Listen up

Did you know you can now listen to these newsletters?

I don’t record them myself, but if you use the Substack app, there’s a ▶️ LISTEN button at the top of every edition. Good for all of you verbal processors and audiobook fans.

Although, who is this strange man they use to read my content? And why not a woman?

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Nine public speaking tips.

Steve Jobs used to be terrified of public speaking.

And terrible at it.

In fact, the 23-year-old Jobs said he was “deathly ill” and “ready to throw up at any moment” before his first TV interview.

So you’re not alone.

Public speaking consistently ranks as the number one fear in the world, even before death, heights, and spiders. And I admit: it took me years of panels and a half dozen keynotes before I stopped being nervous.

That said, public speaking remains one of the best ways to be a thought leader — one of the best ways to fundraise and advance your mission.

So here are 9 public speaking secrets from Steve Jobs, inspired by Natan Mohart.

If you avoid the mic, you avoid momentum.

The stage is part of the strategy.

2. Top 100 UK donors.

I’ve never seen so many leaders scared.

Aid cuts. Funding fears.

But the top 100 UK foundations have more than £72 billion sitting in the bank. So use this new wishlist for your fundraising.

Then share this infographic for someone in need.

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Be fundable.
Be findable.
Be unstoppable.

3. Donor retention made simple.

Most donors give once and ghost you.

The reason why isn’t a secret:

• They weren’t thanked.

• They weren’t told how the gift was used.

Ouch.

That’s just basic communications. So here’s a simple storytelling formula to get the donation and keep them coming back for more.

Right story, at the right time, over and over again.

Get the PDF

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

Global population, courtesy of World of Statistics. 🤯

P.S.

Rebranding is hard.

Fight or flight?

I’m reading Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.

A great document of social criticism and dissent, they say, as he wrote the book while living alone (miles from any neighbor) for two years, two months, and two days.

“Henry went forth to battle when he took to the woods,” says E.B. White. “And Walden is the report of a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives — the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set the world straight.”

I’m struggling with that same existential crisis.

A deep desire to escape the ills of modern society and spend our remaining days as a family in the forest and ocean. But an even deeper commitment to use my privilege to fight for all those who suffer (like my daughters once did).

Do you feel this struggle too?

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. The thought leadership flywheel.

A pattern I can’t unsee:

Most high-growth nonprofits have the same flywheel.

1. One fundable idea

Simple. Moral. Repeatable. Something others can carry forward.

2. A findable voice

The idea gets shared by a visible leader through talks, writing, and conversations.

3. Trust builds

Donors begin to recognize the leader. And more importantly, trust how the organization thinks.

4. Funding follows

That trust unlocks funding. Without it, growth stalls.

Then the cycle compounds…

More funding → more visibility

More visibility → more trust

More trust → more funding

… round and round again.

Equal Justice Initiative is a great example. Bryan Stevenson built a public voice first, as his TED Talk, relentless speaking, and book Just Mercy all happened while they were just a $3 million charity. The funding and expansion followed the trust; now they’re at $80 million.

Most of you try to shortcut this flywheel and go straight from idea to funding. You focus on grant applications, messaging tweaks, and new donor lists, but skip the harder work of building a visible, trusted voice.

And there is a reason. ⤵

Nonprofit culture taught leaders like you to stay behind the mission. To avoid the limelight. Let the work speak. But that instinct preserves humility, and often mutes visibility.

Today, donors follow people, media quotes people, and social media platforms amplify individual voices not company pages.

You sit in the middle of this strain.

You want the mission to shine, but know that people listen to people, even when the mission is collective. So that’s why I say you must be a fundable, findable organization and a fundable, findable leader.

Idea → voice → trust → funding

Not the other way around.

Yes, building a public voice comes with a cost.

But staying quiet costs more.

2. A confused donor always says no.

You have 3 seconds.

Lose them, lose the gift.

So here are the two most critical rules in your communications:

1. Simplicity

2. Consistency

The average adult reads at a 12-year-old level and it takes seven impressions for people to remember your brand. If you use plain language then repeatedly deliver that same fundraising message, you earn the yes.

Be simple.

Be consistent.

Be funded.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

3. More cash, less chaos.

Most of you ignore this fundraising tactic.

Which is wild, given how well it works:

Your proven process.

If you can’t show donors the how… then the why and the what don’t even matter. So learn to raise more cash with less chaos in this quick guide with two nonprofit examples (including our new client, Healthy Learners, that just won the $2 million Skoll Award).

“A strong process drives strong outcomes,” says Spark Microgrants Cofounder Sasha Fisher.

And a strong process beats a strong pitch.

Every time.

Get the PDF

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

“The right constraints can lead to your very best work. My favorite example? Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words, so his editor bet him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 different words.

Dr. Seuss came back and won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.”

—

P.S.

Are you this diligent with your fundraising?

Finnish my swim

On Sunday, I compete in the Finland Open Water Swimming Championships.

Wish me luck.

A lot of luck.

Because, sure, I once completed the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii (it took me 15 hours and 50 minutes, in case you wanted to know). But this frigid Finnish water is a far cry from the balmy Pacific Ocean and my current 47-year-old Dad bod is a far cry from the youthful, well-trained shape it once was.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Your idea should outlive your organization.

Forgettable CEOs discuss money alone (fundraising).

Average CEOs discuss their work (communications).

But great CEOs discuss ideas (thought leadership).

Yes, all three are required.

But the whole point of being a nonprofit in the first place isn’t to just raise money for our own mission and exist in perpetuity. It’s to solve a social problem.

How?

When your big idea becomes bigger than any single organization.

That means acknowledging that you can’t do it alone and inspiring other organizations or governments to adopt your solution. To use Mulago Foundation terminology, you’re going from:

Lab → Factory → Recruiter

“Recruiting means that you de-emphasize doing stuff yourself and you recruit (and enable) others to do it,” says Kevin Starr at Mulago. “You stop building more factories, and you start building something that looks like a sales and customer service team.”

And we’re currently guiding a recent Skoll Award-winning client around this very thing. We told them in the proposal: execution built the model; now influence scales the movement around it.

But here’s the catch. ⤵

This will require talking about your own organization less.

Your own communication as a leader must evolve from reporting what your nonprofit does to teaching what your nonprofit knows. You trade organizational promotion for more public education.

And that’s the hurdle many leaders can’t jump.

But I had to make that uneasy transition in my own thought leadership, as we build this fundable and findable movement. For example, in the last year I’ve published 380 LinkedIn posts, but mentioned Mighty Ally just 17 times.

(Guess what? The less I talk about ourselves, the more our income opportunities grow. But guess what else? If we shut down, our Fundable/Findable Framework will live on.)

So shift from fundraising to idea-raising.

From money trails to movements.

And ask yourself: if your nonprofit disappeared tomorrow, would your solution survive? No? Then if your ideas stay trapped inside your organization, your impact does too.

Most CEOs are building organizations.

The great ones are building fields.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

2. Stories are just data with a soul.

Everyone is claiming “evidence-based” these days.

And while I bristle at this buzzword…

The harsh reality for you is that every single nonprofit in the world has some sort of “proof,” even if it’s anecdotal and even if it’s garbage.

Here’s why this matters. ⤵

You can’t raise money with a randomized controlled trial alone, and a monitoring and evaluation report (itself) doesn’t land you funding. “Data are just summaries of thousands of stories — tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful,” says Made to Stick.

Because science tells us that a fact wrapped in a story is 22 times more memorable.

So don’t just count numbers.
Make the numbers count.

3. Leadership styles to grow your funding.

Your leadership fuels your fundraising.

Because great leaders = great fundraisers.

And after working with more than 500 organizations in 60 countries (and being a nonprofit leader myself), we’ve spotted a pattern. There are seven effective leadership styles:

🏋🏽 The Doer

🧐 The Decider

🎬 The Director

💡 The Dreamer

🥁 The Drummer

👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏿 The Delegator

🗣️ The Discusser

And there’s one to avoid:

🙅🏾‍♀️ The Deflector

Which one(s) are you?

Find out in this 2-minute guide.

Get the PDF

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

“If everything shouts, how will anything be heard?”

A great rhetorical question from on Substack. And a simple reminder about the importance of typography in your donor communications.

P.S.

Punctuation: matters in fundraising too :: right?

Worlds colliding

One of my favorite parts of our work is the coaching engagements, where we give nonprofits a month of live feedback as they fix their fundraising.

Last week, two worlds collided.

The nonprofit ECCHO Live helps live-events gig workers with mental health, financial wellbeing, and career growth. And before I left the corporate world, I did brand building and fundraising in this very industry some 20 years ago.

So, how strange it was that last week I coached this nonprofit’s Executive Director and his board, all while he was backstage at the legendary music festival, Lollapalooza.

It took me back to another life. Because I was there once too — long hair, big dreams, and convinced that brands could become better corporate citizens.

Funny how life comes full circle. As I’ve always helped people with a platform make their message unforgettable.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. The visibility trap.

A tension I’m noticing lately:

You want influence.

But you fear looking like an influencer.

Every nonprofit leader we coach says, “I don’t want to make it about me,” yet the modern communication ecosystem increasingly rewards thought leaders who engage publicly.

I get it, because I felt (and still feel!) the exact same way. So in this infographic, I mapped the difference.

Between visibility that serves the ego.
And visibility that serves the mission.

Humble doesn’t mean hidden.

💪🏽💛

2. Talk with donors. Not at donors.

Reject: donor presentations.

Embrace: fundraising conversations.

I’ve used this one mantra more in my own fundraising and sales career, than anything else. Because research found that collaborating with a prospect is the second key behavior to funding success, right after educating them.

Funders can smell desperation.

So you must break the habit of trying to convince. Instead, talk with donors about a potential, mutual fit.

“Having been a donor, I can confirm that those I loved working with were the ones that wanted to collaborate and co-create and with whom there was mutual candour,” says Rashmir Balasubramaniam.

Here’s how in three golden rules:

🥇 Ask lots of questions

The better your questions, the better your answers. Because you’ll know how to tailor your side of the chat.

🥈 Use your pitch deck sparingly

Show your deck only to spark the conversation, then take it off-screen and send it as a follow-up. I do this myself and watch people’s eyes fill with relief.

🥉 Aim to speak just ~40% of the time

Even if the prospect asks you to present, getting them to talk is better. Case in point: studies show the highest close rates at a 43/57 talk-to-listen ratio.

Like somebody’s wise mother once said:

We have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Let’s shut up and listen.

3. Laws for small nonprofits.

30% of nonprofits fail within 10 years.

The killer isn’t fundraising.

You’re more likely to die from mismanagement, lack of focus, no product/market fit, leadership issues, burnout, and trying to scale too quickly.

To name a few.

I learned this the hard way by building four organizations: one that grew to acquisition, one that failed, and two that achieved solid success.

So get 15 laws of startup success (most apply to bigger nonprofits too), adapted from Y Combinator.

What would you add to this list?

What do you question?

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

“Have you ever wondered why we use an iceberg model to identify ‘root causes’?”

This thought-provoking question comes from Sarah Davis on LinkedIn recently.

“While this is successful in taking a complex system and giving it a visual, I am curious if it has been a reflection of the linear, industrialised model most organisations and teams are built around, perhaps even reinforcing the model?” she continues.

“If it’s root causes we’re keen to address, let’s use a model with actual roots.”

P.S.

Legacy donations, with no fluff.

Made me blush

A first-time author like me never gets tired of seeing my book reviewed like this:

“I’ve read this book cover to cover 4 times, and flip through it frequently when talking to others in the NPO world,” says Katt on Amazon. “It’s the first book that actually did a great job mixing comms, marketing and mission — instead of treating them like silos.”

“Highly recommend. If you’re like my org you’ll be rewriting your mission statement based on the recommendations here a few days after the book arrives, and finally understand how to simplify what you say to your audiences, both internal and external.”

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. How to become a thought leader.

They all want you to be a thought leader.

You’re just trying to make payroll.

And that’s the pressure you’re under.

From your board, from your fundraising team, from the donors watching your every move, from yourself, from me. Deep down, you know in your gut that your own voice and visibility as a nonprofit leader are critical for raising money and advancing your mission.

But there’s no nonprofit CEO thought-leadership academy, and most books on the topic were written for Silicon Valley influencers rather than social sector leaders.

I didn’t have a roadmap.
I stumbled my way through this.

So I recently mapped my own process into this 8-step infographic.

It’s the work we’re doing at Mighty Ally: creating fundable and findable organizations and making you a fundable and findable leader.

Because movements need both a banner and a bearer.

Fundable.
Findable.
Followable.

2. From keyboard to keynote.

Death. Heights. Spiders.

No, the number 1 fear in the world?

Public speaking.

But there’s a simple way for you to improve, just like I did:

Write a lot and only talk about things you’ve typed. “Hardly any sentence in public comes out of my mouth, unless I’ve written it down once before,” says Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Why?

Your brain can only crystallize a unique point of view — and gain confidence in that perspective — when you’re forced to document it.

That’s why our Mighty Ally clients who are outstanding verbal communicators first find clarity through non-verbal communication.

Here’s my advice. ⤵

Before trying to be a conference panelist, join podcasts, or speak on any stage, you should regularly blog, post on social, or publish an email newsletter externally. Or even send a monthly staff memo internally.

My own keynotes (like this video above from the India Fundraising Conference) are much stronger after writing every day for three years.

Sounds obvious, right?

But it’s all too common for a leader to try to become a speaker before putting in the time to be a writer.

So pen your thoughts, then voice your impact.

From keyboard to keynote.

3. A cheat sheet of communications formats beyond blog posts & photos.

“Nike has said Just Do It every single day since 1988 and you’re afraid to reshare an old blog post from 6 months ago because people may have seen it?”

With that reframe from Ross Simmonds in mind, I believe your fundraising content doesn’t have to be so hard.

You might have enough content already.

Just repurpose your existing communications materials into different formats. For example, take your annual report and break it up into:

• A case study for donors

• A webinar for NGO partners

• A video tour for website visitors

• A how-to guide for other nonprofits

• A presentation slides deck for media

• A press release for government officials

• A series of testimonials for the community

See which content types engage your donors.

37 formats, endless possibilities.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

Buy your copy

The weekly bonus

“Being the input is not the same as influencing the output,” says in her recent Substack essay:

why proximity to power is not power at all

“We are making the cage look beautiful, and that is a disservice to every brilliant young woman who deserves to know what she is actually walking into before she walks in.”

It’s an important reflection that needs to be shared.

P.S.

When your donors give you advice.

Halfway home

Today marks exactly five weeks into our 10-week summer family road trip, working remotely as we go.

Slovenia, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Norway… check.

Tomorrow we drive on to Sweden, then Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary.

My favorite moment so far? Watching the midnight sun (well, the 2:30AM sun actually) over the snow-capped mountains and fjords in the Arctic Circle.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. If donors need a tour, you need a brand.

Donors shouldn’t need a site visit before funding you.

If they do, you have one of two problems:

1. Your communications are weak.

2. Your model is scattered.

Or both.

“Every time a donor comes to see our work on the ground, the lightbulb goes off in their head!” I often hear this phrase from prospective clients as a badge of honor. But it’s not.

Because if your secret sauce only makes sense after three flights, a dusty Land Cruiser ride, five staff explanations, and a full-day immersion…

Then maybe it’s not a “sauce” after all.

Strong nonprofits communicate clarity at a distance. Long before the site visit or proposal, a donor should understand:

• what problem you solve

• how your model works

• why now

• and why you over everyone else

That’s what a brand does.

Yes, site visits deepen belief (and we at Mighty Ally do them to better understand our consulting clients, like this photo of me in Gulu, Uganda). But visits should confirm a donor’s conviction vs. create it from scratch.

That’s why fundraising shouldn’t depend on proximity. Especially in a world where donors make million-dollar decisions from Zoom calls, WhatsApp messages, LinkedIn posts, and forwarded decks.

Because sophisticated funders are pattern matchers. And if your story takes too long to click, many will move on to the next nonprofit that explains itself better.

Clarity scales.
Complexity stalls.

Stop romanticizing confusion as nuance.

Being fundable and findable is the site visit you never have to schedule.

So land the funder before they land.

2. Writing tips for funding.

Weak writing = weak fundraising.

The reason why is easy to see. ⤵

Funding applications = writing
Positioning strategy = writing
Strategic planning = writing
Theory of change = writing
External comms = writing
Marketing plans = writing
Email marketing = writing
Internal comms = writing
Video scripting = writing
Social media = writing
M&E reports = writing
SEO tactics = writing
Pitch decks = writing
Blog posts = writing
Speeches = writing
Websites = writing
Publicity = writing

But many leaders still get tangled up in writing about what they do. Especially considering the Global North’s unfair dominance of donor dollars — many Global South leaders are writing in English as a second or third language.

So here are seven quick writing tips to help.

“Words have power. Words are power. Words could be your power.” — Mohammed Qahtani

Get the PDF

3. A 10-step marketing communications cheat sheet.

Get a fundraising communications cheat sheet. 📣

But your marcom plan isn’t just for funding.

“Nonprofits are in the business of developing and advancing big, bold ideas,” says Sean Gibbons. “If you want your ideas to take hold and win, you need to communicate and communicate well. It’s not an option anymore — it’s a necessity.”

We’ve used this formula with 500 partners in 62 countries so far.

So it’s time to grab the megaphone.

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P.S. If this content has been useful for you, it’s useful for me (and our own nonprofit mission!) when you share it. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

Words matter.

I cringe when I hear “hard-to-reach communities.”

Because maybe they aren’t hard to reach.

Maybe our office is only open when people are at work, maybe our website doesn’t allow screen readers, maybe our intake forms assume literacy, maybe our services require a referral, maybe our fees are more than many families can afford, maybe the nearest clinic is a day’s journey away, maybe transportation costs more than the appointment, maybe our communications ignore local languages and we expect everyone to speak English, maybe we only operate in urban centers, maybe our programs depend on smartphones or stable internet, maybe we’re the ones creating the barriers, and, just maybe, our nonprofit is hard to access.

P.S.

How to greet your donors.

Rare discount

For those of you wanting a hardcover copy of my book Fundable & Findable…

Amazon currently has it discounted 33% to $19.99, at least in most countries, like the United States.

So stock up for yourself and team!

And remember: if you bulk-purchase 30+ copies for your staff, cohort, or class, you get a free virtual masterclass delivered by me personally.

We all win.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Underpaid = undermined impact.

You should be paid more.

But nonprofits face an unjust rulebook.

Because society discriminates against nonprofits when it comes to compensation, according to the legendary TED Talk by Dan Pallotta.

Especially the funders who hold you to a different standard than the private sector — where many of them built their wealth in the first place — when they don’t allow your fundraising to cover salaries.

(Yet foundations have $1.5 trillion sitting in the bank. So it shouldn’t be an either/or choice between programs or people.)

Here’s the irony. ⤵

“You want to make $50 million selling violent video games to kids, go for it,” Pallotta says. “But you want to make half a million dollars trying to cure kids of malaria, you’re considered a parasite yourself.”

And this is why it matters, from Joan Garry:

“Nonprofits exist in a free market. They need to be competitive in order to attract the best talent. It’s that simple. A healthy nonprofit with outstanding leadership will be able to help more people in a more effective and bigger way for a much longer time.”

Making change shouldn’t mean making less.

So nonprofit leaders, here are 10 tips:

1. Stop glorifying nonprofit sacrifice

2. Put pay equity on board agendas

3. Benchmark against the local market

4. Reject grants that cap your overhead

5. Rebrand salaries as mission-critical

6. Train your board to defend fair pay

7. Ditch the “100% to cause” pitch

8. Pay before you praise passion

9. Compensate lived experience

10. Budget for staff retention

Because underpaid = undermined impact.

2. Nine books to improve your writing.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

So why aren’t you writing more?

Writing is one of the most powerful ways to raise money. And every single element of being fundable and findable relies on written text, from your theory of change to your website.

Here are my own favorite books on writing:

• On Writing, Stephen King

• Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

• Smart Brevity, Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen & Roy Schwartz

• On Writing Well, William Zinsser

• The War of Art, Steven Pressfield

• The Art & Business of Online Writing, Nicolas Cole

• Writing for Busy Readers, Jessica Lasky-Fink & Todd Rogers

Plus my top two for anyone writing a book:

• Write a Must-Read, AJ Harper

• Write Useful Books, Rob Fitzpatrick

There’s also an entire chapter on Writing & Thought Leadership in my own book, Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising, because the topic is that important.

So get reading and writing.

“Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”

3. Seven assets of small & midsize nonprofits.

Small nonprofits have superpowers.

So stop thinking you need millions first.

Because “a $500k organization is not just a smaller version of a $5M organization,” says . “When you compare yourself to someone raising money in a different ecosystem, you miss the practical advantages right in front of you.”

Here’s the twist. ⤵

“Truly new things rarely need an abundance of money,” says Kevin Kelly. “If that was so, billionaires would have a monopoly on inventing new things, and they don’t. Instead, almost all breakthroughs are made by those who lack money.”

That’s why I loved how The Bridgespan Group recently listed these strengths of small and midsize nonprofits.

Share ♻️ this list to reframe small as a superpower.

Glass half full vs. half empty.

What would you add?

Share

P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

“The role of AI is not to help us to do a million mediocre things,“ says Alex M H Smith. “It’s to help us extend our brilliance deeper and further.”

Do you agree?

I respond to every comment and reply, so let me know your thoughts.

P.S.

The longest-running case study in unexpected visibility.

Better philanthropy

I serve on the advisory board of Greenwood Place, a £39 million annual funder that’s part of Big Bang Philanthropy.

And there’s a lot to applaud: 180 grantees around the world, 95% of clients saying that Greenwood Place changed their approach to philanthropy, and 750 hours of community learning since inception.

I can’t take credit for any of it. But still proudly share “our” recent annual report, in case it helps you better understand this type of donor.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Visibility is a team sport.

I once worked with one of the most powerful nonprofit brands on earth.

LIVESTRONG.

Its founder, Lance Armstrong, was the world’s most inspirational athlete. A cancer survivor. A champion. A fundraising machine.

Then the doping scandal hit.

And the board faced an impossible choice: the founder, or the mission. They chose the mission, so Armstrong had to go. LIVESTRONG survived, but barely, as it nosedived from a $46M charity to just $2M per year today.

It was a masterclass about founder over-reliance.

I’ve preached this for years: nonprofit founders and CEOs, you are the brand. Your visibility is a fundraising asset.

But here’s the other side of that truth.

If you’re the only face donors see, you’ve built a single point of failure. Because the most fundable organizations don’t rely on one magnetic personality.

“When too much organizational visibility is built around one person, the institution can become vulnerable if that leader leaves or damages trust,” says Ruslana Romanchuk. “In some cases, the financial and reputational cost can be even higher than low visibility itself.”

So here’s the nuance. ⤵

I still believe nonprofit CEOs should be visible. Very visible. Donors fund leaders before logos.

But mature brands distribute trust across the team. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to give keynote speeches or write viral LinkedIn posts.

Visibility can look more subtle than that. So in this infographic, get five ways to raise your leadership team’s voice.

We practice what we preach at Mighty Ally. Even though I’m the “tip of the spear” for our brand, my Founding Partner Kathleen Souder leads our most visible client relationships and led a panel at TheSidebar during Skoll. Another Founding Partner Eve Wanjiru hosts community events and joined me during two other Skoll speaking engagements.

Remember:

Every leader doesn’t have to be a thought leader.

But every leader does have to be seen.

2. Say less, mean more.

Simple does not mean shallow.

Just look at this viral activist campaign.

Emanuele Morelli’s ad — “An empire built on waste” — confronts the pollution and human exploitation of fast fashion with a deep and wildly effective message.

But there are no words except for the brand name.

And campaigns like this worked, as France just passed a bill to regulate the fast fashion industry.

The lesson for your communications:

Want attention?
Don’t yell.

Say less.
Mean more.

3. Bust the overhead myth.

“You can’t make a lousy charity good by having a low overhead,” says Will MacAskill.

So here’s the critical point for your fundraising. ⤵

Nonprofits actually lose money when you categorize some of these items above as indirect/overhead rather than as direct costs/program-related.

“What’s more important is the practice of considering whether an expense advances your impact,” advises Jenna Rogers-Rafferty, MIA. “If you can justify that it does with a straight face to your funder, you should consider it a direct cost and feel empowered to defend that decision.”

And let’s not perpetuate the overhead myth.

“It’s time for a change,” says Vu Le. “Stop furthering the idea that overhead is bad. Operating, administrative, and fundraising expenses are necessary for us to do effective work.”

Myths hold power only if we let them.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

This meme? 😂

Your strategic plan? 😬

Now that the year is halfway over, don’t forget about the power of strategic planning for fundraising.

Because your strat plan is just a comms tool.

It’s how you turn your theory of change into action (internally). And it’s how you show donors who will get it done, how it will be done, and when it will be done (externally).

Annual goals are never static.
Strategic plans are never static.

“The worst thing that ever happened to strategy was that it got jammed together with plan,” says Kevin Starr at Mulago Foundation. “If your strategy is frozen in a plan, then when that plan goes to hell, your strategy goes with it.”

Starr continues. ⤵

“Your strategy has got to be an independent, living thing that responds to changing circumstances and new information. It should be reviewed often, and the bias should be toward change.”

Because quarterly clarity beats annual chaos.

P.S.

Joining a donor meeting early.

Football fever

One unexpected side effect of living abroad for 10 years?

You stop watching the World Cup as a citizen and start cheering countries.

This week we celebrated nine African nations reaching the round of 32, cheered for Croatia (our current home), appreciated Norway after seeing its incredible fans (just before we ferry over there from Denmark on Monday), and rooted for Japan because of our unforgettable Christmas 2024 trip.

We even found ourselves quietly hoping Bosnia and Herzegovina might pull off a miracle against the USA (shhhh!), because, underdogs.

Turns out we don’t have a favorite team anymore, but are loving this celebration of nations.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Fair funding begins with fair language.

“All countries are developing countries.”

So the terms developed vs. developing are lazy labels.

“It suggests that a handful of nations have ‘arrived’ while the rest are catching up.” I recently applauded this paradigm-shifting insight from Philip Schellekens, because you often hear me say:

Words matter.

That’s why precise language leads to precise fundraising.

After personally living in six countries on four continents, I’ve seen firsthand what Schellekens describes: “every society is still failing its people in different ways whether through hunger and disease, or loneliness, burnout, and inequality.”

And it’s interesting, as I write this newsletter from Denmark right now, one of the world’s most successful countries by many measures. But I’m also reading a great book, The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia — it exposes high cancer rates, alcoholism, mounting personal debt, depression, and countless other issues in regions like the Nordics that seem to “have it all figured out.”

What’s the better term?

What’s the most dignifying language when referring to a group of similar countries and regions collectively?

There’s emerging markets, majority world, low- and mid- and high-income, plus Global South, all with their pros and cons. So, many of our international nonprofit and donor clients struggle with what to call where they work.

But wiser words unlock fairer funding.

So what’s your preferred term?

2. Eight fundraising formulas.

8 formulas to fix your fundraising. ⤵

From mission to marketing.

To help you be:

Fundable.
Findable.
Funded.

P.S. Here’s a bonus fundraising formula for your proposals: NOSE.

(All these formulas and more are included in my book, Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising)

• Need: Show that you understand the key issues or problems faced by your community. Just like other brand materials, never lead with your organization. You could also think of this section as the situation.

• Outcomes: Focus on the results that you, your community, your buyer, and/or your funder want to achieve. But don’t yet prescribe exact recommendations. This can also be called the opportunity.

• Solution: Highlight the work you do that will deliver the results. You can title this section products and programs. And include the budget options, if applicable.

• Evidence: Provide proof that you can deliver that solution. Some proposals call this section our model. Include your experience, case studies, impact, and/or testimonials.

“Focus on their pain to get their attention. Focus on their gain to get their commitment.” — Persuasive Business Proposals

3. Narrow your focus, widen your funding.

The wrong fundraising advice:

Find a lane and stick to it.

The better advice:

Find the intersection of 2-3 lanes. Like these example niches. ⤵

🥉 Education (good)
🥈 Education + girls (better)
🥇 Education + girls + secondary (best)

🥉 Mental health (good)
🥈 Mental health + refugees (better)
🥇 Mental health + refugees + children (best)

🥉 Smallholder farms (good)
🥈 Smallholder farms + India (better)
🥇 Smallholder farms + India + greenhouses (best)

That’s how you move right to left from Undifferentiated to Ideal in this graphic. That’s how you create a category of your own. And that’s how you captivate donors.

Because a single lane makes you think your brand is focused.

And while that’s better than being scattered, you’re probably still just one of many organizations on that one big highway.

Heads up.

There’s a risk in differentiating 𝘵𝘰𝘰 far. Because you’ll find Insufficient Opportunity for funding on the far left, as seen in this illustration.

Like if you focused too narrowly on smallholder farmers + India + greenhouses + girls. But honestly, most nonprofits struggle with the other side of the graphic:

Courageous Focus.

So, don’t be afraid.

To find your ideal positioning, avoid the jammed highways of undifferentiated organizations. Pick the side streets and dare to take the road less traveled.

The riches are in the niches.

Narrow lanes, wider funds.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

“Nobody reads the annual report twice,” says Steshia Monserrate.

“Next time, alongside ‘When will this be done?’ (the question that drives every report season), I am asking one more from the start: ‘What else can this content do?’” she continues.

Check out her blog, Your annual report deserves more than just one day of attention.

Get the tips

P.S.

I could never compete with this cuteness.

Work with me?

I give in.

I’m crying, uncle.

I’m finally admitting it. 😅

It’s long past time for me to hire an Executive Assistant, so I’m starting with this community instead of announcing a public job description. This EA will help me for a few hours per week (to start) with tasks such as Mighty Ally partnership inquiries, marketing analytics, and speaking engagement coordination.

And because most of our work is from the Global South, I’d love for this person to be as well.

Reply here or comment below if this could be you!

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Every great movement had a face.

Who made you care about chimpanzees: a conservation NGO or Jane Goodall?

Who introduced you to the concepts of courage and shame: the University of Houston or Brené Brown?

Here are two more. ⤵

Where did you first read about global health: a nonprofit annual report or the book Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer? Whose name comes to mind when you think of microfinance: Grameen Bank or Muhammad Yunus?

And to bring the illustration closer to home, was it from Mighty Ally or me that you originally learned about being fundable and findable?

I think I know the answers.

Almost every thought leader has an organization around them, but the individual is the tip of the spear. So here’s the uncomfortable truth nonprofit leaders often avoid: you are the brand too.

✅ Your credibility opens doors your logo can’t.
✅ Your voice builds trust your website never will.
✅ Your story moves donors your annual report won’t.

❌ Goodall didn’t save chimps by perfecting her org chart.
❌ Farmer didn’t transform global health with a website.
❌ Yunus didn’t democratize finance with a rebrand.

They showed up… repeatedly… loudly… personally.

So yes, build a fundable, findable organization.
But also, build a fundable, findable YOU.

Understand this too:

Your organization’s visibility and your personal visibility are not competing forces. When aligned well, they’re magnetic.

Movements need messengers.

2. “Create once, distribute forever.”

Quit struggling to produce more or new content.

Start distributing content you already have.

Because most nonprofits spend days creating blog posts, research papers, fundraising campaigns, annual reports, videos, or infographics. Then minutes hastily posting it to social media or your email newsletter — just once.

Then poof, that’s it.

And we expect the world to take notice? We expect donors to give?

It doesn’t work that way.

Imagine you send a message to 2,000 email subscribers and post on social media for 2,000 followers. Only:

• 435 people will open your email

• 120 Facebook followers see your post

• 40 X/Twitter followers will see your tweet

Not great.

“The truth is that you can create a great piece of content, but if it doesn’t get in front of the right people, then it’s for nothing” says Ross Simmonds, author of the book Create Once, Distribute Forever.

So what should you do instead?

1. Spend as much time distributing as creating

2. Break big content pieces into small chunks

3. Repurpose old content every 4–6 months

4. Prioritize quality content over quantity

5. Use data to refine your distribution

(See the Weekly Bonus below for a full guide.)

Stop wasting content.
Start maximizing reach.

Great content deserves great distribution.

3. The five types of donors.

Stop chasing the wrong type of funding.

Get to know your options. ⤵

Each of the five categories has its donor motivations, advantages and constraints for you, plus capabilities you need internally to attract and retain those funders. So focus your fundraising.

The most common donor type for big nonprofits?

• 40% of nonprofits at $50M+ budget get most funding from government grants.

• Program services (earned revenue) and corporate donations are the next most prevalent funding categories.

• Just 12% of big nonprofits get the bulk from foundations and high-net-worths, but this is the fastest-growing source.

• Only 3% of big nonprofits rely on small gifts under $10,000 as the lead source.

Right donors, right fit.

Rocket fuel for your brand.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

Get a free Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution from Ross Simmonds.

(Ross and I both gave keynotes at the Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit.)

He says:

“Content distribution is crucial for the success of your content marketing strategy because it allows you to maximize the reach and impact of your content.

With the ever-increasing amount of content being produced and shared online, simply creating high-quality content is no longer enough. It needs to be actively distributed to stand out among the competition and reach its intended audience.”

P.S.

Cuddle up to your funders.

More than a birthday

Today is my birthday.

But I didn’t know growing up that it was also (and more importantly) Juneteenth. Because the story of Juneteenth was buried where I was raised, just like the generations of silenced voices.

Now, I’m the proud father of two Black daughters.

They were born into injustice. But they fuel my fight against it, and my belief that storytelling can break its grip.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. People fund people.

I studied 100+ funder websites.

Here’s what most fundraising gets wrong:

They’re not funding your organization.
Nor your impact measurement.
Nor your talented team.

Not at the early stage.

They’re funding you.

The leader(s).

Because when you’re a small nonprofit, there’s rarely enough scale, systems, or long-term data for donors to de-risk the bet.

That’s why most early-stage foundations explicitly say it: they back founders first and models second. Just scroll through this PDF for what many prominent funders say, in their own words.

Then why are you still hiding?

Hiding behind the work?
Hiding behind your fundraising staff?
Hiding behind the organizational brand?

Of course your organizational brand still matters. But in the early days, the leader is the front door (and sometimes ONLY door) to the brand.

“In a sector where many organizations may share similar missions, a founder’s story becomes a differentiator,” says Haley Burns.

Look, I understand the hesitation. ⤵

Visibility feels vulnerable. Especially in our sector, where you’re taught to center the mission and suppress the ego. And look, once you break a certain threshold, your organization and impact measurement and team certainly matter more for funding.

But before then, trust is still highly personal.

I sit on the advisory board for a couple of funders and have always agreed with investor Georges Doriot:

“I’ll take a Grade A individual with a B idea over a Grade B individual with an A idea.”

Then I saw this principle firsthand. When Acumen selected me as a Fellow, they barely asked about my organization. They were betting on me. And that experience changed how I think about fundraising forever.

So here’s what’s non-negotiable:

Your founder story. Your voice. Your visibility. Your own brand — as a human being. Panels. LinkedIn posts. Podcasts. Essays. Interviews. Keynotes. Thought leadership is no longer optional for nonprofit CEOs.

Funders are already Googling you.

The question is: what are they finding?

Get the PDF

2. The 13 laws for nonprofit boards.

Your board wants to help.

That’s where trouble begins.

I’ve seen it myself as a CEO, spending years presenting to boards and trustees, then luckily not having trouble with our own nonprofit directors. Now I’m about to join a new board of supervisors myself.

So I spent some time refreshing my reading on governance. And what struck me is how often boards drift toward doing leadership’s job.

The board hires the CEO.

The CEO hires the team.

The team does the work.

Simple on paper.

Messy in real life.

Especially when passionate, experienced people gather around a table and care deeply about the mission.

So I put together 13 laws for your nonprofit board.

Because boards shape organizations.

Sometimes a little too much.

Which law would you add?

3. Winning donors starts with winning internally.

Your fundraising dreams won’t make a difference.

Nor will your fancy new strategy.

Not without establishing internal routines to get it done. Because raising a lot of money requires two things:

📝 How We Win (STRATEGY)

➕

👫🏽 How We Work (CULTURE)

But here comes the problem.

70% of employees don’t grasp their company’s vision. And a Big Bang Philanthropy donor once told us the most common reason they don’t invest is that they don’t believe the nonprofit can deliver on (how we win) its strategy.

In other words, the how we work is missing.

So here’s how to align your aims with action. ⤵

• Decide on an internal communications rhythm

• Document 2–3 most important processes

• Get the right team in the right seats

• Determine 3–5 quarterly priorities

• Set quarterly and weekly KPIs

• Establish 3–5 annual goals

• Sketch a 3-year picture

• Name core values

The bottom line:

Most nonprofits have a vision.

Fewer have the culture to achieve it.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

What can nonprofits learn from the worst consumer rebrand in history?

For one thing, brands drive income.

In 2008, Tropicana spent months of time and $35 million in fees on its disastrous rebrand. Only to lose $20 million in sales in the first month alone. After 30 days, they fired the agency and reverted to their original design.

Another lesson?

In a rebrand, don’t throw away “visual equities” — valuable design elements that audiences know (and love) about you. Even if it’s just a single color or symbol that bridges the old and new.

In this case, the red and white straw...

P.S.

Like in meditation and fireworks, you need a beginner’s mind for fundraising too.

Wander while working

My summer of 16 countries starts today.

I’m off to the States, quickly, before we embark on an epic family road trip — working remotely while we drive up through Central Europe, the Nordics, back down the Baltics, and home to Croatia in late August.

America... then Slovenia, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia... see you soon!

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. If everyone owns your message, nobody does.

Boards should give fewer opinions.
And more trust.

They need fewer wordsmiths.
And more watchdogs.

Fewer hands on the wheel.
More eyes on the road.

That’s why this video feels more documentary than satire.

A stop sign is one of the simplest and most successful designs in human history. Then imagine a nonprofit board getting involved. Every person contributes something reasonable, like the video, and nobody is malicious, nobody wakes up thinking, “Today I’ll ruin the stop sign.”

But board members add their piece.

One suggestion.

One concern.

One request.

One revision.

Then another.

And another.

Eventually, the original idea disappears under layers of good intentions.

I cringe at this often.

Mission statements stretched from five words to 50. Websites that feel like an escape room. Theory of change diagrams that resemble subway maps. Strategic plans with 100 slides. Dashboards that need a dashboard. Fundraising emails longer than the annual report.

It happens because we confuse inclusion with decision-making.

But repeat after me:

The job of a board is to govern.
The job of leadership is to decide.

Yes, you should understand countless concerns and yes, you should collect many perspectives and yes, you should hear many voices.

But then YOU have to (and get to!) make the call.

The strongest nonprofits I’ve seen are brutally selective, and every great organization got stronger the day it stopped treating consensus as a requirement.

“Use one simple filter,” says Wendy van Eyck. “Before anything gets added, ask: does this make it clearer for the audience?”

“If not, it’s probably making it worse.”

Because game-changing ideas rarely survive dozens of edits. And clarity dies by a thousand approvals.

So if everyone owns your message, nobody does.

Ask the stop sign.

2. Empower means nothing.

The word empower is a problem for three reasons.

And it’s hurting your fundraising.

“While the term empowerment is used with the best intentions, describing all kinds of not-for-profit work this way can unintentionally reinforce the inequalities we aim to address,” says Paul Hunt.

Find out why and what to do about it in this 1-minute guide.

Look, I get it. Many of you communicate in a second language, or you’re not a creative writer, so there’s no shame if you currently use the term.

But it’s easy to fix. And I’m glad to help. ⤵

Comment with your current language and I’ll empower you.

See what I did there?
See how the word is confusing?

Comment with your current language and I’ll brainstorm options with you.

Stop empowering.
Start getting specific.

Because empowerment isn’t fundable.

Get the PDF

3. Donors fund stories vs. stats.

It’s painful when I see this fundraising mistake:

The right data but the wrong story.

Leaders trying to communicate their outputs and outcomes and metrics and RCT results and M&E dashboards, but donors still can’t picture the impact.

So here’s a fundraising trick. ⤵

“Convert units into everyday objects,” says Marketing Examples. Like this infographic. It’s how you make a fact hit harder.

Here are three additional storytelling examples I made up:

INSTEAD OF: Consumption of 50 grams of sugar
YOU COULD SAY: Eating four doughnuts

INSTEAD OF: Five million kilowatt-hours of energy
YOU COULD SAY: Enough to power a small town for a year

INSTEAD OF: 1 gigaton of glacier loss
YOU COULD SAY: 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools melted away

As I say in Chapter 11 of my book, “give donors a story to remember, not a fact to memorize. Because people aren’t calculators. They’re storytellers. Think about the last nonprofit that caught your attention. Do you remember its impact data? Or was it their storytelling that made you take notice?”

Frame your figures in the familiar.

Because impact lost in translation is lost funding.

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P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

A nice roundup from , who says:

“Most are not non-profit sector books. None are ‘how to’ guides or toolkits we are so accustomed. But they have helped to challenge my understanding of the world, and my practice.”

Eight Non-Fiction Books that have made me Think Differently about Social Impact Design

See the list

P.S.

Toughening up your team starts at an early age.

Share the love

These newsletters take me hours to write. But clicking share takes you just a second. And is free.

Since I don’t charge a subscription like other writers and this content is part of our own nonprofit mission, I appreciate it more than you know!

Share

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Wealth doesn’t equal worth.

Can we please stop saying high-net worth?

Donors are not more worthy.

But this subtle yet damaging word reinforces the perceived imbalance between funders and nonprofits. Because language shapes power long before money changes hands. Every time a fundraiser says worth, we’re quietly placing a donor above ourselves.

While the phrase measures assets, it implies status.

And your funders might dislike it too. ⤵

“Many people in wealthy families, especially the rising gen, have struggled with their self-worth,” says the National Center for Family Philanthropy. “For many of our clients, to be treated with inflated importance because of their wealth feels inauthentic and hollow.”

So call them what they are:

High-net wealth individuals. Wealth is a financial fact; worth is a moral judgment. That’s why this term more accurately describes the situation:

They contribute capital.
You contribute expertise.

They provide resources.
You provide results.

They win a nonprofit.
You win a donor.

Neither side succeeds alone, as it takes two to tango, two to create impact. And a grant without a grantee is just a wire transfer.

Look, I’ve been getting this wrong too.

I regret using the term high-net worth in my own book and previous posts, and will be updating it. Because language is never neutral: the labels we normalize eventually become the reality we accept.

Funders have wealth.

Everyone has worth.

—

P.S. This isn’t just a semantics argument.

It’s important to consider high-net-wealth individuals as a potential primary funding source. Here’s the data I share in my book, Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising, from the most common funding types of big nonprofits with budgets of $50 million or more:

• 40% of them get the most funding from government grants.

• Program services/earned revenue and corporate donations are the next most prevalent funding types.

• While only 12% of big nonprofits get the bulk from foundations and individuals, this is the fastest-growing source.

• Only 3% of big nonprofits rely on small gifts of under $10,000 as the leading source of income.

2. Fundraising thrives on brevity.

Say less.

Raise more.

Because good communication (and fundraising) is saying the most stuff in the fewest words.

That’s why I can’t stop referencing the book Smart Brevity since reading it. Now, you can get its top tips for your messaging.

Click here for this 2-minute read.

Fewer words, more donations.

Get the PDF

3. The top 50 writing tools.

Take half your commas. Replace them with periods.

Your donors will thank you.

Because funders don’t just ignore too much total text, they tune out and start to skip your fundraising appeal when your sentences are going on for too long without a break, because it’s exhausting for the human mind to keep up with too many thoughts at once, and while of course you can still use a few commas, most commas are doing just that, connecting thoughts, like this super-long sentence that’s extremely hard to read.

See?

Get 50 more of my favorite tips in this infographic, courtesy of Roy Peter Clark.

Because writing is a fundraising superpower.

And ink ignites movements.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

A week ago, I posted this infographic on LinkedIn, which sparked quite the debate about how to reform philanthropy. Including a comment from Donnie Maclurcan at The Post Growth Institute, linking to his article:

10 Ways Funders Can Better Support New Economy Organizations

I liked his recommendations:

On Positioning:

• Be upfront in the exploratory phase to reduce prospective grantee anxiety

• Pay prospective grantees as consultants when learning is involved

On Proposals:

• Provide clarity on how to get to a solicited application

• Subsidize the labor required for groups to apply for funding

• Use a strengths-based approach in grant application design

• Acknowledge the centrality of labor in requested budgets

• Build infrastructure to offer feedback on all failed applications

On Priorities:

• Fund real experiments in systems change

• Value grantees that demonstrate (un)learning over outputs, or even impact

• Tell grantees exactly what’s needed to fund them again

Read more

P.S.

Perception is reality with your donors.

Unchained rebellion

Just a quote that inspired me this week, from the book The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by the feminist giant :

“Make your heart too rebellious for patriarchy to plant itself within you. Make your mind too free for fascism to chain your imagination.”

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. A mission without a mouth stays muted.

I keep hearing this misunderstanding from CEOs:

“We want our nonprofit to be a thought leader.”

But it can’t be.

Just like an organization itself can’t manage people, an organization itself can’t lead thought. Because, by definition:

A leader…

A thinker…

… is required…

… for thought leadership.

That’s why no one follows an annual report into battle and logos don’t spark revolutions. Ideas need a microphone, but your organization doesn’t have a mouth.

• When’s the last time you reposted another company’s update?

• Or bought a book authored by an entire organization?

• Or attended a conference to hear a brand speak?

• Or read an article written by a nonprofit itself?

Yes, you should post on your company social media and write blogs on your organizational website and send email newsletters and publish research under your nonprofit brand.

And yes, before anyone will take you seriously as an individual thought leader, you first must be fundable and findable as a nonprofit brand.

But that’s for fundraising.

Thought leadership is different.

One builds awareness, the other changes minds.

The second you want to express a controversial opinion, spread a big idea beyond your organization, build a movement, or sell your expertise, that’s the moment your mission needs a messenger.

You.

So step out from behind the logo.

Your nonprofit can be findable.

Only you can be followable.

P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me, because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

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2. The one-sentence fundraising strategy.

You struggle to be found by donors.

But you don’t have a plan to be findable.

No shame, because most nonprofits don’t have a written communications strategy for fundraising

So what’s the solution?

Start with the magic formula in this infographic.
↳ Modeled after my one-sentence theory of change.

Sure, it’s a long, clunky sentence. But it’s not supposed to be a public-facing strategy; it’s meant to drive internal clarity.

And share your one-liner in these Substack comments for feedback.

Simplified communications.
Maximized fundraising.

3. Where are the funders?

Fundraising in the Global South isn’t fair.

Just look at this donor desert. ⤵

95% of philanthropic institutions are based in Europe and North America, and these foundations control 97% of the $1.5 trillion sitting in the bank.

We might know this injustice instinctively. And this research — from Harvard Kennedy School along with 20 research partners around the world — acknowledges that the Global South data is incomplete.

But still, the data is shocking.

It’s “a hierarchy, within which the Global North does the giving, and the Global South mainly does the receiving,” says . “We are stuck in a premise loop, like a bad dream, in which the only solution is to wake up.”

What can nonprofit leaders do?

A few ideas to work the system while we change it:

• Publish thought leadership. Get findable.

• Generate research that donors actually cite.

• Create regional coalitions with peer nonprofits.

• Focus on donor retention more than donor volume.

• Develop earned revenue where your mission allows.

• Align with movements instead of isolated projects.

• Prioritize foundations that have local teams.

• Build diaspora donor relationships.

• Join regional funder networks.

Then what do you suggest funders do?

• Can foundations transfer more assets to funders in the Global South? That way, locals decide how to grant it within their own communities.

• Can we start a joint venture in regions where foundations don’t exist? Then, there’s never a country without a robust and locally-led grantmaker.

• Can funders add local team members in the Global South? So at least grantmaking decisions are proximate — since the money is not.

• And can we fund more community leaders, from where much of the wealth was extracted in the first place?

It’s time to redraw the philanthropy map.

Because real localization = local leaders and local funding.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

A quick reminder from Al Ries & Jack Trout.

The most effective ad Volkswagen ever ran was the one that stated the position clearly and unequivocally.

Think small.

With two simple words, this headline did two things at once. It stated the Volkswagen position, and it challenged the prospect’s assumption that bigger is necessarily better.

So, for nonprofit leaders:

What’s your tagline or one-liner or positioning statement that does something similar?

P.S.

Your parents don’t understand your nonprofit job either.

Obsessed over Wes

I’m officially in love with Wes Anderson’s genius. But I’m admittedly late to the game, as this weekend I just binged on his debut movie (Bottle Rocket) plus two others (Moonrise Kingdom and Asteroid City).

Plus I still need to see his two animated films.

Rolling Stone says, “Wes Anderson is the cilantro of American cinema. There are some whose loathing of his work is almost genetic. To others, Anderson’s films are essential viewing.”

Are you a fan?

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. The five stages of donors.

Message consistency can hurt your fundraising.

But everyone tells you to stick to a script.

Here’s why that’s wrong. ⤵

Your donor prospects are at five different stages of awareness. And not every funder knows the same thing about a social problem, the potential solutions, or your organization.

For example:

Using industry jargon with a new individual donor will make them feel lost. Or, telling too many participant stories to a foundation program manager (who is ready to give) will make them impatient.

So use this infographic to tailor your next pitch.

I promise, it’s not that complicated. Just think: the next time you’re going into a fundraising conversation or writing some marketing copy, where is this prospect in their awareness cycle?

Then deliver the right messaging to them.

Your goal is to move donors to the next level of understanding. And guess what? If you introduce information in this sequence, a prospect can fly through these stages quickly — even in the same conversation.

The bottom line:

Message consistency is comfort.
But variety is victory.

Choose wisely.

P.S. This newsletter grows when you share it. It’s quick and free for you, but super helpful for me. Because this content is part of our own nonprofit mission. Thank you.

Share

2. How to pitch for corporate funding.

There’s $21 billion in funding hiding in plain sight.

Most nonprofits don’t even look its way:

Corporate philanthropy.

You might loathe capitalism, or you think you’re too small for corporate fundraising. But I’m always surprised how few of our clients embrace CSR — other than those in India, where companies are required to give back.

Even then, most leaders don’t think of it this way. ⤵

CSR typically gives you money, of course. 💰
But corporates are a brand megaphone. 📣
A source of free tools and products. 🎁
And an extension of your team. 🏋🏿

So channel your inner Robin Hood.

Learn to pitch private-sector partners.

Go from corporate skeptic to CSR champion.

Get the PDF

3. Quiet ideas never change loud systems.

A dangerous trend I’m seeing lately:

We’re approaching systems change all wrong.

Because stories shift before systems do.

Yet most systems change efforts begin with spreadsheets, frameworks, policy papers, research reports, and technical jargon. Not emotion. Not narrative. Not public belief.

We try to scale solutions before we’ve scaled conviction.

But try this: tell me one successful social change initiative that did not have very strong communications as a big part of its success?

Take your time.

You can’t.

Marriage equality. The AIDS response. Professional community health workers. Microfinance. MeToo. Anti-apartheid. Civil rights. Every single movement understood the power of narrative, and the story traveled because someone made it travel.

From national campaigns to individual conversations with policy makers.

“At their core, foundations and nonprofits are in the business of developing and advancing big, bold ideas,” says Sean Gibbons. “If you want your ideas to take hold and win, you need to communicate and communicate well. It’s not an option anymore — it’s a necessity.”

The sector has known this for decades.
And keeps deprioritizing it anyway.

Many leaders I meet (great ones, with the best intentions) treat communications like overhead. Something to get to later, once the “real work” is done. As if visibility is vanity instead of leverage.

That’s the miscalculation.

And it’s costing you funding, influence, and the next generation of supporters.

Your org may be doing the work. But if your ideas stay quiet, your impact does too. Yes, the sector trained you to stay behind the curtain, let the mission speak for itself, and avoid self-promotion.

But you can’t shift policy or change behavior if nobody knows what you believe.

So write that post or book. Give the talk. Pen an op-ed. Join the podcast. Rally those advocates. Teach what you know. Say it out loud.

Be a thought leader.

Your voice and visibility matter.

Because quiet ideas never change loud systems.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

Last week, I posted this infographic above on LinkedIn. And I got a great response from Wayan Vota that I just had to share:

“I analyzed all her publicly known giving to create an analysis of who she funds (and doesn’t) so NGOs can decide if they are even in her team’s impact area.”

Here are his top five findings:

1. 83% of recipients serve US geographies.

2. In 2025, gift count dropped from 555 to 186, while total giving surged to $7.17 billion. Median disclosed gift: $19 million. HBCUs received $783 million. Climate giving jumped from 6% to 27%.

3. Network affiliation functions as a screening signal.

4. 65% of 2025 recipients were repeat awardees.

5. Quiet research is different from open calls

Read his 15-page full analysis and a self-assessment framework.

P.S.

Try, try, try again to get that donor.

Facebook friends?

Do you still use Facebook for either yourself professionally or your nonprofit company page?

Doing a little research here. So reply and let me know where to find you, so I can give you a follow.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. If nobody disagrees with you, nobody remembers you.

Strong ideas create strong resistance.

That’s the point.

You see a broken way of doing things.
You challenge the status quo.
You speak truth to power.
You take a stance.
And a stand.

That’s why brave thought leaders are polarizing, and polarization is better than indifference. So don’t just communicate best practices and comfortably speak to the pack.

Dare to turn off as many people as you turn on.

“If you don’t have critics, you’ll likely have no success,” said Malcolm X.

Here’s why this matters. ⤵

Donors perk up when they hear something contrarian. In the sea of marketing noise (with many nonprofit leaders who sound the same) we all crave a differing perspective.

Even if it provokes us.

Let’s go deeper, because I need you to understand something fundamental about your communications.

Some people should love you.
Many should not.

The best art divides the audience.

Just think of our incredible thought leaders such as:

• Bryan Stevenson, Equal Justice Initiative

• Peter Singer, The Life You Can Save

• Dr. Paul Farmer, Partners in Health

• Kumi Naidoo, human rights activist

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, writer

• Greta Thunberg, climate activist

• Malala Yousafzai, Malala Fund

• Tarana Burke, MeToo

• Vu Le, Nonprofit AF

They found (sometimes, painfully I’m guessing) that breakthrough ideas — by definition — will be polarizing to those stuck in the present.

So if nobody disagrees with your position, go bolder.

Like this:

What do you know is true that doesn’t resonate with everyone? What is your spiky point of view that separates you from other nonprofit leaders?

Your unique perspective — your manifesto, if you will — is often introduced with the words, “We believe...”

Like at Mighty Ally, we believe there’s too much emphasis on fundraising in the social sector. From both doers and donors. So we believe you must be fundable and findable first, then fundraise second.

Challenging the crowd like this drives innovation.

“In science, technology, business, academe, and elsewhere, people are encouraged — and are given forums — to express opinions and disagree with each other publicly,” says Cynthia Gibson in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“But nonprofits and foundations continue to embrace a culture of silence and politeness that gets in the way of their growth and vitality,” Gibson continues. “We don’t need to dive into the pool of vitriol and incivility that marks the current state of public discourse. But we can pursue a middle ground by building a culture that encourages healthy skepticism.”

So in your next pitch, presentation, podcast, blog post, or fundraising application — try arguing against an influential idea, powerful institution, or commonly held belief.

See if you can ruffle some feathers and pique some interest.

Because funding favors the fearless.

And as they say: kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.

2. Ten USAID alternatives.

Yes, USAID is dead.

But other governments still give $288 billion.

So “here’s a curated list of alternative funders across key sectors — from global health to democracy, climate resilience, humanitarian aid, and beyond,” says Eliana Summer-Galai over at Impact Funding.

Download the PDF for clickable application links.

When one door closes, open 10 more.

USAID isn’t the only game in town.

Get the PDF

3. Your fundraising is skipping steps.

90% of nonprofit leaders make this mistake.

I used to mess this up too:

Trying to climb too fast in fundraising communications. Like trying to change minds before explaining yours. Or attempting to build a personal brand before a clear organizational one.

(Or another one I’m embarrassed to admit: we had a fundraising plan before a company name.)

Here’s a mental model: think of communications like a 10-step ladder. 🪜

So if you’re not even at step one yet — a clear mission — you’re not ready for fundraising or thought leadership.

Start low, aim high.
Clarity leads the climb.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

A fun one this week, from Annie Rauwerda on X.

Makes you think: what was your nonprofit’s domain name before you owned it?

See the thread

P.S.

Please tell me a donor saw this?

Hope under pressure

At Mighty Ally, we have a ritual: reasons to dance.

Before our meetings, each person shares something that’s currently bringing them joy.

Although sometimes lately, I’ve been pulling from the bottom of the barrel. Because I’ve long believed, like Martin Luther King Jr. said, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

These days, I’m not convinced it’s bending fast enough. Or even in the right direction. And I know I’m not alone in that feeling, as some leaders are even referencing Dr. Paul Farmer and his belief that we must “embrace the long defeat.”

So I’m curious to hear from you: what’s keeping you going?

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. No one sells your story better than you.

CEO = Chief Earning Officer
CEO = Chief External Officer
CEO = Chief Exposure Officer
CEO = Chief Evangelist Officer
CEO = Chief Explanation Officer

Not Chief Focus-Only-On-The-Internal-Operations-And-Programs Officer.

Not Chief Fundraising-Is-Someone-Else’s-Problem Officer.

Not Chief I-Don’t-Do-Donors Officer.

Sadly, I hear this misunderstanding all too often. “Our CEO is definitely not our greatest ambassador,” a frustrated leader told me last week. “She only cares about the impact and doesn’t even think our brand matters.”

“Fundraising and programs people are siloed,” she continued.

“And we’ve been stuck at $5M for years.”

So it’s time for some straight talk. ⤵

Some tough love for all those nonprofit leaders who disdain the money side of things. Many of you started as doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, activists, and other incredible specialties.

That’s why many of you try to delegate fundraising — spending your time on community programs, innovative products, operations, and countless other priorities.

But funders (especially high-net-worths) want YOU.

YOU own the brand.
YOU are best at storytelling.
YOU are responsible for fundraising.

Yes, a development and comms staff should help you with the tactics. Yes, it may only be 50% of your time, focused on high-value donors. And yes, you can hire a consultant to find leads and guide the process.

However, working on vs. in the business is what leaders do.

You’re the cash catalyst.
The funding flame.
The gold getter.

So embrace it.

Lead. Fund. Repeat.

“Most CEOs would rather have a root canal than make a solicitation call on a wealthy prospect,” says Nonprofit World. “If you’re not willing to raise money, you shouldn’t be in the CEO position. It’s part and parcel of the job.”

2. Top 30 sources to find donors & grants.

Leaders are struggling.

I’ve spoken with hundreds of nonprofits this year on webinars and after keynotes. Nearly everyone asks me about the same challenge: where to look for funders, after becoming fundable and findable?

Start by downloading this PDF with links.

Build the brand. Then build the pipeline.

Be fundable.
And be findable.
Then go get funding.

Get the PDF

3. Lose the fluff, win the donor.

Complicated problems with complicated solutions don’t require complicated communications.

Simplicity is your superpower.

Because every single minute, you compete with:

🎥 500 hours of new YouTube videos
💬 694,000 WhatsApp messages
👥 1.7 million Facebook posts
📱 18 million texts received
💻 5,200 new blog posts
📬 251 million emails
🐦 347,000 tweets

What’s the fix?

Get to the point to get the donor.

(Before you argue, remember that short doesn’t mean shallow. And simple doesn’t mean simple-minded.)

Get seven quick tips in this infographic.

Then tell me:

Is it harder for you to write in the first place or edit it down?

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

11. Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

12. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

13. Don’t use commas, that, are not, necessary.

14. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

15. And always be sure to finish what

These are five bonus (clever!) writing tips, in addition to the 10 above. Look for the lesson and irony in each. 😅

Because your fundraising hinges on writing well. From grant applications to pitch decks, social media to donor reports.

Writing is a fundraising superpower.

And ink ignites movements.

P.S.

Short-term grants miss stories like this.

Parking lot prose

Yesterday I wrote a new blog post for Mighty Ally in 55 minutes flat.

I was waiting in the car at my daughter’s swim practice and I challenged myself to get it done before she came out. Because that’s a core tenet of writing: draft ugly and edit pretty.

A more crass version of this advice? Write drunk and edit sober. 😅

So I loved trying out this new tool, The Most Dangerous Writing App. They say, “Don’t stop typing or all progress will be lost!” And you can even turn on Hardcore Mode, where it hides your writing as you go and disables backspace, forcing you to keep moving forward.

Give it a try.

Write like no one’s reading. Then make them.

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. More nonprofits die from drift than drought.

The most troubling thing I heard at Skoll World Forum last week…

A donor said she’s never had a nonprofit tell her:

“No, we don’t do that type of work, but here’s a partner who does.”

Not once, she said, has a leader turned down money that didn’t fit their focus. Every time, they took the grant, added a program, then tried to figure it out.

Trust me, I understand. ⤵

We’re all trying to make payroll here, but this is how nonprofits drift, one off-mission grant at a time.

New programs. New hires. New complexity.

Then suddenly:

A bloated org. A blurry brand. Donors who don’t get you.

On the other hand, with a tight theory of change and positioning strategy, most grants shouldn’t fit — which means that YOU say NO more than YES, as you review a donor’s website or speak with a new foundation.

So if you’re pursuing most funding opportunities, your strategy isn’t tight enough. It’s loose, and loose leaks money.

The most fundable thing you can do?

Name your partners in your theory of change — the organizations critical to your impact that do the work you don’t. Then refer funding leads to them, and they’ll do the same for you.

Because every NO sharpens your story and sharp stories spread.

They travel faster between funders.
They stick longer in their minds.

And they attract the right money, instead of chasing the wrong kind.

I do the same at Mighty Ally. We only onboard ~1 in 8 clients who want to work with us, because it’s not always a perfect fit. The rest? We send to partners, like fundraising firms or design agencies.

And look no further than some well-focused (well-funded) Skoll Award winners:

👩🏽‍⚕️ CHIC: professional health workers
🍲 Food for Education: school meals
👧🏿 Girls Not Brides: child marriage
🧑‍💻 Khan Academy: e-learning
👓 VisionSpring: eyeglasses

So, please, know your lane. Own your lane. Stay in it.

Your NO is someone else’s YES, and vice versa.

Stop stretching. Start sharpening.

📌 LEARN MORE

This donor insight came from a session last week at TheSidebar led by my Founding Partner Kathleen Souder.

And since the panel was called, “Not a transaction: How doers and donors can co-create impact” I wanted to point out:

This scope creep problem is not just for nonprofits.

Here’s the donor’s mirror moment:

Nonprofits often say yes because funders make it hard to say no. Restricted grants. Narrow scopes. Loaded RFPs.

So, the most powerful thing a funder can do is fund what the organization already does brilliantly, not what you wish it did.

Trust the strategy.
Trust the leader.

And if your priorities don’t align, refer them to a better-fit funder.

Yes, donors should make referrals too.

2. The power of problems.

The next time a donor asks what you do, don’t actually start with what you do.

Same goes for your pitch deck.
Your website homepage.
Your one-sheeters.

Because a problem statement from your theory of change is the first, most powerful step in fundraising communications.

Don’t get me wrong. ⤵

As I say in my book, “it’s never right to dwell on the issues, cast a negative light on the communities we serve, or use deficit-based language.”

So in this 1-minute guide, I’ll show you how plus a few examples.

Problems as portals.

The narrative shift begins here.

Get the PDF

3. Stop the aid-vertising.

“Children in need should not have to advertise their donors.”

Because poverty is not PR.
Crisis is not a campaign.
Struggle isn’t a stage.

“It is distasteful, the excessive branding by donors, UN agencies and us in INGOs,” says Jan Egeland at Norwegian Refugee Council in The New Humanitarian. It’s “a carnival of names and flags and logos” on aid supplies.

What’s the harm?

• People can feel disgraced to carry items labeling them as needy.

• Waiting for approved branded materials can cause delays in aid.

• It’s just plain wasteful from a cost and environmental standpoint.

• It overshadows the work of and funding for locally-led nonprofits.

• Energy invested in donor glorification dilutes the focus on impact.

• It undermines government and its relationships with communities.

“I have a school bag donated by a major donor years ago,” says Victor Odhiambo. “A consistent reminder of how ‘disadvantaged’ I was.”

So what’s the solution?

• Communicate ethical stories — not just pictures of logos — to donors back home.

• Use a unique identifier on rations, like a barcode, if you need traceability.

• Brand your building, vehicles, or team uniforms — not the supplies or gifts.

• Never let branding interfere with what’s right or fastest for implementation.

• Invite communities to co-design the branding on items they will use or wear.

Look, I’m also heartbroken about all the recent funding cuts.

But don’t argue that branding is required for taxpayer accountability. As Matthew Cruse reminds us, “If your work is not impactful enough to be known without a sticker or a banner, then you have a much bigger problem.”

The Global South is not a billboard.

So favor dignity over decals.

Lives over logos.

From the book

A line worth sitting with, from my four-time bestseller Fundable & Findable: The Brand-New Way to Fix Your Nonprofit Fundraising.

The weekly bonus

“The bad part of the story helps us know how good the good part of the story is,” says Steven Screen on The Better Fundraising Co. blog.

And his new post perfectly complements my second insight above, about the power of problems.

Screen continues:

“If your donors don’t know the ‘bad parts’ — what things were like for a person before your organization helped, the emotions of the person when they were in need — your donors will never know how powerful your work is. Because they don’t know how powerful your work is, your fundraising won’t raise as much money.”

P.S.

Your smallest donors can be the most incredible.

Sut wyt ti?

Today I wrap up another Skoll World Forum here in Oxford, England, this time as an official speaker. We also drove over to Wales to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary… and, oh yeah, visit my 37th country.

The Welsh culture, landscapes, and language are beautifully unique. And underrated, me thinks.

So who here is from Wales? Or should I say, pwy yma sy’n dod o Gymru?

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. The one-sentence theory of change.

The most common donor challenge I hear (by far):

They can’t understand what you actually do.

Because too often a theory of change reads like a maze vs. a message. So this infographic has a six-part formula to make yours clear.

Sure, it’s a long, clunky sentence.

But it’s not supposed to be public-facing messaging. Instead, this one-liner is meant to drive focus and strategic clarity. So if you struggle to nail this one sentence, you’ll struggle in fundraising, but if you get it right, you’ll capture attention and leave donors wanting to learn more.

Share yours in these Substack comments for feedback.

Unclear = unfunded.

2. Top corporate donors globally.

Big aid is dying.

Foundation payouts are stuck.

And individual donors in most countries have given less than 2% of GDP for decades. But there’s one funding type that continues to grow:

Corporate giving.

So here’s a new fundraising PDF, courtesy of The Bridgespan Group. These top corporate donors give $19 billion annually.

I know, I know.

You social sector purists out there simply loathe capitalism. You curse the private sector for the ills it has caused (I sometimes curse it too). And the very idea of partnering with corporations makes you squirm.

That’s somewhat fair.

But here’s the tough love:

Big companies aren’t going anywhere. Besides, it’s presumptuous to think that one sector alone can solve poverty and injustice. “In terms of power and influence, you can forget the church, forget politics — there is no more powerful institution in society than business,” says Anita Roddick, human rights activist.

Forward this email or restack ♻️ to help a leader in need.

Then go get ‘em.

Get the PDF

3. Fundraising is not for the proud.

Face it.

Donors don’t care as much as you.
↳ About all the little details of your work.

So stop trying to sound sophisticated.

Instead, remember that fundraising is “not for those who need to demonstrate their expertise and who think everyone else should be just as interested in their field as they are,” says Jeff Brooks.

The tough reality. ⤵

“Donors want solid, simple, clear offers they can understand. Are you willing to say, ‘Sorry, Ms. Donor. We don’t want your money until you comprehend our programs in all their complex fullness.’”

“That’s an expensive attitude. It’s one some nonprofits take.”

So here’s an ego check for your messaging:

❌ Too much about internal accolades

❌ Too many programs being shared

❌ Too many outputs, not outcomes

❌ Too many formal titles and roles

❌ Too much about your process

❌ Too many charts and graphs

❌ Too much historical context

❌ Too many calls to action

❌ Too many data points

❌ Too many acronyms

❌ Too much text

Check for those warning signs, then cut it out.

Pride complicates.
Clarity converts.

Don’t impress.
Inspire.

The weekly bonus

“Impact isn’t the work. It’s what the work made possible.” — Hailey Rodgers

“You don’t need a research team to start reporting this way,” she says. “You need one good follow-up question after every program: what’s different for you now?”

“Outputs tell you the program ran. Outcomes tell you it was worth running.”

Fix your fundraising

More fundraising can’t fix your fundraising.

So get a copy of my book, Fundable & Findable, for yourself and your team.

It gives you the proven Fundable/Findable Framework to build a clear, compelling brand that maximizes your funding and advances social justice. Featuring dozens of action step exercises plus 33 illustrations, including tools and templates for you to use.

“If you work in fundraising and want just one book to help you with strategy, this is the one. I use it every week.” — Jessica Shipp (England)

“We have received a gift of $8 million from MacKenzie Scott. This book was essential!” — Cynthia Betti (Brazil)

“Fundable & Findable is a lighthouse for many.” — Kushal Chakravorty (India)

“We have transformed our brand, visioning, and fundraising system because of this book.” — John Jal Dak (Uganda)

“It’s awesome.” — Kevin Starr (United States)

Get your copy

P.S.

Hey nonprofit leaders, are you creeped out or jealous they can’t clone you too?

Words worth stealing

My new favorite fiction novel is The Book Thief. And I don’t care if it’s marketed in the young adult category (in some countries) and I don’t care who knows that I’ve now read it three times in the last six months and I’m OK admitting publicly that I just watched the movie with my teenage daughters and had tears in my eyes.

The story, the time period, the characters, the love, the loss, the writing, the creativity, it’s just that good.

“The summer of ’39 was in a hurry, or perhaps Liesel was.”

Have you read it?

— Kevin

💪🏽💛

Three insights

1. Tomorrow’s donors aren’t all in the West.

Your future fundraising isn’t where you think.

“Philanthropy across the Global South is booming.”

So with USAID dead, your next big donors might be from some of these world’s largest economies in a few decades:

🇨🇳 China: $57 trillion

🇮🇳 India: $53 trillion

🇺🇸 United States: $52 trillion

🇮🇩 Indonesia: $14 trillion

🇳🇬 Nigeria: $13 trillion

🇵🇰 Pakistan: $12 trillion

🇪🇬 Egypt: $10 trillion

🇧🇷 Brazil: $9 trillion

🇩🇪 Germany: $8 trillion

🇲🇽 Mexico: $8 trillion

And other nations in the top 25 include 🇵🇭 Philippines, 🇧🇩 Bangladesh, 🇪🇹 Ethiopia, 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia, 🇹🇷 Turkey, 🇲🇾 Malaysia, and 🇿🇦 South Africa, according to Goldman Sachs.

Alliance Magazine says, “Philanthropy in the Global South is coming of age.” Sure, 2075 is a long way off. But these changes are already happening — slowly but surely — and by 2050, seven Global South nations will already be among the world’s top 15 economies.

What does this mean for your fundraising?

As these global economies grow, consider these hopeful scenarios:

1. Local fundraising will become easier as more wealth is created and retained by Global South citizens.

2. More foundations will be established locally — much needed, since 95% of them are currently in North America and Europe.

3. Fundraisers will have to develop targeted strategies for engaging high-net-worth individuals in rapidly growing economies.

4. Nonprofit teams must adapt their messaging to resonate with donors from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds.

5. Global South philanthropists can finally play a more significant role in international aid and development.

What would you add to this list?

Tomorrow’s donors.
Today’s strategy.

2. Greatest resignation letter ever.

Culture rots when clarity is missing.

And beneath this sarcasm is a simple truth:

Your employees crave purpose just like donors do.

If your staff doesn’t know why you exist, what you do, where you’re going, who will do it, how to get there, and when it will be done — that’s being fundable — no amount of morale-boosting fixes it.

“In a world where everyone is trying to find new ways to motivate their employees, sometimes it’s enough to step back and look at your actions from the outside,” says Iryna Minkovska. “If your team can’t answer ‘Why? What’s our goal?’, then, in my opinion, no other tools will sustain motivation or maintain trust.”

So get this. ⤵

Being fundable and findable is for fundraising, of course. But it’s also for your people. Without clarity, you don’t just lose donations.

You lose your team.

“Clear values attract like-minded individuals — and like-minded donors too — who align with your brand, while naturally weeding out those who don’t,” I say in Fundable & Findable. “Once set, these values should guide every decision: hiring, firing, reviewing, and rewarding. This is how you build a strong fundraising culture.”

3. Are you present or are you presenting?

PowerPoint is killing your fundraising.

When you present, you’re not present.

Think about it. ⤵

Pitch decks pull your eyes to the slides instead of the donor. You’re talking at not with them. Your brain locks onto what to say next vs. what’s being said. And while your attention is on the screen, theirs is drifting away.

On the other hand…

Real conversations and real relationships don’t happen in the glow of a screen. They happen when you shut the laptop and talk it through together.

(I never show our deck during meetings; I only email it afterwards.)

Yes, you still need a pitch deck.

And yes, “we will never be completely free of the presentation,” says Blair Enns. But “we must change the tone of these meetings and move from the presenter role to that of the expert practitioner.”

“This we do as a doctor or lawyer would, through conversation and collaboration and not through presentation.”

Let go of the PowerPoint crutch.

Be present, not presenting.

The weekly bonus

Next week in Oxford, England I’m speaking at the Skoll Foundation World Forum. Alongside one of my founding partners Eve Wanjiru, we’ll be leading part of the session:

Partner Fair: An Ecosystem Collaboration on Wednesday, April 22 at 2:30pm

Come see us!

Then check out another Mighty Ally founding partner, Kathleen Souder, at TheSidebar:

Not a transaction: How doers and donors can co-create impact on Thursday, April 23 at 3pm (FREE for all)

Here’s my roundup of other Skoll “musts” and resources:

• Skoll World Forum 2026 | Field Guide & Ecosystem Brief, shared by our allies at Black Fox Global.

• From Pilot to Policy: Community Power in Public Systems, with our partners at Community Health Impact Coalition and Healthy Learners. Thursday, April 23 at 10am on the official Skoll agenda.

• Anything and everything at TheSidebar, what was once a “side event” of Skoll which has now become a main attraction. It’s where I launched my book in 2025.

• Your Definitive Guide to Skoll from friends at Black Licorice. “Dream big and go for the ask. Get 5 meetings with donors on your Top Ten Dream Donor List. Don’t have a list, make one today. Right now.”

• Compassion in Child Health. Global Treehouse is convening a rare conversation about something we still struggle to talk about openly: serious illness and death in childhood — and what it takes to ensure children and families globally are supported with dignity and compassion. It’s a place where care and storytelling come together in an unusual way. While there’s a strong group of speakers, what stands out is the quality and honesty of the conversation Global Treehouse is convening.

  

P.S.

You’re never too old for nonprofit leadership.