Driving Participation Podcast: What Is Working in Marketing & Fundraising | Nonprofits | Schools | Associations Beth Brodovsky

After five years and 200 episodes, Beth has certainly learned a thing or two (or 200) about participation, such as where it comes from and what it really means. As she turns the final page of the podcast, she reflects on the five principles of participation she’s picked up on with the help from guests along the way, from the meaning and value of collaboration to knowing your audience beyond demographics and much more.

In today’s world of connectedness and social media, movements can take off in the blink of an eye. But, as the guest of this session Jeremy Heimans posits in his book, “it's only a movement if it moves without you.” Jeremy, CEO of Purpose and co-author of the book “New Power,” joins this session to explore the concepts of old power and new power, and how each plays a role in participation for organizations and nonprofits. He and Beth tackle why old power versus new power doesn’t necessarily mean bad versus good, and Jeremy shares examples of each power dynamic in relation to participation, such as the #MeToo movement. They explore the scale of participation, the concept of agency, and much more.

 
Sarah Olivieri joins this session to talk all about strategy. How do you create a strategy everyone is on board with and can follow? And, more importantly, how do you even define strategy? Sarah, founder of PivotGround, and Beth explore the link between strategy and capacity, what differentiates strategies from tactics, and Sarah’s “secret sauce” to help businesses thrive. She shares tricks for getting time back in your day so you can shift your focus to the activity that is most important, tools for staying on track with the strategy you develop, and more.

When it comes to innovation and experimentation, ideas are only half of the challenge. Donna Kastner, founder of Retirepreneur, joins this week’s session to explore the other half: implementation. She and Beth delve into experimentation and how to get from a conversation about an idea to an actual product. Donna explains how to design a conversation that puts everyone on a level playing field and leads to exploring the "why" behind the idea—without jumping to tactics too quickly. She and Beth discuss how a hackathon can create an impact anywhere from a conference to just within your organization and bring people together to solve, or "hack," a problem, the importance of patience, and much more.

Jeremiah Lane knows the power of putting a face to the name of an organization. After attending a conference, he came back to the Children's Hospital Foundation, where he serves as Communications Director, with an idea that changed how the organization approached its storytelling. With one campaign that directly involves the families they serve, the Foundation has been able to tap into the emotional side of the work they do and share those stories with their audience in ways that resonate, especially because they may be stories about kids from their hometown. Jeremiah shares how to use personal stories to create connections with donors, the link between development and communications, and more.

As many organizations can relate, Julia Toepfer knows that it can be hard to generate the amount of content needed to tell your story when you have a small team. Julia, marketing and online engagement manager at National Immigrant Justice Center, joins this session to share how NIJC found inspiration for content from an unexpected source: its own staff. Julia shares how she and her team encourage staff members to contribute to telling NIJC's stories in ways they're comfortable with, whether it's writing a post, making a video, or even being featured in the story themselves. They explore maintaining messaging for staff members who are not in marketing, how to avoid hurting feelings or egos in new situations, and more.