We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

Jeremy Vallerand and a few friends turned a Mount Rainier climb into a fundraiser: $1 for every vertical foot, $14,410 total. It was supposed to be a one-off. It wasn't.
Today, Atlas Free is a global network of 160+ organizations in 67 countries fighting sex trafficking, still fueled by the community hikes and climbs that started it all. 🩵
In this Possible in Practice episode, you'll hear:
How one climb became hundreds of community-led hikes and climbs every year, and the simple idea that made it spread: do what you love to fight what you hate
Why Atlas Free stopped sending Americans overseas and started backing the local leaders already doing the work
Why donors can tell when you only want their money, and why community has to come before the ask
What a $1 million gift and an $18.37 piggy bank taught Jeremy about stewarding every act of generosity
You'll walk away with a blueprint for inviting your community into the mission, not just the fundraising. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(3:09) Refugees in the spare bedroom and the trip to India that changed everything
(6:52) Climb for Captives: turning a Mount Rainier climb into a $14,410 fundraiser
(9:00) "Do what we love to fight what we hate": how one climb became hundreds
(10:48) From one climb to 160+ organizations in 67 countries
(14:00) Ethical storytelling: what you choose not to say
(17:52) Monthly giving: why community comes before the ask
(20:51) A $1 million gift and an $18.37 piggy bank
(23:39) The one good thing: who you're with matters more than what you're doing
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/747
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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com
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1 in 2 American adults is struggling with social connection, and fewer than 20% are thriving. Aaron Hurst, the social entrepreneur behind the Taproot Foundation and the pro bono movement, says that's why volunteering and giving are collapsing, and why nonprofits hold the key to reversing it.
Guest co-host Susan McPherson, author of The Lost Art of Connecting, joins us to dig into the U.S. Chamber of Connection's Six Points of Connection report, the first national index of its kind. 
In this episode, you'll hear:
Why the sector doesn't have a philanthropy problem or a volunteer problem. It has a social connection problem.
The six points of connection every person needs, and the one the data says matters most
Why your nonprofit should start measuring connection outcomes now, before the funding arrives
You'll walk away seeing your organization for what it already is: connection infrastructure for your community. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(4:07) Aaron's origin story and journey to where he is today
(7:34) "What do you most want in the world?"
(12:30) The Six Points of Connection report
(15:48) 1 in 2 Americans is struggling, and philanthropy is feeling it
(18:19) Nonprofits as connection infrastructure
(19:20) Start capturing connection outcomes now
(22:24) Why loneliness shuts down empathy
(25:27) One good thing: hope
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/746
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Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com
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A pandemic relief territory that grew 39% while every area around it went red. A fund that deployed capital fast and couldn't prove what it did. A 55-year-old nonprofit still running on paper.
Urina Harrell, founder of Vox Pop Branding, walks through all three — what was broken, what she built, and what happened next. 🩵
In this episode, you'll hear:
Case study 1 — Long Beach: Why workshops and education stopped moving the needle, and how rolling up sleeves alongside founders produced the only green zone on the map
Case study 2 — JLH Fund: How to build impact measurement backward, after the money's already out the door, using grantee interviews that double as marketing
Case study 3 — Pools of Hope: The digital numbers the grant report never asked for — email list, reach, clicks — that turned into renewal after renewal
The two lessons that show up in all three: start from a baseline you already collect, and let a third party ask the questions your grantees won't answer honestly
The lowest-lift first step if you have no data at all — QR code stickers, not a new CRM
Three different orgs, one repeatable playbook for connecting data to story to funding. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(3:18) From nosy kid to Vox Pop: curiosity as a career strategy
(5:33) Case study 1: Long Beach, when workshops stopped working
(9:21) The two lessons: baselines and third-party reporting
(12:25) Case study 2: JLH Fund, measuring impact after the fact
(15:47) Case study 3: Pools of Hope, digital numbers as grant currency
 (18:30) Where to start if you have no data story yet
(20:08) A quilt with her name on it 
(22:03) Stay curious: the one good thing
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/745
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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com
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Greg Tehven runs a $5.5 million nonprofit with 40 teammates in Fargo, North Dakota — and his advice to leaders is to stop working on problems they can solve alone.
That instinct built Emerging Prairie into the heartbeat of a region's entrepreneurial ecosystem, launched Grand Farm, and turned TEDx Fargo into an event 1,000+ people build their year around. Guest co-host Stacy Huston, CEO of SixDegrees.org, brings Greg on to talk about what it actually takes. 🩵
In this episode, you'll hear:
Why "make the problem bigger" is the fastest way to get more people working on it — and more fun besides
The business model Greg borrowed from a Buddhist teacher: if a tree adds value to the community, the community waters it
How Emerging Prairie designs for radical inclusion — childcare, food choices, time of day — and why those small barriers decide who shows up
What Greg learned about receiving, not just giving, in a gift shop in India
How serving the board first changed what the board gave back
You'll walk away with a way of building that doesn't require permission, a finished plan, or a bigger budget. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(4:05) Gravel roads and good neighbors: the making of Greg
(7:38) From burnout to the Fargo thesis
(11:17) Designing for generosity: the business model
(14:09) Tolerance of ambiguity (and the TEDx story nobody saw coming)
(21:43) Fighting for self, team, and community
(26:50) The gift shop in India: learning to receive
(30:21) Serving the board before asking the board
(34:50) What doesn't show up in a grant application
(37:55) One good thing: make the problem bigger
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/744
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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com
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When ZERO Prostate Cancer's peer-to-peer program started slipping, Victoria Vighetto didn't tell her field staff to make more calls. She walked the constituent journey herself — and found the problem sitting in an email.
The call-to-action button was too far down. The sends were landing at the wrong time for open rates. Registration was where people were falling out. 🩵
In this Possible in Practice episode, you'll hear:
Why a fundraising dip is almost never a motivation problem — and the diagnostic question to ask instead
How ZERO ran a three-day, $30K matching challenge and saw fundraising jump more than 50% while registration was still down 14%
What happened when they stopped asking field staff to pull a dozen reports and gave them a work center with a to-do list: who to call, and what to say
How to run personalization at scale for thousands of fundraisers without losing the personal part
The one place to start: register for your own event, make a donation, build a page, and find a single pain point
You'll walk away with a repeatable way to audit your own peer-to-peer program — and permission to fix one thing instead of everything. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(2:44) Victoria's path into nonprofit work
(3:51) ZERO's mission and the $20M Blitz the Barriers initiative
(5:29) Diagnosing a revenue problem as a systems problem
(6:51) The results: 14% down in registration, 50%+ up in fundraising
(7:57) Removing friction for field staff: from a dozen reports to one work center 
(9:57) Automations that meet fundraisers where they are
(10:40) What makes peer-to-peer actually work: keep it personal
(11:54) The cheer coach and the school bus
(13:28) Where to start: walk your own donor journey
(14:28) Ride-along days and leading from the friction
(15:36) A moment of generosity that stayed with her
(17:19) One good thing: make the desired action the easiest action
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/743
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Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com
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LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter