A Modern Nonprofit Podcast The Charity CFO, LLC

Welcome to another episode of a Modern Nonprofit Podcast! Today we will focus on the conversation with Pat Taggart, Chief Creative with Sky Blue Creative. The firm Sky Blue Creative is in the business of helping both for profit and nonprofits tell their story and share their missions through video media.

The Importance of Winning Hearts (& Donations)

If you’ve ever been to a non profit fundraising event, hopefully it's been obvious to you what the organization stands for and how their event is raising money and awareness for their cause. Tosha, being in the industry as long as she has, likes to study the events she attends to identify what works and what doesn’t. Some questions she asks may

Are they using print or video material?
What stands out?
What's unique? What’s different?
How is the organization telling its impactful story compared to other organizations?

All of these questions combine to help us understand if the organization is achieving the goal of expressing its mission at the said fundraising event.

We also need to understand why being able to do this is so important, and that is exactly where Pat and Sky Blue Creative come into play.

Pat says, ‘I think that you have a really wonderful opportunity when you’re doing great work in the world to make people feel your impact. And there’s a very big distinction between telling people about your impact and making them feel it.

Wow, words of wisdom from Pat! This is exactly what he and his team achieve day in and day out. It sounds complex, but it’s actually pretty simple. Pat shares an experience working with a corporate for profit company that had an Employee Hardship Program.

The program was designed to seek donations from employees, something like $1 a pay period, to go in a fund that would later support employees who had experienced any type of hardship. This could be as severe as a house fire, or maybe something less.

Pat introduced the idea of interviewing those who had been selected to receive help from this program and ask them about their experience. Or to have them tell their story. Literally overnight, the fund participation increased nearly 400%. Why? Because Pat was able to help the organization feel the impact of the fund, not just tell them about it.

Tosha and Pat close the conversation with a very important Q&A, “if you were a nonprofit leader, what should they be looking for when hiring a videographer to tell their story?”

Understand their process

A leader would not want to hire someone who is very scripted and attempts to treat the content like a feature film. Ultimately finding someone aligned with the philosophy of the organization so they understand the story is already there and it is their job to unearth it, not recreate it.

Find a partner

Some film makers may limit the amount of time editing or changes to the production, but Pat encourages the listeners to find a partner in someone so that at the end of the day the video will tell the organization’s story.

Own your footage

In other cases, there are content creators out there who will not allow the entity to own 100% of the raw footage in fear that they will find a different producer to make content with that footage. Pat tells the listeners that finding someone who does that right job, won’t need to worry about keeping the footage. So, long story short, own 100% of the raw footage and find a producer that allows for this.

If you heard the podcast today and are interested in learning more or connecting with Pat, check out their website Sky Blue Creative or find him on LinkedIn.

Please be sure to engage with the interview. Whether you enjoy listening to it, reading about it, or watching us on YouTube, make sure you review, share, and engage with A Modern Nonprofit Podcast. You can find Tosha and the Charity CFO team on Youtube or our website, thecharitycfo.com!

On today's episode Tosha brings on guest Dana Snyder. Dana is the host of Missions to Movements and she is also the creator of the monthly Giving Mastermind.

Dana and Tosha's conversation today will focus on digital marketing and how this tool can be leveraged, especially in nonprofit organizations, to assist in fundraising. Marketing is a fun game in the business world.

The misconception is that marketing is the 'art class' to business. All the pretty graphics and eye catching fonts combined with the data gathered from the rest of the team makes for the perfect marketing piece. This couldn't be further from the reality of what marketing truly is.This misconception even stretches into nonprofits. Tosha starts the conversation by asking Dana her thoughts on another misconstrued opinion on marketing.

Many 501c(3)s treat social media as a passive necessity. 'Sure, it's there and we should probably use it, but just because everyone else does.' - Some nonprofit (probably). Is there intentionality behind the use of social media and digital marketing within nonprofits? Let's find out.

Dana believes it truly does depend on the circumstance. It seems like COVID is talked about in nearly every episode, yet this was such a significant event that impacted the way we do business today. In Dana's opinion, COVID forced many businesses to lean into the digital marketing age and rely on it more than ever.

That's easy to see, when a group of people were confined to the inside, and left with the internet to communicate. This is one side of the coin. The other side is the intentionality of business planning with a marketing budget in mind. Dana has seen a lot of success when individuals with for-profit experience come to the nonprofit space.

They tend to understand the importance of marketing and how this creates a brand. We mentioned that the aesthetics are not all the marketing is, however it is a huge piece of it. Dana shares that when businesses have invested into marketing through means of establishing a budget, they can allocate these funds to their websites, designs, logos, and overall brand.When a business invests into marketing, they are investing in the quality of their brand.

And we know this is impactful, because this is ultimately the brand's reputation. When consumers, investors, donors, or whomever the business is trying to attract has a quality experience associated with the brand, cohesiveness is created setting the stage for growth.

Tosha raises some great points when it comes to taking a look at a nonprofit's 'self-view'. With plenty of experience in the nonprofit space, Tosha wonders if nonprofits aren't taking a hard look at their 'digital storefront', is the business being represented to its full capacity or being authentically portrayed to the outside world?

If providing the best service there is, yet most are unaware of this service, then are their missing pieces?She is also launching a virtual event; the Monthly Giving Summit on September 5th & 6th.

This will focus on building subscriptions for good. The event will host panel discussions, corporate partnership presentations, 1-to-1 networking with other nonprofits, and even small breakout sessions.

The goal is to remove any smoke and mirrors to allow organizations to have those real conversations with each other about where they are in the business. Please be sure to engage with the interview. Whether you enjoy listening to it, reading about it, or watching us on YouTube, make sure you review, share, and engage with A Modern Nonprofit Podcast.

You can find Tosha and the Charity CFO team on Youtube or our website, thecharitycfo.com!

Embracing the Future

By viewing AI as a tool to enhance human creativity and efficiency, organizations can overcome resource constraints and achieve their marketing goals. It may even allow them to reach more people, and engage existing stakeholders more effectively. 

In conclusion, while AI has many pros and cons, nonprofits can gain a lot if using it strategically for their marketing efforts. By understanding its capabilities, using it responsibly, and crafting effective prompts, organizations can unlock new levels of creativity, efficiency, and impact. 

For those interested in learning more, Josi offers free resources on her website and is developing a prompt builder tool to further assist nonprofits in using AI effectively.

Let us know your favorite AI tools and how you’ve used them for your marketing!

If you’d like to connect with Josi:

Website: branchout-social.com

Linkedin: Josi Garfield

Instagram: branchout_social

There isn’t much that Trina Ramsey can’t do. We welcome her and her many talents to the podcast today and are excited to talk about all things leadership. Trina is an Executive and Career coach, author, speaker, and non-profit consultant. She is the founder of Just Do You Institute for Women’s Empowerment.

Scarcity vs Abundance

When it comes to leading an organization, there are an endless number of variables to consider. When asked about the unique things that nonprofit leaders may struggle with, Trina answers with abundance.

First, it’s important to consider what a nonprofit leader might consider as focal points for their business.

Relationships with funders
Grant opportunities
Turnover ratios and hiring opportunities
Conflicts with the Board of Directors
Multiple expectations

The list could go on and on. As a piece of this puzzle, Trina comments on how many leaders will focus on categories like these and how there simply aren't enough people, hours, or opportunities out there. This, she calls the scarcity mindset.

Tosha builds on this by relating to the pressures of leadership in any industry. As we may have heard on the The Modern Nonprofit Podcast before, stepping into a leadership role at a nonprofit organization can be analogous to stepping into a fortune 500 company and all of the expectations that come with it. Shareholders are actually board members, government requirements are similar to the SEC’s observance of large corporations, and long story short - all eyes are on you to make the right decisions and lead the entity to success.

When it comes to having a positive mindset, it can also help to look at what positives the pandemic brought to the workplace. We learn that there was a heightened awareness of the social and emotional well-being of literally all of us, but more specifically those in the workplace. Because of this, we can see more investment into the areas of rest, time off, and policies around wellness.

Even more so, businesses today will invest in benefits that can be utilized for therapy, or creating spaces for having those real and difficult conversations about life.
Creating a culture and space for these conversations to take place can have a significant impact on the workplace and those within it.

If you’d like to connect with Trina you can find her all over the web.

Instagram: mycoachtrina
Facebook: My Coach Trina & Just Do You Institute
LinkedIn: Trina Ramsey
Youtube: Trina Ramsey

Or even on her website, Just Do You Institute where you can find her free gift to you a Career Decisions Tool Kit. This is designed to help others think about crossroads they may be facing, leaving a job or industry, considering retirement and so on.

Please be sure to engage with the interview. Whether you enjoy listening to it, reading about it, or watching us on YouTube, make sure you review, share, and engage with A Modern Nonprofit Podcast. You can find Tosha and the Charity CFO team on Youtube or our website, thecharitycfo.com!

During today’s conversation on a Modern Nonprofit Podcast, Tosha welcomes Dr. Krystal White. Outside of a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a Masters degree in Christian Leadership, Dr. White also has a Masters degree in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard University. Needless to say, Dr. White is a skilled professional and we are excited to welcome her! She is the founder of The Executive Shaman and founder of Free Leadership, Inc. The latter is key for today’s conversion as Tosha and Krystal discuss what it takes to start a nonprofit from the ground up.


3 Reasons People Start Nonprofits
Tosha seeks out Dr. White’s perspective on the main reasons nonprofits begin from startup to successes. Krystal shares 3 reasons people may follow this path.

Need for Positive Impact

People have a desire to have a positive impact for themselves and those around them.
More often than not, people will likely have soft hearts for something in their community that needs to be seen. Dr. White says, ‘How you lead your life impacts those around you. Period. End of sentence. That’s a fact.’ When a life is led positively, then the consequence is impacting the community around them for good, and perhaps one of the main reasons individuals start nonprofit organizations.

Personal Ambition

A second idea here is that people may believe that if they don’t do it, then no one else will. Or in Dr. White’s words, ‘no one else can achieve it but the person who is willing to set out and do it themselves.’ She curates this to a personal ambition or entrepreneurial spirit inside of someone. They want to create something, so the task or startup becomes very personal to them.

Transforming Negative Experiences

This idea is rather interesting. Dr. White believes that many people who decide to start a business on their own, could have experienced something negative within other organizations. This overall experience leads them to do it on their own terms in their own way. This also runs parallel with the second idea, Personal Ambition, because ultimately, someone may deal with a negative experience long enough until personal ambition kicks in to make a change.

Tosha pulls us all together with an extremely valid point. The overall theme between starting any form of business, for profit or nonprofits, is the motivation inside of someone and why exactly they want to do it. So the question is, many people seek to start a business, but why specifically a nonprofit organization?
Tosha and Krystal’s conversation today was less about how to start a nonprofit and more about how to help others consider what it really takes to start a nonprofit from the ground up.

If you are considering this, check out the conversation! You can connect with Dr. Krystal White at krystal@theexecutiveshaman.com or find her on her websites below:

The Executive Shaman

Free Leadership, Inc.

Please be sure to engage with the interview. Whether you enjoy listening to it, reading about it, or watching us on YouTube, make sure you review, share, and engage with A Modern Nonprofit Podcast. You can find Tosha and the Charity CFO team on Youtube or our website, thecharitycfo.com!

On today’s episode of A Modern Nonprofit Podcast, we have the Executive Director of Only Make Believe, Tamela Aldridge. Only Make Believe (OMB) is a 501c3 organization that creates interactive theater environments for children in hospital, special education, and care facility settings. When talking with Tamela, we hear a powerful message from her leadership experience within the organization and when it comes to serving others. We all have unique talents and characteristics that make us who we are, but everyone has an imagination. Tamela and her team build off of this mindset to fulfill their mission at Only Make Believe.
A Day in the Life of an Executive Director
An Executive Director of a nonprofit organization typically wears many hats. Tamela shares that although she juggles many things, the most important to her is having a passion for the mission. When it comes to the mission of OMB, they meet children where they are by bringing performances to the care sites or educational systems they are present in. Essentially, making theater accessible to them by meeting them where they are.

Tamela and her team bring the experience to the children. And speaking of experience, Tamela’s background began in acting, as she herself was an actor in NYC. With this, she studied human behavior which translated to her ability to recognize how children reacted to their performances.

She says, “After years starting out as an actor, I always studied human behavior. So then working with specialized populations, it was truly intriguing to me how these young people engaged and how they interpreted the information. [And even more so] how they were able to then push it back out.”

Because Tamela’s experience is unique in its own way, it still provided a specific avenue not only for herself, but also those who are in the acting career as well. Just because she originated in the arts, does not mean she wasn’t prepared to handle the business world either. We learn that she attended Howard University, where one of her professors taught her that ‘the word is showbusiness’, but before you can ever do a show, you have to be able to handle your business.’ Such a powerful message in its own way. Now Tamela and her team can provide opportunities for actors and take their talents to showcase to children for a fantastic cause. A true win-win.

To learn more about Tamela, her team, and Only Make Believe, check out their website.

Please be sure to engage with the interview. Whether you enjoy listening to it, reading about it, or watching us on YouTube, make sure you review, share, and engage with A Modern Nonprofit Podcast. You can find Tosha and the Charity CFO team on Youtube or our website, thecharitycfo.com!