We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

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
Join us at The Spread!
Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛
We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.
Learn more and save your free spot today.
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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
Say hi 👋
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

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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An elder told Edgar Villanueva that the medicine that had chosen him was money. One sentence — and it turned an angry, burned-out program officer into the person rewriting how philanthropy thinks about wealth.
Edgar is the founder and CEO of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and the author of Decolonizing Wealth, now in its second edition. His work has helped move nearly $1 billion toward the communities that need it most. 🩵
Joining us as guest co-host is Lindsey Fuller, Executive Director of The Teaching Well.
In this episode, you'll hear:
Why reparative philanthropy starts with a question most institutions refuse to ask: where did this money come from in the first place?
The one shift any leader can make today: do your own work around money, before you ask anyone else for theirs
How Liberated Capital moved $30 million to Black and Indigenous organizations with a $25/month entry point and no gatekeepers
You'll walk away with a different starting point for every funder conversation you have. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(3:38) Growing up between the haves and the have-nots
(8:26) Behind the curtain: what he saw as a young program officer
(10:24) The ice cream party problem
(14:30) The elder, the medicine, and the book that changed everything
(20:16) Reparative philanthropy: where did this money come from?
(24:45) No wealth exists without harm
(29:04) The one shift you can make today
(33:09) Beyond self-care: why leaders have to dig deeper
(37:34) Liberated Capital: a donor community for "whosoever will"
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/742
Join us at The Spread!
Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛
We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.
Learn more and save your free spot today.
//

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
Say hi 👋
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Connie Lewin found the funders. She wrote the emails. She sent the proposals. The response was silence.
With a $1 million goal for a small nonprofit in Rwanda and no established high-net-worth donor network, Connie had to quickly step into a leadership role and take responsibility for the organization’s goal to scale its impact and operations in three years.
What finally moved the money wasn't better writing. It was closing the distance between donors and the people at the center of the mission by tapping into donors' heads and hearts and making the case for giving by connecting business strategy with empathy. 🩵
In this Possible in Practice episode, you'll hear:
The reframe that changed everything: It's not an ask. It's an invitation — and what that actually changes about who you approach and what you say
Why an unfiltered list of hundreds of prospects feels like progress but isn't
What donors are really asking when they hesitate (it's not whether your work is good)
How a 16-year-old raised over $40,000 climbing Kilimanjaro — and what it proved about belonging
You'll walk away with one question to run before your next appeal: do we have a fundraising problem, or a distance problem? 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(2:27) Connie's origin story: a fourth-grade cleanup in New York City
(3:48) Walking into Rwanda: big vision, scrappy team
(5:30) The $1M opportunity — and the plot twist
(8:21) "The response was silence"
(9:00) The reframe: not an ask, an invitation
(10:00) Three moves that closed the distance
(13:59) Funder personas and the confidence gap
(17:47) Why an unfiltered list of hundreds of prospects feels like progress
(18:49) What donors actually want to know
(22:13) Bella's Kilimanjaro climb and the power of belonging
(25:33) One Good Thing: fundraising problem or distance problem?
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/741
Join us at The Spread!
Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛
We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.
Learn more and save your free spot today.
//

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
Say hi 👋
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Jai Al-Attas started a record label at 16, sold it to Virgin Records at 24, and never went to college. So when he moved to LA and tried to get people from a reentry program and a homeless youth org into music industry internships, the question that kept coming back — "are these people in college?" — landed personally.
He didn't have a plan. He had a chip on his shoulder and $1,800 he needed for rent. He spent it on 10 Chromebooks instead. 🩵
Today Creative Futures Collective has moved 3,500 creatives through its programs in 10 cities across three countries — into Nike, Live Nation, Interscope, Forbes 30 Under 30, and one Ralph Lauren artist residency.
In this episode, you'll hear:
Why renaming "internship" to "futureship" unlocked doors that had been closed for two years — and what that says about the language your org is using
How Jai and his co-founder funded the first cohort out of their own savings, and why that upfront risk was the only way to get a case study worth showing
Why he refuses to call any of this charity, and how that reframe changed who was asking whom for a favor
How COVID accidentally democratized access to the creative economy — and the alumna who did her placement from a reservation in Arizona
What to do when corporate partners write you a check but won't open the door you actually asked them to open
You'll walk away with permission to start the thing you've been waiting to be ready for. 🩵
Episode Highlights:
(3:33) From a record label at 16 to a one-way ticket to LA
(5:48) "Are these people in college?" — the gatekeeping that started it all
(7:24) Futureships, and paying for them out of pocket
(9:21) COVID, remote work, and Naomi Glasses' path to Ralph Lauren
(12:36) Scaling with Amazon, Soho House, and 10 cities 
(14:38) Why this was never charity — and how Untalent was born
(19:13) Best Buy Teen Tech Centers and what partnership looks like
(25:10) One good thing: start before you're ready
Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/740
Join us at The Spread!
Givebutter's biggest innovation event of the year is here — The Spread, built entirely around co-creating with nonprofits like yours. 💛
We Are For Good is joining forces with GB to host in-person hackathon meetups on Friday, Oct. 2, in New York, Seattle, LA, Denver, and Indianapolis, so you can build alongside other nonprofits in the community.
Learn more and save your free spot today.
//

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
Say hi 👋
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter