Heart for the Community Consulting

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…

I recently attended the #LearnGrants Summit, and I walked away with pages of notes I knew I had to share with you. Over the next two newsletters, I’m breaking down the six mini-sessions  with the kind of practical, roll-up-your-sleeves wisdom that’s hard to find but easy to use. This week: sessions on communication, discovery, and…

If you’ve ever created a fundraising plan that looked solid on paper, but it stalled out in practice, there’s a good chance the issue wasn’t strategy. It was ownership. This week we’re focusing on a step that is often rushed or skipped altogether: assigning clear roles and responsibilities. Because a fundraising plan doesn’t move forward…

Note: The blog in its original form was published in August 2025, but has been updated. It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States—a federal holiday when some people take the day “off” from work, while others treat it as a day “on” for service and community engagement. Some of my clients…

By Kia Chatmon, Heart for the Community Last week, we introduced the concept of a fundraising plan – why it matters, what it contains. This week we look at the mechanics of creating it. Timing: When Should I Create It? You know how every January we promise ourselves we’ll finally get organized: eat better, call…