 Welcome and thank you to all of you for joining us today for another episode of the nonprofit show. I am so honored and privileged to share Mallory Erickson as our guest today. Mallory is an executive leadership and development coach and sharing with us more about becoming a power partner. So before we dive into that, we definitely want to say thanks for being here. Julia Patrick is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group, also known as your nonprofit nerd, and we are also extremely grateful to have the continued loyal support of our presenting sponsors. These organizations exist for one purpose, and that purpose is to help you do more good. So please do find them online. They're very easy to find, amazing company. They exist in your community. They exist in all corners of the world, really to help and support you elevate your mission. So thank you to our sponsors. And again, thanks so much for you Mallory, spending some time out of your busy day. I know you have the world to save, and we are glad that you're here with us. So again Mallory Erickson, welcome. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited for this conversation and love the work that you're doing. So thank you. Thank you. Okay Mallory, you got to give, we have so many questions for you. But before we do that, can you share with us kind of your journey into the nonprofit sector and then the coaching and that look at what we are doing, because it's such a different thing. Yeah, sure. Yeah, so I'll give you, I'll give you the quick version, because I know we have a lot to cover but I have spent my entire career inside the nonprofit sector. I didn't always think it was going to be that way. I thought I was going to go back to public policy school or law school. I was really interested coming out of undergrad and education policy and social change in particular. But I started working on the ground in a nonprofit in the public schools in Boston, fell in love with the nonprofit sector and never left. But like so many folks, you know, as I started to get sort of promoted up through the ranks found myself an accidental fundraiser as a managing director and then an executive director, and the, and I really hated fundraising. Over 13 years, I felt unbelievably uncomfortable fundraising, I felt like I couldn't find like my flow and I felt like I was always stressed I was always overwhelmed. I struggled with sort of how to prioritize with like, you know what I felt like I was sort of playing a game that everyone knew the rules to but me. And it wasn't working for me and so I got to this point where I was like, maybe I need to leave the nonprofit sector I can't really make this work for me. But I got really lucky I went through an executive coach certification program at that same time. I also got trained in habit building and behavior change and design thinking. And all of these frameworks kind of came together in my mind and I was able to take this step back and say, actually I think there's a way to fundamentally change the way we fundraise to really show up differently as leaders to partner differently with funders. And so that has is what led me to first start working with folks one on one with this framework that I ultimately built for myself that helped me grow an organization from a million to 3.6 pretty fast. And then started to share with others, one on one and then this year in January launched my course the power partners formula, which is what any nonprofit leader can take to learn my practices and have my tools and all of that. And that was a speed version. And that was a speed version and because again this is our 366 episode, Julie and I have have been, I'm going to say power partners in our own right. I have a feeling what just went through Julia's head was like, damn, I wish I knew this 20 years ago. 30 years ago. You're being kind, you're being kind. You're welcome. Yes. You know. Okay, wow. So I have so many questions. My first thing I want to start with is, let's dive into this the framework and have you describe what a power partner is, because I think from there. The two of us are going to have a lot more questions for you but but let's start there and explain to us what that is. Yeah. So first thing I'll say is that a power partner is like everybody can be a power partner so it's not just the funder, it's the nonprofit to the ideas that they learn how to show up as power partners to their funding power partners, right. So the idea is that it's really built on fundamentals of like mutually beneficial partnerships. You know I think that nonprofits so often have been siloed, and the way in which they fundraise is like, you have money, we need money. So give us that money for us to do our work over here, and my, the formula is really based on a few primary principles, true alignment, like really being able to see what a funder cares about I do a process called funder lenses, where I help nonprofits with design thinking principles like really get into the head of different type of types of funders and understand what they're looking for in partnership and what feels really mutually beneficial to the marketing department of a company versus a CSR department at a company versus the company foundation right it's so different so diverse. So the first part of the formula is like really this like funder lens part. I do something called asset mapping where I help organizations understand all of the things of value inside their organization that go way beyond their program, their programs and sort of their mission nonprofits are filled with so many things of value that they are not used to looking at, but things that are true value to these funding partners and so they do this asset mapping process they identify the things of value, and then they do something called thunder mapping, where essentially they take the learning around true alignment, and they match it up against the assets that they have to identify Okay, where is like deep strategic partnership possible, because what I want for nonprofits is for them to be able to stop the like hounding hustle hamster wheel you know this like constant chasing donors and you know I think like there's so much language around like donor retention and like what are all the different systems we could have to improve donor retention. And I've been asking this fundamental question of like, is it possible that not all of those folks who gave to you are actually like aligned power partners, and that's just part of it. But what we need to do a better job of is saying okay, you're not a power partner, we're so grateful that you gave to that friend at that walk that was so awesome of you to support your friend, but really for us to spend our time, cultivating these strategic partnerships that can truly move our organization forward that is actual recurring revenue in a big way, and helps us collectively solve the problems that we want to solve. Another thing I'll just say about the power partners formula is it really helps organizations get over the communication barriers to folks outside of the sector something I've heard from companies in particular is like nonprofits don't know how to talk to us like in our language. And so a lot of what's inside there in in phase two of the program is called effective engagement, and it really helps nonprofits get over the communication barriers to be able to speak the language of the folks that they're reaching out to so that they can even figure out where does strategic partnership live, and how do you become sort of co creators in that. Okay, wow. I know, I feel like I just drank from a huge fire hose, and it's so powerful. One of the things that you touched on, and I'll just share I started my career as a consultant truly doing grant writing because I started my business in 2009. And I have seen the language of these proposals over these last 11 years which I no longer write the proposals, but really moving into this partnership language right really moving into, we have money, you need money, let's do this action, we're looking for a deeper connection we community members, truly looking for that deeper connection of this partnership in our community and what you touched on is exactly, you know, just that and so I have seen this change over the last decade plus. And I love that you're asking such, you know, fundamental, but truly disruptive questions. You know, and I think the thing for me, Jared, that really resonated Mallory, you made a statement that we don't hear this very often. But that is sometimes it's okay to say no to a potential yes environment because ultimately, you are not going to be able to meet the expectations of those involved. Are you really going to be able to navigate a strong and healthy relationship and sometimes you just have to be able to say, no, thank you, you know, Terry Axelrod the great Terry Axelrod has the same lesson release. Yeah, there was just someone inside Power Partners who walked away from a million dollar grant. And I think of all the money that's been raised inside my program that act was actually the best sign for me that that the process works to be able to say that's not aligned with who we are who we want to be or where we're going. And actually we don't need it because we're going to be okay without it, because that's the other thing I'll say as a trained executive coach, so much of what's infused in my process are executive coaching principles. So like right before folks are doing outreach around in effective engagement, there are modules about, here's what you're going to hear inside your head before you press send. Oh, today is a bad day because blank or what if they're mad at me for sending this email or what if they don't like me for following up or, you know, all the narrative, all the things that we do as women. Yeah, and as women particularly right there's so much taboo around money and women talking about money. And then here we have 75% of this sector responsible for the money movement. And we have no space or skills or tools or I felt like I didn't to like show up, you know, empowered and embodied in the way I was building partnerships and that's another huge part is around like building their internal capacity, both to you know, I don't know, rejection which I don't consider rejection it's just not aligned, but you know to handle that and really be able to like show up as their like true powerful selves. Wow. So how do you get that buy in on the framework across, you know, across a nonprofit because I can imagine whomever this individual that said no to a million dollars, someone on their team was like, what are you thinking. How do you talk about this, you know what comes to the framework. You know, the thing is is like it's a pretty low entry point to join power partners like I have a monthly payment option there's a 60 day guarantee. So I've created a lot of safety around trying it. And so I think that, look, there's a lot of inertia in decision making when it comes to the nonprofit sector like let's just be honest right and and I would say probably. I mean this kind of breaks my heart but I will say like probably half the people inside my program have paid for it out of pocket and and and really started with recognizing that it's going to change the way they feel as a fundraiser. It's always important to them to feel different about their job every day because they're burning out and they're tired and all of those things. So, and then when they see results, I think that starts to lead to more and more buy in right like I you know I want these organizations to be able to get out of the endless campaigns, endless events, but I recognize that they're not going to build a fundraising strategic plan with no events and no campaigns for the first time, based on a method that they're just trying. So I just want them to start I just want them to start build their first power partnership, their second one, their third one and then they can slowly release those things because the reality is power partnerships actually take no more time to build than any other relationship, they're just much more strategic. So it's not like they actually need more time to do my, my process they're they're actually saving a tremendous amount of time, because they're also being a lot more transparent and they're getting, they're getting earlier, which again are not knows they're just not alignment right it's like, why are we wasting so much time with folks that are not aligned right and so you know I think look the buy in piece is really hard one and I wish I could say here's the like magic pills get everyone on board once but I really think it's like one win at a time that changes culture and changes habits and for an organization. Part of what you just said reminds me of the whole mentality or mindset of setting expectations. And we think that's one of the things I see a lot with organizations that they'll go to a conference will get all excited, or they'll work with them and they're like raw raw yay team, this is great, and then they come back to their campus or to their, you know, group meeting or their supervisors, and it's just just like a crushing blow to that excitement, and it's such a sad thing I mean this is not your main just to the profit sector I think anybody who has had that external experience that gets them pumped up and then they have to face the reality of working with a team can experience this. When I was building power partners, a lot of people told me from kind of like a business scaling perspective you know just have the course that people can buy and da da da da. And, you know, not have it be linked to your time in any way and I felt really strongly about having a monthly group and coaching call and then also having like a private Facebook group for exactly this reason. You know, you need people around them that are trying to fundamentally do the thing that they're trying to do. And so I think creating spaces where people can get support and I have had, we had we do have people come to these calls or post in the Facebook group like I came back from this amazing corporate sponsor meeting and then I went to my program staff and they kind of like shot down the whole idea of what the corporate you know and it's like, those are real experiences and I can't take away that experience for them. I can surround them as a community and say, you are doing the right thing and here's the next right step and what if you try this and just watching the way these leaders like show up for each other and cheer each other on. I think also helps with some of that like some of that piece look at changing organizational culture is really hard, especially when we're so stuck in this sort of scarcity and desperation cycle. I love that there is a community to build and support you know those efforts I myself have been in executive coaching programs and I, most of my coaches, not all of them have literally said to me, when you talk this language to other people outside of this community, they're and they don't often get it you know, and so having this built in support of people that speak the language they are looking to achieve the same and similar goals and have that mindset. But it's so I believe so critical to the success of those of those steps so who knows to you and to everyone participating because it does take, it takes courage to attempt something differently. Yes, that's the other thing I'll say about the people in this program they are brave leaders, and they are, and they're also folks who have like hit a point with like, I don't want to do it this way anymore. It doesn't feel good it's not aligned with me right and, and there's so many, you know, my hope, we watch development directors switching jobs so fast I can hardly keep up, you know, and it's like they, there is a fundamental issue with how people feel about their work and I certainly didn't feel like inside my organizations, there was a place for me to say, ooh, like that meeting felt real uncomfortable and like I don't even know how to process it right. I thought someone would have just been like oh that's because you're a bad fundraiser. I mean I for years thought I was a bad fundraiser because I was like, there's no way. I mean I was raising millions but I was like, there's no way good fundraisers feel like this right like there's no way that good fundraisers want to throw up for a donor meeting right and so I think just also giving people space to like say the hard thing and know that it doesn't mean they're bad at their job or like but that they're pushing a hard work and they're trying something new discomfort does not mean something is bad if you've done the alignment work and if you're you get to show up, you know, the way that is important to you. Wow, I love that. I did too and I think we've heard so, so much more about professional coaching the values of professional coaching. I feel like maybe before it was like, oh my gosh, I cannot tell people that I have a coach because that's like going to talk therapy and there's a stigma around it, which just for the record I also love talk therapy. You know, I think that's equally important. So you, you shared and touched on you know the group the Facebook group the calls that you offer monthly. What are some other, you know, really instrumental values around this. I mean, I love coaching and I think I was like totally unaware of the stigma around it also because I had my first coach when I was 23. And I remember telling everyone she changed my life. And someone recently said to me, Oh, did you have a performance issue. And I was like, I don't think so. I was like, I just had professional development money and I found this coach and I loved her and she really helped me grow into myself as a leader. So, yeah, I mean, I think every God the world would be a different place if everyone had both of the talk therapist and a coach like to be honest right. I agree. But I think you know look the reality is and good in my opinion good like I always have a coach and I change I get new coaches that every new phase of my level up in my life and in my business and I have a coach right now and I believe all good coaches have coaches like that like look we all have blind spots as people like we all have those lenses right that we see the world through and I'm wearing pink glasses and you're wearing green glasses and Julie is wearing blue glasses and so it's but we need sometimes to talk to someone who's wearing a different color glass to help us see what we're not seeing and I think that's a really normal thing and there's potential and opportunity everywhere and we can get so stuck in our assumptions and interpretations and beliefs and thoughts and coaching really helps us distill that really makes sense of it identify what's true what do we want what would it take to get there. And I think for me, and makes people feel connected I mean one of the biggest, you know, problems in the nonprofit sector is like the single ED or single fundraiser and the isolation I mean, being an executive director, particularly as a woman, I'm sorry to keep saying that but like I had 12 bosses. Okay, I came into the nonprofit sector as a helper with a lot of people pleasing tendencies, and all of a sudden I had 12 bosses, keeping 12 people happy with you at the same time, real hard. Lots of workers and supporters right like course and your staff right and there you are like in isolation, no executive director in that position should ever not have a coach, in my opinion, ever. Like that is just setting them up for failure they have no one to truly talk to to truly process their experience as a leader with because they have to watch what they say to a certain extent to the board as much as the board might not want to believe that. They can't say outshare everything with their staff. I was not surrounded by community of other ED is my friends weren't doing the work I was doing. I didn't have anyone. And I think it's so normal and yeah I mean I just could not believe more strongly that nonprofit there's and for fundraisers to I think if you're a single development director, you also feel really isolated, even if the ED says they're that partner for you in fundraising, I think it still feels incredibly isolating and the stress, and the, the, I don't want to say burden but like the pressure of the numbers of knowing that all your team around you depends on you to get paid and just like that that scarcity mindset, it's a lot to hold like no wonder people are burning out. But I think the great thing about coaching is like there's something we can do about it, like we can get these folks support, and we can fundamentally change the way they feel in their day to day. Thank you for all of that curveball question and I don't know we like to do this just because we're kidding me. Um, so there's a lot of pressure, you know, we know pumpkin spice latte just came out so that means it's the end of the year. 2022 is around the corner because of all flavors are in our coffees now. So what are some of the things or activities or focus, you know priorities that we as leaders should be looking to do now in this final stretch of the calendar year. In terms of fundraising particular In terms of fun. Yeah, because I'm on the tail end of what you were saying there Mallory is, you know, it's stressful there's there's a lot of pressure on us as fundraisers as executive directors. And so we're we're in the final stretch of 20 of the year I know many organizations do a fiscal you know June July, but really looking at the majority of operating costs are you know dollars are raised essentially in this final q for that's that's right around the corner. Yeah, so I mean start getting major donor meetings on the calendar. I also think right now is 100% the time to be meeting with corporate partners 100% for two reasons one, a lot of companies have a have an extra release of funds in q for, but they're also planning to get more funding for 2022 budgets right now. So if you want bigger strategic partnerships with companies. Now is the time to be meeting them, and you have this opportunity to potentially get some funding for end of year this year, and really set yourself up to get more than like little gala sponsorships here and there but be put in as a line item for strategic partnership so that's thinking ahead but that is like right now. So getting those major donor meetings like looking at your sort of lapsed donor lists in terms of end of year giving, and I would start to have conversations about stock donations. There are a number of different I think like right now one of the big weird things that's happening with coven is like this. I think like people's portfolios looking really differently than maybe how they're feeling about their liquid assets and so I think now is a really good time to be having conversations about stock donations. There are a number of, you know, companies out there that can help you with that even if you don't have a brokerage account. So I think like thinking about that is is also really good. And just recognizing that like right now in all of your communication, like, it's a heavy time, right like there's a lot going on, like I can't even the amount of devastation in the last like two weeks alone is real hard. And I think just like showing up to your donors as like people who also want to make a positive impact in this world and they are feeling helpless and overwhelmed to and just really meeting them where they're at. And being a place where they can channel some of that energy and see really chand, tangible change and feel that sense of belonging with a community of people who are committed to moving a needle on an issue. They really care about, I think that's really, really critical right now so like having those conversations. I know I probably gave you way too many things to do so pick one thing I said, I need to focus only be like Mallory just gave me like four months of work and I have four hours. So like pick one thing do one thing right like maybe you're going to send five emails today to make to get major donor meetings on the calendar or five emails to corporate sponsors just pick one thing right or look at your campaign language and make sure we really meeting folks where they're at, as we're sending out this communication and being really sensitive to this time. And we can so often just get stuck in the hustle that we, like, and I'm so guilty of this too sometimes I'll send an email and be like, that was like, not the mood of the moment. Right and I think like and yeah we're like maybe we wrote that email two weeks ago whatever but like now is a particularly important time, I think to be and always really but to like have that empathy and to just be sensitive to, to where everyone's at. You know, I think it's fascinating as we wrap up our time with you that's just blown by. I don't know, Jared, if we've ever actually had anyone in almost two years of episodes, say that. Right. You know, it's pretty profound I mean we've all been in this trajectory of sadness and loss and confusion and I could go on and on and on. But I don't think I've had anyone say that that's okay to acknowledge it. And kind of refocus of why we need to do well. It was very interesting I appreciate you saying that I really do. This has been riveting I really really enjoyed your time and your energy Mallory. I've heard some new things today. I know that we, we've heard you say things that we believe and you've articulated them in a different way, and that's been great. And so, I'm so appreciative that Jared, somehow this universe found you, and then connected. Graham, yes. Thank you universe to the Instagram as we say hey, here's Mallory's information I want to make sure that you have it so that you can dig a little deeper with her. Her website is great and you can see kind of some of her values and practice and how she's reaching out to support our sector and we need that support as we've just been talking for the last 30 minutes. I'm Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I've been joined by my nonprofit nerd, your nonprofit nerd, the nonprofit nerd Jared ransom CEO of the Raven group. Again, when I thank our presenting sponsors. These are the types of discussions that we are so privileged to have every day as the nation's only daily broadcast dedicated to the nonprofit sector. And it's really an amazing thing that these businesses have stepped up and supporting our and our supporting us. Wow, Jared. Okay sister are you ready to go. I mean are you revved up for the day. I, I am. I'm going to pick one thing because there is a lot. I know, but I definitely want to check out the power partners. You know, as a consultant, I work directly and exclusively with nonprofits so these there are so many wonderful principles and best practices that you've shared so generously with us so I'm extremely grateful to have your time and expertise Mallory and thanks to all of you that joined us for today's episode I hope that you will join us again tomorrow. And let's see what it what is today today is. Oh today is Friday Eve. So that means tomorrow is Friday, which is our answer. I forget because it's just, you know, it's the days come in the days keep going so thanks again for joining us please join us here tomorrow for the asking answered and until then, please stay well so you can do well. Thanks so much Mallory. Thank you.