

Dig in to see a different approach to volunteerism. 

Links: 

Karen Knight Consulting 

Ask: 

Show your appreciation

Thank your volunteers on every shift 

The idea of testing can stir up anxiety for many people. 

But what if testing was a fun, fruitful venture for your organization?

In fact, to get the most out of your marketing, you need to be testing, measuring, making adjustments, and repeating this cycle infinitum to ensure you aren’t missing opportunities and are taking your message and its presentation as far as possible.

What’s great is that it’s easier than ever to test elements of your marketing. 

And that’s just one of the things today’s guest on Relish THIS does for his clients.

Matt Ranta, the Partner and Head of Practice at Nimble Gravity, is steeped in analytics and testing. He approaches every interaction from the framework of curiosity. This curiosity transforms the idea of testing from one of anxiety to an activity that becomes exciting and fun. As he is able to recognize gains for his clients, their reach and ability to do good in the world improves. 

From vanity metrics to how to leverage data analytics to improve your performance to specific tools available for you to use to A/B test your messaging, this episode has it all!

Links: 

Nimble Gravity 

LinkedIn

Ask: 

Go run a test or an experiment. Try an A/B test on your marketing or run a test on your website. 

All of us have a desire to be liked. 

And many of us hide our true selves from fear of rejection. We tailor our appearance, what we say, and what we talk about to try to curate a persona we believe will be more attractive to more people. This curation may create a likeable avatar, but it may exist through the exclusion of authenticity. And what might have been stifled through this creation?

My guest today on Relish THIS is Kristin Faith, the CEO of The Nonprofit Makeover. If there’s anything to be said about Kristin it’s this: she is awash with enthusiasm for helping nonprofit leaders find their voice and the authenticity to help people really step out of their shells and take their nonprofit organizations to the next level.

Our conversation was wide-ranging, with a particular focus on the importance of revenue-stream diversification for your organization. When Kristin started her nonprofit she quickly realized the power and importance of having a variety of revenue streams and how diversification frees you up to take fuller advantage of opportunities. This is a methodology she helps others in the space leverage.

Have a listen to this great show and learn how you can make adjustments in your organization to help it thrive.

Links: 

The Nonprofit Makeover

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential

Ask: 

Diversify your funding streams. Get prepared and find the resources that will push you and challenge you to be better.

Are you struggling with content marketing?

In one sense, getting your message out to prospects has never been easier. A quick web search reveals dozens, if not hundreds, of content tools to help you quickly distribute your latest ideas via email, social media, your site, and nearly anywhere else you can think of. 

However, this ease of access has come at a price. These distribution gains have come with a loss in the authenticity required to develop strong, lasting relationships. 

That’s one of the many topics my guest, Aaron Wrixon, and I discuss today on Relish THIS.

Aaron is not only an amazing copywriter but also just a fantastic human being. I had the pleasure of meeting Aaron at a conference many years ago and we instantly clicked. He’s one of my favorite people on the planet and I thoroughly enjoy our conversations. Whether we are chatting about hockey, the latest Nic Cage movie, books, or marketing, there’s always gold to be mined.

Dive into your approach to copywriting and hone your ability to write copy that embraces the idea of developing a 1-to-1 relationship – one that casts your stakeholder in the role of “hero” in the story they are experiencing with your organization. Aaron is just the best. 

Take your content marketing to the next level with this episode of Relish THIS.

Links: 

https://www.wrixon.com/

Ask: 

“Give your head a shake” lol

Try to be more authentic and bold in your communication. Be more vulnerable and more engaging. 

Daring to commit to authentic conversation. 

There’s a saying in sales, “‘No’ is the second best answer you can hear.”

There’s a certain power in “no” and getting to that “not interested” allows everyone to move forward and get on with their day.

This holds true in the nonprofit world as well. Understanding one’s mission and selecting partners that are mission-aligned is vastly more impactful than chasing money and forming relationships with those who are not great fits. It can be challenging to turn away money or influence when the opportunity arises; however, when you can stand your ground and build connections and relationships with those who are truly playing the same game, the results can be phenomenal.

Mission-alignment is just one of the many topics of this episode of Relish THIS. My guest is Teage McDaniel, the Founder and Curator of the Creative Integration Initiative here in the Denver area. They have been working in the creative space to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion into the scene and build a vibrant creative community through education, coaching, and curation of the visual arts.

Teague is doing some really great work. Check out this episode to hear how they are making a difference in the art world.

Links: 

Creative Integration Initiative 

Ask: 

Go be more creative in whatever capacity you can be creative! 

Storytelling is a major component of any organization’s marketing. 

People love a good story, and effective storytelling can make the difference between gaining that new donor or falling short on your projections… again.

More often than not, when looking for a compelling story, one overlooks a glaring opportunity in one’s organization. See, when telling a good story, the devil is, as they say, in the details. 

And what better place to look for details than one’s own numbers?

My guest today is Stephen King, Founder and CEO of GrowthForce, a financial management firm that specializes in working with nonprofits to help them keep their missions on track through sound financial management. 

Stephen is a font of valuable information: from how to stay on top of your reporting, to how to leverage your accounting data to make all kinds of organizational decisions. He shares his understanding of how healthy finances create tangible results for every organization. 

So buckle up for an eye-opening episode of Relish THIS

Links: 

GrowthForce 

Twitter

LinkedIN 

Podcast: Path To Profits 

Ask: 

Attend the Nonprofit Growth Webinar. Download the workbooks and start getting your organization set up for growth. 

Particularly when one is a solopreneur, there’s a tendency to think of expenses as money coming out of one’s pocket instead of as an investment into one’s organization. It stems from adopting a scarcity mindset (rather than framing one’s experience from abundance) and also is seen quite a lot when one attaches oneself very closely to one’s occupation. (But that’s a whole other conversation.)

The problem is compounded when framing every investment opportunity against the direct revenue this allocation is likely to create.

So before introducing this week’s guest here on Relish THIS, I’ll relate a quick tale.

When I first started my life as an entrepreneur, I had a tendency to fall into this “cost trap”. I viewed every expense through the lens of “how does this make us money” and neglected the other benefits investing in support, resources, tools, etc. could bring to an organization. I know now that there are many intangible benefits to investment, including boosts in morale, comfort, and the like, as well as time savings (both direct and indirect saving accrued simply by no longer having to think about an activity needing to be accomplished).

For me, one of the first places this type of investment attitude paid off was in bookkeeping.

Every month I dreaded doing our books. I didn’t enjoy it and knew I wasn’t great at it. I tended to put it off until the last minute and then fret about it after I was done. Neither, any good bookkeeper will tell you, are good for the health of one’s books.

So I overcame the “this cost won’t make me money” demon in my head and hired a bookkeeper. Mischa has been helping us ever since and I don’t think I have once questioned the “cost” of her engagement. It freed up a ton of noise in my own head and I know our books get done correctly and on time each month. Now THAT was a great investment!

So coming back to my guest today on Relish THIS. Alex Romero is one of the financial masterminds (her “real” title is Virtual CFO) at Chris Hervoshon CPA. They are a virtual CPA team that helps nonprofits get their financial house in order so that they can confidently serve their constituents most effectively.

Alex is just great. She has been working in the nonprofit space for years and shared a TON of valuable information during our conversation to help your nonprofit navigate bringing on a CPA to help you stay compliant with state and federal regulations and have a healthier understanding of your nonprofit’s financial status.

Of course, we talked about the cost vs. investment conundrum as well as what you need to know before bringing on a CPA, ways to bridge the gap between DIY and hiring an expert,  and ways to get really proactive about your finances so that you can be able to run your organization most effectively. We dove into managing and tracking grants and donations as well, so there is a LOT of great information in this episode.

Whether you are just getting started with your organization or have been up and running for years, there’s something for you in this episode. I hope you have as much fun with it as I did.

Links:
Better Way CPA 
Twitter
LinkedIn

Ask: 
Start a spreadsheet to track any money that you get through your door at your nonprofit. Just start tracking and keeping records.