The podcast for nonprofit professionals who love the mission and are still figuring out the rest.
You care about the mission. You're also the one holding a dozen jobs at once, the fundraising, the board, the programs, the staffing, the wondering where next quarter's money comes from. This show is for you.
Every episode brings in people who've done the work, and the thinkers who shape it. Nonprofit leaders and specialists, plus voices from the wider world of leadership and purpose, who can tell you what really worked.
Real conversations, real help. What works, what doesn't, and what might be a good next try.
Listen on your commute or your lunch break, and leave with one thing you can use.
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Nonprofit Branding: Roger Starkweather on How Your Team Is Showing Up
Nonprofit Branding: Roger Starkweather on How Your Team Is Showing Up
Your brand isn't the logo. It's whether everyone around you tells the same story.
Roger Starkweather is co-founder and CEO of ANEWbrand, a Seattle-born agency whose motto is branding for the greater good. He got his start in sales, selling rubber stamps door to door, and has built businesses of his own ever since, including one in construction. He and his business partner, Steven Picanza, have worked together in the agency world for fifteen years, and both have worked with SCORE, a nonprofit that mentors people starting businesses.
Roger describes a project his team is working on right now that never leaves the building. The organization's own groups were arguing among themselves, so ANEWbrand came in with workshops and surveys to say what nobody inside could. Sarah connects it to the mergers she's seeing across the sector. When two people who each own a house get married, building a new one together is easier than moving into either.
If your staff, board, and supporters would each describe you a little differently, start here.
In this episode
Why Roger calls brand guidelines an operating system, and what happens when nobody feeds it
Marketing as the road brands drive down, and return on experience as a way to measure what dollars can't
The internal side of a brand, when staff and volunteers need the same clarity your donors do
A few ideas to apply at your nonprofit
Read the top section of your homepage. Does it say why you exist before it shows a single pretty picture?
Give branding and marketing its own pillar in your strategic plan, with a budget line that can stand up to it.
Put Roger's question on your next team agenda: how are we showing up today? Any hesitation is worth a conversation.
Resources Mentioned
Connect with Roger
ANEWbrand: https://www.anewbrand.co/ (https://www.anewbrand.co/)
Email: roger@anewbrand.co (mailto:roger@anewbrand.co)
Connect with Sarah
Nonprofit411: https://nonprofit411.org (https://nonprofit411.org)
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411 (https://linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411)
The Generosity Roadmap, a free class: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map (https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map)
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:03 The hobby question
03:09 Why nonprofits, and why now
05:49 Is branding a real investment?
06:15 Your brand is an operating system
07:34 What a clear brand does for fundraising
10:12 The road brands drive down
11:38 Return on experience
14:36 Competing on a world stage
16:02 Thinking like a retailer
17:45 The biggest challenge: the budget
19:16 Evolution or revolution
20:57 Do nonprofits invest enough?
22:49 Signs it's time
25:05 When the brand problem is internal
26:18 Mergers and the new house
28:00 How am I showing up today?
29:25 Where to find Roger
15 Oct 2026
LinkedIn for Fundraisers: Michelle Benson on Being Found by Funders
Michelle Benson spent 18 years chasing funders, then crossed to the other side of the desk and watched them go looking instead.
Michelle Benson is the founder of Culture of Philanthropy, online training that teaches fundraisers, CEOs, communications staff and consultants how to be found on LinkedIn by the people they want to reach. She was a fundraiser for 18 years and has spent about ten on the funding side. She joins Sarah to explain what changed when she stopped chasing high value funders and started building a way for them to find her.
She tells it from inside a trust fund. Two colleagues came in every morning to a flood of applications, most of which missed the criteria, and had to wade through the weak ones to reach the strong ones. So the fund closed its open application process. Those same two people were handed the giving criteria and, by her account, fifteen million pounds to place, and sent out to find charities themselves. The quality of the pipeline went up. So did the mood of the two people doing the work.
If your whole pipeline runs on cold outreach, this is the second string.
In this episode
Why funders are closing open applications and going out to look instead
The algorithm as a sniffer dog, and what your words and actions send it after
Why a post with plenty of likes can still be a post that failed
A few ideas to apply at your nonprofit
Write the goal down before you touch LinkedIn. Something as specific as four new corporate funders at around $20,000 in the next 12 months.
Describe your best supporter and your worst one, then write your profile for the best one. Your profile is what the algorithm reads.
Give every post one job, then judge it against that job. If the job was clicks to your site, likes are not the score.
Resources Mentioned
Connect with Michelle
Culture of Philanthropy: https://www.cultureofphilanthropy.co (https://www.cultureofphilanthropy.co)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-benson-creates-digital-pipelines (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-benson-creates-digital-pipelines)
Connect with Sarah
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcast.nonprofit411.org (https://podcast.nonprofit411.org)
Nonprofit411: https://www.nonprofit411.org (https://www.nonprofit411.org)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411)
The Generosity Roadmap for Nonprofits, a free class to explore the systems that keep community at the heart of fundraising: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map (https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map)
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
04:20 Eighteen years of chasing
07:14 "My job is to be found"
14:33 The algorithm as a sniffer dog
25:18 When likes mean the post failed
9 Oct 2026
Fundraising Goals: Jo McPartland on Selling the Why, Not the Item | Nonprofit411
People don't say yes to the item. They say yes to the reason you're asking.
Jo McPartland is the fundraising coach at Dutch Mill Bulbs, a fundraising company founded in central Pennsylvania in 1960. She ran fundraisers as a teacher and as a volunteer leader before she moved to the other side of the table. Dutch Mill Bulbs works with hundreds of groups every season, and Jo coaches them through it, from Scout troops and churches to sports teams and animal rescues.
One group Jo works with has to travel for every field trip. They hit their goal every single year. The kids could say they're raising money for buses. Jo's point is that they aren't. "It's not gas, it's not transportation. That's the means to have that experience."
If your goal feels too big to say out loud, start by dividing it.
In this episode
Why so many groups start with "whatever we can make," and what changes when they pick a number
The one sentence every volunteer can say: what it's for, how much, and how to help
Celebrating halfway, and the pink ribbon tulips that support the National Breast Cancer Foundation
A few ideas to apply at your nonprofit
Divide your goal by the number of people asking. Six or seven sales each is a couple of neighbors and a coworker.
Name what the money makes possible, not what it pays for.
Give supporters two ways to help, in person and online, so a grandparent in another state can still say yes.
Resources Mentioned
Connect with Jo
Dutch Mill Bulbs: https://dutchmillbulbs.com (https://dutchmillbulbs.com)
Fundraiser Goal Calculator: https://dutchmillbulbs.com/goal-calculator/ (https://dutchmillbulbs.com/goal-calculator/)
Pink Ribbon Tulips: https://dutchmillbulbs.com/product/o-pink-ribbon-tulips/ (https://dutchmillbulbs.com/product/o-pink-ribbon-tulips/)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-mcpartland (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-mcpartland)
Connect with Sarah
Nonprofit411: https://nonprofit411.org (https://nonprofit411.org)
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411 (https://linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411)
The Generosity Roadmap, a free class: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map (https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map)
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:05 The hobby question
02:17 From teacher and volunteer to fundraising coach
03:43 How a bulb fundraiser works
06:56 The groups Jo loves working with
09:55 Choosing the bulbs
12:10 Start with the goal
13:35 It's not the item, it's the why
14:54 Smaller numbers feel doable
16:39 Celebrate the wins
18:15 Pink ribbon tulips
21:30 What groups run into
23:30 The group that hits its goal every year
25:34 Say it more than once, in more than one place
27:10 Not gas money, an experience
27:36 Tell them how to help
29:16 Where to find Jo
30:00 If I were starting from scratch
Who has been a guest on Nonprofit411 Podcast
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Kel Haney
Kelly McLaughlin
Sean Littman
Rachel Platt
DeaRonda Harrison
Reach and audience
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Spotify
3.7 / 5
89 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
62
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
50
Contact Nonprofit411 Podcast
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Questions about Nonprofit411 Podcast
Who hosts Nonprofit411 Podcast?
Sarah Barton host the show. Published by Nonprofit411.
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The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
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