Dear reader,

I opened Instagram earlier and got to scrolling. It’s an activity I rarely do these days, and I was quickly reminded why. After five minutes I felt nearly sick to my stomach and overwhelmed with thoughts of insecurity, ineffectiveness, and negativity.

My feed consisted almost entirely of posts telling me why I’m failing to achieve one goal or another, what I’m doing wrong as a parent, and how most of the food I’m eating is going to earn me cancer.

It’s disheartening what has become of social media — a place that preys on and exploits our desire to be the best version of ourselves by curating an endless stream of self-help ads and shock and awe, with the occasional value post in between. It’s the new QVC no one asked for.

All of this to say: I am not here to stress you out.

I want to affirm to you today how remarkable you are.

Many of you have created something out of nothing. You’ve sacrificed yourself in many ways so that others may have a fighting chance against the odds, and so that the opportunity to live with dignity and grow through experience is extended to everyone.

You’ve fed your heart and dreams into building projects and institutions that have made a real difference — that have resulted in changing the course of people’s lives.

Yet you often feel like you aren’t doing enough.

That feeling — the gap between how much you give and how little it seems to register — is part of why I built the Own the Ask Fundraising Academy.

As we close in on the last two weeks of enrollment, I want to be clear: my intention in providing tips for nonprofit leaders has never been to make people feel insufficient or overwhelmed.

My goal has been to help, where I can, make some aspects of your work simpler, easier, and more impactful.

I don’t want to see you struggle to raise money if you don’t have to.

I don’t want you to lose time searching for answers that may be right in front of you, hiding in plain sight.

And I don’t want you to follow a script that was not written for you in the first place.

There will always be room to grow. But fear doesn’t spur growth. Acceptance does.

That’s the core of my motivations. And to be in relationship with each of you, even just through this newsletter, is something I am humbled by and grateful for — because you are doing enough.

More than enough. If not to fix the world’s problems, then at least enough to keep people like me inspired to get up and fight another day.

P.S. If you’ve been sitting with that feeling of “overdue for a breakthrough” — enrollment for the Own the Ask Fundraising Academy closes on August 26th. It’s built to empower you with the skills and the strategy, so you can stop hesitating and start building a pipeline of donors with confidence. Enroll here:

http://owntheask.com

Interested in learning more? Click here to schedule an overview call.

1. Aegon Transamerica Foundation Grant - Grants for nonprofits in 10 U.S. cities supporting arts, community development, education, health, and financial empowerment - November 1, 2026.

2. Alaska Airlines Foundation - Grants starting at $5,000 for nonprofits in Alaska and Hawaii supporting cultural programs, environmental preservation, and youth - September 30, 2026.

3. 100 Voices of Florida - Grants for filmmakers in Florida for any stage of production - September 20, 2026.

4. Abelard Foundation - East - Grants for local progressive social change activities for organizations east of the Mississippi River with budgets under $350,000. - September 15, 2026.

5. Venable Foundation - Funding for civic, art, legal, health organizations across 8 major metro areas. LOI approval is required before applying. - September 1, 2026.

6. Akron Community Foundation - Millennium Fund provides grants to orgs in northeast Ohio for youth, art, family assistance, education, and more - September 1, 2026.

7. South Arts – Arts in Community Grants - Grants up to $10,000 for nonprofit arts organizations in 9 southern states for community engagement projects - September 1, 2026.

8. Mary Allen Lindsay Branan Foundation - Grants to organizations in Georgia to assist those in need - September 1, 2026.

9. 92NY UpTide Nonprofit Accelerator - $5,000 unrestricted grant plus up to $25,000 additional funding for U.S. nonprofit leaders combating the “Crisis of Community” - August 31, 2026.

10. Austin Film Society Grant for Short Films - Cash grants for Texas-based filmmakers working in any style or genre for short film development, production, and post-production - August 27, 2026.

11. Berkeley Short Film Program - Award for narrative short film projects from directors in the East Bay on the topic of environmental or social justice - August 24, 2026.

12. Abel Foundation - Funding for arts, social services, housing, family assistance, and more in Nebraska’s Lancaster and Lincoln counties - August 15, 2026.

1. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - rolling deadline

2. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

3. Seeding Disruption Fellowship - rolling deadline

4. Craft Archive Fellowship - For researchers, scholars, and artists conducting research on history of underrepresented craft artists - rolling deadline

5. Women inPower Fellowship - For women who are 3-5 years away from C-suite positions or women based in NYC (separate cohorts) - November 2026.

6. Camargo Fellowship - 10-week residencies in Cassis, France for artists, scholars, and thinkers pursuing research, experimentation, and interdisciplinary work - October 1, 2026.

7. Hodder Fellowship - $93,000 stipend for artists of exceptional promise (dance, music, theater, visual arts) to pursue independent projects at Princeton, no teaching required - September 8, 2026.

8. Sacatar 2027 Open Call - Fully funded 8-week artist residencies on the island of Itaparica, Brazil for artists of all nationalities and disciplines, including accommodation, meals, and studio space - August 28, 2026.

9. Ford Philanthropy Fellowship - Leadership development and mentorship program for community leaders with organizations under 5 years of age, in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam - August 15, 2026.

What You Do This Week Can Set Up a Major Donation Later This Year

It’s already August. You or your team may be slowing down for summer — taking vacation, catching your breath after a heavy proposal season in June and July. Rest is important, and you’ve earned it.

But this quiet stretch is also the perfect time to reconnect with past and prospective donors who are overdue for a touchpoint. Semi-regular communication (3–4 times a year) keeps the relationship warm, gives you a chance to share updates that show real impact, and helps you learn things about your donors that make your end-of-year ask more timely and relevant.

If that sounds daunting — because your donor list is long, or you’re not even sure how long it is — don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here are 5 tips to make donor engagement simple and painless as you finish out summer and prepare for giving season.

1. Create Your List

Identify 15–20 donors who:

• Would appreciate a contact that isn’t focused on a donation request, and

• Are strong candidates for a significant gift (above-average for your organization)

Include past or prospective donors you haven’t had direct contact with in the last three months.

2. Use Your Team

If a board member or staffer has a stronger relationship with a particular donor, bring them into the project. If you don’t already have a system for this, a simple spreadsheet works well — assign contacts and spread them out over several weeks so it doesn’t become an intense workload for anyone.

3. Determine the Best Mode of Communication

Phone calls, texts, and emails are the most common options. If a donor’s preferred contact method isn’t already in their profile, use your best judgment.

4. Prepare Your Message

Have a reason for reaching out — but make sure it’s not just about you. Share something genuine: a new partnership, a successful summer program, or a heads-up about an upcoming event (non-fundraising). Then open the door for a real response — ask about their life and work, or follow up on something from a previous conversation.

5. Document What You Learn

After each conversation or exchange, log the relevant details in the donor’s profile. “Relevant” means anything tied to their interests, ability, or values that could connect to their reason for supporting your organization — plus anything that shapes how and why you communicate with them.

Examples worth noting: a job change, buying or selling a home, a death in the family, a child’s graduation, or a recent professional award. Small updates like these can meaningfully sharpen how you approach the ask during this year’s giving season.

Want more than 5 tips? Join the Own the Ask Academy — a cohort of organization leaders investing in building a real donor pipeline, not just chasing one-off gifts. The next cohort kicks off September 11th.

We are excited to welcome Jilla Tombar to the Own the Ask Academy faculty. Jilla is the Director of Grants Management and Strategy at the Foundation for Louisiana, with 25+ years across the nonprofit and philanthropic ecosystem. She has helped move over $100 million into communities across Louisiana, the South, and nationally. She joins the Academy to help our cohort see the ask from the funder’s side of the table.

1. 100 Voices of Florida - Grants for filmmakers in Florida for any stage of production - September 20, 2026.

2. Abelard Foundation - East - Grants for local progressive social change activities for organizations east of the Mississippi River with budgets under $350,000. - September 15, 2026.

3. Venable Foundation - Funding for civic, art, legal, health organizations across 8 major metro areas. LOI approval is required before applying. - September 1, 2026.

4. Akron Community Foundation - Millennium Fund provides grants to orgs in northeast Ohio for youth, art, family assistance, education, and more - September 1, 2026.

5. South Arts – Arts in Community Grants - Grants up to $10,000 for nonprofit arts organizations in 9 southern states for community engagement projects - September 1, 2026.

6. Mary Allen Lindsay Branan Foundation - Grants to organizations in Georgia to assist those in need - September 1, 2026.

7. Austin Film Society Grant for Short Films - Cash grants for Texas-based filmmakers working in any style or genre for short film development, production, and post-production - August 27, 2026.

8. Berkeley Short Film Program - Award for narrative short film projects from directors in the East Bay on the topic of environmental or social justice - August 24, 2026.

9. Abel Foundation - Funding for arts, social services, housing, family assistance, and more in Nebraska’s Lancaster and Lincoln counties - August 15, 2026.

10. American Eagle Foundation - To support local nonprofits helping teens and youth in mental health, social development, and authentic lives - August 10, 2026.

1. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - rolling deadline

2. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

3. Seeding Disruption Fellowship - rolling deadline

4. Craft Archive Fellowship - For researchers, scholars, and artists conducting research on history of underrepresented craft artists - rolling deadline

5. Women inPower Fellowship - For women who are 3-5 years away from C-suite positions or women based in NYC (separate cohorts) - November 2026.

6. Camargo Fellowship - 10-week residencies in Cassis, France for artists, scholars, and thinkers pursuing research, experimentation, and interdisciplinary work - October 1, 2026.

7. Sacatar 2027 Open Call - Fully funded 8-week artist residencies on the island of Itaparica, Brazil for artists of all nationalities and disciplines, including accommodation, meals, and studio space - August 28, 2026.

8. Ford Philanthropy Fellowship - Leadership development and mentorship program for community leaders with organizations under 5 years of age, in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam - August 15, 2026.

It is so easy to feel discouraged right now.

There are a million reasons to.

When I was a kid, my brother and I did a lot of yard work with my dad. When the weather was nice enough, you were likely to find us on a basketball court in a park somewhere. And if you couldn’t find us playing hoop, we were probably in the yard pulling weeds, laying bark dust, or mowing.

I remember one time when my dad went in on some river rock with a neighbor just a block away. Early Saturday morning, roughly 2 tons of river rock were dumped on our neighbor’s driveway. Easy. We would take our half over the weekend, and I’m guessing we saved some money under this simple scheme.

The only thing was that the neighbor lived down a short but steep hill.

Which meant my brother and I would be pushing a wheelbarrow full of river rock up it. I was a late bloomer, and around this time, I was one of the shortest in my class. So this was no easy feat. On top of that, my brother always tried to outshine me, proving that although he was shorter, skinnier, and younger, he could beat me at anything (even if he had to cheat!).

All I can recall is the heat from the furious sun beaming down on me and sweat trickling off my chin as I leaned as far in as I could to the steep incline to force the wheelbarrow forward and up the hill multiple times. I’m sure it wasn’t this many, but it felt like my brother and I had to climb it over 100 times each that weekend.

On at least a few of those rounds up and down, I was ambitious, and I filled the wheelbarrow too heavily. As I used all my strength to try to push it forward, it rolled back just a couple of steps, giving me a quick but intense scare. If it rolled over me, I would hurt myself, and if it tipped over, I would be embarrassed, and my brother would clown me for weeks.

So I paused. I sat on the curb midway up the hill and caught my breath. I felt guilty at first, like I had failed. But then I realized there was no rule against taking a break during this chore. As long as the rocks made it up to our yard, it’s all good.

After a couple of minutes, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and stood up from the curb just as I saw my brother turning the corner, a little extra motivation to keep forging ahead. I kept going, and he would not pass me.

The rollback was scary for a moment, but it was a sign of progress. If I hadn’t made it up the hill at all, there would be no gravitational force pulling the wheelbarrow against me. And if I hadn’t ambitiously pushed to the limit of how much weight I could carry, I wouldn’t know my limit, nor would I have discovered that taking a short break halfway up the hill would allow me to go even beyond that limit.

The rollback right now is real. The temptation to sulk is natural.

I’m recalling that summer childhood lesson to remind myself that there is no progress without struggle, as Frederick Douglass said.

Taking a break can also be powerful. I believe it is necessary in any journey toward real change. It can be what restores our energy enough to push through to see the next big societal shift we are working for and to reclaim what it means to be human together.

Three Common Mistakes in Donor Conversations

Even for those with fundraising experience, it’s easy to fall into common mistakes and bad habits in conversations with donors. I’ve been guilty of all three myself, and it takes real practice and planning to avoid them consistently and get the best possible results from every fundraising interaction. Here are the top three that I’ve noticed that are easiest to get in the way - and the easiest to address with preparation.

Talking too much.

We do it either to cope with our nerves, to unconsciously avoid a potential rejection, or to follow the mistaken assumption that more information makes our case stronger. If you’ve overwhelmed the donor or crowded out the ask, you’ve weakened the meeting’s impact. That doesn’t mean you’ve lost them for good — it just means more work to get back on track.

Forgetting the Emotional Connection

We’re conditioned as nonprofit leaders to speak to the funder frameworks for responsible, impactful, and innovative organizations. As a result, we can get bogged down describing our sustainability strategy, equity approach, theory of change, and governance practices — and forget to lead with vision, story, and emotional connection to the work. To fix this, make it a rule to always describe impact: what it looks like for just one person, family, or neighborhood, even if it’s just a sentence or two.

Not Preparing for the Conversation

You plan to keep it casual and not put pressure on the meeting. You’ve talked about your organization a thousand times by now, so what’s there to prepare for, right? Wrong. You should walk into every conversation — even the introductory ones — with a sense of what you want to learn about the donor, what questions will get you there, and what next step makes sense to offer, like a follow-up meeting, an event invitation, or program materials. Preparation is key to making the most of each donor meeting, even if the goal is a relaxed vibe.

None of this is easy to master alone — it takes practice, feedback, and a plan. That’s exactly why we launched the Own the Ask Fundraising Academy: to help leaders build real confidence and a real strategy for raising 4- and 5-figure gifts through individual donor cultivation, instead of waiting for a foundation to swoop in and save the day.

Interested in learning more? Click here to schedule an overview call.

1. Abel Foundation - Funding for arts, social services, housing, family assistance, and more in Nebraska’s Lancaster and Lincoln counties - August 15, 2026.

2. Venable Foundation - Funding for civic, arts, legal, and health organizations across 8 major metro areas. LOI approval is required before applying. - September 1, 2026.

3. Akron Community Foundation - Millennium Fund provides grants to orgs in northeast Ohio for youth, art, family assistance, education, and more - September 1, 2026.

4. Mary Allen Lindsay Branan Foundation - Grants to organizations in Georgia to assist those in need - September 1, 2026.

5. Berkeley Short Film Program - Award for narrative short film projects from directors in the East Bay on the topic of environmental or social justice - August 24, 2026.

6. American Eagle Foundation - To support local nonprofits helping teens and youth in mental health, social development, and authentic lives - August 10, 2026.

7. Zable Foundation - Grants for nonprofits in San Diego County for youth, underrepresented communities, veterans, sports - August 1, 2026.

8. Access Fund Climbing Conservation - Funding for projects that improve access and conservation of climbing environments in the U.S. - August 1, 2026.

9. Bothin Foundation - Capital grants for organizations serving low-income youth and families in the North Bay Area counties - July 31, 2026

10. AXS Film Fund - Grants for filmmakers/creators of color living with disabilities - July 31, 2026.

1. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - rolling deadline

2. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

3. Seeding Disruption Fellowship - rolling deadline

4. Craft Archive Fellowship - For researchers, scholars, and artists conducting research on the history of underrepresented craft artists - rolling deadline

5. Women inPower Fellowship - For women who are 3-5 years away from C-suite positions or women based in NYC (separate cohorts) - November 2026

6. Ford Philanthropy Fellowship - Leadership development and mentorship program for community leaders with organizations under 5 years of age, in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam - August 15, 2026.

The Great Wealth Transfer has been hyped. Overhyped, frankly. Most of the research on it comes from the private sector — wealth management firms, in particular — and their rosy framing isn’t surprising: it tends to gloss over the economic reality for most Americans and the growing squeeze on the assets people actually have left to pass down. As a result, a lot of people in the social change field have written the Transfer off entirely.

But. However you slice the numbers, a genuinely large transfer of generational wealth is underway, and it carries real potential to open up pathways for societal change. Realizing that potential is another matter — it will take serious, deliberate work to direct those resources toward community benefit rather than let them concentrate further.

Today I’ll be hosting a live forum on exactly this. I’ll walk through some of the research, lay out what’s at stake, and open the floor for discussion.

Join me at 10am PT / 1pm ET.

Link to register: https://www.owntheask.com/wealthtransferjuly9-1

1. Abelard Foundation - East - Grants for local progressive social change activities for organizations east of the Mississippi River with budgets under $350,000. - September 15, 2026.

2. Abel Foundation - Funding for arts, social services, housing, family assistance, and more in Nebraska’s Lancaster and Lincoln counties - August 15, 2026.

3. Venable Foundation - Funding for civic, art, legal, health organizations across 8 major metro areas. LOI approval is required before applying. - September 1, 2026.

4. Akron Community Foundation - Millennium Fund provides grants to orgs in northeast Ohio for youth, art, family assistance, education, and more - September 1, 2026.

5. Mary Allen Lindsay Branan Foundation - Grants to organizations in Georgia to assist those in need - September 1, 2026.

6. Berkeley Short Film Program - Award for narrative short film projects from directors in the East Bay on the topic of environmental or social justice - August 24, 2026.

7. American Eagle Foundation - To support local nonprofits helping teens and youth in mental health, social development, and authentic lives - August 10, 2026.

8. Zable Foundation - Grants for nonprofits in San Diego County for youth, underrepresented communities, veterans, sports - August 1, 2026.

9. Access Fund Climbing Conservation - Funding for projects that improve access and conservation of climbing environments in the U.S. - August 1, 2026.

10. Bothin Foundation - Capital grants for organizations serving low-income youth and families in the North Bay Area counties - July 31, 2026

11. Find more at http://HowtoBuildaNonprofit.org

1. Craft Archive Fellowship - For researchers, scholars, and artists conducting research on history of underrepresented craft artists - rolling deadline

2. Women inPower Fellowship - For women who are 3-5 years away from C-suite positions or women based in NYC (separate cohorts) - November 2026

3. Ford Philanthropy Fellowship - Leadership development and mentorship program for community leaders with organizations under 5 years of age, in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam - August 15, 2026.

4. Loghaven Artist Residency - Artists across mediums get support and a stipend during a residency in the Tennessee woods - July 15, 2026.

We talk a lot about leading with courage. But we don’t talk nearly enough about what makes courage hard — and for most nonprofit leaders, it’s not fear of failure. It’s the weight of responsibility.

These two things can feel like they’re pulling in opposite directions. Courage asks you to take a risk. Responsibility reminds you what’s on the line if that risk doesn’t pay off.

And the stakes for organizational leaders are real. If you don’t secure the funding, people lose their jobs. If you skip the community input process, you lose trust. If you let the culture slip, morale tanks — fast. With thin budgets and constant pressure, it’s no wonder most leaders feel like there’s very little room to try something new. And yet, most of those same leaders will tell you: we need to break out of the status quo.

That tension — between knowing we need to change and feeling like we can’t afford to — is what keeps so much of this work stuck.

I think this is deeply underappreciated by those who are quickest to criticize the pace of change in the nonprofit sector. Change here moves slowly and rarely with flair, not because leaders lack imagination, but because the cost of getting it wrong isn’t abstract. It lands on real people.

Eliminating hierarchy. Shortening the work week. Buying out building. Supporting staff unionization. Joining a co-op. Investing in an enterprise. Occupying the streets.

So what does it actually take to lead with more boldness?

Here’s what I’ve come to believe: courage isn’t really about overcoming fear of consequences. It’s about being so clear on your purpose that the right consequences stop scaring you. The boldest leaders I’ve worked with aren’t reckless — they’re anchored. They’re so locked into their mission and the needs of their community that they don’t waste energy worrying about things that don’t serve it. Thinking outside the box isn’t a goal for them. It’s just what happens when you’re genuinely asking, “What will make a major difference, for real?”

They also understand that with any cost comes opportunity. Some partners may not get it. Some funders may raise an eyebrow or have questions. But the right move often opens a door to new relationships with people who do get it — and who’ve been looking for someone willing to lead that way.

We’re a field full of people who genuinely want to help everyone. That’s a beautiful thing. But it can also keep us frozen, trying to please everyone.

Real change requires focus: on the mission, on the people you serve, and on speaking truth to power — even when there’s sure to be consequences. And sometimes it requires letting go of what may have been dragging you down in the first place.

Encountering so many of these stories over the last few months — from people I hold dear — has left me heartbroken and frustrated, but also scared. Maybe mostly scared. That small, selfish part of me fears I could be next. I’m no more immune to falling on hard times or a toxic downspiral than anyone else. Sure, I’ve managed to keep my head above water so far, but that promises nothing for tomorrow.

So yeah, I’m worried. But I’m also troubled by how little of this surfaces in the media or in the many nonprofit channels I follow. Beyond the latest political headlines, hand-wringing about inflation, and merited anxieties about AI, there’s almost nothing that paints a picture of a real crisis quietly building — one that will require radical shifts in policy and public will to address.

What I’m describing is a level of structural inequality and oppressive subjugation, obscured by an outdated education system and cheap mass production, so entrenched that there will be no way forward except through fundamental transformation. We are likely already there.

Either way, our organizations need to be waking people up to what’s actually happening in our communities. And unfortunately, the measures the federal government relies on — and that many nonprofits echo — fail to capture the real picture. Consider what I got when I asked about the state of the U.S. economy:

“The U.S. economy is currently defined by steady but moderate growth, a "low-hire, low-fire" labor market, and elevated inflation. Real GDP expanded at an annualized rate of 1.6% in Q1, while consumer spending remains resilient, though rising energy prices and borrowing costs are squeezing some household budgets.” - Google Gemini

This tells us almost nothing. But then again, neither does the unemployment rate nor the poverty rate. Those measures are outdated and largely irrelevant to capturing how Americans are actually faring.

As people doing the work of social justice, we have an obligation to surface the underreported realities of our communities and call people to action. And if we can’t see the connections between mental health, housing access, addiction, and income inequality, we are missing the picture entirely.

But to do this full throttle, we need sources to complement the stories and qualitative data we gather day to day.

So, here are 7 measures/data sets that you can use in your communications to talk about what folks are really experiencing right now where you work:

1. Mental Health America State and County Dashboard An interactive dashboard drawing on data from over 10 million mental health screenings taken by U.S. users between 2020 and 2025, geographically visualizing need for mental health resources at a pace and scale not previously possible. You can filter by condition (depression, suicide risk, PTSD, trauma, psychosis), year, county, age group, and race/ethnicity.

2. CDC Provisional County-Level Drug Overdose Deaths by Month A data visualization from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics presenting county-level provisional counts for drug overdose deaths based on a current flow of mortality data in the National Vital Statistics System. Updated quarterly, it lets you look up 12-month rolling death counts by county — a stark, localized measure of the addiction crisis.

3. Debt in America: An Interactive Map by The Urban Institute An interactive dashboard drawing on credit bureau data from over 10 million records, showing how debt in collections — medical, student, auto, and more — is distributed across zip codes and counties nationwide, with breakdowns by race and community type. Updated through 2025.

4. The Federal Reserve: County Level Household Debt to Income Ratio A data visualization from the Federal Reserve showing the ratio of household debt to income at the county level across the U.S. — a useful measure for illustrating how financially stretched families are relative to what they earn.

5. The Living Wage Calculator by M.I.T. was developed to help individuals, communities, employers, and others estimate the local wage rate a full-time worker needs to cover the costs of their family’s basic needs where they live. Searchable by county, metro area, or state for 12 different family types. The gap between the living wage and the minimum wage tells the real story of working poverty.

6. Fair Market Rent by HUD Open Data The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s open data portal, which includes Fair Market Rent estimates — the income a household needs to afford a modest rental unit without being cost-burdened — searchable by location.

7. Eviction Filing Patterns in 2025 by the Eviction Lab, a Princeton University research lab’s preliminary analysis of eviction trends across 38 city areas and 10 states. Amid benefit cuts, rising rents, and immigration enforcement, landlords still filed over 1.2 million eviction cases across the country — roughly one filing for every 13 renter households. The report also breaks down racial disparities in who gets evicted.

We’re launching a fundraising academy - designed for leaders like us.

You built something worth funding.

So you wrote the grant. Then another one. Then, maybe, you hired someone to write more of them.

For some of you it worked — until it didn’t.

The pandemic money is gone. Foundations are shifting priorities faster than you can update your LOI, and backpeddling on commitments to justice and equity faster than Deion Sanders in his prime. Government funding comes with strings that are far too dangerous to pull in 2026.

Here’s what I firmly believe: the organizations that will survive the next decade are the ones with people who believe in them enough to write a personal check.

Not a foundation. A person.

Building that kind of support feels intimidating, especially when you’re also running programs, managing campaigns, forging partnerships, and keeping the lights on. Individual donor cultivation is the thing that always gets pushed to next quarter.

And the training doesn’t help. The fancy major-gifts curricula assume you have a prospect researcher, a stewardship coordinator, and a database manager. The small-org trainings send you back to popcorn fundraisers and crowdfunding.

There’s almost nothing in between.

What about the leader who needs to make a real ask — not a $25 ask, not a seven-figure university campaign — but a meaningful, relationship-driven gift from someone who cares about what you’re building?

That’s the gap. And it’s enormous.

That’s why I’m building Own the Ask Fundraising Academy — for nonprofit leaders who are ready to stop waiting for grants to cover their vision of what’s possible, and start building something that actually belongs to them.

For the first cohort, we have only 35 spots available - well actually 34 because I’m taking up one. That’s right - I’ll be a student along with you, not a teacher. Our diverse faculty come with real experience as fundraisers and executive directors, who’ve put their 10,000 hours in on this stuff.

So, check out our site, enroll in the cohort, and let us know if you have any questions!

1. Venable Foundation - Funding for civic, art, legal, health organizations across 8 major metro areas. LOI approval is required before applying. - September 1, 2026

2. Zable Foundation - Grants for nonprofits in San Diego County for youth, underrepresented communities, veterans, sports - August 1, 2026.

3. Joseph Drown Foundation - Funds human and social service organizations in Los Angeles County - July 15, 2026

4. Park Foundation - Grants for civic participation, media, environment, and school food for organizations across the country - July 7, 2026

5. Looking Out Foundation - Funding for immigrant & refugee work, trans and gender-expansive people’s rights, and access to mental health services - July 1, 2026

6. Juliet Ashby Hillman Foundation - Funding for nonprofit programs in Portland, OR - July 1, 2026

7. Trust for Civic Life - Civic Hub Grant - grants provide flexible funding for local groups in our priority regions- July 2026

8. Allianz Foundation - Professional and personal growth experiences for youth 16-25 in select major metro areas across the US - June 30, 2026

9. The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation - Funding requests for nonprofit organizations near their operating facilities across the US - June 30, 2026

10. Goodwin Family Memorial Trust - Grants for organizations serving boys and young men in need in Southern California - June 30, 2026

1. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - rolling deadline

2. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

3. Seeding Disruption Fellowship - rolling deadline

4. Craft Archive Fellowship - For researchers, scholars, and artists conducting research on history of underrepresented craft artists - rolling deadline

5. Women inPower Fellowship - For women who are 3-5 years away from C-suite positions or women based in NYC (separate cohorts) - November 2026

6. Loghaven Artist Residency - Artists across mediums get support and a stipend during a residency in the Tennessee woods - July 15, 2026

7. Just Tech Fellowship - supports researchers, artists, and practitioners addressing how technology shapes society and public life - June 28, 2026

8. Aging Services Leadership Fellowship - from United Negro College Fund provides $50,000 to $80,000 for professional development - June 30, 2026

For many nonprofit leaders, the idea of financial sustainability feels like a distant goal — something to revisit once the next grant cycle is secured or the next government contract renewed. But what if the path to real sustainability has been closer than we think, and the main thing standing in our way is our own imagination?

I believe the first few steps for organizations looking to move beyond reliance on grants and government contracts are to secure the buy-in of the board and executive director in what is possible with a major gift strategy — significant-sized checks (whatever that may mean for one’s organization) that come from relationship-based donor cultivation and solicitation.

This is not a radical idea. It is, in fact, one of the oldest forms of philanthropy. Long before grant applications and government contracts existed, communities were built and sustained by people of means who believed in a cause and chose to invest in it. The question is: why have so many of us in the nonprofit sector — particularly those of us serving communities that have been historically under-resourced — convinced ourselves that this kind of giving is not available to us?

The Proximity We Overlook

Many of us — certainly not all — live in proximity to affluent communities, relatively speaking, with access to local wealth. A small business owner who grew up in your neighborhood and made out well. A retired firefighter who attends your community events. The librarian who inherited a sizable family estate. A mid-level tech employee who has been quietly looking for somewhere meaningful to put her charitable dollars. These individuals exist in our circles more often than we recognize.

Yet many organizational leaders struggle to imagine that someone would want to give a 5- or 6-figure gift to their organization without expecting some type of nefarious exchange. This skepticism doesn’t come from nowhere — it is rooted in generations of exploitation and broken promises made to marginalized communities by wealthy institutions and individuals. That history is real, and it deserves to be named.

The Mindset Shift

But here is where we have to be careful: allowing that historical pain to become a blanket assumption about every person with financial means does not protect our communities. It limits them.

Especially with the current elitist and xenophobic behaviors of our nation’s wealthiest individuals, it has been easy to assume that all people with disposable income capable of significant giving share those same worldviews. But that is not only false — it is antithetical to building a culture of philanthropy, and it is actively inhibiting our growth and the communities we serve.

Consider this scenario: a program director at a local nonprofit spent years turning down invitations to speak at community luncheons, assuming the attendees — mostly business owners and retirees — wouldn’t connect with the work. When she finally accepted one invitation, she was approached afterward by a woman who had grown up in the same neighborhood the nonprofit served. That woman became one of the organization’s first $10,000 donors. Not because she was solicited with a polished pitch — but because she finally heard the story and felt seen in it.

That story is not unique. It plays out in communities across the country when nonprofit leaders allow themselves to share their vision beyond their immediate circles.

Walk in Possibility

The shift I’m calling for is not about chasing wealthy donors at the expense of your values. It’s about expanding who you believe deserves to hear your mission — and trusting that the right people, when they hear it, will want to be part of it.

This requires us to move in a less insular fashion and make a habit of sharing our vision with our broader community. It means attending events outside of the nonprofit bubble. It means board members having honest conversations with people in their networks about the work their organization does. It means an executive director being willing to have a cup of coffee with someone they’ve never met, simply to share what they’re building.

It means activating a vision for what becomes possible when we seek out people with material means who genuinely want to be part of our mission — not extractive partners, not grant-makers setting conditions, but people who believe in what we are doing and want to support it.

Making in Real, Though

None of this works without internal alignment first. If a board member privately believes no one would give $25,000 to “an organization like ours,” that belief will quietly undermine every major gift conversation before it begins. Securing buy-in means having direct, honest conversations with your leadership about what is actually possible — and what assumptions need to be challenged to get there.

It means investing time in relationship-building before any ask is ever made. It means tracking donor cultivation the same way you track program outcomes. And it means celebrating early wins — even a first $2,500 gift from a relationship someone on staff built over six months — as proof that the strategy works.

The resources our communities deserve are not locked inside government contracts or foundation coffers alone. Some of them are sitting right next to us, waiting for someone to finally extend the invitation.

1. Venable Foundation - Funding for civic, art, legal, health organizations across 8 major metro areas. LOI approval is required before applying. - September 1, 2026

2. Park Foundation - Grants for civic participation, media, environment, and school food for organizations across the country - July 7, 2026

3. Looking Out Foundation - Funding for immigrant & refugee work, trans and gender-expansive people’s rights, and access to mental health services - July 1, 2026

4. Juliet Ashby Hillman Foundation - Funding for nonprofit programs in Portland, OR - July 1, 2026

5. Trust for Civic Life - Civic Hub Grant - grants provide flexible funding for local groups in our priority regions- July 2026

6. Allianz Foundation - Professional and personal growth experiences for youth 16-25 in select major metro areas across the US - June 30, 2026

7. The Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation - Funding requests for nonprofit organizations near their operating facilities across the US - June 30, 2026

8. Goodwin Family Memorial Trust - Grants for organizations serving boys and young men in need in Southern California - June 30, 2026

9. Del E. Webb Foundation - Grants for nonprofit organizations with offices in Arizona, Nevada, or California, that provide services to their local communities - June 16, 2026

1. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - rolling deadline

2. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

3. Seeding Disruption Fellowship - rolling deadline

4. Craft Archive Fellowship - For researchers, scholars, and artists conducting research on history of underrepresented craft artists - - rolling deadline

5. Women inPower Fellowship - For women who are 3-5 years away from C-suite positions or women based in NYC (separate cohorts) - November 2026

6. Loghaven Artist Residency - Artists across mediums get support and a stipend during a residency in the Tennessee woods - July 15, 2026

7. Just Tech Fellowship - supports researchers, artists, and practitioners addressing how technology shapes society and public life - June 28, 2026

8. Working Assumptions Project - For artists depicting what family does and can look like, using still photography as a primary medium - June 1, 2026

Check out this article from Cultural Survival Quarterly:

We’re Not Feminists, We’re the Law

You may see this disguised in the language of “shifting our funding priorities,” “no longer accepting unsolicited proposals”, “pausing to examine the effectiveness,” and the like.

Soon enough, we will see who our true friends, backers, and supporters are.

Still, as changemakers we require resources to do our work -- eliminating racism and patriarchy, decolonizing and healing our communities, ending the exploitation of poor and working people is a lot of work! So we are left asking ourselves the question: Who will backfill the hole in our budget when supporters disappear or no longer align with our values?

If you don’t already have individual donors that you can rely on to invest and support your work, now is the moment to find, cultivate, and win them over. If you’re like many social justice leaders and have neglected pursuing wealthy individuals to invest in your organization because you assume their values don’t align, you’re likely missing out.

There are certainly potential donors who share your analysis and vision for the future, we just have to create pathways to their involvement. An individual donor base can help ensure stability over the long-term and be crucial in times of crisis, like now. And that’s what we’ll be focusing on a great deal this year with the newsletter and other content: How to tell stories and messages in a way that illuminates your values and helps you attract and secure new backers.

If this piques your interest, help us out by taking this quick survey to figure out what content you want to see first!

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Only one of these approaches is even close to the right path.

The Problem with Guessing

Yes, it’s important to consider what you’ve accomplished recently—but that alone isn’t good enough. A much sounder method is to break down the reliable sources of funding you actually expect to secure.

What counts as reliable? Think commitments already made, donors with a track record of consistent support, or fundraising events that have proven year after year to raise a certain amount.

You might be thinking: “If I only set goals based on past performance, how will I ever grow my budget?”

Fair question. You can account for new donors—but you need a method for explaining your projection.

Here’s One Approach

Let’s say you want to raise an additional $100,000 from new donors. You decide to focus on mid-level donors who give around $10,000 annually. Based on your previous fundraising efforts, you know you’re successful about 20% of the time with appeals at this level.

So to secure 10 new donors, you’ll need 50 solid prospects you’re actively cultivating.

But… if you don’t have 50 new prospects—or anything close to that—you’re probably not in a position to project $100,000 in new revenue. Similarly, if you don’t have a sense of your success rate with potential donors, you probably aren’t ready to make a projection at all.

And that’s okay. We all have to start somewhere.

But it is a mistake to stick ambitious goals on the wall without understanding where the money could come from. That leads to frustration and disappointment among your team and board—which can have more harmful ripple effects.

The Better Path Forward

Organizations looking to break out of the blind goal-setting pattern should use whatever fundraising data they have to set goals that are both realistic and ambitious.

Yes, fundraising requires a bit of magic to see success. But every great magician will tell you what’s behind every trick: science.

1. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Fund - offers competitive grant programs to reflect community needs and the foundation’s strategic initiatives - Feb. 14, 2026

2. The Roblee Foundation - funding requests in race, ethnicity, and gender equity. - Feb 17, 2026

3. The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation Social Justice Organizing Grant Program supports grassroots organizations with budgets less than $350K - Feb 17, 2025

4. Frank Hadley & Cornelia Ginn Foundation - education programs that support academic success, social-emotional growth. - Mar 1, 2026

5. Grants to Address Mental Health in Criminal Justice System - Sydney R. Baer Jr. Foundation provides grants in this area to nonprofit organizations. - Mar 1, 2026

6. Philadelphia Area Racial Equity Grants - Offered by the Nelson Foundation. - Mar 1, 2026

7. J.M. Kaplan Fund - Grants to nonfiction writers in the arts, history, and the environment via the Furthermore initiative. - March 1, 2026

8. Meyer Memorial Trust - Addressing Trauma and Healing for Black Communities in Oregon / Justice Oregon for Black Lives - March 3, 2026

9. Montclair Fund for Women’s grant awards - Supporting education and social justice and focusing on women of color. - Mar 6, 2026.

10. T Mobile Hometown Grant - Get up to $50,000 to bring your community project idea to life. - March 31, 2026

11. Professional Excellence Grants - center student success, reinforce systems that recognize, value, and support a quality, professional educator workforce - March 31, 2026.

12. Trust for Civic Life - Civic Hub Grant - grants provide flexible funding for local groups in our priority regions- July 2026

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1. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - rolling deadline

2. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

3. Seeding Disruption Fellowship - rolling deadline

4. Google Creative Fellowship - March 9th, 2026

5. ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships - March 11th, 2026

Creating Pathways to the Gaming Industry for Youth

Damon Packwood from GameHeads discusses leveraging the gaming industry as a pathway out of poverty for youth. He shares how his organization grew through strategic partnerships and community commitment, bridging the gap between tech and underrepresented youth in Oakland. Explore grassroots activism, nonprofit leadership, and how GameHeads is shaping the future of the gaming industry while empowering the next generation of tech leaders.

Subscribe and Listen Now on Your Favorite Streaming Platform: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube |

There’s no doubt that nonprofits are taking storytelling more seriously today than just a decade ago. The advent of social media and YouTube, as well as the technological advancements that have made photography and videography more affordable, have allowed social justice organizations to explore creative ways to use these tools to advance their campaigns and mission.

However, somewhere along the way, for many organizations, the spirit of storytelling culture has gotten buried beneath disconnected fundraising practices and the systematizing, cherry-picking, and outsourcing of story production.

As professional changemakers, we often lose sight that the best stories are birthed naturally and cultivated over time to perfection. This means remembering that anyone in our orbit can be a storyteller - a community member, a volunteer organizer, a staff person, even a donor - as well as remembering that it is critical to create space for stories to be shared spontaneously, not just relegated to specific storytelling committees or story collection forms.

Most important, however, in creating a healthy storytelling culture within our organization is demonstrating a good listening culture. Too often, managers and staff discourage impromptu story tangents in meetings, dismissing them as time-wasting distractions. This type of behavior can severely undermine a healthy storytelling culture. But, when we show ourselves to be good listeners by giving our peers, colleagues, and community members the value of our time to hear what they have to say, we communicate that their voices, experiences, and stories are embraced as an important part of our daily work as an organization.

Some of my favorite classic movie quotes below may help you remember how powerful storytelling can be, and while these lines may have been first crafted by screenwriters just know that similar lines of inspiration also flow out of regular people every single ordinary day - people like you!

1. “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Coach Carter

2. “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” - The Matrix

3. “In times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.” - The Black Panther

4. “We walk away from our dreams afraid we may fail, or worse yet, afraid we may succeed.” - Finding Forrester

5. “To see the world, things dangerous to come, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.” - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

6. “My people, my people, what can I say; say what I can. I saw it but didn’t believe it; I didn’t believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together? Together are we gonna live?” - Do The Right Thing

7. “Hate put me in prison. Love’s gonna bust me out.” - The Hurricane

8. “Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested.” - Life of Pi

9. “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it.” – The Lion King

10. “You know that feeling where everything feels right? Where you don’t have to worry about tomorrow or yesterday, where you feel safe and know you’re doing the best you can? There’s a word for that, it’s called love.” -Akeelah and the Bee

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In this episode, host Jordan Thierry interviews the visionary behind GameHeads, Damon Packwood, as he shares his journey from growing up in San Francisco to founding a groundbreaking organization in Oakland. Discover how Damon's strategic partnership approach and commitment to community led to the creation of a unique program that bridges the gap between tech and underrepresented youth. Tune in to learn how GameHeads is shaping the future of the gaming industry and empowering the next generation of tech leaders.

It’s an awesome example of the magic that can happen when you invest in building relationships and are prepared to seize the moment. 

If you’re inspired by Damon and found this episode helpful, you can show your appreciation by making a donation to his organization at https://give.communityin.org/a1yq92?ref=sh_eB9BK6_ab_3FpjaGVbb0u3FpjaGVbb0u  

This episode was produced by Jordan Thierry of Dream Chase Media, with essential production and marketing expertise from Aranza Garcia and Issac Gsoria. 

For more episode content, grant and fellowship opportunities, and our book club chat room, visit https://howtobuildanonprofit.org

It provides a picture of what the organization will look like in the far-off future, forcing leaders to make educated predictions and assumptions. This clarity helps guide decision-making and ensures that all activities and programs align with long-term goals.

Additionally, by highlighting unique strategies or appealing to particular community members, nonprofits can stand out from the crowd. This differentiation is crucial for attracting donors and supporters who are aligned with your organization’s specific impacts and approach.

By understanding how to articulate a clear and inspiring vision, nonprofits can better align their efforts, engage stakeholders, and make a lasting impact in their communities and beyond. This powerful tool has an influence on every aspect of a nonprofit’s work, from shaping core values to attracting resources and inspiring action.

Here is a checklist for key elements of an effective vision statement:

1. An effective vision statement has a future-oriented outlook, describing the organization’s ideal future state. It provides direction and purpose, serving as a blueprint for decision-making.

2. Vision statements should be audacious, building on the organization’s current strengths while encompassing future aspirations. They should be ambitious enough to excite stakeholders but not so lofty as to seem unattainable.

3. A clear and concise vision statement is crucial for organizational success. Effective vision statements are typically between 5-20 words and shouldn’t exceed 25 words.

4. A vision statement must align with the organization’s core values. It should reflect the organization’s mission, objectives, and values, creating a sense of purpose and direction. This alignment helps foster unity and inspires people to work together towards a shared vision.

5. The final vision statement should be informed by and tested by the community. Nonprofits should be prepared to go through multiple iterations, refining the vision statement based on feedback until it resonates broadly with all stakeholders.

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This past weekend revealed the violent murderous acts ICE enacts on people in the name of protecting the border, but what is really an effort to reaffirm white supremacy in the US and immobilize the power of the people. This is a fight for all of us. And it’s important to know our organizations - assuming you work within one - can be implicated. The current government will continue to classify organizations connected to protestors as engaging in domestic terrorism to go after their funders and staff. That’s just one tactic; there are others. If you’re running a social justice nonprofit, here’s what’s happening and why it matters:

• They’re Looking at Your Foreign Connections

  • A presidential memo (NSPM-7) directs federal agencies to investigate nonprofits with international ties for potential Foreign Agents Registration Act violations. Got overseas partners or funding from abroad? You’re likely on their radar.

• Grant Funds Are Under the Microscope

  • The feds are investigating whether organizations use federal grant money for lobbying. Even if you’re careful about separating advocacy from grant-funded work, expect questions.

• IRS Enforcement Is Ramping Up

  • Changes at the IRS could make it easier to pursue criminal tax enforcement. Any gray areas in your tax-exempt status could become problems fast.

• They’re Going After Nonprofit Funders and Staff

  • Here’s the scary part: NSPM-7 explicitly targets “funders, officers and employees” of organizations under investigation. This isn’t just about your org—it’s about the people who fund you and work for you personally.

• States Are Piling on

  • Some state AGs are aggressively enforcing charitable registration rules, so you’re dealing with pressure from multiple directions.

• What You Can Do

  • Check if FARA applies to you. Audit how you’re using grant money. Make sure your compliance paperwork is bulletproof. Know who’s funding you. Get your state registrations in order everywhere you operate. And seriously consider talking to a lawyer about your specific situation.

Bottom line: They’re using regulatory tools to put pressure on organizing and advocacy work that will protect the ideals of an inclusive democracy, fight state violence and suppression, and address current and historical injustices.

Today’s article is the third of a three-part series with my colleague and friend Patty Narváez-Wheeler, Founder and Managing Director of Práctica Consulting. Throughout my years working and learning from Patty, I’ve seen how masterful she is in team development toward equity and systems change. I’m honored she has agreed to share some insights on questions I have about how to lead teams in a moment that is rightfully scary, overwhelming, and unprecedented for nonprofits.

Jordan: Many organizations and public agencies have been threatened with losing funding if they don’t end JEDI-focused initiatives, and some have given in to these pressures—at least on the surface. Some have stripped JEDI-related terminology from their policies and communications but insist they will continue to live out the values nonetheless. Realistically, can an organization be effective in improving internal justice, equity, and inclusion without naming it?

Patty Narváez-Wheeler: The most straightforward answer is: “yes… but it depends.” Words matter, but not as much as action—and today’s environment complicates that common-sense truth. In my experience, the core ingredients that make JEDI work successful are consistent: grounding in employee and community voice or data; adequate resourcing; executive backing; accountability structures; and a clear power analysis. These elements can be measured both individually and collectively. The name of the initiative or the glossary of terms has never been on that list.

However, as you noted, this administration hasn’t only harmed the work rhetorically; it has threatened funding. So the real question becomes about exposure and risk tolerance in this new landscape which includes your own positionality as a leader (how supported and trusted are you) and your organization’s positionality (are there genuine legal or funding risks?). And I want to take a moment to say we need to extend grace to leaders right now, because we are not all experiencing this moment the same way.

And extending grace does not mean accepting the whitewashing of history or centering fragility. It is absolutely limiting and, at times, even harmful when we’re pressured to dilute or censor the accurate, specific terminology required to name things clearly. But even pre-Trump era, I’ve seen the “right” terms weaponized, brilliant anti-oppressive analysis never mature into impact, and seen groups spend months discussing terminology instead of building momentum.

We absolutely need precise language to anchor our analysis—and the work is stronger when a workforce shares that understanding. But language alone has never been what moves systems. It’s the practice behind the words that creates real change.

The pressures are mission-specific and region-specific. For many, this isn’t about a lack of courage; it’s about organizational survival and the impact a funding loss could have on the communities they serve.

So my first piece of advice is: do not make this decision in isolation. Lean on internal and external SMEs to assess real risks—legal, programmatic, financial, and relational. And as reluctant as we may be, we also need to honestly engage with current critiques of DEI while reviewing our own feedback and impact data to see whether anything meaningful or constructive emerges. Sometimes there is.

Second: follow where that process leads. Recently, I supported a partner organization through this discernment process. Because of their positionality, we clarified that their strategy needed to be legally defensible, not risk-averse, given no actual funding threats and layers of executive protection. In other organizations, the risks are very real. If your assessment indicates substantive legal or funding exposure, you may have to make language changes. If you do, be transparent about how you arrived at the decision and commit to tracking the impact. In uncharted territory, leaders must prioritize living into their values in how decisions are made, not just what decisions are made. This allows us to maintain integrity and accountability while navigating tough calls.

And if your work or organization is not at real risk? Then stay the course. Consistency supports morale, maintains trust, and strengthens the broader ecosystem’s ability to push back against harmful narratives coming out of the Trump administration.

I’ll end with this: Regardless of which fork you choose in the road, there is language clean-up work to be done. Whether we like it or not, terms like “social justice,” “woke,” and “DEI” have entered mainstream culture in ways that lack historical grounding, facilitated dialogue, or lived experience; the very ingredients that allowed many of us to deepen our understanding of these concepts in our own consciousness-raising journeys.

So now is the time to clarify meaning. Define what you mean when you use certain terms—old or new—in plain language. Give concrete examples of what those values look like in practice, with clear dotted lines to not just values but mission, performance, compliance, and impact (because not everyone in a workplace is compelled purely by values). In this landscape, I think our job is to embody our values in the process, provide linguistic clarity to cut through ambiguity and fear, and keep moving the work forward in whatever way is possible and principled.

Jordan: Thank you for that thoughtful response, very helpful! Last question - What are some book or podcast recommendations you can offer to nonprofit org team leaders to help guide them through these kinds of challenges?

Patty Narváez-Wheeler: Just this week on “Work Life with Adam Grant”, I heard a phenomenal conversation between organizational development psychologist Adam Grant and leadership experts discussing a concept called ‘hyper normalization’ –and the dangers of toxic productivity culture and a better way of getting things done. Fantastic for whole teams to listen to and discuss insights for this particular overwhelming and change-driven moment in our professional lives.

Jordan: You’ve sent me his stuff before, and it’s really good. I recently subscribed to his pod. What else?

Patty Narváez-Wheeler:

Values Exercise for Teams: We talk a lot about “living into our values”—many of us in leadership do. But recently, while facilitating a conversation with a group of frontline and program staff, someone pulled me aside afterward to say thank you for raising the question of values. She admitted she had never actually dug into her own before and asked for a resource.

I shared one of my favorites: social worker and researcher Brené Brown’s Living Into Our Values worksheet. It’s practical, insightful, and a powerful tool for unearthing and discussing our values—and how they show up in our work. Exploring this together can be a meaningful bonding and team-building experience.

I’ve used this with my own diverse teams, and other leaders have shared how powerful it was for theirs as well. The Racial Healing Handbook by Anneliese Singh, PhD, offers a thoughtful way to share our lived experiences with one another in a way that bonds us through healing—not through trauma. I find this book helps teams do exactly that. (Tip: start at the beginning; don’t skip ahead to the later chapters, even if you feel well-versed in these topics.)

Jordan: It’s really hard for me not to skip ahead, but I’ll try :) Thanks for the really thoughtful conversation Patty. Let’s do this again sometime.

1. T Mobile Hometown Grant - Get up to $50,000 to bring your community project idea to life. - March 31, 2026

2. West Virginia Rivers Community Action Mini-Grant Program - supports communities growing collective power to influence decision makers and secure safe, healthy water for all. Mar 15, 2026

3. Montclair Fund for Women’s grant awards - Supporting education and social justice and focusing on women of color. - Mar 6, 2026.

4. Meyer Memorial Trust - Addressing Trauma and Healing for Black Communities in Oregon / Justice Oregon for Black Lives - March 3, 2026

5. Philadelphia Area Racial Equity Grants - Offered by the Nelson Foundation. - Mar 1, 2026

6. Grants to Address Mental Health in Criminal Justice System - Sydney R. Baer Jr. Foundation provides grants in this area to nonprofit organizations. - Mar 1, 2026

7. Frank Hadley & Cornelia Ginn Foundation - education programs that support academic success, social-emotional growth. - Mar 1, 2026

8. The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation Social Justice Organizing Grant Program supports grassroots organizations with budgets less than $350K - Feb 18, 2026

9. The Roblee Foundation - funding requests in race, ethnicity, and gender equity. - Feb 17, 2026

10. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Fund -offers competitive grant programs to reflect community needs and the foundation’s strategic initiatives - Feb. 14, 2026

1. Harvard Health Coverage Fellowship - rolling deadline

2. Leadership Fellows at The Trust - ensure that tomorrow’s nonprofit organizations have the human capital to flourish - March 2026 through June 2026

3. The Civic Bridgers Fellowship - immerses emerging professionals in a year of service at a nonprofit or public agency. - May 29, 2026

4. Google Creative Fellowship -places emerging talent on dedicated creative teams at Google - March 9th, 2026

5. Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship - supports emerging filmmakers ages 18 to 25 - Feb 12, 2026

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   Check out our 2026 Book Chats!

   

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   Siobhana McEwen on Growing a Grassroots Group on the Outskirts of Portland

   Siobhana McEwen from the Southwest Washington Equity Coalition discusses racial justice organizing in suburban communities. She shares how her organization grew during the 2020 uprising, addressing advocacy and policy needs for people of color and immigrants in the Portland metro region, and explores grassroots activism, nonprofit leadership challenges, and community collaboration.

   Subscribe and Listen Now on Your Favorite Streaming Platform: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube |

With Black History Month just around the corner, what better occasion to revisit some of these classic documentary gems?

In my view, it’s also an opportunity to breathe new life into the documentary films that have captured and inspired action in the struggle for justice.

With that, I offer you five documentary films to watch during Black August:

1. All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond

This is still my favorite documentary about the Panthers. It’s rich with historical footage and interviews of BPP leaders, and offers a clear story arch of their formation, expansion, impact, and dissolution.

2. Eye of the Rainbow: The Assata Shakur Story

You may have read Assata’s book, but did you know there is a documentary of her story? This one is a true gem. Through multiple interviews with Assata herself in Cuba, as well as archival interviews, she shares her entire story from her own perspective.

3. Scottsboro: An American Tragedy

This was the first historical documentary I watched outside of school, completely on my own. All I remember was that I couldn’t believe the audacity of it all.

4. The Farm - Life Inside Angola

This one is still a classic and is known for its influence in waking Americans up to the injustice of the prison system through powerful narrative storytelling from inmates inside America’s largest maximum security prison - 18,000 acres - the size of Manhattan, which also happens to sit on a “former” slave plantation and traces its roots back to reconstruction.

5. A Panther in Africa

Pete O’Neal, a young Black Panther in Kansas City, Missouri, was arrested for transporting a gun across state lines. One year later, O’Neal fled the charge, and for over 30 years, he has lived in Tanzania. This film shows his day to day life in Tanzania, and features Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt, who also moved to Tanzania upon his release from prison. This one is a joy to watch.

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In the book The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, Tiffany Lethabo King and Ewuare Osayande state in their critique of the grassroots fundraising strategies, that “models based on cultivating relationships with the wealthy do not make sense for people-of-color organizations and movements because we do not have the same access to private wealth, and attempts to encourage us to create alliances with the same capitalists who exploit us are in clear opposition to our struggles for global reparations, which, when waged successfully, will foster the just redistribution of wealth and resources.” While I may not completely agree that grassroots fundraising is counter to the goals of reparative justice and liberation from systems of oppression, I do agree that there is an undeniable hypocrisy related to the exploitation tied to the majority of US wealth and the goals of grassroots activism and social change work.

The fact that so many of us as changemakers rely on a philanthropic system embedded in state coercion (IRS rules for nonprofits) and extractive capitalism (profits from endowments invested in public and private companies, commodities, real estate, etc) to fund our campaigns - and careers - is well-overdue for a field-wide re-examination. However, the main point I want to make here is that while it may be dubious to accept the money that many of us do (as organizations or, in my case, as a consultant), it is increasingly morally irresponsible to do so and pretend we didn’t.

By declining to speak up against the institutions that inflict harm on our civil society and our planet, or at least name that contradictory dynamic in our external communications when we accept financial gifts, we collectively stifle the political discourse on the issues of our time and those who are responsible. Thus, those dollars effectively serve as a repressive force in our overall work, potentially negating the impact of how those dollars get spent.

I write here with urgency about this because the signs are plentiful. The distraction of hustle culture is allowing elite individuals and multinational corporations to solidify their grasp of control over nearly every aspect of our daily lives, and right in front of our eyes. (Jump into rabbit holes with me about food here, tech here, wealth hoarders here, and Democracy here.)

Sadly, the truth is that you don’t have to receive money from CocaCola, ExxonMobile, Eli Lilly or even the Walmart to be concerned here, because it is likely that whatever foundation provided you with a grant has sizable investments in one or more so-called blue chip stocks, many of which have questionable if not reprehensible reputations for human rights, environmental justice, consumer protection, anti-trust and employment practices.

However, if you’re in a direct financial relationship with institutions such as these or their philanthropic arm, your fear of losing future funding due to speaking to that conflicting dynamic is legitimate and created by design. Know that.

But it is a disservice to the generation growing into this movement to operate under the illusion that the money we ask for and receive is detached from the systems of oppression we are trying to dismantle. I believe it is critical we wrestle with that publicly and be honest about the bargain we made when we decided to professionalize our efforts for social justice.

As changemakers, we have to find ways to articulate that inherent contradiction, the assumptions or facts we can point to, and why our use of those dollars must be catalytic toward systemic and societal change.

If we reject our obligation to speak clearly to this contradiction; to fold under the threat of our organization’s nonexistence, we fold entirely. We fail entirely. The corollary message we send is that our organization’s livelihood takes precedence over our own liberation.

So, what does racial justice organizing look like in these communities? In this episode, host Jordan Thierry interviews Siobhana McEwen from the Southwest Washington Equity Coalition, who speaks to that very point. She talks about how her organization grew during the 2020 uprising, addressing a sharp need for advocacy and policy change to address the needs of people of color and immigrants in this stretch of the Portland metro region. 

We deep-dive into grassroots activism, the challenges of nonprofit leadership, and the power of community trust and collaboration.

If you’re inspired by Siobhana and found this episode helpful, you can show your appreciation by making a donation to her organization at https://southwest-washington-equity-coalition.monkeypod.io/give/support-southwest-washington-equity-coalition 

This episode was produced by Jordan Thierry of Dream Chase Media, with essential production and marketing expertise from Aranza Garcia and Issac Gsoria. 

For more episode content, grant and fellowship opportunities, and our book club chat room, visit https://howtobuildanonprofit.org

The deficit narrative, prevalent in our society, focuses on highlighting the challenges and shortcomings of marginalized groups, such as people of color and those from low-income households. This narrative not only stigmatizes these communities but also overlooks the systemic factors that contribute to their circumstances. Psychologists explain that our brains have two basic ways of thinking: associative or intuitive thinking and conscious reasoning. The intuitive system, which operates quickly and automatically, often relies on emotions and creates biased narratives. Unfortunately, this system tends to lean towards the negative side of situations and experiences, perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Asset framing, on the other hand, involves defining individuals by their aspirations and contributions, rather than solely focusing on their challenges. This approach acknowledges the obstacles they face while emphasizing their potential and the positive impact they can have on society. I first learned of asset-framing practices from Trabian Shorters, a social entrepreneur and philanthropist, working specifically to change the narrative of Black men and boys.

However, even before I became aware of it as a conceived practice, I dealt with the challenges of shifting from a deficit-based framing to an asset-based one when I directed the documentary THE BLACK FATHERHOOD PROJECT. The narrative surrounding Black fathers often portrays them as absent from their children’s lives. However, statistics also show that Black fathers are highly involved in their children’s daily lives. I tried my best to contextualize the challenges by couching them in systems of oppression and the impacts on the Black family, while presenting Black fathers who could speak to their own experiences, values, and aspirations as a way to counter the negative stereotypes.

Asset framing allows us to tell a more accurate and motivating story about marginalized communities, focusing on the strengths and lessons of people’s lived experiences, while helping audiences understand the impact social and political problems have on individual lives.

To implement asset framing in our organizations, we must first examine the language we use in our newsletters, our website, our grant proposals, donor appeals, and social posts. Instead of focusing solely on deficits or challenges, we should emphasize the teachings, contributions, and aspirations of the folks in our community. This can involve reframing our discussions, interview questions, and evaluation tools.

Implementing asset framing requires collaboration and collective efforts from all stakeholders. Ensuring we have inclusive, and representative communications teams is critical, as well as asking for feedback before going public.

Over time, the use of asset framing should lead your organization toward more systemic perspectives and solutions. It will build your reputation as one that treats people with dignity and respect, and honors their lived experiences and hopes for the future.

Today’s article is the second of a three-part series with my colleague and friend Patty Narváez-Wheeler, Founder and Managing Director of Práctica Consulting.

Jordan: I’ve come across many organizations in recent years that, because of trying to be responsive to the community voice, staff needs, and principles of egalitarianism more broadly, now have layers of processes that hamper their ability to move from ideas to action in a timely and impactful way. Too many ideas simply get lost or expire before they have a chance to be implemented. What advice do you have for organizational leaders looking to dismantle these internal systems rendered ineffective while retaining the values that inspired them?

Patty Narváez-Wheeler: I’ve seen this happen and been guilty of it myself. The truth is, we will never please everyone, and using our authority as leaders when things stall or go sideways is a sacred and necessary part of the job. And, over 15 years of engaging community members and employees, I’ve heard time and again that people are tired of being asked for input—they want organizations to honor the time, energy, and needs they’ve already shared. And I don’t think structure and authority are incompatible with democratic or egalitarian ideals or emergent strategy, but rather it’s a question of the processes we use and how we use our positional power within them. In my opinion, our values should be embodied throughout the life of an initiative, not just at inception. So if a process isn’t working, it’s time to revise it.

Jordan: I must admit I may have been guilty of this too, in the past. So what should someone like myself consider learning more about or adopting to balance these dynamics in a way that simplifies and streamlines the work without drifting away from values and heart-centered work?

Patty Narváez-Wheeler: I’ve been inspired by many impact assessment tools and engagement protocols over the years, and after co-creating and scaling initiatives across the public and nonprofit sectors, I’ve found that these steps help center those most impacted, build on existing wisdom, and support equitable, inclusive co-creation without losing momentum or dying on the vine.

1) Start with what is already known and what has already worked.

I’m a big believer in not reinventing the wheel. In my experience, there is always plenty of data lying around and a lot of wisdom within the relationships you already hold. Do your research first. Look for who has already spoken to the people you think you need to talk to, who has asked similar questions, or who has tackled a comparable challenge like employee engagement surveys, local partners’ annual reports, a recent community needs survey, etc. Build a draft scope, strategy, or plan from that foundation. Suddenly, you have a concept rooted in recent, local data that people can respond to, rather than a blank page.

2) Take the concept to existing groups who trust you—and whom you trust.

Bring the draft to existing gatherings: a governing body like a commission or advisory board, or a standing community meeting. Thought partnership is always easier to activate when people have something concrete to react to. Share the concept and ask very specific questions: What resonates? What concerns you? Who or what is missing? Use that “missing” list to identify whether you need an engagement phase at all—and if so, what its purpose and target should be.

3) Tailor additional engagement only to what’s still missing—and define “good enough.”

By this point, you will know which parts of your concept are solid and where actual gaps remain. Design a focused engagement phase centered only on the outstanding questions and missing voices. Be explicit about the engagement’s intention and scope, and set clear criteria for what “good enough” looks like so you don’t fall into perfectionism or people-pleasing.For example:

• “We need to hear from 50 more community members,”

• “We need buy-in from our five key partners,” or

• “We need a 20% survey response rate,”

Then set a deadline and communicate it clearly. Make engagement methods accessible, flexible, and varied within your timeline.

A bonus practice: build in a pilot phase if resources allow. If any key stakeholders or questions were missed when the engagement closed, prioritize including them—or it—during the pilot. Implementation, not planning, is where your most valuable insights will emerge.

4) Follow Up and Use Your Authority When Needed

Whatever engagement you do, big or small, always follow up with the people who shared their time, energy, and insights. Close the loop. Tell them what you’re doing with what they offered. And if something important arises outside your scope, use your position to route it to the right decision-makers. It’s also okay—and sometimes necessary—for leaders to call out scope creep, pause the process, or declare a respectful sunset on a phase. I’ve stepped into organizations where groups had been meeting for months, swirling in ideation until their purpose became unclear. They needed someone to ask the hard questions, name the ambiguity, and give them permission to conclude the work. Following up and leading with clarity honors people’s contributions and protects organizational momentum.

Part 3 in this series will arrive in January. Stay tuned!

1. Fulcrum Fund - supports New Mexico–based artists whose work centers around visual arts, helping them expand existing projects or explore new directions outside traditional museum and gallery systems. - Dec 31, 2025

2. Bobby Anspach Studios Foundation Grant - Open to visual artists working in any medium or approach - Dec 30, 2025

3. Research on Improving Lives of Children and Youth - William T. Grant Foundation provides funding up to a $1 Million for studies on evidence-based research. - January 6, 2026

4. Prince Claus Seed Award - offers support to talented and engaged emerging artists and cultural practitioners who are committed to strengthening their contexts and societies through socially and politically engaged work - Jan 8, 2026

5. The Impact Fund - awards recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to confront economic, environmental, racial, and social injustice. - Jan 8, 2026

6. T Mobile Hometown Grant - Get up to $50,000 to bring your community project idea to life. - Jan-March 2026

7. The Murdock Trust Grant - makes grants that support construction, renovation, land purchase and other capital projects. - Feb 1, 2026

8. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Fund -offers competitive grant programs to reflect community needs and the foundation’s strategic initiatives - Feb. 14, 2026

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1. Black in AI Safety and Ethics Fellowship - January 1, 2026

2. Venture Access NYC Tech Startup Founders Fellowship - January 1, 2026

3. The Wells Fargo Small Business Fellowship - Jan 8, 2026

4. Seeds of Radical Renewal Fellowship for Spiritual Ecology, the Power of Art, and Leadership - January 15, 2026

5. Glynn D. Key 1L Summer Fellowship - Jan 20, 2026

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How to Build a Nonprofit WIP : From Zero to $1M Nonprofit in 12 Years | Pastor Keith Davis

Pastor Keith Davis shares how he built Camden Dream Center from zero staff and no budget to a seven-figure organization with 25 paid staff in 12 years. He reveals the entrepreneurial strategies and business approaches that made this dramatic growth possible.

Subscribe and Listen Now on Your Favorite Streaming Platform: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube |

Submitting a letter to your elected and government officials concerning the changes they aim to make can be a promising strategy to grab their attention, and in some circumstances, prompt a request to speak with you directly to learn more about your concerns, or even delay their plan to move forward with their proposed policy. However, not just any old letter can trigger this kind of effect.

A powerful letter to a government official must:

1. Be strategically timed.

Many policy-making bodies have specific processes for receiving public opinion, and often that requires submitting letters in advance (with a specific deadline) of a committee or full-body meeting. Following these protocols and deadlines is important because it (should) guarantees that your letter makes it into the public record, is included in meeting materials, and is read by a staff member or chairperson in advance of the meeting. Depending on your strategy, you may want to send it further in advance to invite a conversation or allow time for changes to be made to the policy proposal. However, you may want to have a surprise effect that doesn’t allow the policymaker enough time to change the narrative or retaliate, in which case you should submit just before the deadline.

2. Grab attention and apply pressure.

One effective practice to apply pressure with your letter of concern or opposition regarding a policy matter is to not only send it to the lead official behind the proposal, but to make sure you CC their colleagues on the policymaking body, as well as other critical stakeholders that will have a stake in the success of the policy’s passage or implementation, or better yet, have a stake in that policymakers success in their role. For example, if you’re submitting a letter to your local school board, it may behoove you to also CC the district superintendent. Or, in another example, if you’re writing a letter to a state legislator about a local issue, CC the party leadership, your mayor, and district representatives.

3. And, be well-written.

Your credibility is on the line when it comes to the quality of your letter. It should be proofread or checked by free software tools such as grammarly.com at a minimum. However, the structure of your letter matters a great deal as well. Here is a sure-fire recipe for a strong letter of concern, opposition, or support to a policymaker:

Paragraph 1 - State who/what organization you are writing on behalf of, why you are writing (to express concern, opposition, or support) of what specific policy proposal (if it has a name, a name, a bill/policy number, include that here) and half-sentence explanation for why (such as: It will further harm our unhoused youth).

Paragraph 2 - Describe your organization, its mission, and why this measure is important to your work and/or the communities you serve.

Paragraph 3 - Explain in further detail your reasoning for your concern, opposition, or support. Make sure to be concise, direct, and professional.

Paragraph 4 - Provide further reasoning, separate from the previous paragraph, for your concern, opposition, or support. If you have statistics or research to include to support your argument, you can include it here (make sure to provide your source(s)).

Paragraph 5 - Conclude your letter by reiterating your position on the policy measure, expressing gratitude for their consideration, and offering or requesting to have a direct conversation about your position. Make sure to provide reliable contact information in the event they want to get a hold of you to discuss more (...you would be surprised!).

So, remember, the letter may be endangered but it is not extinct. A well-crafted, timely letter may be the missing piece of the puzzle in your organization’s work to impact systemic-level change.