If you want donors to move, tell them exactly where to go. In this Fundraisers Friday conversation, Julia C. Patrick and Tony Beall turn vague appeals into precise, energizing calls to action (CTA’s)—across giving, events, engagement, volunteering, and advocacy. Tony lays the foundation early: “Start with the call to action. What do I want folks to do?” When you begin with the outcome, every sentence supports momentum, not meandering.

Julia puts a common myth on the table: “It’s not just like go out and ask a bunch of rich people for money.” Fundraising isn’t speed-dial; it’s relationship-building, timing, and clarity. Tony reinforces the point: “Fundraising is all about relationships,” and your CTA is the moment you convert relationship energy into tangible next steps—give, register, share, join, or contact.

Time-bound CTAs matter. Use real clocks, not artificial pressure. Matching gifts? Set the deadline: “Donate by October 15 so your gift will be doubled.” Community emergencies? Be specific: protect 20 roofs, feed families during power loss, or restore safe access to services this week. Impact framing turns abstract dollars into visible outcomes: $50 feeds one student for a month—$100 feeds two. That clarity invites bigger gifts because supporters can instantly see scale.

Equally important: truth and fit. If the amount and impact don’t match, supporters feel it. Build your figures from real program data, and keep the language human. Julia adds a practical lens for events: swap “RSVP” for action-forward phrases like “Save my seat.” Tap joyful FOMO without panic. Want engagement? Ask for it. “Click subscribe,” “Invite 10 friends,” “Share with a neighbor adopting a pet.” Want volunteers or in-kind items? Say exactly how to respond and how you’ll make it easy.

Advocacy belongs in your CTA toolkit too. This isn’t about politics—it’s about mission. Invite your community to “Stand with families—email your legislator today to support…” Frame the request around the people you serve and the outcome your programs create.

Finally, close the loop with gratitude-based storytelling. Julia’s favorite “Because of you” CTA wraps action and appreciation into one cadence: Because of you, 50 students received laptops; because of you, seniors got meals during outages. That framing reminds supporters they are the hero—today and tomorrow.

Start with the action you need, frame it with authentic impact, and invite your community to step forward—now.

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Matt Glazer arrives with runner’s grit and a teacher’s patience, asking nonprofit leaders to reconsider what “success” really means when the pace gets punishing and the stakes feel permanent. Blue Sky Partners, he explains, is built on human-centered design—strategy that starts with people, not paperwork—because “things happen with people, not to them.” That simple reframing lands like fresh air in a room that’s been working on fumes.

Matt traces the practical path from North Star to next step. Vision and mission still matter; values still guide. But unless the destination is explicit, inertia becomes the manager. He’s seen organizations celebrate the wrong finish line—an amount raised rather than a result achieved—because the compass got swapped for a calculator. As he puts it plainly, too many teams make “the destination the money, not the mission,” and then feel failure in victory. His remedy: clarity that sequences choices—staffing, board composition, fundraising tactics—toward outcomes that last longer than a news cycle or a fiscal quarter.

The episode turns intimate as he describes leading through funding freezes and furloughs, where procurement bottlenecks stall workforce programs and rapid-rehousing efforts. Chaos, he says, is part of the system; the question is how leaders respond. That response writes the culture: junior staff learn what urgency means, what boundaries are allowed, and whether development is an investment or an afterthought.

Matt’s answer is rhythm. He prefers “work-life rhythm” to balance, because real life surges and ebbs. Micro-rituals—a brain break after deep work, a morning run, hand-ground coffee, ten minutes of reading—become the scaffolding of steadiness. Leaders who model the pause (even leaving early after a 3 a.m. crisis) give permission for healthier habits and better listening. From there, skills compound: interns become staffers, staffers rise to managers, managers to directors, directors to chiefs.

He doesn’t preach from a distance. Matt shares his own burnout and mental-health journey, the season when achievement eclipsed wellbeing. That candor reframes self-care as operational sense, not personal luxury. The nonprofit sector is vast—and fragile—precisely because it relies on people whose calling meets constraints. Protect the people, he argues, and you protect the mission.

This episode is an invitation to re-set: name the North Star, measure what matters, and let rhythm replace adrenaline. Strategy becomes humane. Operations become sustainable. And the work—housed within leaders who can breathe—can keep going for a long time.

#TheNonprofitShow #NonprofitLeadership #HumanCenteredDesign

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Cybersecurity isn’t just firewalls and tech jargon—it’s people, habits, and everyday choices. Kicking off National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we bring together two voices who live this every day: Michael Nouguier, Partner, Cybersecurity Services at Richey May, and Tony Rehmer, Senior VP of IT at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals). Their message is clear: strong security starts with culture.

Tony sets the tone early: “We take a major part, but it is everyone.” In other words, security isn’t a back-office task—it’s a shared responsibility. With hospitals, HIPAA, and multi-state operations in the mix, CMN Hospitals treats staff as the front line. That means training that actually sticks: shorter, “microlearning” nudges delivered through internal channels, real examples, and peer-to-peer conversations. As Tony puts it, “We never, ever shame a person.” Instead, they use supportive coaching after incidents to encourage fast reporting and continuous learning.

Michael maps the big picture. Attacks have matured, and wishful thinking won’t cut it. “Hope has then become a liability when it’s your only defense.” The antidote? Make security part of the mission—top-down and day-to-day. That looks like updating mission statements (“do the work securely”), enabling multifactor for everyone (leaders included), and building a culture where staff quickly raise their hand when something feels off. He provides memorable visual: “Everybody needs a pitchfork… so they can do what they need to do to protect your organization.”

The conversation gets real with a story from CMN Hospitals at the start of COVID-19. Threat actors bought credentials on the dark web, slipped into a mailbox, swapped a message body for malware, and re-sent it. Because staff had been invited into the security effort, the team was alerted within five minutes. That fast reporting changed the outcome. Culture wasn’t a slogan; it was the safety net.

Both guests agree: this is ongoing work. Threats keep shifting—from credit cards to ransomware and data theft—so messaging, training, and audience targeting must evolve too. Practically, that means appointing security champions, aligning IT with communications pros who can translate across departments, and weaving security into leadership conversations and board funding decisions.

Takeaways you can use: treat people as partners, keep learning in snackable moments, celebrate fast reporting, and put “securely” in your strategy—not just in your tech stack.

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