The Difference: Nonprofit Fundraising in a For-Profit World

Join us in a discussion with John Hull, Executive Director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, as we discuss workforce attraction. Is your community struggling to find its brand for workforce attraction? Then this is the podcast for you. In this conversation with Convergent Principal Jay Werth, he explains the importance of finding your community's brand and how that helps to bring in businesses and workers. John Hull also talks about the importance of attracting workforce through the “boomerang effect”. John Hull talks about his own experience and programs that Roanoke offers to help with talent attraction.

We're joined by a panel of experts in this episode: Convergent's Pam Reid, Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions Now, and Jeff Cochran from Exclamations Communications. All three have vast and unique experience helping nonprofits grow. They provide their perspective on leadership, marketing, finances, and operations for growing nonprofits. Their stories and specific tips provide guidance for nonprofit leaders looking to reach the next level.

Antony Bell started his consulting firm, Leadership Development, Inc. after noticing that there were more than 64,000 books on leadership and yet still so many of the CEOs and leaders he was working with were struggling. He has consulted for Nike, Bank of America, the Girl Scouts, March of Dimes, the US Treasury, and more. In this episode, he tells us about his leadership framework that applies systems thinking to help drive success at any level, in any environment. It starts with two buckets that encompass everything about being a good leader: Competence and Character. Listen to Tony tell us more!

Bethany Quinn, VP of Content and Strategy from Golden Shovel Agency, joins us to unpack the topic that is on everyone's mind these days: workforce shortages. Golden Shovel has helped hundreds of EDOs and Chambers shape and tell their stories through services including branding, marketing, strategy, web development, and online communications. Workforce shortages are a primary concern for their clients today. Bethany talks about some new solutions she's seeing in tackling this issue from mobile learning labs and virtual reality to using local ambassadors to spread the word about your community.

Quality of life initiatives are essential in defining a community's sense of place and attracting and retaining residents. They are also crucial for attracting business investment - a key goal for any economic development organization. Convergent recently partnered with economic development marketing agency Golden Shovel on a whitepaper titled Strengthening Your Community's Competitive Potential By Improving Quality of Life . This episode dives further into this topic with Convergent Principal Andy Coe and Golden Shovel CEO Aaron Brossoit. We discuss successful examples of quality-of-life improvements, their importance, measuring their impact, and proving their ROI to investors.