The Good Journey Pod: Recent Episodes
Brady Josephson
The Good Journey Pod is a podcast for social entrepreneurs, nonprofit professionals, and everyday philanthropists - you! - who are interested in doing good in today’s world. You’ll hear thought leaders, philanthropists, and innovators shaping the world of ‘good’ share stories from their journey to help you along yours.
Rich Johnson is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Ignite Journeys — a startup social business that provides experiences that benefit humanity & the planet — and also the Co-Founder of Spark Ventures — a nonprofit that builds partnerships that lift communities out of poverty.
In part 2 of our chat, Rich discusses the decision to start Ignite, what it's all about, and how they work with and for both companies and nonprofits to effect change. And in addition to being a neat guy, Rich was also my first boss, a fantastic mentor, and a great friend so I hope you enjoy the discussion.
Learn more about Ignite Journeys: www.experienceignite.com/ Learn more about Spark Ventures: sparkventures.org/
Rich Johnson is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Ignite Journeys — a startup social business that provides experiences that benefit humanity & the planet — and also the Co-Founder of Spark Ventures — a nonprofit that builds partnerships that lift communities out of poverty.
In part 1 of our chat, Rich talks about starting Spark, working with a board, attracting staff, fundraising, and celebrating their 10 year anniversary. And in addition to being a neat guy, Rich was also my first boss, a fantastic mentor, and a great friend so I hope you enjoy the discussion.
Learn more about Ignite Journeys: https://www.experienceignite.com/ Learn more about Spark Ventures: https://sparkventures.org/
Sarah Durham, author of the book Brandraising and founder of Big Duck total communications nerd — her words — is on the pod. In this episode, Sarah talks a bit about her starting Big Duck and being a certified Woman Owned Business, what brand means and its value to nonprofit organizations, as well as how to measure brand and Big Duck's Brandraising Benchmarks.
More on Big Duck: https://bigducknyc.com/
In this episode, I’m joined by Ann Rosenfield to discuss fundraising for startup and young nonprofits, monthly giving, and old school and new school fundraising among other things. Ann has been in the sector for 20 years, is an editor of Hillborn Charity eNews, and works as a major gift fundraiser. She also does a lot of volunteer work, like chairing the Association of Fundraising Professionals Congress, working with Imagine Canada, and serving on the board of Rainbow Railroad — a neat organization that she shares more about in this episode — so I hope you like it.
In this episode I’m joined by Kathleen Janus, author of Social Startup Success and lecturer at Standford University. Kathleen shares 5 key insights from her book and over 100 interviews with nonprofit leaders, discusses what it means to scale and why some nonprofits shouldn’t try to scale, and gives one great tip to people starting or scaling a nonprofit… I won’t tell you what it is so now you have to listen. Enjoy!
Get the book at http://www.kathleenjanus.com/
Katherine Davies from iguacu is on the podcast this week. Katherine started iguacu to help solve the problem of how to find and support trusted organizations doing effective work in the middle of humanitarian crises like Syria, Afghanistan, and the Central African Republic. In this episode she talks about her 55 day walk across Europe, iguacu’s methodology behind finding effective organizations, and the value of effortless and joyful giving. Hope you like it.
More on iguacu: https://weareiguacu.org/
Vivien Hoexter and Linda Hartley, authors of Big Impact: Insights & Stories from America’s Non-Profit Leaders and principles at H2 Growth Strategies are on the pod. They discuss some key findings from their book on nonprofit leaders (Big Impact: Insights & Stories from America’s Non-Profit Leaders), changes in giving in the past 20 years, why charitable giving is stuck at 2% and even a quick tangent on pay inequality within the fundraising profession (which is ridiculous). I hope you enjoy and as always thanks for listening.
More about them and their book: http://h2growthstrategies.com/book/
Jeff Gordy CEO & Co-Founder of Z2 Systems, the makers of NeonCRM. shares more about his circuitous and entrepreneurial journey to the nonprofit sector. He also discusses what makes a good entrepreneur, some key lessons he’s learned along the way, and even some data, tech, and fundraising nerdery as well. Thanks for listening!
In this episode, Gary Wohlfeill, VP of Brand and Vision at CrowdRise, joins to chat about social fundraising, the mindset shift needed for organizations to fundraise today, and how to best market and sell to nonprofits
At CrowdRise, Gary works with partners to develop fundraising campaigns and leads the marketing team in developing the CrowdRise brand. CrowdRise is the world’s largest and fastest-growing fundraising platform dedicated exclusively to charitable giving.
More on CrowdRise: https://www.crowdrise.com/
Chris Huertz has a background in humanitarian work fighting human trafficking in the slums of Cambodia and spent a lot of time with Mother Theresa. In his travels and work he’s become an Enneagram professional and been trained by people like Father Richard Rohr, Russ Hudson, Marion Gilbert and Helen Palmer among others. He has spent time on many nonprofit boards over the past 15 years, currently runs his own nonprofit in Omaha called Gravity and recently wrote a book called The Sacred Enneagram. In this episode Chris shares more about the Enneagram, what contemplative activism is and why it’s needed in our world today, and what he’s learned working with nonprofits and nonprofit professionals. Hope you like it!
More about The Sacred Enneagram: http://amzn.to/2Bopr5r
In this episode, Eva Hieninger joins me from Berlin to discuss digital fundraising, campaigns, and marketing for nonprofits with a German perspective. Eva is a Partner and Managing Director at getunik (www.getunik.com) and before that was the owner of MARKETING FOR GOOD. She has consulted NGOs and nonprofits like Save the Children Germany, WWF Germany and Johanniter International Assistance on digital strategy, online marketing, online fundraising and online campaigning. I hope you enjoy the episode!
Follow Eva: https://twitter.com/marketing4good_
Recently nominated as a L'Oreal Paris Women of Worth, Valerie Weisler joins the podcast to chat about starting The Validation Project when she was just 14 (!), what led her to do that, and how she's been able to grow and scale their work across the world.
As a victim of bullying, Valerie Weisler noticed a fellow student suffering and reached out to him with a powerful message of compassion: “You matter.” When the student let Valerie know how much her words meant to him, it inspired her to create The Validation Project. Today, Valerie shows others how to recognize their own worth and use it to change the world through social justice initiatives.
Learn more about Valerie and The Validation Project here: http://www.thevalidationproject.org/
You can vote for her, any other Women of Worth nominee here: https://www.womenofworth.com
Richie Kendall from Cheerful Giving joins the pod to discuss aggregate giving apps, impending philanthropic shifts, and developing an enduring lifestyle brand. Richie brought a background in film and design having worked with brands like Forever21, New Belgium, Frontier Airlines and more to Cheerful Giving (https://cheerfulgiving.com/) where he’s the Co-Founder and Managing Director. In his role, he’s working to make Cheerful Giving a digital platform and mobile app for next-generation philanthropy and aims to be the largest community of donors, nonprofits and faith-based organizations where giving to any cause is as easy as a single tap.
On today’s how I chat major gifts and major gift fundraising with Richard Perry from Veritus Group. Richard has over 30 years’ experience helping nonprofits transform their Major Donor programs. He co-founded The Domain Group, which was one of the largest full-service fundraising consulting agencies serving major national, regional and local non-profits in the United States before starting Veritus group and the Major Gift Academy and online course and resource for major gift training and development. Hope you like it!
More on Veritus: https://veritusgroup.com/
More on the Major Gift Academy: https://www.majorgiftacademy.com/
In this episode, Noah Barnett from CauseVox discusses discuss all kinds of fundraising things like communications, crowdfunding, digital, and more. Noah is the Growth Marketing Lead at CauseVox but prior to that, he spent six and half years in fundraising and marketing leadership roles at World Help and The Adventure Project. He knows firsthand the challenges nonprofits face, and is passionate about equipping them with the resources and insights they need to rally people around their cause.
Learn more about CauseVox here: https://www.causevox.com/
A special bonus episode for you as The Good Journey Pod host Brady Josephson sits down with Claire Kerr and Laura Armstrong from FrontStream to chat about nonprofits, his career, donation pages, and more on their podcast, Asking for More.
You can listen to the original episode and get more podcasts delivering "Professional development for development professionals" at http://askingformorepodcast.com or wherever you get your pods by searching Asking for More.
On today’s pod I’m joined by Megan Strand, Communications Director for Engage for Good. Megan and I discuss point of sale donation campaigns and Engage for Good’s 2017 Charity Checkout Champions covering 73 different campaigns and over $441M raised in 2016 alone. We cover some trends seen in the report, pro’s and con’s of these campaigns, and what small businesses and nonprofits can do to try out their own campaigns.
You can learn more about Engage for Good and the 2017 Charity Checkout Champions report here: http://engageforgood.com/2017checkout/
In this episode, I sit down with Marco Zaugg, entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of RaiseNow. We discuss fundraising and giving in Switzerland and Europe and how it compares to Canada and the US among other things. Enjoy!
Learn more about RaiseNow: https://www.raisenow.com/en
In this episode, Phil Haid from Public Inc. is on the show. Phil co-founded Public Inc. in 2008 with a focus on driving large-scale social impact by merging and more closely aligning profit and purpose for companies and brands. On the show, Phil discusses what Profit and Purpose means, how CSR needs to shift and evolve, and how the charity mindset is a hindrance to not just nonprofits but for the social impact space. Hope you enjoy the show!
Learn more about Public Inc. here: http://publicinc.com/
Darren Lancaster Co-Founder of ThinOPTICS joins to discuss cause marketing. ThinOPTICS is a cool new company that makes frameless glasses and has recently partnered with an organization called Prevent Blindness to raise funds and awareness for their 20/20 at 40 program. Darren shares more about how that partnership came about, what they look for in their charitable partners, and how key flexibility and speed are to them. Enjoy!
More about ThinOPTICS and their work with Prevent Blindness: http://thinoptics.com/preventblindness
Dr. Una Osili from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy joins the pod. Una is prolific researching in the philanthropic world and helps with the Giving USA report produced each year which looks at charitable giving in the United States. On the show, Una unpacks some of the key findings in the most recent Giving USA report, provides some insights on the ‘why’ behind some of the numbers and findings from the report, and shares some wisdom on giving in 2017 and beyond.
More on Lilly School of Philanthropy: https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/
More on Giving USA: https://givingusa.org/
On the pod I’m joined by Matt Pohlson from Omaze. Omaze connects causes, personalities, and everyday world changers through democratized charitable auctions to raise funds and awareness for charities working tirelessly to change people’s lives. Matt is a co-founder of Omaze with a background in event production and storytelling and in this episode he shares a bit about how Omaze got started, the importance of investing in people and culture, and the value of incentivizing giving to make a bigger impact in the world. Enjoy!
Learn more about Omaze at https://www.omaze.com/
On today’s show, I am joined by one of my favourite people in the nonprofit space, Tim Kachuriak. Tim is the founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for Next After, a research and consulting firm that works with businesses, nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity. Prior to founding NextAfter, Tim served as Senior Vice President of Innovation and Optimization for The Pursuant Group, and Vice President of Digital for KMA Direct Communications.
On the episode, Tim talks more about unleashing generosity, testing and optimization, research and innovation, fundraising and conversion, and more. Tim is one of the best digital marketers I know and also one of the best guys I know and I hope you enjoy the discussion.
Learn more about NextAfter here https://www.nextafter.com/.
Vanessa Chase is an international non-profit consultant, thought leader, speaker, author of The Storytelling Non-Profit: A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness. She’s also the founder of The Storytelling Non-Profit focused on helping not-for-profit organizations articulate their impact to donors in a new way and using narrative techniques to bring about change and raise funds.
In this episode, we discuss why stories are so important, how to think about the storytelling process, and the role of conflict. Hope you like it!
FK Day is a long time Chicago businessman, entrepreneur and humanitarian. He’s co-founder of SRAM bicycles before starting World Bicycle Relief in 2004 with his wife Leah Missbach Day in response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami crisis. What was intended to be a one-off project delivering over 24,000 bicycles to displaced survivors is now a hybrid nonprofit and for-profit enterprise that has provided more than 350,000 Buffalo Bicycles - their flagship bike - and trained 1,700 field mechanics in developing countries. Pretty amazing.
In this episode, FK shares more on the founding story, challenges of development, how they came upon the hybrid business model, the role of business in philanthropic work and more. Hope you like it and thanks for listening.
More on World Bicycle Relief: https://worldbicyclerelief.org
More on Buffalo Bicycles: http://www.buffalobicycle.com/
In this episode, I am joined by an amazing man and entrepreneur, Justin Dillon. Justin is a professional musician turned filmmaker and social entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Made in a Free World, an award-winning platform that brings together consumers, organizations, and businesses to disrupt the $150 billion business of human trafficking. He has advised the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, the White House, the Vatican, Fortune 500 companies, and more on issues of innovation and social justice and to top it all off he’s also written a book, A Selfish Plan to Change the World - a ‘self-help’ others guide. Justin chats about his personal journey, global slavery, his book, entrepreneurship, and more! Hope you like it.
You can learn more about Made in a Free world here: https://madeinafreeworld.com/
You can get Justin's book here: http://aselfishplan.com/
In this episode I’m joined by Zach Shefska. Zach Shefska is a college drop out, entrepreneur, and data analytics nerd. As Director of the Fundraising Report Card, he helps non-profits harness the power of their data to better carry out their missions. Zach shares from his experience getting to know the nonprofit space better, how data can and should be used by organizations when it comes to fundraising, and how he’s gone about helping build the Fundraising Report Card and their business. He’s incredibly sharp, I always enjoy chatting with him and I hope you enjoy the conversation.
You can learn more about Fundraising Report Card here: https://fundraisingreportcard.com/
On the pod, Chris Preston, Vice President, Corporate Relations for United Way Worldwide, joins the show. Chris talks about how United Way is shifting as workplace giving and philanthropy itself shifts, what he’s seen over the past few years in regards to CSR and corporate giving, and gives some ideas and insights to organizations of all sizes looking to partner with companies to raise money and make a bigger impact. You can see more of these ideas in action at unitedway.org
In this pod, I’m joined by Sabrina Pourmand, Vice President Key Relationships at charity: water. I’ve had a crush on charity: water for years now for their culture and approach to giving and fundraising and in this episode Sabrina shares a bit more about her personal journey before working for charity: water and the value of having some programs experience and being in the field. She also discusses creativity and innovation when it comes to fundraising and what she’s learned working for charity: water and with donors. She’s was fantastic to speak with so I hope you enjoy it.
Follow Sabrina on Twitter, @SabrinaPourmand, and learn more about charity: water's The Spring here, https://www.charitywater.org/thespring, and their VR work here, https://www.charitywater.org/vr/.
In this episode, Claire Axelrad joins to discuss fundraising. Claire is a top nonprofit consultant, trainer, and coach with all kinds of great resources on her site, Clairification (http://www.clairification.com/). In this episode, Claire shares from her 30 plus years of fundraising experience on the value of donor retention, outdated fundraising models, and where she thinks fundraising is in 2017 and where it’s headed in the future. Hope you like it.
More on Claire Claire Axelrad , J.D., CFRE was named Outstanding Fundraising Professional of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals and brings 30 years frontline development experience to her work as principal of Clairification (http://www.clairification.com/). A sought-after coach, Claire teaches the CFRE Fundraising Certification Course and frequently presents for The Foundation Center and 4GOOD. Claire writes a monthly column on Nonprofit Social Media plus regular columns for Nonprofit Pro and Guidestar. Clairification was named “Best Fundraising Blog of 2013” by FundRaising Success Magazine.
On today’s episode, I’m joined by Mary Beth Westmoreland, one of the 50 most powerful women in technology and the Chief Technicalogy Officer at Blackbaud - the world's leading cloud software company powering social good. Mary Beth and I chat about building technology, the uniqueness of technology solutions in the nonprofit space, and the shortage of females in tech.
In this episode, I’m joined by Jason Ricci. He’s the Founder and CEO at Fluxx where he’s using technology to transform the grant process and spark lasting good. On the show, Jason shares how Fluxx got started in the first place, how impact reporting, storytelling, and collaboration are key and increasingly important, and Fluxx’s newest, free, product for nonprofits called Grantseeker.
You can learn more about Fluxx, Grantseeker, and get great resources at fluxx.io.
You may have heard about cause marketing but why would a company do it? What would it look like? Who would they partner with and why? All questions answered in this episode by Jon Wirt, Head of Marketing at Aura Frames.
For World Water Day, Jon and Aura partnered with charity: water on a limited edition frame where $60 from each sale would go to charity: water. Aura would then also ‘push’ one image a month, from charity: water, to these Aura Frames along with a simple email story about the image and why water is important to them. Pretty neat eh?
Hope you enjoy the episode and be sure to check out Aura Frames at https://auraframes.com/.
On today’s show, I chat with Steve MacLaughlin Vice President of Data & Analytics at Blackbaud and author of the bestselling book Data Driven Nonprofits. We discuss big data, its value, and nonprofit culture as well as how organizations can become a bit more data driven in their decision making. We even sneak in a few hockey references :). Enjoy!
Maher Arar was one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2007, he has a Ph.D. in wireless communication and is now the CEO at CauseSquare - a mobile first online fundraising company trying to help organizations raise money faster.
In this episode, Maher shares more about his entrepreneurial journey starting out selling popcorn as a child in Damascus, the importance and value of mobile when it comes to fundraising, and some challenges innovating and working in the nonprofit space.
Some books Maher recommends in the pod: To Sell Is Human, Nail It Then Scale It, Cause for Change, Dollar Dash, and Hooked.
Jason Grad, Founder of Bstow, joins the pod. Jason started Bstow, a mobile giving app, after working in tech, at Yelp, seeing how micro donations powered the Ice Bucket Challenge, and experiencing the impact of nonprofit work through his family. In this episode, Jason talks about mobile giving, transparency, and technology. Fun stuff.
On this episode, I'm joined by Myron Levine, founder and CEO of Donors Unite (https://donorsunite.org/) a new charitable gift card company. Myron is a serial entrepreneur with a legal background but became more involved in charity after a tragic loss and seeing his local community rally to him and his family's aid. Myron shares a bit of his journey, the value of gift cards in getting more new money into the charitable sector, and how businesses, in particular, can give better more impactful gifts. Hope you like it!
On today’s episode, I geek out on fundraising with Steven Screen from The Better Fundraising Company. Steven shares from his many years of experience on how important the offer is, how to go about creating one that inspires donors to give, and weighs in on if direct mail is dead. Spoiler alert: it’s not.
You can learn more about Steven and The Better Fundraising Company at betterfundraising.com.
On this episode, I chat with JJ Ramberg. She’s a Duke grad, Stanford MBA, former CNN reporter, and current host of MSNBC’s ‘Your Business’ who, oh yeah, is a co-founder of Goodshop. An online coupon browser plugin that finds deals for you as you shop and donates a portion of your purchase to the cause of your choice. Since 2005, Goodshop has saved shoppers over $100 million dollars and given away more than $12 million to user selected causes.
JJ shares more about her entrepreneurial journey, why online shopping can be good for charities, and what’s next for online retailers. I also ask her how the heck she stays organized and what tips she has for nonprofits trying to compete with online shops.
You can get shopping for good with Gumdrop (https://www.goodsearch.com/gumdrop) by Goodshop (https://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop) and learn about JJ’s show on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.com/your-business).
What can one woman do in the face of gun violence, gangs, and other issues facing Chicago’s at-risk youth? In the case of Diane Latiker, simply do what she could. What started with a few kids taking refuge in her apartment quickly turned into dozens and led her to start Kids Off the Block. 14 years later, Diane and Kids Off the Block has had a positive impact on more than 3,000 young lives that otherwise might have been lost to a life of gangs and crime.
Diane has been recognized as a CNN Hero and L’Oreal Paris Woman of Worth Honouree for her work with at-risk youth on the streets of Chicago and in this episode she talks about her startup journey, the difference just one person can make on tough issues like gun violence, and gives some advice to people looking to start their own nonprofit.
And be sure to nominate someone like Diane as a L’Oreal Woman of Worth at womenofworth.com and they could receive $10,000 to further her organization.
How can giving be easier, more effective, and more engaging? A question that Ty Walrod and the company he co-founded and is CEO of, Bright Funds, is trying to answer. In this episode, Ty will talk about how Bright Funds is tackling each of those areas and shares about his past in the VC and finance world, advocacy, and how to speak up on issues that are important as a leader and founder of a company.
Bright Funds empowers everyday donors to become strategic philanthropists. They support thousands of individuals in their personal giving, and partner with the world's leading companies to bring impact-focused workplace giving to employees on a global scale. You can learn more at brightfunds.org.
Looking for great causes? Check out The Good Journey Pod Fund on Bright Funds where we’ll add organizations we have on the show, trust, love, and respect.
In this episode, Derrick Feldmann from the Millennial Impact Project chats about some of last year’s research on Millennials, politics, and how views changed throughout the election, what he did before Millennial Impact, and how nonprofits need to do better at moving and engaging donors of all ages.
Derrick is the lead researcher and creator of The Millennial Impact Project a multi-year study of how the next generation supports causes that produces some truly great research and reports. He’s written two books, Cause for Change and Social Movements for Good, and is also the founder of Achieve - a full service research and marketing agency for causes.
Special Offer! Get 30% off your MCON registration and join Derrick and thousands of others in Washington, D.C. June 5th and 6th to discuss Social Justice, the Planet, and Identity. Use offer code MCON30Shift17 at mcon.events.
In this episode, Brett Hagler, CEO and Co-Founder of New Story, discusses how crucial culture is for great organizations and the gap that exists between the tech/for-profit sector and nonprofit space. He shares about his personal journey, New Story's decision to use a '100% model', and gives some tips on how organizations can be more innovative.
If you don't know about New Story, you should. New Story is an innovative nonprofit that transforms slums into sustainable communities around the world. They were recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the 10 most Innovative Companies in the world within the nonprofit space for 2017.
Brett is pretty impressive in his own right. He's a cancer survivor, author, speaker, Y Combinator alum, and 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur.
Hope you enjoy the episode.