Prior to joining CauseVox, I spent six and half years in fundraising and marketing at international development nonprofits. During that time, I was constantly balancing an unrealistic workload, limited resources, and continuous change.
Every new project or campaign began the same way—spending nights digging through online resources trying to learn best practices and looking for new opportunities I could leverage to grow our community, while during the day I pushed through competing priorities and tried to implement what I’d learned.
For lack of a better term, “the struggle was real.”
Through this repetitive experience, I began to see two things: 1) fundraising was hard, thankless, and left you feeling lonely and 2) there was a gap in knowledge and resources that spoke to the unique challenges nonprofit fundraisers and marketers face, especially in small and growing nonprofits.
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When I joined CauseVox earlier this year, I made it my personal mission to explore new ways we could support and guide people working in fundraising and marketing at nonprofits, especially smaller and growing nonprofits: people in the trenches, just like I was a few months earlier.
I was eager to dive in and had a list of ideas of how we could accomplish this. However, the best ideas wouldn’t come from the brainstorm at my kitchen table, but would rather be inspired by spending time talking with our customers—fundraisers and marketers at thousands of nonprofits around the world.
This time has been the most valuable investment I’ve made all year. I had the opportunity to hear the challenges nonprofit leaders are facing, celebrate their successes, glean insights from their mistakes, see opportunities they are excited about, and identify additional ways our team here at CauseVox can act as a guide.
I was inspired by their stories and encouraged by their learnings and insights.
These conversations in themselves were of immense value and led to a light bulb moment: If I found value in these conversations, how could we share them with the entire nonprofit community, so they could glean from the stories, insights, and ideas uncovered?
A Podcast For Nonprofits About Online Fundraising
The answer to that question has led us to launch our very first podcast.
After two months of planning, we’re excited to introduce you to Rally & Engage, a podcast about online fundraising for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketers.
Each week we’ll dive into a conversation with someone who is in the trenches serving at a small or growing nonprofit or is dedicated to helping nonprofits rally people around their cause.
What You’ll Get In This Podcast
Here are three ways you’ll benefit from listening to Rally & Engage:
1) Help you raise more money
You’ll learn the secrets that nonprofits are using to successfully raise money and rally supporters around their cause. You’ll also learn what hasn’t worked, and get practical fundraising advice on things you can implement right away.
“You’ll learn the secrets that nonprofits are using to successfully raise money and rally supporters around their cause…” tweet this
2) Help you focus on what matters most
We know that you don’t have enough time to work on everything that needs to get done. You wear many hats at your nonprofit, are strapped for resources, and are juggling too many competing priorities.
In Rally & Engage, you’ll hear how other nonprofits have managed these challenges, prioritized where they invest their time, and how they maintain focus in the midst of the noise.
3) Help you navigate change
Through Rally & Engage, you’ll uncover how others are thinking about various changes impacting fundraising (i.e. new social media platforms, shifts to mobile, how to engage millennials).
With these helpful behind-the-scenes tips, you’ll learn how to navigate these same changes in your organization and leverage them to spark growth.
“Through Rally & Engage, you’ll uncover how others are thinking about various changes impacting fundraising…” tweet this
Where You Can Listen To The Podcast
You can listen to the first three episodes (launched today) by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or visiting causevox.com/podcast.
These initial episodes will give you a peek into what the podcast is about and what you can expect every Sunday afternoon when we share a new conversation.
We’d love if you could write a review of the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and will help ensure the show gets seen by other nonprofit and fundraising leaders.
Have feedback on how we can improve the podcast or recommendations for guests? Please email me at noah [at] causevox.com. I’d love your feedback and hope you enjoy the podcast!
