Nonprofit Power Podcast

Kath Patrick

If you’re a progressive nonprofit leader who wants to build powerful influence with the money and policy decisionmakers in your world, but aren’t happy with your progress, help has arrived! Host Kath Patrick has been teaching and coaching leaders on these vital skills for 25+ years, and now she shares her secrets for advocacy success with you every week.

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Top 10 Nonprofit Power Podcast Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Nonprofit Power Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Nonprofit Power Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Nonprofit Power Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

How Your Nonprofit Can Help Your Clients Register to Vote in the 2024 Elections - Episode 62

Nonprofit Power Podcast

09/16/24 • 26 min

There is no question about the significance of the 2024 elections from the presidential race on down to every single local race. I'm pretty sure I don't have to convince you on that front. Nor do I have to convince you how much your clients' votes matter. Both in the larger sense, but also in terms of ensuring that we have elected officials who support policies and the allocation of resources that will in concrete ways help make your clients' lives better.

The simple fact is you can't vote if you aren't registered. And that's where you come in. As a nonprofit, you and your team are in a uniquely valuable position to help your clients take the critical step of registering to vote, which is the first step in making their voice heard at the ballot box. Here's something you might not know: Low-income voters engaged by non-profits are 15% more likely to vote than folks in that same cohort who don't hear from a nonprofit about registering.

Your voice and credibility really matter to the people you serve. And your offering to help them register to vote might make the difference as to whether they decide to participate in this election. One of the most common reasons that people haven't registered so far, is that no one has ever asked them. It's very possible that you will be the first person that has ever asked your client to register.

In this episode, we share:

Three levels of voter registration support you can offer your clients, from basic to advanced
The two most important questions to ask your clients to move them to register to vote
The top national resources to help you do advanced-level voter registration work with your clients
How to engage and support clients to register if your service model doesn’t involve in-person contact with them
How to help your clients successfully navigate restrictive voting laws designed to suppress the vote
What you and your clients need to know about ID requirements for registration and voting, and how to navigate them
Key actions you can take to support voter registration by immigrants who are US citizens

Links to valuable resources mentioned in this episode:

Vote.gov – The one-stop resource for you and your clients to access key info on how to register in a particular state, and how to reach your local elections office. This site is run by the US government.

State Guides to third-party voter registration. These are an indispensible resource for advanced voter registration work.

Nonprofit VOTE – They specifically help nonprofits engage your clients in registering to vote.

Fair Elections Center – Co-creators (with Nonprofit VOTE) of the state guides. They also fight against voter suppression laws and other attempts to restrict voting access.

If you found value in this episode, please share it with other progressive nonprofit leaders. And I’d be grateful if you would leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts, which will help even more people find out about this podcast.

Thanks!

Three Keys to Finding the Right Decisionmaker in any System

Nonprofit Power Podcast

10/19/24 • 30 min

As an advocate, one of your main goals is to get to the money and policy decision makers that have the power to make decisions that are going to affect your organization and the people you serve. And one of the things I hear a lot from nonprofit leaders is that especially with contracting and some agencies, it's not that easy to find who's really in charge and what's going on in there. It’s not always clear who has the power to make that decision.

And what I notice is that a lot of folks spend way more time than they need, trying to get to the bottom of that. So in this episode I’m sharing three keys that will help you get to those answers about who's really in charge, much faster, much more efficiently. So that you can get to the real work of engaging those decision-makers, and building a partnership and getting to the decisions you want.

In this episode, we share:

The missing information that makes decisionmaking systems feel opaque and confusing
The three organizing principles that decisionmaking systems are built on
How to find or build a roadmap to any decisionmaking system
How to find a local guide who can fill in the details of your roadmap that aren’t written down anywhere
How to identify patterns across different organizations so you can decode their decisionmaking process
How to get to the point where you know exactly which questions to ask to quickly identify the key players in any system

Thanks!

Building Strategies for a New Threat Environment

Nonprofit Power Podcast

11/16/24 • 23 min

We have a lot to talk about in this time following the elections. I understand that everyone is still processing, myself included. And yet, it is time to begin turning our attention to: What do we do now?

There is some clarity that is beginning to emerge around that. And I wanted to share three things that I see emerging as top imperatives for nonprofit leaders as we enter a new threat environment.
As it becomes clear that there will now be complete Republican control of the White House, the House and the Senate (albeit by a very slim margin in the House). That means that they will have the power to move their agenda. And we should expect that they will plan to do that with haste.

Without a doubt, there's some ugly stuff coming our way, and we need to be clear-eyed about that. At the same time, it's absolutely critical that we don't curl up in a ball and act like there's nothing we can do. Because there is a great deal that we can do. And very specifically, there's a great deal we can do on behalf of the organizations that we lead, and on behalf of the people that we serve. Not to mention to help keep the democratic system alive.

In this episode, we share:

Three key things to know about where we stand
Three imperatives for action by nonprofit leaders
How to manage the firehose of harmful policies and actions, identify the greatest threats and focus your advocacy energy
The unique superpower that nonprofit leaders have, and how to use it to fight against the most harmful policies coming our way
How to leverage our greatest source of power

Link:
Indivisible is a tremendous resource at the national and local level. Connect to all their resources and find out about your local Indivisible group here: www.indivisible.org

Thanks!

How to Get Out of TMI Syndrome, and Laser-Focus Your Messaging with Decisionmakers - Episode 63

Nonprofit Power Podcast

09/20/24 • 29 min

Has this ever happened to you? You go to engage a decision-maker. There's something specific you want from them. And you start laying out your case and you can tell you're losing them. They're not engaging. They're kind of glazing over and you're struggling to figure out what the problem is. You're giving them your very best stuff, telling them all the key details of your work. And the more you talk, the more they glaze over. Or they pay polite attention, but when you're done, they don't have any questions. And they just say, well, thanks for coming. Appreciate your visiting. And that's it.

While there could be several causes for this, one of the most common is the key mistake of falling into TMI syndrome. Giving decision makers way more information and content than they want, need or can absorb. Treating all facts as if they are equally valuable or important. In a vacuum that might be true. But in the context of engaging and influencing decision makers, it not only isn't true, it will actually undermine your most persuasive points.

What we have to do is get to what is most relevant in this context, in this moment. That are exactly the points the decision maker needs to hear right now. The good news is there's a simple framework that will help you do this. And start getting better results from your messaging.

In this episode, we share:

The four-question framework that will help you identify exactly what your decisionmaker needs to hear from you right now
Why the things you’ve been taught about how to add value with information will actually sabotage your effectiveness with decisionmakers
The common trap that we can fall into as subject matter experts, when engaging decisionmakers
How to identify and weed out TMI elements from your messaging
How to use story to deliver your high-value message elements in the most compelling way

Links:

Episode 13 – How to Use Story to Create Breakthrough Messaging with Decisionmakers

Episode 57 – How to Turn Data into a Story that Engages and Compels a Decisionmaker

Thanks!

How to Cope with Election Anxiety

Nonprofit Power Podcast

10/25/24 • 23 min

The 2024 elections are less than two weeks away. And if your world is anything like mine, you and just about everybody in it are stressing out right now.

There's a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of worry. There's a lot of fear. And those are very understandable states of emotion. There is so much at stake. And so yes, everybody is kind of scared spitless right now.

But here's the thing. And I know you know this. All that anxiety and worry not only isn't helpful, it's actually pretty bad for you. It's bad for your emotional health. It's bad for your physical health. It's bad for your wellbeing. But it also is bad for the cause.

Because what happens when we're in a state of fear is that we become paralyzed. We become demoralized. And that right there is how we lose.

But there is an antidote, and that is to take action. We absolutely have the power to win these most consequential elections. I am certain of that. But it's going to take every single one of us.

In this episode, we share:

How taking action counters anxiety and fear
Two very powerful actions you can take between now and election day to make an impact on the results
The forgotten arena where your influence may matter most
The wrong question we’ve been asking about the election, and the right question to ask instead
Messaging guidance and options for engaging ambivalent voters

Thanks!

The Most Undervalued Skill that Could be Your Key to Engaging Decisionmakers

Nonprofit Power Podcast

11/23/24 • 26 min

Let me ask you this: When you’re in meetings with decisionmakers, what are you most focused on? If you’re like most advocates, you got a lot going on in your head. You’re thinking about your framing, and making sure it resonates with that decisionmaker. You're wanting to make sure you get your messaging delivered, that you cover the things you want to cover.

All of that’s important. But it carries the potential danger of creating a huge blind spot that can cost you. We can get so busy in our head with what we're going to say, that listening kind of gets shoved to the background.

So I want to ask you to think about maybe doing a reset on that. And try on the idea that maybe, even more important than telling them what you have to tell them, is listening for what they're telling you.

The truth is, every time a decision-maker opens their mouth, they’re telling you something of value that you can use to make your engagement of them more effective and more powerful. Which in turn, will move you towards your goal faster.

In any encounter with a decision maker, no matter what's going on. One of the most valuable and effective things you can do is become a next-level, ninja-level listener.

In this episode, we share:

What makes deep listening so powerful as a tool to engage decisionmakers
The three things that get in the way of deep listening
Three mindset shifts that will empower you to listen more deeply
Practical techniques you can start using today that will take your listening skills to the next level
How to open a conversation to get immediate engagement from a decisionmaker
How to avoid misinterpreting tone and body language

Give these mindset shifts and strategies a try, and let me know how it goes! Reach out to me on the podcast website, or on LinkedIn. I look forward to hearing about your results!

How to Get Your Board Fully on Board with Advocacy - Episode 08

Nonprofit Power Podcast

08/02/23 • 29 min

I hear from so many nonprofit leaders who struggle to get their board fully on board with their advocacy work. In that situation, the best case scenario is you’re missing out on a ton of potential. The worst case is you have one or more board members who are actively hindering the organization’s involvement in advocacy work. The good news is you can fix that.

In this episode, we’ll reveal:

The root cause of board members’ resistance to advocacy
The most common misconceptions board members have about advocacy
Two key framing shifts to make with your board before you do anything else
A simple process for taking board members from reluctance to investment in advocacy
How to deal with a conservative board member who’s resistant to advocacy
How to make advocacy part of your board culture

I would love to hear from you if there are other challenges with respect to Board members and advocacy that you’d like to hear addressed on a future episode, or if you have a success story you’d like to share.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn @The Nonprofit Power Podcast, or you can go to the Nonprofit Power Podcast website and send me a message there. Both are great ways to reach me, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Resources: Links to info on lobbying rules for 501(c)(3) nonprofits

Lobbying: Important Legal Considerations for Individuals and 501(c)(3) Organizations
Quick read, straightforward, explains the basics well and references more detailed resources

Knowing the Rules for Nonprofit Lobbying
Medium-length read, provides helpful examples for illustration

Public Charities Can Lobby
Easy instructions for 501(h) election to maximize your lobbying options

Lobbying Rules and 501(c)3 Organizations
Very comprehensive and well-explained, but may be TMI for most orgs

How to Turn Your Team into an Opportunity Generating Machine - Episode 61

Nonprofit Power Podcast

09/06/24 • 35 min

Opportunity is everywhere. But too often, we miss those opportunities because we didn't know about them at all, or we didn't find out about them in time to capitalize on them.

The truth is most nonprofit CEOs are pretty good at constantly scanning for opportunities. And your opportunity radar is always switched on even when you're not at work. But if there are just one or two people in your organization who are doing this. By definition, you're going to miss a lot.

What if you could expand your radar by five or 10 times or more? How many more opportunities would come to your attention? And how many more could you take advantage of if you could just do that?

There's a simple and obvious way to make that happen, which is to develop more skilled opportunity scanners within your team. If you're a leader who scans for opportunities all the time, and who's always evaluating them in your mind. You've probably advanced to the point where most of that is just intuitive. But the reality is, it's a significant skillset. And it can be taught.

In this episode, we share:

Why untrained team members miss about 95% of the opportunities they encounter
The four key categories of opportunity your team should learn to scan for
Three essential screening questions to teach your team to assess whether to bring the opportunity to the Leadership Team
How to create simple, concrete and structured learning opportunities for your team to build their skills
The four main tasks leaders should focus on to successfully teach and coach your team to scan for and analyze opportunities
The most common mistakes leaders make when building their opportunity generating team, and how to avoid them

Thanks!

The Number One Block Most Decisionmakers Have that Keeps Them from Fully Valuing Your Services - Episode 64

Nonprofit Power Podcast

09/28/24 • 31 min

The frustration I hear most often from the nonprofit leaders I work with, is that the money and policy decision makers in their world don't seem to get the value of what they do. And that comes In a lot of forms and flavors. One that can be especially frustrating is the decisionmakers not understanding the full scope of the problem. Or why the ways that the problems manifest for your clients are as difficult to solve as they are.

Part of the issue is that money and policy decisionmakers are always looking for the easiest way to solve the problem, which is only human. But that desire for simplicity, that desire to take the easy route wherever possible. Tends to lead to frankly, some pretty lousy decision-making around policy and around how resources should be allocated and invested. And very often it leaves the most effective programs and the most effective services short of funds.

If we want to solve this, we have to get at a more fundamental issue. Which is that most decisionmakers have a significant mental block that keeps them from seeing the complexity of the problem. And until we break through that mental block we're not going to make a lot of progress.

In this episode, we share:

Why decisionmakers often fail to grasp the complexity of the problems you solve
The critical knowledge gaps decisionmakers commonly have about your clients, that they’re often completely unaware of
The common faulty assumption we make about decisionmakers that causes our messaging to miss the mark
How to craft your messaging to crack open the decisionmaker’s core biases and mental blocks
The biggest caution we need to have when engaging decisionmakers around their mental blocks

Thanks!

How to Capture Your Most Valuable Lessons from 2024

Nonprofit Power Podcast

12/22/24 • 24 min

Between the waning light and the kind of tucking in that happens around the solstice, and the anticipation of closing one year and opening a new one. It's the perfect time to do some reflection on how the year has gone for us, what it's meant for us. And to think about ways that we can carry our most valuable lessons into the new year.

This year, maybe more than most, there's a lot to reflect on. For most of us in the progressive world, it's been a pretty mixed bag. You know, we had this election that was pretty consequential. Fortunately a lot of good things happened at the state and local level. But at the national level it was a tough election. We did not get the outcomes we wanted. And that obviously has massive implications for us going into the new year.

When really big, dramatic events like that happen, either positive or negative, they tend to pull all of our attention, and cause us to lose sight of the less dramatic events in our world. It would be a shame if we let that happen. Because while that was monumental and has a lot of implications, so are all the things that you did during the year. Some of the things that you worked on were probably huge successes. Some of them, maybe they were more of a lesson than a success. Some of them may have you saying, oh my goodness, I'll never do that again. Even that is valuable.

I'd like to invite you to join me in a practice that I do at the end of each year. I’m sharing with you how I'm recapitulating the year in a way that allows me to identify the most important lessons, and decide what I want to pull forward with me into the next year's work.

In this episode, we share:

The key questions that will help you uncover your most important lessons from the year
Where to start and what to ask first to set you up for success
How to avoid the common pitfalls that prevent us from finding those lessons
Why we often find it easier to recall the negative experiences, and minimize the positive ones
The hidden factor that likely had an outsize effect on how things went for you this year
How to stay in curiosity and avoid self-recrimination when reflecting on things that didn’t go well
How to carry your most important lessons into the new year

Thanks!

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FAQ

How many episodes does Nonprofit Power Podcast have?

Nonprofit Power Podcast currently has 76 episodes available.

What topics does Nonprofit Power Podcast cover?

The podcast is about Non-Profit, Power, Money, How To, Progressive, Nonprofit, Podcasts, Education and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Nonprofit Power Podcast?

The episode title 'How to Turn Data into a Story that Engages and Compels a Decisionmaker - Episode 57' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Nonprofit Power Podcast?

The average episode length on Nonprofit Power Podcast is 31 minutes.

How often are episodes of Nonprofit Power Podcast released?

Episodes of Nonprofit Power Podcast are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Nonprofit Power Podcast?

The first episode of Nonprofit Power Podcast was released on Jun 30, 2023.

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Nonprofit Power Podcast

Kath Patrick

Top 10 Nonprofit Power Podcast Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Nonprofit Power Podcast have?

What topics does Nonprofit Power Podcast cover?

What is the most popular episode on Nonprofit Power Podcast?

What is the average episode length on Nonprofit Power Podcast?

How often are episodes of Nonprofit Power Podcast released?

When was the first episode of Nonprofit Power Podcast?

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