Are you preparing to take your next major fundraising initiative public before securing critical momentum behind closed doors?

Far too many organizations gamble on splashy kickoff announcements, only to watch donor interest stall and leave millions in potential support untapped. When campaigns lose steam early, organizations face donor fatigue, board burnout, and delayed community impact

In this episode, we're joined by Brian Abernathy, seasoned fundraising veteran and leader at Convergent Nonprofit Solutions, who has overseen campaigns raising more than $500 million. Brian reveals why the quiet phase is the true operational engine behind successful capital campaigns, accounting for up to 65% of total funds raised.

Discover how to use a fundraising feasibility study to build credibility, cultivate transformational leadership commitments, and create unstoppable momentum before stepping into the spotlight.

What You Will Learn

1. Quiet Phase Strategy: How securing your top 6–10 major gifts during the quiet phase guarantees 50% to 65% of your campaign goal before going public.

2. Pre-Cultivation & Data: How to analyze donor giving trends and initiate seed-planting conversations that elevate long-term donor stewardship.

3. Momentum & Urgency: Why timing milestone announcements and leveraging challenge grants creates the psychological trigger needed to mobilize mid-level supporters.

4. Corporate Giving Multipliers: How corporate matching gifts serve as powerful multi-generational catalysts that double impact and eliminate public fatigue.

5. The 5-Minute Readiness Audit: A rapid diagnostic framework nonprofit executives can apply immediately to test campaign feasibility.

Also on Youtube.

Are corporate service days leaving your nonprofit overwhelmed without bringing in long-term revenue?

When a corporate volunteer group walks through your doors, it should feel like an unbelievable launchpad for lasting impact, not an operational burden.

In this episode, Beth Steinhorn, President of VQ Volunteer Strategies, shares how organizational leaders can train frontline staff to maximize corporate service potential.

Learn how gathering employer data during volunteer registrations allows your team to align real operational needs with corporate social goals. By integrating corporate volunteer grants and volunteer time off (VTO) directly into your event orientation, your nonprofit can convert volunteer hours into reliable funding, elevate donor stewardship, and cultivate strategic corporate partnerships.

What You Will Learn

1. Strategic Project Design: How to plan high-impact service projects that avoid "busy work" traps by leveraging proven volunteer management practices.

2. Employer Data Capture: Why gathering employment details prior to service days enables personalized outreach and unlocks hidden corporate giving incentives.

3. Onsite Incentive Pitching: How frontline staff can comfortably pitch Dollars for Doers and VTO during orientation to drive workplace giving revenue.

4. Post-Event Retention: Practical follow-up methods to transform one-time group volunteers into lifelong brand champions and ongoing supporters.

Also available on Youtube.

Are standard donation tiers costing your organization critical revenue?

Default ask amounts either leave major donor giving capacity on the table or scare away grassroots supporters with sticker shock.

On this episode, we speak with Addie Olson, Deputy Director of AI Services at CauseMic, about using dynamic gift suggestions to personalize digital fundraising in real time, how algorithms combine real-time device signals, CRM history, and third-party enrichment data to calculate ideal gift asks.

Discover how centralizing data across your nonprofit software improves the donor journey, strengthens donor stewardship, and elevates long-term donor retention.

What You Will Learn

1. AI Gift Algorithms: How real-time contextual signals calculate optimal donation amounts without creating friction for supporters.

2. Centralization Over Perfection: Why connecting top nonprofit CRMs and eliminating data silos beats spending years manually scrubbing records.

3. Strategic Tech Stack Upgrades: How to avoid "random acts of AI" and prevent common data mapping errors across your fundraising systems.

4. Unlocking Workplace Giving: The single CRM configuration update—capturing employer data—that helps drive corporate partnerships and corporate matching gifts.

Also on Youtube.

Are conventional grant writing walls and direct mail fatigue capping your organization's revenue?

When traditional fundraising stalls, mission-driven organizations must look beyond standard check-writing.

On this episode of The Nonprofit Boost, we sit down with Dr. Michal Tyra, Philanthropy & Capital Strategist and Senior Consultant with The Phoenix Philanthropy Group.

Here, Dr. Tyra explains how everyday nonprofits can leverage blended finance to combine philanthropic gifts with private capital and de-risking debt.

Discover how to refine donor stewardship and navigate shifting donor expectations to drive sustainable impact.

What You Will Learn

1. Blended Finance: Combine grants and private capital to unlock transformational growth.

2. Corporate Partnerships: Structure corporate partnerships that build momentum instead of operational bottlenecks.

3. Gift Automation: Scale matching gift revenue through automated technology.

4. Donor Retention: Apply proven donor retention strategies while maintaining practitioner authority.

Also Available on Youtube.

Are you exhausted from feeling like you're holding out a tin cup every time you meet with potential corporate partners?

When organizations position themselves as charities begging for handouts rather than equal partners, they leave millions in funding on the table.

In this episode of The Nonprofit Boost, we sit down with Stephen Minix, Vice President for Community at Upmetrics, to discuss how fundraising leaders can fundamentally shift their positioning.

Discover how combining robust nonprofit data collection with human-centered narrative storytelling can elevate your organization's donor stewardship and help you secure transformative corporate sponsorships.

What You Will Learn

1. Mindset Transformation: How to transition from making charitable requests to pitching high-value corporate giving programs.

2. Data Storytelling: Simple steps to translate dry spreadsheets into impact stories that inspire both board members and corporate funders.

3. Radical Kinship: Why replacing transactional reporting with genuine community connections leads to higher donor retention.

4. Unlocking Hidden Revenue: Actionable strategies to leverage corporate matching gift programs and boost revenue through workplace giving.

Also on Youtube.

Is your board dismissing website refreshes as mere cosmetic expenses?

When leadership views brand identity as an overhead cost rather than a core revenue driver, organizations lose critical funding. In crowded campaign seasons, inconsistent messaging increases donor friction, forcing teams into false urgency that harms donor stewardship.

In this episode, we sit down with Farra Trompeter, Co-Director at Big Duck, to prove how an intentional brand strategy drives sustainable revenue.

Learn how aligning your voice streamlines the donor journey, builds trust, and unlocks corporate giving opportunities like matching gifts without sounding transactional.

What You Will Learn

1. Brand ROI: Build a clear identity using an effective nonprofit branding strategy.

2. Reducing Friction: Implement messaging shifts that improve the donor journey and boost conversion.

3. Authentic Urgency: Eliminate fake deadlines to strengthen long-term donor retention.

4. Corporate Support: Use brand voice to highlight corporate matching gift statistics and double impact.

5. Measuring Impact: Track performance across key areas using essential fundraising metrics.

Also available on Youtube.

What would your nonprofit do if your largest funding source vanished overnight?

Too many organizations stretch every dollar until it breaks, leaving development teams burnt out and vulnerable to sudden economic downturns, unexpected budget cuts, or sudden donor loss.

In this Podcast episode, we sit down with Susan Madon—CEO of Minerva Nonprofit Management, Columbia MBA, CFRE, and author of The Disappearing Donor—to explore the transformative Madden Model for organizational resilience.

Discover how adopting modern fundraising tools and automating high-value workflows like matching gift outreach rescues development teams from administrative fatigue, empowering them to focus on high-impact major gifts, personalized donor stewardship, and long-term donor retention.

What You Will Learn

1. Revenue Stress-Testing: How to audit funding streams and engage your board in critical scenario planning.

2. Operational Slack: Strategies for building budget buffers to protect staff capacity and prevent operational burnout.

3. Corporate Support & Automation: How to capture unclaimed workplace funds using automated fundraising tools without taxing staff bandwidth.

4. Donor Retention & Pipeline: Actionable steps to evaluate donor lifespans, re-engage key supporters, and build long-term sustainability.

Also available on Youtube.

Are rising donor acquisition costs draining your nonprofit's fundraising efficiency?

Many development teams focus heavily on acquiring new supporters while overlooking the active and lapsed donors already sitting in their database.

In this episode, we sit down with Chad Engelgau, CEO of Market Holdings and Innovairre, to unpack how mission-driven organizations can shift from transactional campaign asks to an ongoing donor lifecycle model.

By understanding donor intent and connecting individual supporters to corporate matching gift programs and workplace giving opportunities, teams can boost retention and unlock corporate funding without asking supporters for an extra dollar out of pocket.

What You Will Learn

1. Donor Lifecycle Strategy: Shift from campaign-to-campaign asks to long-term stewardship that strengthens donor retention.

2. Intent-Based Segmentation: Apply nonprofit data collection strategies to deliver tailored experiences.

3. Corporate Philanthropy: Turn individual givers into advocates for matching gifts and corporate volunteer grants.

4. Key Growth Metrics: Track second action rate and multi-channel engagement to measure true donor loyalty.

5. Lapsed Donor Reactivation: Unlock cost-effective revenue by re-engaging past supporters already aligned with your mission.

Also available on Youtube.