The Nonprofit Show

• Donor Tiers That Actually Work: The Right Way To Segment Supporters

  Fundraisers Friday is back, and Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall (Mr. Nonprofit Consultancy) tackle a topic that quietly runs the business side of fundraising: donor tier levels. If you’ve ever stared at your donor list and wondered, “Where do we start, and how do we keep this manageable?” this episode is your playbook.They begin with the “why.” Tony frames donor tiers as a practical operating system, not a fancy fundraising accessory. Done well, tiers let you personalize messaging and protect your time by matching stewardship to giving level and relationship needs. In other words: less guessing, more intentional workflows. Tony puts it plainly: “The tiers really help you… organize your workflow and your bandwidth.” That’s a business benefit every nonprofit can appreciate, whether you’re running development solo or leading a full team.Julia reinforces that tiers help organizations stop spinning their wheels. Once you know who’s in which group, you can plan communications, offers, and engagement with purpose instead of defaulting to blank-stare marketing meetings. As she says, “It kind of like helps you steer the ship.” The cohosts also emphasize that tiers are not “grades.” You’re not ranking human worth—you’re segmenting so you can communicate better and build a healthier donor experience.From there, they move into how to set tiers responsibly: start with your giving data, avoid “one-size-fits-all,” and keep the number of tiers realistic (think three to six for most organizations). They also talk about naming your tiers for easier internal coordination and stronger external marketing—especially when the names align with your mission or community identity.A standout real-world lesson comes from Julia’s local public radio example: a tiny, smart monthly ask (“just $5 more”) designed to move sustainers up a level. The business takeaway? When tiers are built on data and paired with clear value, you can create predictable pathways for donors to grow with you—without making it feel heavy or salesy.00:00:00 Welcome to today’s topic donor tiers00:01:10 Who Julia Patrick and Tony Beall are00:01:42 The Architecture of Fundraising book and why it helps00:03:48 Why donor tiers matter personalization and bandwidth00:06:33 Build tiers from your own giving data00:07:10 Donor tiers are not donor grades00:08:37 How many tiers is too many three to six00:09:16 Donors vs members and tier differences00:10:16 Monthly sustaining donors as a unique tierFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: [email protected] us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

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• Five Finance Moves Nonprofits Can't Ignore: Finishing the Year Strong!

  Finishing the year “strong” is not just a slogan for nonprofit leaders; it’s a finance and operations project. Regional Director Ellie Hume from Your Part-Time Controller walks through five concrete steps to wrap up the year with fewer surprises and more control.She starts with yearend giving appeals. Too many organizations accidentally lock donations into narrow buckets by saying things like “your gift will buy two backpacks.” Donors then reasonably assume their dollars can only be used for that purpose. Ellie urges development and finance to work together on language so appeals connect to mission without boxing funds into restrictions the organization never intended.Next, she turns to scenario planning and timing. December is often halfway through the fiscal year for June 30 year end organizations and just after the budget has been approved for calendar year nonprofits. That makes it a perfect time to revisit assumptions, test “what if” scenarios, and adjust to shifting funding realities instead of waiting for a crisis.Ellie then pairs this with strategic planning, reminding viewers that a three or five year plan can’t sit on a shelf. Boards and executives need to treat it as a shared roadmap, check progress regularly, and bring staff into the conversation. As she puts it, “If your staff is not bought into your strategic plan, it's going nowhere.”Finally, she gets very practical: start 1099 and audit preparation now. Confirm W 9s, addresses, tax IDs, and vendor coding before January chaos sets in. Pull last year’s audit checklist, gather board minutes, grant agreements, policies, and make sure reconciliations are current. That preparation reduces stress for finance, the executive director, and external partners, and it frees up capacity when the sector is under increased scrutiny.Throughout, Ellie frames finance as a strategic partner, not just report producers. The goal is a nonprofit that is calm, compliant, and ready for whatever the new year brings. 00:00:00 Welcome and Ellie Hume introduction 00:02:30 YPTC growth and new Chicago and Seattle offices 00:05:30 Why relationships matter in nonprofit finance 00:07:20 Year end appeals and unintentionally restricted gifts 00:11:45 Scenario planning at calendar and fiscal year midpoints 00:14:20 Keeping multi year strategic plans active and shared 00:18:30 Getting staff genuinely engaged in the strategy 00:19:50 Early 1099 preparation and W 9 best practices 00:22:10 December audit prep using last year checklists 00:24:45 Reducing stress and freeing finance to be strategic #YearEndNonprofitFinance #NonprofitAccounting #TheNonprofitShowFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: [email protected] us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

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• Women, Water And ROI: Turning Lost Hours Into Community Wealth

  Around the world, women and girls walk long distances every day to fetch water, losing education, income, and safety in the process. On this global episode of The Nonprofit Show, we welcome Shilpa Alva, founder and executive director of Surge for Water, beaming in late at night from Samarkand, Uzbekistan. From the first moments, Shilpa reframes water as a gendered economic issue, not just an infrastructure problem. As Shilpa puts it, “The water crisis is a woman’s crisis” — and it is also a profound injustice baked into race, gender, and geography.Shilpa walks us through Surge’s “water plus” model: safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health, all rooted in a woman centered, community owned approach. Surge does not parachute in solutions; it backs local leaders in rural Uganda, Indonesia, and Haiti so they can design and manage what their communities truly need. For nonprofit executives, the business implications are huge: the World Bank estimates a twenty one to one return for every dollar invested in comprehensive water access, yet most funders still treat water as a narrow infrastructure line item instead of a generational prosperity strategy.The conversation then moves into power, money, and the shifting landscape of international aid. With government funding cuts shaking the sector, organizations that once relied on large public grants are now competing for the same corporate and individual donors as smaller NGOs. Surge has navigated this by diversifying its revenue model between the United States and Dubai, and by building creative fundraising events that attract sectors like design and architecture into the water conversation.Shilpa is candid about decolonial practice and the uncomfortable truth that international NGOs are part of a historic power structure. Surge actively works to reduce that power imbalance so local partners shape solutions and control implementation. SurgeForWater.org shows us all how to align mission, funding strategy, equity, and storytelling. 00:00:00 Global welcome and introducing Shilpa Alva from Uzbekistan 00:02:23 What Surge for Water does and the water plus model 00:04:03 Why the global water crisis is a women centered injustice 00:07:01 Lost hours, education, and income cost of water collection 00:08:52 Respecting local roles while shortening the walk and reducing harm 00:11:37 Making distant donors care storytelling and climate connections 00:13:13 Creative events and interior design partners as a fundraising engine 00:14:50 Aid cuts, USAID shifts, and new competition for nonprofit funding 00:15:52 Decolonial practice and sharing power with local leaders 00:21:18 How Surge builds trust with next generation donors and partners 00:22:46 Metrics versus stories choosing humanity while still tracking results 00:27:23 Funding wins, 2026 expansion plans, and Shilpa’s hopeful vision #TheNonprofitShow #WaterJustice #WomenInLeadershipFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: [email protected] us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

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• What is 'Rolling Retention'? Fundraisers Using AI and Better Metrics

  Donor retention is not just a feel good metric it is one of the most powerful levers in the business model of a nonprofit. We sit down with Kirsten Wantland, Principal Industry Strategist at Bloomerang, to explore how organizations can move beyond fear and confusion and actually use retention data to protect revenue and grow lifetime value.Kirsten begins by explaining her new role at Bloomerang, serving as a bridge between fundraisers in the field and the engineering and product teams. She brings frontline development experience directly into the CRM design process and is now helping shape Penny, Bloomerang’s new AI strategic fundraising partner. Penny will guide staff on which segments to work, what messages to send, and where to focus limited time so small teams can function like much larger shops.From there, the conversation turns to why traditional retention tracking leaves so many nonprofits stuck. Measuring retention once a year on a calendar basis keeps leaders in a reactive posture, staring at last year’s results instead of managing today’s risks. Kirsten introduces the concept of ‘rolling retention’ a metric that constantly surfaces donors who are about to lapse based on their actual giving patterns. That simple shift creates a proactive pipeline of people to thank, call, invite, and re-engage before they disappear.At the heart of her approach is a deeper philosophy about donor relationships. As Kirsten puts it, “Ultimately, our donors want a place to belong. They want to be part of a mission. They want to be part of a solution.” Rolling retention, better benchmarking, and even AI tools like Penny are there to serve that goal helping fundraisers step away from purely transactional requests and toward thoughtful, ongoing engagement.Kirsten closes by urging organizations to start somewhere, choose a few key metrics, track them consistently, test new strategies each quarter, and adjust when the data shows no movement. In a crowded landscape of 1.8 million nonprofits, the ones who treat retention as a core business function not just an afterthought will be the ones that build resilient revenue and loyal communities.#TheNonprofitShow #DonorRetention #NonprofitBusinessStrategyFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: [email protected] us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

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• Why Smart Nonprofits Rely on Temp Staffing

  Labor myth buster Dana Scurlock, Director of Recruitment at Staffing Boutique, reframes temporary staffing as a sophisticated business tool for nonprofit leaders—not a last-resort move when things are on fire. Dana steps in to show how strategic temp and temp-to-perm staffing can stabilize teams, protect budgets, and protect sanity.She starts with a fundamental question: how many staffing firms does a nonprofit really need? From organizations that have never used an agency to those calling their fifth recruiter, she explains why understanding an agency’s model matters. Staffing Boutique works on a contingency basis, which means urgency, flexibility, and the freedom for nonprofits to keep recruiting on their own. In contrast, ‘retained’ firms require exclusivity and upfront fees, which can slow things down and lock organizations into one channel.Dana is equally direct about transparency. Salary ranges, the history of the role, why the previous person left, whether someone is quietly being replaced—these details aren’t gossip; they’re the bedrock of a solid search. Without that clarity, candidates endure endless interviews only to discover the compensation was never realistic. As Dana puts it, “It’s not just an interview for them. It’s an interview for you to see if it’s the right place where you want to work.” That two-way lens is exactly what reduces turnover and builds longer tenures in mission-essential roles like development.Then she pulls back the curtain on the economics. That apparently “high” hourly bill rate often includes recruiting, weekly payroll, taxes, unemployment, and insurance—costs nonprofits would shoulder anyway. Agencies absorb administrative burden and even handle tough conversations when a placement isn’t working out or a project ends. For conflict-averse leaders, that alone can be priceless.Dana also defends temp work as a legitimate career choice, from interim executive directors steering transitions to seasoned admin professionals who thrive on variety. In her world, temp staffing is not about “just getting a body in the seat”; it’s about building smart, flexible staffing strategies that support the long-term health of nonprofit organizations.#TheNonprofitShow #NonprofitStaffing #TempWorkStrategyFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: [email protected] us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

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