Small Nonprofit: Fundraising Tips, Leadership Strategies, and Community-Centric Solutions
Aug 25, 2026 · 22 min · 11 segments
Send us Fan Mail Small nonprofits are constantly told to do more with less. More fundraising, more reporting, more services, same tiny team. This…
Daniel FrancavillaGuestMaria RioHostDo you find that those type of collaborations are usually initiated by program staff or by executive directors? 'Cause- Something that I see with program staff is that they have the trust of the community-
... and other organizational partners, while sometimes, you know, a director of development or an ED is seen as the other.
Collaborations always start with trust, right? That's what makes them work, and the solution for that is the intentional collaboration.
If leadership is just recommending that these two things go together without having that full context, it may not work out.
At the same time, they could be thinking outside of the box and potentially open up the thinking for those who are on the ground, right, who are doing the same thing day to day.
So if you think about how collaboration can happen with other non-profits and charities, it can happen with social purpose businesses.
You can partner with, you know, different levels of government, with local businesses, with schools.
How collaborations start is more important than who necessarily is involved at that stage, but it's really about the trust piece that makes it all work.
Trust is actually earned in most cases, right? Trust is built through clear messaging, consistency, showcasing existing community relationships that you've had, right? Who do you already work with and who already trusts you? I think another one is shared values, right? Not just the default values that look good on your website, but what are those, like, real values that the organization does share and align on? And lastly, some type of transparency, right? It never works if someone is kind of not willing to open the books or if one partner is willing to be way more transparent than the other.
In summary, a lot of what I say is about communications and storytelling, but that transparency piece is so important here, and that's how you build trust.
If an organization feels like they already know, like and trust you, then great.
That collaboration, when you go to approach them, it's gonna be a lot more successful.
And any time I've looked for a partner, a sponsor, a collaborator, that collaboration doesn't just begin when you make the ask, right? It began throughout building that over time, right?
I want you to think about trust building as a long process, because sometimes it starts with looking at your website and seeing the kind of photos that you have on there.
Is it all white people? Is there racialized people? And some of those things start building that trust before you even meet the executive director.
Do you find that those type of collaborations are usually initiated by program staff or by executive directors? 'Cause- Something that I see with program staff is that they have the trust of the community-
... and other organizational partners, while sometimes, you know, a director of development or an ED is seen as the other.
Collaborations always start with trust, right? That's what makes them work, and the solution for that is the intentional collaboration.
If leadership is just recommending that these two things go together without having that full context, it may not work out.
At the same time, they could be thinking outside of the box and potentially open up the thinking for those who are on the ground, right, who are doing the same thing day to day.
So if you think about how collaboration can happen with other non-profits and charities, it can happen with social purpose businesses.
You can partner with, you know, different levels of government, with local businesses, with schools.
How collaborations start is more important than who necessarily is involved at that stage, but it's really about the trust piece that makes it all work.
Trust is actually earned in most cases, right? Trust is built through clear messaging, consistency, showcasing existing community relationships that you've had, right? Who do you already work with and who already trusts you? I think another one is shared values, right? Not just the default values that look good on your website, but what are those, like, real values that the organization does share and align on? And lastly, some type of transparency, right? It never works if someone is kind of not willing to open the books or if one partner is willing to be way more transparent than the other.
In summary, a lot of what I say is about communications and storytelling, but that transparency piece is so important here, and that's how you build trust.
If an organization feels like they already know, like and trust you, then great.
That collaboration, when you go to approach them, it's gonna be a lot more successful.
And any time I've looked for a partner, a sponsor, a collaborator, that collaboration doesn't just begin when you make the ask, right? It began throughout building that over time, right?
I want you to think about trust building as a long process, because sometimes it starts with looking at your website and seeing the kind of photos that you have on there.
Is it all white people? Is there racialized people? And some of those things start building that trust before you even meet the executive director.
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