Nonprofitnewsfeed.com  summary of the week of 4/12/2021 GOP Fundraising Platform Under Fire for Deceptive Donation Forms A recent New York Times article highlighted the potentially deceptive nature of fundraising forms hosted on the GOP’s WinRed donation platform, resulting in the Trump campaign having to issue nearly $122 million in refunds and causing a spike in fraud complaints… Read more »

Micaela Connery, Co-founder of The Kelsey talks about how they use financing and grants to 10x investment in affordably disability housing in San Francisco and San Jose. She also gives her reaction to the $60k per tent that San Francisco paid during the Pandemic.  About Micaela Micaela co-founded The Kelsey with her cousin Kelsey, who… Read more »

Positive Economic Indicators Welcome News for Nonprofits Positive economic predictors should be good news for nonprofits after a challenging year, according to experts. GPD, regional economic indicators, unemployment, government spending, and changes in the stock market are all indicators that might predict the fiscal health of nonprofits. While every nonprofit’s revenue stream and expenses are different,… Read more »

Weekly summary of nonprofit news.  Restrictive Voting Legislation In Georgia Indicative of Larger, Concerning Trend Last week, Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed into law a restrictive voting bill decried by voting rights advocates and the President alike as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” The new legislation comes less than three months after Raphael Warnock was elected… Read more »

Interview with Meghan Daly, Whole Whale’s Paid Social Manager about the changes that will impact digital advertisers on Facebook.   Simply put, iOS14 is Apple’s most current iPhone operating system. iOS14.5 is an update to this operating system that will include many things (including 200+ new emojis!), but the specific update that’s generating a lot of buzz is… Read more »

NYC Owes Homeless Nonprofits Millions In Unpaid InvoicesThe City of New York owes its homeless nonprofit organizations over $150 million in unpaid invoices, according to a survey of homeless shelter operators. Catherine Trapani, the executive director at Homeless Services United, the umbrella organization that represents shelter operators, says “there needs to be a recognition of just how… Read more »

2020 Saw 10% Jump In GivingAccording to the Quarterly Fundraising Report, nonprofit fundraising was up 10% overall in 2020 compared to 2019. While this represents the highest volume of donations in 5 years, donor retention continues to drop (approximately by 4%), even after new donors are acquired or re-activated. A decline in retained, repeat donors… Read more »

Kariesha Martinez interviews Stephen King, CEO and President of GrowthForce. They discuss how to manage cashflow in crisis with their 5-Step Framework. Managing Cash Flow Through Times of Crisis – Having successfully navigated five recessions as an entrepreneur and fundraiser, Stephen knows how to read the numbers to make data-driven decisions – and this unique… Read more »

$1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill Passes With Expansion Of Unemployment Benefits And PPPThe Biden administration’s new COVID Relief bill has passed the House and Senate, clearing the way for approval of an expansive new bill designed to expand unemployment benefits, the federal PPP, as well as support for vaccine distribution and fiscal relief for states. This critical piece… Read more »

CEO Calls Billionaire Philanthropy A ‘PR Scam.’ Dan Price, founder and CEO of credit-card payment company Gravity Payments, says that billionaire philanthropists who donate lots of money in return for glowing reviews and good press is “one of capitalism’s biggest PR scams.” In Washington state, billionaires pay 3% of their income on taxes while the poor… Read more »

Nonprofit news of the week of 2/1/2021 Nonprofit Sector Still Seeing Net Loss of Nearly 1 Million JobsThe Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies has released a new report that shows that nonprofit employment is still well below pre-pandemic levels. While the sector has recovered from its losses of nearly 1.64 million layoffs last… Read more »

How do you strike the balance between qualitative data and quantitative data for your marketing efforts? This week on the pod, we talk with Emily Taylor, Principal of teenyBIG, about how she defines human-centered design and striking the balance between qualitative and quantitative data to make sure you’re engaging your audience. About Emily Emily Taylor, Principal of… Read more »

This week on the podcast we talk about the most recent nonprofit news for the week of 1/25/2021. Whole Whale has created a weekly newsletter and article board for people in the industry interested in staying up-to-date with the sector’s most important news. Pulling from over 100 sources, NonprofitNewsFeed.com is a free way to stay updated about nonprofit… Read more »

Host Kariesha Martinez interviews Antonio L. Davis, Jr. Digital Marketing & Content Manager of FirstStage.org. Organic social can feel like the unsung hero of audience engagement. It feels almost random what content works and what doesn’t. This week on the pod, we talk with Antonio Davis about how he is able to listen to his audience and create… Read more »

Host Kariesha Martinez interviews Cami Hawkins, CEO of Austin-based non-profit, Marathon Kids, to talk about her experience creating a flexible workspace and how other organizations can implement one for their employees.  Cami discusses: Job share: For increased flexibility, Cami has hired people on a job share basis which entails hiring two people to do one… Read more »

Our guest Greg Baldwin, CEO of VolunteerMatch discusses the historical drop in volunteering in 2020. Overnight listings and attendance to in-person volunteering events fell off a cliff as stay-at-home orders rolled across the country in March, 2020. VolunteerMatch has released Quarterly updates on the state of US volunteering that we discuss.  There were some spikes… Read more »

Host Kariesha Martinez interviews LaQuida Chancey, the founder of Smalltimore Homes. Baltimore, like many cities, struggle with housing insecurity which has been made even more dangerous during COVID and now the winter. LaQuida’s solution is simple: build homes, small ones. These micro-shelters offer protection from the cold and allow social distancing for people experiencing homelessness. Smalltimore Homes, is… Read more »

Kariesha Martinez and George Weiner exchange ideas for using Spotify playlists to increase the impact of nonprofits. Public playlists can be completely customized and embedded on websites and across social. This medium can be used to thank donors, motivate volunteers or even educate stakeholders. There many ways to start playing with this tool for free… Read more »

This week’s interview with Adam Szarzynski, founder of Addressable walks through how their writing robots are helping thank tens of thousands of supporters. Adam created the company around a writing robot created by his father and then created a service for nonprofits to retain and re-engage donors.  Their work has shown supporter lists that receive… Read more »

Our host George Weiner, chief whaler of Whole Whale runs through creative ideas to thank donors. Thanking donors can drastically improve retention rates and November/December is a great time to do this. Sadly only around 1 in 5 first time donors repeat their gift in the next year (AFP data). This may be the most… Read more »

On episode 201 our host Kariesha Martinez interviews Firdaus Kharas the author of Creativity: The Key to a Remarkable Life. With great nonprofit examples of how creativity has been used to save lives in public health, Firdaus shares some of the key lessons from the book.  Buy the book on Amazon Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault… Read more »

On the 200th episode of the podcast George Weiner, Chief Whaler and Megan Anhalt, Chief Strategy Officer discuss what a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris America mean for nonprofit giving.  They also discuss five major trends across the technology landscape that will impact the way nonprofits need to plan for 2021. Tech trends covered: Zoom adding… Read more »

Our host Kariesha Martinez interviews Lisa Greer, entrepreneur and author of PHILANTHROPY REVOLUTION: How To Inspire Donors, Build Relationships, And Make A Difference.  The largest wealth transfer in the history of mankind and world crises is creating an existential threat to the 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States. In her book, Lisa Greer provides… Read more »

Our host Kariesha Martinez interviews Lewis D. Chaney, Business Storytelling Consultant / Public Speaking Coach.  Is your nonprofit ready for that interview or presentation? Not being able to clearly communicate the point of your purpose as an organization is costing your nonprofit. This episode discusses why public speaking is needed at every level and tactics for… Read more »

On this episode, George Weiner interviews Marielle Sumergido, Digital Marketing Whaler about her early career journey and the role a mini-MBA from Rutgers University in Digital Marketing played.  We talk through whether full programs are worth it in our agency and nonprofit industries and what students actually get from an MBA. According to MBAprograms.org, the average cost of an MBA… Read more »

This week Kariesha Martinez and George Weiner discuss ideas and factors impacting Giving Tuesday, the day of giving on Dec 1st, 2020 this year. They also talk through the annual Whole Whale prediction for funds raised. Based on our analysis that incorporates an adjusted linear regression, trends in Google Search terms around “Giving Tuesday,” and… Read more »

This week we dive into the world of cryptocurrency donations with The Giving Block. Pat Duffy, the Co-founder of The Giving Block shares how and why the cryptocurrency owners are interested in donating.  Setting up donation pages that accept cryptocurrency can open the door to new donors. Pat also shares how they are working on… Read more »

This week’s 2 for 2 episode of Whole Whale’s podcast focused on social impact ideas invited Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Neon One. These ideas are evaluated based on their impact, financial viability, and reach.  Ideas Covered Tim’s Ideas Giving marketplace – there’s a massive misunderstanding about the ways that community giving events influence… Read more »

On this 2 for 2 series, we share and evaluate social impact business ideas with Joe Magee.  The ideas are evaluated across Impact, Financial viability, and Scalability.  Ideas Modern day, digital first PBS: A direct to consumer education “channel” delivered via app Crowd-Sourced Children symptoms platform to help parents understand the conditions/dynamics kids are dealing… Read more »

This week we trade social impact ideas with Adam Soclof, senior Brand Marketing expert. He shares his experience from years of brand marketing combined with great social innovation ideas. We exchange 4 social impact/b corp/nonprofit ideas. We thrash on the idea, ‘why would this fail’, ‘why would it succeed’, the difficulty of execution. Not being precious… Read more »

This is a new podcast format from Whole Whale where we share social impact ideas with select guests. Jay Buys the co-founder of B-corp design agency Visceral joins as a guest for the new 2 for 2 Whole Whale interview format.  We trade 2 ideas with each guest that also comes with 2 social impact/b… Read more »

After 6 amazing years of working with Whole Whale, Laura Clevenger our Impact Whaler is moving on to become a doctor. George interviews Laura’s experience of working at the company, our hiring process and how she was able to become the kind of employee that could challenge her boss.  This episode is a must-listen for… Read more »

Whole Whale has been working on our most comprehensive online course in history focusing on Online Fundraising. Dean of Whole Whale University, Meredith Esquivel walks us through every step along the way to creating this course. From idea, planning, writing, editing, filming, marketing and launching.  This podcast dives into how the sausage is made when… Read more »

In this internal Whole Whale episode, we talk with Rhea Bhambhani our Ads and Analytics Whaler. We discuss her time at Whole Whale, what she has learned and what the impact of the U.S. H-1B policy. Though Whole Whale has won past petitions for H-1B’s, the hostile current climate has stacked the odds too far… Read more »

With less than a week in preparation, Upaya shifted their in-person Gala to a Virtual Event that raised $302k against a $200k stretch goal. Kate Cochran, CEO of Upaya Social Ventures shares the story and lessons of this amazing virtual event with Whole Whale host, Kariesha Martinez.  About: Upaya Social Ventures is fighting extreme poverty… Read more »

Virtual reality can seem like a far off technology, mostly used for video games and tech conference demos. But, what if we could use virtual reality to provide situational training for emergencies? Neilda Pacquing, Founder and CEO of Mind Glow, is using virtual reality to make companies more prepared for workplace emergencies, starting with active shootings. Listen to… Read more »

Almost overnight the College Advising Corps (CAC) had to pull counselors across the country from Highschools in response to COVID-19.  Nicole Farmer Hurd, PhD, the Founder and Chief Executive talks through how CAC has been making the shift to digital support for their students. Our host, Kariesha Martinez walks through the myriad issues facing college-bound students in… Read more »

Planning a live fundraising event can take months and even years to plan. This week on the podcast, we talk with Layne, the Auctionista. They specialize in auctioneering, specifically for live fundraising events. Listen as we chat about the 27 steps they take to prepare for a live fundraising event, why there are no small… Read more »

This podcast will cover current events and trends that we think social impact leaders should be thinking about.  On this internal podcast episode George Weiner, Chief Whaler and Kariesha Martinez, Advertising Whaler discuss the trends and opportunities during the COVID-19 crisis. While giving may be declining, there are opportunities to find talent and ways to… Read more »

We interview EU Whalers Michaela Luecke and Luciana Padua about their experience expanding Whole Whale’s digital agency services to Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. After over a year of work and a few clients, Whole Whale has decided that the experiment just didn’t work.  There are many hard-earned lessons that we discuss starting digitally-focused companies… Read more »

We interview Meredith Esquivel, Marketing Manager and Dean of Whole Whale University about why she spent the month of September 2019 in Buenos Aires working remotely. Meredith explains the perk that Whole Whale offers through https://www.hackerparadise.org/ that pays for whalers (staff) to work remotely for the company. The catch is that employees must agree to stay on… Read more »

Interview with Leigh Kessler, one of the most recognized comedians on the VH1 network, regularly appearing on hit shows like “The Greatest”, and the network’s top-rated show “Best Week Ever”, and CNN Headline News where he was a comedy panelist on “Showbiz Tonight”. Today he is a frequent speaker & presenter on technology, fundraising, data strategy, and audience development.… Read more »

The Giving USA report came out on June 18th and announced that interest adjusted giving dropped 1.7% in 2018. A big culprit is the tax deduction changes, however, the data show several shifts that may be moving this trend. Internal podcast with Megan Anhalt, CSO of Whole Whale and George Weiner, Chief Whaler discuss the… Read more »

Interview with Joe Bobman, the Technology & Engagement Manager of Food Forward. Food Forward fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people in need and inspiring others to do the same. They do this with the help of thousands of volunteers that are carefully managed through communication tech. Resources Foodforward.org http://learn.volunteermatch.org/ https://volpro.net/… Read more »

We interview David DeParolesa, Chief Executive Officer of Give Lively a free fundraising platform. In the nonprofit software landscape full of fees for donation processing, this company is a true standout offering their myriad platform features at 0 extra cost. Their journey of building a free platform has taught Give Lively a lot about what works… Read more »

Interview with Grant Hensel, founder of the RoundUp App and Nonprofit Megaphone. The app allows supporters to round up the change from their credit card purchases for the charity they care about every month. Learn how this app got started and how it is helping nonprofits build their recurring giving campaigns.   How the RoundUp App… Read more »

We talk with Megan Anhalt, the Chief Strategy Officer at Whole Whale about using LinkedIn more effectively. Why LinkedIn for nonprofits? It’s one of the largest social networks: More than 610 million users in 200 countries and territories around the globe are on LinkedIn. Over 260 Million monthly active users: An estimated 100 Million of… Read more »

In this episode, we interview AI expert Lisa Rau, Founder of Fionta. Lisa holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and is a part of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) group. She also led AI research for eight years at GE Corporate Research, where she published 50-some articles in peer-reviewed journals… Read more »

We talk with Gene Gurkoff, the founder of Charity Miles about how he has grown their user base to over 250k monthly active users and a successful podcast that supports their community. Charity Miles is an app that allows donates money from corporate sponsors to the charity you care about for every mile you exercise. Resources… Read more »

On May 1st, 2019 Instagram launched a new giving tool, we discuss how to make Instagram donation stickers. Olivia Marlowe-Giovetti from our team about different story strategies to try to raise money for your nonprofit.

We attended the http://publicgoodapphouse.org on March 29th, 2019 to learn more about this great event and the showcased apps. Then the organizer, Susan Tenby, the Director of Community + Partnerships for Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup shared how she organizes these gatherings. Resources http://stophatespeech.eventbrite.com – next event: Wed, April 24, 2019 – 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT… Read more »

We discuss why right now in 2019 is the absolute best time in history to start a capital campaign for your nonprofit. Increased wealth, wealth transfer events, and tax climates are aligning and who knows how long it will last before the next economic slowdown. CJ Orr of The Orr Group walks us through the… Read more »

A short monologue about why Facebook is not a social media platform if you are an organization, it is an Ad Platform. We talk about basic ads strategy and how to think about using $100 per month to test it. If you spend time making posts on Facebook, you are spending money. Each year, the… Read more »

How 350.org, a very tech-savvy, global environmental organization changed its approach to their internal digital team. Hanna Thomas, the Chief Product Officer explains how the organization made this transition to a product mindset. Her Medium article about removing their digital team inspired this conversation. Resources Find 350.org on Twitter @350 New/Mode advocacy campaign tools Your… Read more »

We attended the 2019 Nonprofit Technology Conference (#19NTC) from March 13-15 in Portland, OR and gave 37 software vendors 15 seconds to pitch what their product is and what it does. This is a fun tour around the Nonprofit Technology Conference and an opportunity to listen for what you think works and might work for… Read more »

We interview Lucas Griffin about how he is using the Bushwick Podcast to share stories and news happening in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The series celebrates local culture, explains the factors driving change in the community, and shares resources to help people in the neighborhood shape the future of Bushwick for the better. Lucas shares how they use the… Read more »

We interview Sam Raddatz, CEO and Lead Information Architect of the Logic Dept. about the importance of information architecture (IA) and the process of doing user testing to improve websites. Sam explains how we can avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’ and see our websites through the eyes of others and then make changes necessary to… Read more »

  Sue Schwartzman, an expert in advising family philanthropic dollars shares her insight into Donor-Advised Funds. A market that currently controls over $100B in assets earmarked for charities. Sue is the founder at Schwartzman Advising and has years of experience understanding this market and how to position your organization for those larger dollars.    … Read more »

We interview Ann Mei the author of Lean Impact. She is a leading advocate for social innovation and the former Chief Innovation Officer at USAID. She draws on her rare experience as an executive across the tech industry, nonprofits, and the U.S. government to offer a unique perspective on tackling the most pressing social challenges… Read more »

We talk with Meghan Nesbit, Director of Nonprofit Development at Twilio.org about how they got to 1 Billion SMS messages and how the larger company thinks about impact. Twilio is a leader in SMS and flexible messaging solutions and their approach to impact involves grants, volunteering, and in-kind use of their powerful product. We also… Read more »

We interviewed Elizabeth Cushing, the President of PLAYWORKS about how they have built a model of healthy play to schools at scale. As a part of the journey they have innovated, creating earned revenue streams through the PLAYWORKS programs and open models with RECESS LAB. Resources RECESS LAB PLAYWORKS on Facebook PLAYWORKS Impact (From Playworks)… Read more »

The Chief Innovation Officer, Asha Curran shares the story of how the 92nd Street Y created the epic day of #GivingTuesday. This day of giving follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US and has been adopted on various days across the globe. In 2017 it raised over $300M and there is no way… Read more »

Gary Bagley, Executive Director of New York Cares, shares how the organization has achieved the milestone of distributing 2 million winter coats for New Yorkers in need as well as plans for growing impact further. Gary shares how the organization aims to use text messaging and other technologies to improve volunteering engagement. We also discuss… Read more »

We make the case for not building an app. When you balance the cost and facts of app usage it is probably the worst technical investment your organization can make. Consider that about 20% of apps are used once then deleted (flurry + Statista), and 80% apps don’t make it 30 days (Quettra mobile analytics).… Read more »

Sarah Durham, author of the book Brandraising and CEO and founder of Big Duck shares current trends in nonprofit branding and communications. We discuss how much has changed since the company’s founding in 1994 and what has stayed the same. The question of whether to evolve a brand or rebrand entirely is also discussed. Resources Books… Read more »

Facebook’s donation tool charges 0% and has raised hundreds of millions for nonprofits that know how to use it. Digital fundraising strategist, Julia Campbell walks us through how your organization can use this powerful platform. Julia is also the author of – Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits! Resources Free and low-cost… Read more »

A case study of how Teach For America implemented a digital strategy across the organization. This case study goes through the process that Peter Petralia, Partner at Modern Craft led. We learn the key elements involved in steering an organization of this size. Resources Modern Craft TFA case study Episode 12: Teach For America Podcast… Read more »

We interview Lisa Boyd, Senior Manager of Social Impact at Lyft. This ridesharing company is setting a standard for social impact that includes the largest carbon offset programs in history, direct donations and offering free “relief rides” that make a difference for thousands. Resources Relief Rides Program Lyft Round Up and Donate Atlantic article about… Read more »

We talk with Greg Thomas, Whole Whale’s campaign strategist and professional musician about the use of music and jingles for impact. How does your organization use or think about music branding, theme songs, or jingles when creating the brand image? Organizations spend tons on visual branding, videos and storytelling but all too often outsource the… Read more »

This week on the podcast we talk with Megan Anhalt, a digital campaign expert who has worked with DoSomething.org, CZI, and Purpose. Megan shares her research and training around the elements of storytelling for campaigns and what it takes to “go viral”. We explore how nonprofits can and should take advantage of ‘crisitunities’, moments when… Read more »

It’s Friday night. You’ve left a bar, said goodbye to your friends heading in the opposite direction, and are walking the 8 blocks home. Or perhaps you’ve worked late and are making your way to a different subway station to get home because your normal train isn’t running. Maybe you’re in a new town at a… Read more »

This week on the podcast, we talk about the website that Shall Not Be Named: Can we still use Facebook advertising for good (could we ever use Facebook advertising for good?). tl;dr — yes. Our own Digital Advertising Whaler Jasmine Cordew joins us to talk about navigating the Social Network for social impact. There are several advantages… Read more »

This week on the podcast, Chief Whaler George Weiner chats with Emily Dulcan, Online Community Experience Lead at Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Joining CFF after 3 years as Digital Director at the Peace Corps, Emily knows from community building. She talks with George about how the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation overcomes the challenge of in-person interaction for… Read more »

If you’ve ever bought coffee from Whole Foods, chances are you’ve seen the Fair Trade Certified logo. The organization has been helping consumers to make the right choice the easiest choice by identifying thousands of products that are made and harvested in sustainable and ethical manners, protecting land and waterways in nearly 50 countries and… Read more »

What is the point of a firewall when you’re employees leave the back door open? This short rant from Chief Whaler George Weiner discusses some super simple things your employees can to protect against 90% of the cyber attacks out there. Many of the emails about privacy policy invading our inboxes are little more than reactions to… Read more »

How are we using private information for public good? GDPR (aka, the General Data Protection Regulation) goes into effect in the European Union next week, so now’s a good time to be asking that question. GDPR compliance means more than the click of a button: This is a fundamental reevaluation of how we protect and… Read more »

In Episode 92 of Using the Whole Whale, we talk to Craig Wiroll, the Gigabit Portfolio Manager with the Mozilla Foundation, about the Foundation’s work to save the Internet… and maybe all of the people that use it? If Mozilla is new to you, we won’t say you live under a rock, but you live nearby…If… Read more »

Bonus episode! George and Olivia talk through some of the highlights from #18NTC, the 2018 Nonprofit Technology Conference, including the state of play for Facebook, what we can look forward to with GDPR, and how we can apply lessons from a digital newsroom for nonprofit communications. We may have also had a few sazeracs. When… Read more »

In our final Live from SXSW episode (for 2018 at least), Olivia speaks with Sasha Samochina of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While everyone else was at Westworld, Olivia talks about the Wild West of VR with Sasha, one of the JPL’s Immersive Visualization Producers in Pasadena, CA after her panel, “Let’s Get Real: Practical Uses… Read more »

The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) reported that $101M was raised in 2017 by federal employees, this represents a 40% or $66M decline in funds raised for nonprofits. In 2009, this same program raised over $200M has steadily declined over the past years and Jim Starr, the President and CEO of America’s Charities helps us understand… Read more »

Science, y’all. Olivia is (at least in podcast terms) still at SXSW 2018, talking with Dr. James Beacham, with the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, who was part of the panel Decrypting the Universe: Science and Art at CERN last month in Austin. The Higgs boson particle? The Large Hadron Collider?… Read more »

When we see a conference session titled “Lean Data: How to Use Data to Drive Social Progress,” you can bet we’re signing up, and that’s exactly what happened when Account Strategist Whaler Olivia Marlowe-Giovetti went to SXSW last month. After a great session co-led by Emma Lalley of New Story and Twisha Mehta of Samasource (along… Read more »

In a special (perhaps Very Special?) episode of Using the Whole Whale recorded live in Austin, Olivia Marlowe-Giovetti speaks with Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. If you’re using the Internet today (and you are if you’re listening to this podcast), you can thank Tim in at least some small part. He wrote the first popular… Read more »

In the second of 2 episodes between Chief Whaler George and Account Strategist Whaler Olivia, we talk about (taco-bout?) our recent conference adventures, wrapping up with George’s time at the Strata Data Conference in San José (where our Design Whaler Ann presented on Machine Learning and A/B Testing). Much like SXSW, tacos were had. Attending… Read more »

In the first of 2 episodes between Chief Whaler George and Account Strategist Whaler Olivia, we talk about (taco-bout?) our recent conference adventures, beginning with Olivia’s time at SXSW 2018. There were discussions on digital sanctuary, empathy, VR, blockchain, and — of course — tacos. Yes, Elon Musk did a pop-up AMA. Yes, Westworld was… Read more »

A short podcast where George talks about a simple, yet powerful way to think about thanking your audience in order to increase the impact of your communications. Resources Thank You Economy book Donor’s Choose Drip campaign strategy Environmental Defense Fund podcast

This is a short ideacast from George Weiner about how you can better leverage testimonials in your business. Our online reputations are shaped by how others report on our services and work – how are you being deliberate about asking for these reviews? Per the request made in the podcast, please consider taking a minute… Read more »

If you think nonprofit branding is important, this podcast is for you. We speak with author, speaker, marketer, brand and customer experience evangelist, educator, and consultant Elaine Fogel, president and CMO of Solutions Marketing & Consulting LLC located in Scottsdale, Arizona. A sought-after marketing and branding thought leader who specializes in small-to-medium businesses and nonprofit organizations, Elaine… Read more »

In M+R’s 2017 Benchmarks Study, cultural nonprofits emerged as the MVP in several areas. Email list size growth was more than double the overall nonprofit average (21% compared to 10%). Website visitor signup rates were simiarly higher than average — 2.7% for cultural nonprofits versus the overall average of 1.1%. This sector also had the… Read more »

 Workplace giving contributes roughly $4 billion to charities in the U.S. each year. As the data show, there is a burgeoning interest in the workforce of aligning with organizations that share their personal values, and that includes giving back either through monetary contributions or in-kind pro bono work. There’s no organization better suited to talk… Read more »

Risk: Grey hair generator, or force for good? We talk with Ted Bilich, CEO of DC-based Risk Alternatives. Their mission is to build stronger communities by helping nonprofits and startups master risk management and process improvement, implementing a regular cycle to create a resilient culture. No one wants to talk about all of the things that can… Read more »

We interview Michael Sabat, Founder of @Mssg and talk about how organizations can more easily use Facebook messaging to collect information and connect with their audience. Facebook messenger and messaging continue to grow and audiences may be expecting your page to respond with a chat experience. This episode covers different ways your organization can leverage… Read more »

We interview Shakirah A. Hill| Director, Digital Strategy at the Communities In Schools National Office. The discussion covers breaking down silos across the organization and how to balance data and anecdotes in storytelling.   Resources Communities in Schools On Twitter @cisnational Find Shakirah on Twitter @ShakirahAdianna     About Shakirah Hill Shakirah Hill is the… Read more »

November 28th, 2017 is the big day – #GivingTuesday is the national day of giving following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We share our predictions and quick tips for how to maximize the day for your nonprofit. Spoiler – we believe giving will pass the $200M mark, showing a 20% lift from 2016’s day of… Read more »

We interview Sean MacNeill the CEO of MobileCause an organization that provides mobile and online fundraising solutions for a new generation of donors with end-to-end digital fundraising software that is easy, fast, flexible and built exclusively for nonprofits. Resources MobileCause website Low-cost SMS solutions About Sean Sean MacNeill joined MobileCause as CEO and a member… Read more »

Great discussion with Will Critchlow, the Founder and CEO of Distilled, an SEO digital agency. We discuss how to engage, influence, convince and convert organic traffic by creating the right content. How much should you study the changing field of SEO to get the most out of it? Resources Distilled SEO and tech consulting and… Read more »

We interview Josh Riman, the founder of Great Believer, a nonprofit-focused creative services agency about the importance of design. Websites and Resources Upwork 99designs Designing the stop sign parody video Front door disease article Square space – low-cost website builder and platform Wix – low-cost website builder and platform Builtwith.com – shows what a website… Read more »

Interview with John Hall, the author of “Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You” and CEO and co-founder of Influence & Co., a tech-enabled content marketing agency that helps brands and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to gain influence, visibility,… Read more »

We interview Joel Solomon, the author of “Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose and Capitalism“. Our discussion covers what ‘social impact investing’ is and why it is important for the coming generation to care where their money goes.   About Joel Solomon Prior to the founding of Renewal Funds, Joel spent 14 years with founder… Read more »

This episode features a discussion with Kathryn Peters, the co-founder of Democracy Works and Magdalena Kura, the Product Director at Democracy Works. Their work is helping register more voters across the country and increase participation in local and national elections.       “One study of the 2012 elections estimated that as many as 3.9… Read more »

Can nonprofits increase their donation size using basic email marketing techniques? Yes they can, and we sat down with Emily Stevenson of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to learn how. Compared to direct mail and other forms of communication, email marketing is a very effective and low-cost form of member engagement. Using EDF’s email list… Read more »

We interview Marnie Webb the CEO of Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Caravan Studios’ collaborative approach uses a theory of technology intervention to allow communities to respond to the issues they care about most. Caravan Studios has used this methodology to launch projects in the United States, Brazil, and Qatar. The… Read more »

We interview Patrick Hanlon the author of Primal Branding and the CEO and founder of THINKTOPIA, a global brand and strategic innovation practice for Fortune 100 clients including American Express, Levis, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers and many others. We discuss how nonprofits should think about these core elements lead into a belief system… Read more »

In this episode, we talk with Olivia Giovetti from the Whole Whale team about content marketing and how nonprofits can leverage it. It is also revealed that Olivia originally found out about Whole Whale through content created around Giving Tuesday! Resources Learn more about content marketing strategy Learn the basics of SEO for nonprofits Understand… Read more »

We debunk myths about burst advertising, branding, and customer retention with Dr Margaret Faulkner, Senior Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science at the business school, in the University of South Australia. Margaret’s primary areas of expertise and research are in measuring consumer-based brand equity and advertising effectiveness, with a focus on tracking brand health… Read more »

We Interview the founder of Charity Charge, Stephen Garten, about how he got started and how his company is changing the charity credit card game. Instead of earning miles or bonus points, every transaction with the Charity Charge card allows you to donate 1% cash back to ANY nonprofit of your choice. It’s an easy… Read more »

Webinar with Samra Brouk the Director of Business Development at DoSomething.org. Samra walks us through how DoSomething.org aproaches combining cause campaigns, celebrities and sponsors to drive impact and revenue. DoSomething.org has worked with some of the largest brands in the country to create meaningful campaigns that have engaged millions of young people. Their approach is… Read more »

We interview the authors of The Happy Healthy Nonprofit; Beth Kanter and Aliza Sherman. This book shows you how to shift your organization’s culture by treating self-care as a strategic imperative to do more and do it better. Find and relieve cultural and behavioral pain points Achieve better results with attention to well-being Redefine your… Read more »

We interview Asi Burak, the author of Power Play: How Video Games Can Save the World about the bold claim regarding video games. Asi serves as the Chairman of Games for Change (G4C), an influential organization with the mission to celebrate the positive power of digital games. G4C produces the Annual Games for Change Festival… Read more »

We interviewed Liana Downey, an internationally acclaimed strategic advisor dedicated to creating social change. As the CEO of Liana Downey & Associates, Liana leads a global team that helps leaders increase focus and change lives. Clients include social enterprises, nonprofits and federal, state and city governments, such as Speak up Africa, Community Solutions, the Nature… Read more »

Live from our WWULive training on Donor Analytics, we talk with the top data analysts from the Michael J Fox Foundation about how they use fundraising data to increase results. We talk with Luba Smolensky, Associate Director of Analytics and Matt Krco, CRM & Analytics Officer about the tools and tactics they use to analyze… Read more »

Special interview done at our WWULive event focused on doing more with donor data. We interview Greg Cohen the Associate Director of Cause Effective about how they approach fundraising. Resources Presentation from event: Cause Effective Video from our WWULive event

The top level domain (TLD) .ECO is being released starting in 2017 and we talk with the founders of this initiative to see how it works under the hood.

We interview Daniel S. Reyes, the Deputy Executive Director from NY Common Pantry about their choice pantry program. Daniel shares what the organization learned about how this move to digitization improved their stockroom efficiency and helped them better understand what their customers wanted.

In this episode, we speak to Sam Fankuchen, the founder and CEO of Golden, about how Golden strives to improve volunteerism for both the volunteer and the nonprofit that is hosting the volunteers.

Future Today Institute researches emerging technology to predict the future. We speak with Amy Webb, the founder and CEO of Future Today, about how to identify trends in technology and how we use those to plan for the future.

SNORKL is a product designed to help bridge the gap between nonprofits and vendors. Whole Whale speaks to one of its own, Laura Clevenger, to talk about the process of designing that could change the sector.

ACE is a company that strives to educate and empower young people to make a difference in climate change. We speak to Leah Qusba, ACE’s Communications Director, about the use of SMS in their education programs, and the use of surveying for long and short term projects.

Joe Moran, the Chief Creative Officer of The True Colors Fund is a master of automating his work. He discusses his tricks, starting with a list of repetitive tasks as he comes across them and then seeing how they may be automated by tools like ITTT.com and Zapier.com.

Dan Treglia PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice discusses his research on the impact of hope and resilience on family shelter stays. We talk with him about how he did this research and at a broader level how other organizations can think about impact studies like these.

PROPEL builds software for low-income Americans who are often overlooked by traditional tech innovation. We talk with Jimmy Chen the CEO, Founder and his CTO, Ram Mehta about how they have gone about building the app that is now helping thousands of people manage their food stamps.

We talked with Rob Wu the CEO of CauseVox about data from the 2015 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey Report put together by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. We discuss the data and more importantly how nonprofits should think about keeping their donors.

During the NTC 2016 conference in San Jose, we caught up with Amy Devita from Top Nonprofits – a great resource for nonprofit lists and guides. She shares the thinking behind how Top Nonprofits chooses the content they write and then how they use Bit.ly to track it and Canva to make it look good.

Ritu Sharma, the co-founder of Social Media For Nonprofits has years of experience running, speaking and attending conferences that help the nonprofit sector. We cover what to look for in a conference, tactics to help you find a speaking role, ways to keep costs down, and the best way to focus your networking.

The Michael J. Fox foundation was able to capture the attention from Back to the Future Day in 2015 and turn it into a record breaking fundraising year around #GivingTuesday. Emily Moyer, the SVP of Marketing and Digital Strategies at the Michael J. Fox Foundation explains the process of moving friends to funders.

In this brief discussion, we discuss the impact that universal connectivity will have on nonprofits and what web analytics will look like in this landscape with Avinash Kaushik, the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and author of best selling analytics books.

Avinash Kaushik, the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and author of best selling analytics books shares his thoughts on the difficult process of turning data into insights.

Today we have a great conversation with Adam Lowy, the founder of Move For Hunger, an organization that organizes movers to donate the food that people normally waste when they move. Learn how they use offline and online activities to increase the amount of food donated to those in need.

Today, we interview with Steve Vick, the founder of Nonprofit Ally and Noble Paws. In this podcast he talks to us about his inspiration and approach to creating both organizations in a way that supports revenue and makes a difference in the world.

Change.org is the largest website for petitions on the internet with over 100 million users. We interview Meghan Teich, the west coast client manager, about the best way for nonprofits to leverage the platform.

TutorMate is a program run by Innovations for Learning that connects trained, remote volunteers to help younger students with reading literacy. We talk with Dan Weisberg, the National Director of TutorMate about how they developed and scaled the program.

An article from Bloomberg Business this September, “How Much of Your Audience is Fake” caught our eye. We tracked down our friend and ad fraud expert Dr. Augustine Fou to talk with us about the article and some of his new research on bots and how to avoid them.

Mark Horvath, the founder of invisiblepeople.tv, and CMO of The Rescue Mission has participated and won some of these competitions but the greatest tip he has is actually not to play them at all. This week, Mark talks to us about the true cost behind burning your list to ask potential donors to vote for you.

New York Cares is the city’s largest volunteer management organization, running volunteer programs for 1,300 nonprofits, city agencies, and public schools. Today, Gary Bagley, the Executive Director of New York Cares discusses how they use data and technology to increase the amount of New Yorkers that volunteer.

Our conversation with Michael Silberman, the Global Director at the Mobilisation Lab discusses their approach and what has worked in their efforts to make change within a massive institution.

The world of elearning and online courses is growing by the day, so how can your nonprofit begin to play with this growing tech? Hear how Julie Leary, the Digital Strategy Whaler at Whole Whale, has created an online course that has trained over 200 students about the Google AdWords Grant in 3 months.

Today, we speak with the founders of ChangeBetter.org, Amanda Ashton and Ellie Zietlin, to discuss their approach to helping nonprofits discover their impact model. We will talk about their journey starting and how they approach the sector.

In the second half of our interview with Brian Reich, Author of Shift & Reset and founder of little m media, we discuss what nonprofits should stop doing and other fun rapid fire questions.

How should we be setting goals and measuring success in the nonprofit sector? Find out the answer in the first half of our interview with Brian Reich, Author of Shift & Reset and founder of little m media.

Cause IQ provides information and tools to help companies discover new nonprofit clients. Hear the inside story of how Josh Hurd, Founder of Cause IQ got started and has built his product.

Today, we speak to Dr. Janxin Leu, Director of Product Innovation at HopeLab. He explains how their behavioral approach to game design led to ground breaking results in a game designed to fight cancer.

Matt Addler, founder of M??S strategies, a marketing firm that helps nonprofits reach and speak to the right Latino market discusses why we need to think differently about this growing audience.

We talk with Asi Burak, the president of GamesForChange.org, an organization that leads the sector in thinking about the intersection of games and social change. Our conversation covers some examples of successful games and how nonprofits can start exploring gaming for social impact.

We talk with Jereme Bivins, Digital Strategist at The Rockefeller Foundation and RJ Bee, SVP of Hattaway Communications. We will discuss how they created the platform, HatchForGood.org, and how nonprofits can make the most of it.

Today, we speak to Josh Tabb, the Global Digital Strategist at Malaria No More. In the US, Josh is using web analytics and assisted conversions to drive increased donations. In Africa, Malaria No More is leveraging text messaging to keep medication stocked and to fight the spread of fraudulent medicine.

Dr. Augustine Fou , Group Chief Digital Officer; Ad Fraud Researcher, knows and studies bot activity and believes this issue will continue to plague the industry. In this interview, we discuss how to know the numbers we see in web analytics are accurate.

Sarah Durham, the president of the nonprofit digital branding agency Big Duck, discusses the results of a rebranding survey of over 350 nonprofits. If your nonprofit is considering a rebrand of the logo, website, or communication materials it is important to understand the key ingredients that can make the difference for success.

In this interview Jason Rosado (GivKwik.com Founder) and Jorge Fontanez (Advisory Council Member) discuss the importance of visual story telling and developing your organization’s ‘baseball card’ that can quickly tell the story of impact to supporters on giving platforms.

Listen to an interesting panel discussion about using data inside nonprofits to boost fundraising with Emily Moyer from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, John Mix of the IRC, and
George Weiner of Whole Whale.

Workplace giving enables companies to setup reoccurring donation systems for their employees and support a culture of corporate giving and purpose. Steve Delfin, the CEO of America’s Charities discusses the importance of unrestricted funds for nonprofits and how a change to an all online system will harm giving in the federal campaigns.

The Kiva.org platform has to deal with many challenges. One of them is how to support the platform over time as it collects ‘barnacles’ or bugs that come from time and the other is how they avoid playing favorites on the platform. We talk with Sam Mankiewicz, the CTO of Kiva.org about he navigates these challenges.

Kiva.org, a leader in the micro finance world, has loaned over $60 million to date and they are still growing. We talk with the CTO of Kiva.org, Sam Mankiewicz about how digital goals are measured and used in the development process.

Kinvolved is helping schools and teachers change the game around attendance. Their system uses an online attendance tracker in classrooms that allows teachers to log late/absent students. Today, we speak with Miriam Altman, co-founder of Kinvolved, to see how they’re turning the tide on tardiness with texts.

CrisisTextLine.org is a text message hotline that connects teens with counselors at any time of the day. We talk with Bob Filbin, the chief data scientist at CTL about how their system works and why it matters to open up their data.

GreatNonprofits.org aggregates real feedback from the people that nonprofits seek to help, the question is are these people just being nice when leaving reviews and exhibiting a courtesy bias? We speak to Perla Ni, the founder, to try and answer this question.

DonorsChoose.org is the leader in classroom giving in the U.S., they make it an easy, fun, and rewarding experience to find a classroom to support. We talk with Oliver Hurst-Hiller, the CTO about how they create a great experience for donors and approach their technology with this mindset.

United We Dream works for the 11+ million undocumented immigrants in the US and they are using text messaging to help do this. We talk with Adrian, the data and technology manager about how they are using text alerts and communication to help immigrants keep up with the requirements/deadlines of the US Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Charity Miles is an amazing fitness app that is also raising money for non-profits through ads. We learn about what it takes to create an app for social change from Gene Gurkoff, the CEO and founder of this amazing organization.

Democracy Works & TurboVote, Co-founder Seth Flaxman talks about using data and technology to help people vote via mail. Their main product, TurboVote has had great success due to their team’s ability to gather the most accurate list of election locations in the country. They have made voting via absentee ballot as easy as getting a movie from Netflix, which is the first step of their larger plan to make voting easier in the US.

Learn how Teach For America has been able to use Yammer to increase communication, knowledge sharing, and deepen relationships across the country. Aaron French, who runs internal communications at TFA shares his insight on what worked in rolling out this platform. We focus on the people, process and products that went into adoption of this technology.

Pagespeed is an important metric to DoSomething.org because it impacts usability, SEO and the overall health of the code. We talk with Matt Holford, the CTO of DoSomething.org about how they are working to reduce page load time. Learn which tricks they have for launching a new Drupal site and optimizing for speed.

George talks with Matt Holford, the new CTO of DoSomething.org, about how he approached his role and improved their tech development process. Matt discusses his three step approach of learn – plan – execute, using a faceted feature analysis (FFA) process at DoSomething.org to manage and prioritize products.

This week we talk with Andy Aczel, the CTO of the SpecialistGuild.org, about how they use quality assurance (QA) testing to change the lives of people on the Autism Spectrum. The Specialist Guild is able to train, place, and employ people on the spectrum while also doing great work to improve how websites and applications work for organizations.

We talk with Jason Wilson from No Kid Hungry about their unique text messaging program and how it is connecting families with free lunches for their children over the summer. Listen to a fun story that goes beyond text-to-donate campaigns and thinks about programmatic impact.

We interview Stefan Heeke, the CEO of the Sumall Foundation, and answer the question: how can we think about using big data and analysis to predict homelessness and other amazing projects?

We talk with Roland Legiardi-Laura, the ED of PowerPoetry.org, about how they became the largest teen poetry site in the US. Find out what the literacy gap has to do with incarceration in the US and how we can use algorithms to begin to quantify poetry.

We talk with Chris Noble of Cause Media & Good Studio, about what we can learn from creating the press wave and how to gather usable data.

Kevin Conroy, Chief Product Officer of Global Giving will talk about A/B testing with Optimizely and discuss how to think about testing your site. Then we discuss how the Obama digital team used A/B testing to drive an extra $60 Million in donations.

We talk about the 2014 National Technology Conference with the CEO of NTEN, Amy Sample Ward. Find out their tricks to create surveys and listen to an awesome pirate band.

Big Data is revolutionizing the way we live, communicate and do business. However, harnessing the full power of Big Data has only begun to be realized by those who can afford it.