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INSPIRATIONAL TRAINING
Articles, Videos, Podcasts
Keep up with the latest trends with practical and inspirational content about topics like leadership, fundraising, organizational development, board engagement, governance, capacity building, and much, much more. You'll also find content about how to find and work with the best nonprofit board retreat/training facilitator, or the best strategic planning facilitator so your day is a resounding success.
For the podcasts, use your favorite podcast player and search for the title names.
Tom's Blog
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How Authentic Passion Transforms a Nonprofit
Authentic Passion Must Be a Cornerstone To build a high-performance, “Do Something” nonprofit, authentic passion must be a structural, cultural, and philosophical cornerstone.
Everything depends on it: Your sustainability.Your operations.Your fundraising.Your mission impact. Learn more now!
How to Build a “Get It Done” Culture
You can hire brilliant, passionate individuals, but if each person is operating in their own silo—focused only on personal passions without a shared sense of mission—you’ll end up with fragmented efforts, inconsistent progress, and no unified team momentum.
A high-performance nonprofit requires a unifying culture that aligns everyone around shared beliefs, shared values, and shared responsibility to fulfill the mission. Learn more now!
Why Defining Culture Is Essential for a Get It Done Nonprofit
Culture is a First Things First principle because the most innovative, high-performing organizations have something powerful in common: a unifying ethos that connects hearts, minds, and actions to fulfill the mission.
If there’s no shared purpose… no collective value system… no directed action…Then a nonprofit will develop a dysfunctional culture—one unsure of who it is, what it stands for, or where it’s going.
Why You Must Define a Culture Early On
When culture isn’t defined early, you run the risk of a dysfunctional or lackluster culture taking root. Once an unhealthy culture forms, it can spread into every corner of your nonprofit—board, staff, operations, programming, and relationships.
And the deeper the infection, the harder it is to heal. Learn why it's important to define a culture earlier than later.
The Elements That Make Up a Get It Done Culture
Your mission tells people what you do.Your vision tells people where you’re going.But your culture tells people who you are—What you stand for. What you believe.How you behave.
If you don’t have clarity on who you are or what you stand for, it becomes nearly impossible to fulfill your mission or reach your vision. Learn more about culture now!
Two Essential Cultural Facets Every Nonprofit Should Embrace
A well-defined culture creates a unifying force—an ethos that binds the hearts, minds, and actions of everyone connected with your nonprofit. It shapes how people behave, communicate, and collaborate. Learn why the culture elements of "safety" and "voice." are essential.
Cultural Facets of Getting Personal and Kindness and Caring
If you spend enough time in the nonprofit world, one thing becomes clear: the most successful organizations intentionally foster close personal relationships. The result is a team-oriented culture that is friendly, resilient, and enjoyable.
“Getting personal” is an essential cultural facet because relationships play an outsized role in nonprofit success—especially in emerging organizations where staff and boards are small. Learn more now how this effects your culture now!
Why Flex Time Is a Powerful Cultural Facet for Staff
Staff at nonprofits routinely work longer hours and earn less than their for-profit counterparts. Offering two weeks of paid vacation and national holidays is a good baseline—but it’s rarely enough.
One of the most meaningful ways to deepen staff culture is to reward people with time, not just words.
Time is valuable.Time restores energy.Time communicates trust. Learn more now!
Why You Must Continually Reinforce Your Culture
Today I want to talk about why it’s so important to remind staff and board members of the culture they’ve chosen to adopt.
Once you establish a culture, your work isn’t done. Culture must be nurtured, reinforced, and kept front and center—because people forget. It’s that simple.
If you don’t actively remind people of your cultural facets and your culture statement, they will eventually collect dust—just like many strategic plans do. And we’ve all seen that happen.
Learn m
How to Reflect and Celebrate Your Culture
If a board and staff serious about adopting a culture, it must be authentic in how it reflects that culture.
Culture isn’t defined by what you say—it’s defined by what you do. Learn more now!
The Reality of Building Culture
The Reality of Building Culture. Let’s be honest: building a culture—whether board, staff, or organizational—takes work.
Defining culture is challenging because culture is an abstract concept, much like happiness or beauty. It’s easy to recognize when it’s unhealthy. You can feel a toxic work environment or see disengaged board members from across the room. But defining a healthy, intentional, and high-functioning culture requires thought, clarity, and commitment.
Learn mor
Fundraising: Double Your Response Rates for Your Giving Tuesday and Year-End Appeals
Double Your Response Rates for Your Giving Tuesday and Year-End Appeals
Find the Best Nonprofit Board Retreat Facilitator (9 Keys Things)
Nonprofit: Finding the Best Board Retreat Facilitator (9 Keys Things). It's not easy, but it is possible. Here are some tips to help you through the search maze.
Ratings: Finding the Best Strategic Planning Facilitator for Your Nonprofit (9 Keys Things):
Best Strategic Planning Facilitator
COVID: 5 Fundraising and Donor Relations Tactics to Use in a Time of Crisis
COVID: 5 Fundraising and Donor Relations Tactics to Use in a Time of Crisis
COVID: 7 Things Your Board Members Can Do to Lead in Times of Crisis
COVID: 7 Things Your Board Members Can Do to Lead in Times of Crisis
Get the Majority of Donors to Say "Yes!
Fundraising: How to Get 70% of Your Donors to Say "Yes!"
Make your donors feel like stars!
Make your donors feel like stars!
Sometimes we need to be honest with ourselves. We take our donors for granted.
Most nonprofits pour enormous time, energy, and passion into programming—and that makes sense. That’s why we exist. We want to change lives and make a difference in the world.
But in the process, it’s easy to unintentionally neglect the very people who make the work possible.
To strengthen donor relationships and increase giving, make donors feel like stars!
Stop Chasing the Gold Medal: What Mikaela Shiffrin Teaches Us About Fundraising
Too many nonprofits fixate on fundraising goals — dollar targets, deadlines, thermometers, and dashboards — while neglecting the very process that produces sustainable giving in the first place.
If you want to raise more money, stop chasing the “gold medal” and start mastering the process.
Fundraising Advice from Mikaela Shrffrin
Increase response rates of year-end appeal letter 10x!
Increase response rates of year-end appeal letter 10x!
Here's How to Get Donors to Respond to Your Messages
Have you ever felt like you did everything right to nurture a donor relationship—only to have the donor suddenly go quiet when it was time to make a gift?
Get Donors to Respond to Your Messages and Letters when they go silent! Learn more now!
How Better Copywriting Inspires Donors to Take Action
Learn How Better Copywriting Inspires Donors to Take Action. Read now!
Raise More Money . . . Invest in Goosebumps!
Raise More Money . . . Invest in Goosebumps!
Great programming alone is not enough. Great intentions are not enough.
If people don’t feel your mission, they won’t fund it.
How David Beats Goliath: Goose Bumps. You don’t compete with massive institutions by outspending them. You compete by out-feeling them. Learn how here!
The Best Fundraising Tactic Ever - Vegas Style
The Best Fundraising Tactic Ever - Vegas Style. Learn more now! You won't believe it.
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