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The ENGAGE Podcast

Subscribe to The ENGAGE Podcast to hear experts from across the social good community share best practices, tips and must-know trends that will help organizations increase their impact. Formerly called The sgENGAGE Podcast.
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Now displaying: September, 2019
Sep 26, 2019

We all know that it’s important for social good organizations to connect and engage with stakeholders in order to achieve their missions. One of the most effective ways this can be done is through storytelling. But how do you craft your story in a way that gets across your message while emotionally connecting with people? Today’s episode will teach you just that! 

In this episode of the sgENGAGE Podcast, host Christine Newman is joined by two storytelling experts, Jocelyn Wright and Kirk Lilwall of Blackbaud University. Listen in to hear what Jocelyn and Kirk have to say about the different types of stories organizations can tell, how to leverage multimedia communication channels, and key tactics for conducting interviews that will result in the information you need to craft a compelling story. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • Why stories are so valuable in getting people to engage with an organization or cause
  • Types of stories that are most effective for social good organizations 
  • Elements that every good story should have
  • Storytelling for diverse audiences
  • How to tell a story that moves people without overwhelming them
  • Examples of powerful stories from social good organizations
  • Telling the stories of protected groups without violating privacy
  • How technology has changed the approach and strategy for storytelling 

Resources:

Jocelyn Wright

Kirk Lilwall

Blackbaud University Organizational Best Practices: Multimedia Storytelling 

Blackbaud University

Visual Storytelling for the Modern Nonprofit

 Quotes: 

“The stories that you tell are really going to shape the way that people perceive your organization, how they understand your organization, and also how they understand their relationship with your organization.” –Jocelyn Wright

“We’re all storytellers in our everyday lives. When you send texts, you send emails, you make phone calls, all those things are stories.” –Kirk Lilwall

“Personal stories are something that’s always going to resonate.” –Jocelyn Wright

Sep 19, 2019

December 3rd, 2019 marks the 8th annual #GivingTuesday. It has grown every year since its inception and become an important part of the end-of-year giving season. But with so many different organizations taking notice of the success and participating, it’s important to find a way for your organization to stand out. 

Joining host Rachel Hutchisson on the podcast today is Jennifer Dunworth, director of development for the Maryland SPCA, who shares the background on the creative campaign her organization used last year that helped them raise $41,000… $11,000 more than their goal. Listen in to hear what Jennifer has to say about preparing your organization for Giving Tuesday, engaging and exciting your donors, and managing the creative flow from idea to execution.  

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • What the Maryland SPCA did last year for #GivingTuesday that gained so much attention
  • Being creative and effective in your #GivingTuesday campaign
  • Most important steps when preparing a #GivingTuesday campaign
  • Keys to getting donors excited
  • How encouraging early engagement factored into the overall year-end giving campaign
  • Lessons from last year’s campaign that can be applied in the future
  • The difficulty of being distinctive 

Resources:

Jennifer Dunworth

#GivingTuesday Toolkit

#GivingTuesday article series

Blackbaud #GivingTuesday Webinar Series

Quotes: 

“As you can imagine, some folks are very vehemently one team or the other, and we want to ensure that we always represent Team Both.”

“Remember that you can get lost in the creative joy and sort of overinvest your time.”

“What popped was not the times that we closeted ourselves in a room and actively, almost forcefully brainstormed – although there was a lot of good stuff from those brainstorms that we used later – it was really the organic conversations.”

Sep 12, 2019

What is leadership? Knowing that management is directive and leadership is connective is a great place to start, but social good leaders often struggle with understanding and balancing these two.

To explore what leadership really means in a connected organization, Marc Pitman joins host Steve MacLaughlin on the podcast today to talk about the role of the social good CEO or executive director in fundraising, how to connect and balance internal and external leadership, and why continuous improvement is such a powerful way for organizations to focus.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • What fundraising leadership is really about
  • Balancing external and internal leadership 
  • Why nonprofits bring in COOs
  • The different perspectives of founders vs leaders who were passed the torch
  • The importance of continuous improvement 
  • The key qualities leaders need to develop to be effective
  • How to help your staff develop
  • The importance of finding support from peers or coaches

Resources:

Marc Pitman

Blackbaud Institute: The Connected Office eBook

The Wake Up Call leadership research

Marc's framework for growing in confidence as a leader

The Executive Coach Project Report by Compass Point

Quotes: 

“Part of what leaders need to do is cast a vision of something that’s greater than… some better world, some better experience for whatever the mission is that they’re trying to solve.”

“Doing that really well, caring for that cause, doesn’t provide the revenue.”

“I have a growing appreciation for events – if they’re not solely for fundraising.”

Sep 5, 2019

As a charitable organization, how can you leverage the popularity of live streaming to fundraise? How do you find a live streamer to pair up with? And how can you build and have a successful relationship with live streamers? 

Today’s episode features Alyssa Sweetman, the Charity Program Manager at Twitch. Tune in to hear her talk to Roz Lemieux, director of Blackbaud Labs, about how nonprofits and other social good organizations can work with live streamers, also known as content creators, to raise money on live streaming platforms.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

  • What is Twitch?
  • Who is a content creator?
  • How to get started with partnering with a live streamer, or content creator
  • The kind of support or assets organizations should plan to provide content creators to build relationships and aid them in fundraising
  •  What makes for a good impact statement?
  • How live streamers make nonprofit content engaging for viewers
  • The most interesting fundraising live stream event Ally has seen
  • The different ways content creators raise money on Twitch

Resources:

Twitch

Alyssa Sweetman

Article: How to Harness the Fundraising Power of Twitch

Questions for Alyssa? Email her at Alyssa: charity@twitch.tv

Quotes:

“If you build these relationships up, they can grow every year.”

“When we think about money, we don’t often think of instantaneously give it away. So it’s often about making an emotional connection.”

“People like to feel like they have a bit of control, power, and that they can contribute.”

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