Heart for the Community Consulting

Why your audit is one of the most powerful trust-building tools you have if you use it right This is the 3rd edition in a series of newsletters highlighting my takeaways from the “Ask Me Anything: What Funders Look for in Financial Statements” session hosted by @Candid. An independent audit isn’t just a compliance requirement.…

If your nonprofit has a small development team (or no development team at all), one of the biggest fundraising challenges is simple: Access. Access to the right funders.Access to the right relationships.Access to opportunities that larger organizations often hear about first. That’s why I want to share a free resource that I believe more nonprofit…

How funders read your Statement of Activities and what they’re looking for This is the 2nd edition in a series of newsletters highlighting my takeaways from the “Ask Me Anything: What Funders Look for in Financial Statements” session hosted by @Candid. If the balance sheet is a snapshot, the Statement of Activities is the movie.…

What funders really want to know when they open your Statement of Financial Position This is the 1st edition in a series of five newsletters highlighting my takeaways from the “Ask Me Anything: What Funders Look for in Financial Statements” session hosted by @Candid. Here’s something most nonprofit leaders don’t realize: when a funder opens…

Making dignity-driven communication stick across your entire organization. Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered the what and the how of reframing; why “social benefit organization” is a stronger identity than “nonprofit;” why asset framing builds donor trust, and how to apply both in your everyday communications. But here’s the truth most language guides skip:…

Concrete substitutions, real examples, and the formula that makes asset framing work in practice. We’ve spent the last two weeks making the case for why language matters, how “nonprofit” undersells your mission, and how deficit framing quietly erodes donor trust and community dignity. Now let’s get practical. This issue is a working reference. Bookmark it,…

Words that define us by what we’re not can never fully describe who we are. You’ve probably introduced your organization a thousand times. At galas, on grant applications, in elevator pitches. And chances are, you’ve used the word “nonprofit,”  probably within the first sentence. Here’s a question worth sitting with: Why do we define ourselves…

Last week I shared the first three sessions from the #LearnGrants Summit — the Retrospective, finding funders in unexpected places, and building a storytelling culture. If you missed it, you can catch up right here. This week, we’re wrapping up with the final three sessions. These got into some deeper territory — how we handle…