Chief fundraising officer calls on nonprofit leaders to embrace curiosity over fear

Summary

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RKD Group: Thinkers Podcast

Episode: “Chief fundraising officer calls on nonprofit leaders to embrace curiosity over fear”

Date: January 15, 2026
Host: Justin McCord & Ronnie Richard
Guest: Kimberly O’Donnell, Chief Fundraising Officer at Bonterra

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Episode Overview

This episode launches the 2026 season with an insightful conversation with Kimberly O’Donnell, Chief Fundraising Officer at Bonterra. The discussion centers on the importance of curiosity and intentionality in nonprofit leadership, particularly in the face of rapid changes such as AI adoption and shifting funding landscapes. Kimberly shares her personal and professional journey, explores strategies to overcome scarcity mindsets, and calls on nonprofit leaders to embrace innovation over fear.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction & Setting the Tone

• The Value of Storytelling: The hosts reflect on how sharing diverse origin stories in the nonprofit sector continues to offer fresh insights each year.
  "You would think at some point it might get repetitive, but no—everyone’s stories, how they got here, every time it’s interesting and exciting to me.” (Ronnie, 00:36)

Kimberly’s Background & Early Influences

• Growing up in a Large Family: Kimberly attributes her skills in people management, negotiation, and compassion to being the 6th of 7 children and learning to “get along” in a vibrant, philanthropic household.
  “Being in a big family, you have to care for a lot of people… I learned a lot about compassion, negotiation, the art of getting along.” (Kimberly, 04:03)
• Early Exposure to Volunteerism: Inspired by her parents’ dedication to philanthropy, Kimberly began volunteering as a candy striper in middle school (04:03).

Formative Career Experiences

• Congressional Commission Internship: Her work with the Commission on Immigration Reform, chaired by Barbara Jordan, deeply influenced her understanding of policy, empathy, and social issues (06:19-08:22).
• Transition from Politics to Social Good:
  “I didn’t necessarily want to go into politics. I wanted to go into people. I wanted to work in the social good sector and make a difference.” (09:08)
• Landing Her First Key Role: Persistence and taking chances shaped Kimberly’s entrance into nonprofit leadership, including a memorable lesson not to use flashy orange paper for resumes (14:19).

Navigating a Nonlinear Career Path

• Intentionality Paired with Curiosity: Kimberly describes her career as a mix of seizing opportunities and intentionally pursuing growth, relying on curiosity to drive learning:
  “For me, I feel like you could give me a role and I’ll figure it out. I’m going to get in there and tackle something new.” (16:33)
• Embracing Fear and Responsibility as a Young Leader: At age 25/26, she became an executive director with staff all older than her, learning on the job with the support of mentors (16:33).

Curiosity & Innovation in Nonprofit Work

• Sector Transformation & AI: Kimberly highlights the current era as transformational for nonprofits, citing the rise of AI, changes in federal funding, and the need to swap fear for excitement.
  “There’s a lot of fear out there... But if we could change our mindset from fear to excitement about what’s next, there is so much more we can do.” (20:00)
• Scarcity Mindset vs. Embracing Risk:
  • Nonprofit leaders often operate from a place of protecting scarce donor dollars, leading to risk aversion (21:33).
  • Kimberly proposes creating an “Innovation Fund” to transparently support experimentation and failure—helping shift culture from fear to empowered risk-taking.
    “Let it be known… you have this innovation fund for testing and learning new things. Then get out there and test and learn and AB it, see it. Go for it.” (21:33)

AI Readiness & Practical Application

• Findings from Bonterra’s AI Readiness Report:
  • A sharp uptick in AI awareness and adoption—though many don’t know how best to leverage the tools (24:23).
  • Education and experimentation are essential; the analogy of knowing you should exercise but not what workout to pick (24:23).
• Introducing Bonterra’s AI Solutions: Discussion of “Q” (QUE)—an agentic AI for nonprofits, designed by fundraisers for fundraisers, that aids segmentation, drafting communications, and strategic planning (25:58).
  • “Q is working behind the scenes to help nonprofit marketers and fundraisers do more with a base of knowledge… AI is powerful, but you need to have a human in the loop.” (25:58)

Curiosity as Leadership Muscle

• Building and Maintaining Curiosity:
  “With any bit of learning, there’s curiosity, and then there’s consistency. It’s about always being willing to learn, wherever you are.” (29:30)
  • Kimberly encourages nonprofit leaders to set daily habits for growth—akin to her own disciplined daily walking regimen.
    “Whatever muscle it is you want, you just gotta do it. Create that time and force yourself a little.” (31:21)

Intentionality in Work and Life

• Redefining ‘Balance’: Kimberly reflects on raising children as a single mom while juggling a career, ultimately prioritizing presence and intentional time over unattainable “balance.” (32:27–34:43)
  • Memorable moment regarding the importance of truly being present at her daughter’s events, rather than multitasking (36:23): “I had my laptop on my lap at a game—later my daughter said, ‘Whose mom had her head down, cranking away?’ I wasn’t there as I should have been.” (36:23)
• From Failure, Growth: Making mistakes is inevitable—reflection and self-compassion are crucial, whether at home or in professional pursuits (36:23).
• Intentionality as Superpower:
  “Intentionality can be a superpower… the more that you try to be intentional with those around you… the better leader, partner, parent you are.” (35:22, Justin)

Key Takeaways for Nonprofit Leaders

• Upskill Teams on AI: Emphasize hands-on, practical training and ensure human oversight in AI-powered fundraising (39:56).
• Test New Fundraising Tactics: Move beyond AI—continuously experiment with innovative techniques (39:56).
• Strengthen Team Connection to Purpose: Build high-performing teams through clarity, cross-functional collaboration, and positive culture—regardless of organization size or age (39:56).
• Go For It: Leaders must model, encourage, and operationalize curiosity, intentionality, and continuous learning for themselves and their teams.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Growing Up in a Big Family:
  “I just learned a lot about compassion… negotiation and getting along at a very young age.” (Kimberly, 04:03)

• On Making Nonlinear Career Choices:
  “For me, I feel like you could give me a role and I’ll figure it out. I’m going to get in there and tackle something new.” (Kimberly, 16:33)

• On the Importance of Risk-Taking:
  “On the nonprofit side, we’re afraid to take risks… but setting up an innovation fund lets your employees know—it’s OK to try and maybe fail.” (Kimberly, 21:33)

• On AI’s Role in Nonprofits:
  “People now know they should be using AI… but don’t always know how. You need to have a human in the loop.” (Kimberly, 24:23 / 25:58)

• On Curiosity and Consistency:
  “There’s curiosity, and then there’s consistency—how are you training yourself to be curious but also always learning?” (Kimberly, 29:30)

• On Intentionality as a Leader and Parent:
  “Intentionality can be a superpower… the more you try to be intentional with those around you, the better leader, partner, parent you are.” (Justin, 35:22)

• On Learning from Mistakes:
  “We make mistakes as people… don’t beat yourself up, but think about what’s important. Reflect and move forward.” (Kimberly, 36:23)

• The Final Rallying Cry:
  “It’s about learning and adopting and going for it. Right? Going for it.” (Kimberly, 39:56)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:36 – Opening reflections on storytelling
• 04:03 – Kimberly’s upbringing and root influences
• 06:19–08:22 – Impact of early career, mentors, and policy work
• 09:08 – Shift from politics to social good sector
• 12:41–15:06 – Job-hunting stories & lessons in persistence
• 16:33 – Taking on leadership at a young age; importance of curiosity
• 20:00–21:33 – The sector’s relationship with fear, scarcity, and innovation
• 24:23–25:58 – AI readiness; practical adoption and Bonterra’s “Q” platform
• 29:30 – Building curiosity as a leadership muscle
• 32:27–36:23 – Balancing (or not) work and life; the role of intentionality
• 36:23–39:56 – Learning from mistakes; key focus areas for nonprofit leaders in 2026
• 39:56–40:17 – Closing and call to action

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Episode Summary

In this motivating kickoff to the 2026 series, Kimberly O’Donnell urges nonprofit professionals to boldly embrace curiosity and intentionality in both their leadership and personal lives. Drawing on rich anecdotes from her own path, she dissects the industry’s prevailing fears—especially around resource scarcity and AI disruption—and offers actionable wisdom for thriving in fast-changing times. Practical advice, such as creating innovation funds and prioritizing continuous learning, is paired with candid reflections on balancing ambition with presence, reminding listeners that the best outcomes—team or family—come from courage, experimentation, and conscious connection.

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Transcript

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Foreign.

[Justin McCord]

Welcome to the Thinkers podcast. I'm Justin McCord. With me is Ronnie Richard. Ronnie. Another year and another opportunity for us to tell stories and bring some of the nonprofit marketing and fundraising sector's brightest to into our little nook here. And so I think this is our first episode for 26, right?

[Ronnie Richard]

It is, yes. And love that we're continuing to be able to tell these stories and just I feel like you would think at some point it might get repetitive, but no, like hearing everyone's their. Their stories, their origin stories, how they got here, it's like every time it's interesting and exciting to me.

[Justin McCord]

Yeah. Yeah. So tell us about, about our guest today.

[Ronnie Richard]

So today we're talking to Kimberly o', Donnell, the chief fundraising officer at Bonterra. She leads their coaching and consulting program. So she works closely with nonprofits and major corporations to just work on their. Guide them kind of on their fundraising strategies. And in our conversation today, sometimes it takes a little bit to pull these threads up, but, man, was there a clear threat on the thread on this one about curiosity and intentionality. And you can see it, how they come together to kind of guide Kimberly's life and her career path of balancing this idea of like, I want to learn about this new thing and I want to be intentional about following that path.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah.

[Justin McCord]

You know, Kimberly and I have been in rooms together for many years and around conferences together and, and you know, I've always thought of Kimberly as someone that's just exceptionally bright, like, just energy wise. And the way that she shows up and the way that she engages and I can think of she's sitting in like fundraising AI rooms together and hearing her share updates and perspectives. And so I knew going into it all of those things, but what I didn't know was the background and kind of the origin and path that has led to how she shows up today. And so to hear her unpack that and to see the prominence of curiosity as a part of that and as a part of the work that she does every day at Bona is. It's awesome. And like you said, like, how cool is it? How fortunate are we, Ronnie, to that Arcady allows us to have these conversations and to tell these stories. And so here's we kick off 2026 on the Arcady Group Thinkers podcast is Kimberly O'. Donnell. All right, Kim, I just, like, I just learned something about you that I didn't know, and I have to start there.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Okay. I'm excited.

[Justin McCord]

I don't think Lonnie even heard this because we were Talking about it before Ronnie jumped on. You're the youngest. We're not the youngest. But you are one of seven, and you are number six out of seven.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

I am, as I joke, I'm at the bottom of the barrel. I'm between the youngest boy and the youngest girl. It was, you know, super fun growing up in a big family. You learn to get along. Right. And I think that's in part how I fell into working in the nonprofit sector as well.

[Justin McCord]

But, like, I get the. The learning how to get along with people part, but, like, I had to connect the dots for us there. Like, how did that prepare you? And. Or was there a direct connection from your family into the sector?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Oh, total direct collection connection. My parents were both avid volunteers in many capacities, and for me, I started out as a candy striper in middle school at a local nursing home. And so when you're in a big family, you have to care for a lot of people, too. Right. And you get to see so much of humans interacting through the good and bad times. And so, you know, I just learned a lot about compassion. I learned a lot about people. I learned about negotiation and the art of getting along at a very young age, but also just through my. My parents and their amazing, you know, example that they set for us from a very young age. And also, you know, just watching a family of seven and seeing my parents put philanthropy as a priority in their lives and in our lives said a lot to me as.

[Ronnie Richard]

As one of seven and the sixth of seven, what was it like trying to find your place in the pecking order? I guess a little bit. And trying to assert who you were, that stands out from the group.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we were joking earlier that you just really need to be loud. And so when our family gets together and spouses and partners and kids are all there, inevitably somebody will say to me later on, wow, you all are so loud. And it's like, well, that's how you learned how to be heard. And. And I grew up never being called, you know, my name. Kimberly. Right. Like that. My family called me Kimmy, but. But I just answered to anything. So now I'm always just delighted when someone gets my name right. I'm like, they are calling me by my name, you know, not Kathy, Chris, Colleen, you know, so sometimes Mike. So it was just a lot of fun. What I thought you both were going to say as you learned something. I learned something about both of you, and I want to connect the dots a little bit. So. So did the both of you work for The Dallas Morning News. Was that where you were?

[Ronnie Richard]

That's correct.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

So I saw that. And my very small but very impactful connection for bylife was through a former. He was an associate editor, his name was Richard Estrada and he passed away at like I think maybe 1999, 2000 ish. But he really impacted my life because I started my career working for bi partisan congressional commission. It's called the Commission on Immigration Reform. So we were looking at immigration policy and this also kind of pushed me into this sector as well. Just being able to understand what it's like to be a new person in America and the acculturation that goes through all of that. Well, anyways, Richard Estrada, who was an associate editor for the Dallas Morning News was one of our commissioners and so it was just really cool to see.

[Justin McCord]

That way, that little time, small world moment. Yeah, the world is small world.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

And I just was so. He was such a presence and so he was amazing writer, probably the best writer I've ever seen seen in my life. And just the things that he would put out were really, really interesting and very thought provoking. And Barbara Jordan was the commission chair at the time. And so if you're connected at all to Texas, those who are viewing this would know that she was our first black congresswoman from the state of Texas. She was active during the Watergate hearings and, and there is the Barbara Jordan terminal in Austin, Texas where she had long been a. She taught at UT Austin Law. So she's just such an amazing, remarkable woman. And for me at the earliest point in my career having her as a chair was just. Was amazing. And then all these other incredible commissioners that were appointed by Compress so yeah, really made an impact.

[Justin McCord]

That's the thing that I was thinking about in, in looking at your career path. Like we all have those people early in our career that speak into our lives directly and, and I think that from the outside looking in like you were incredibly blessed at, at some of the, the people and the. Their level of passion or compassion that they were probably likely modeling for you as you started your career. And you know, all of us coming out of school typically bright eyed and bush tailed and ready to tackle the world and then you're actually surrounded by people who are tackling the world. What was that like?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

It was incredible. And I knew I was there to learn and observe and I just felt so fortunate. So I, I got an internship with the commission during my last semester and they, there was another gentleman who was also interning, he had already graduated and, and they came to us as this period was ending, I was going to graduate. I was graduating in December. I graduated early. And they said, look, we have one position available and you can apply for it, but we have to post it to everyone else. And so I applied for it. I think 250 people applied for it. And it's not to say that I'm great. I just feel like I was very fortunate that they selected me for that role. And everyone who worked there was on detail from different agencies. So we've had representatives from the State Department, from Health and Human Services, you know, from all these different places. And so I was able to see at this, you know, at the starting point of my career, what it was like to one, work in the government, work with these different agencies, really think about a social issue such as immigration, which continues to be the hot button topic in this day and age. And also, you know, so my job, I was helping plan public hearings around the country. So I was able to set up events at Ellis island and we did a memorial service for Bar Jordan at the Kennedy Center. Like all these amazing places. I was able to go and tour and, you know, plan the meetings. And I also helped with media and then I also helped write some of the briefing papers and some of the final documents. So. So it was, it was incredible. Now at the time, I thought I wanted to go into politics, and so this was also just a great starting point for me. What I learned was that I didn't necessarily want to go into politics. I wanted to go into people. I wanted to work in the social good sector and make a difference. And my next job was, well, it all started because I went to a volunteer center and I said, hey, I want to start volunteering. I'm working at this job. You know what, what opportunities do you have for me? And the executive director of the volunteer center said, well, you know what, we are starting a new development committee. Do you think you'd want to do that? And so I thought about it and I really took it seriously, like I was applying for a job or something. I was like, what do I want to do with my volunteer time? And I joined this development committee and oh my gosh, did it take off? Like, I loved it. I am still friends with some of the people that were on that committee almost three or 30 years ago, 20 some years ago. And. And it really changed my life because I ended up doing, becoming the executive director of the volunteer center.

[Justin McCord]

Yeah, that's awesome. So it's a fascinating transition. And you said something and I want to come back to it. Because, you know, Kimberly, there are, there are listeners of ours who don't know what life looked like in the 90s and what life looked like in terms of applying for a job in the 90s. And you said, you know, you were one of a couple hundred of folks that had applied. What did applying for a job look like in, in the, the early to mid-90s? Like, how nice was the paper that your resume was on?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Exactly. You had to have very good stock paper. Yes. You know, you had a tight fat sucker up, needed to look good. We didn't have spell check back in that day. I don't, I don't think like, it was, it was way, way. We didn't even have the Internet at that time. It's just getting started. And email was just getting started. So you would mail those suckers in. Yes. And you'd wait and wait and wait. Nothing was like there was no receipt that they received your, you know, resume. So it was hard. I mean, I think about it in this day and age where you really, you look at how hard it is now for college graduates to, to find jobs and, you know, sending it out. And now with AI where, you know, AI is going to the screening tools that exist to screen your resume, to just get it through the process can be so arduous. Yeah. It used to be you apply and wait and maybe you'd get a letter back in the day, like, thank you, but no, thank you, but I feel like even in this day and age, it's, it's equally as long and daunting.

[Ronnie Richard]

It is, it's a different kind of crazy. I mean, now you said one of 250. Now you're competing against thousands of people who are just sending them digitally and like you said, screened by AI, you have no idea if you make it through the screening. Yeah, it's a wild process.

[Justin McCord]

It's never, it's maybe never been more important. The idea of it's not what you know, but who you know. Like the who you know matters so much at this point point to break through the clutter of, of some of those things.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Totally. But I also want to encourage folks to not feel daunted. I, I mean, to put themselves out there. So I will tell you something that I tried, you know, with a marketing hat on. So I thought, well, hey, I'm just going to be a resume that's going to go through here. So you went back to the, the paper quality. I went out and I got this really cool bright orange paper and it was almost translucent. You could see. See through it. It was. It was beautiful. And I started printing my resume on this orange piece of paper because I was like, well, that's gonna stand out. I'll tell you what, I did not get an interview with that orange paper. So, you know, as wild. And you gotta try things. You gotta put yourself out there. And that is a big piece of advice I would give throughout my career. You just gotta do it. But, yeah, the orange paper didn't work.

[Justin McCord]

Orange paper. Unless you were in the Netherlands. Like, if you were applying for something in the Netherlands because of their fertility for orange, then maybe it was just.

[Ronnie Richard]

Your stack of orange papers.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yes, yes. Well, it might have worked in this day and age. What is the movie that is out right now where folks wearing the orange pink ball involved?

[Justin McCord]

Right, Marty Supreme.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah, Marty Supreme. So it might have gotten some. Some relevance here now.

[Justin McCord]

Yeah, I would love to. I would love for someone to attempt that application process now. Like, ooh, let's mail some nice paper and see what happens as a test.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah, we know that there is far less snail mail that is going to people nowadays. So that might. But. But you would have to. I mean, they would have to be in their office, right?

[Justin McCord]

Yeah, yeah. You gotta line up, you gotta do.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Your research, get it to them. But you do have a better chance of it getting through for sure.

[Justin McCord]

So. So you move from the. The government politics side into, you know, into this executive director role of volunteer Alexandri. From there, the marketing, fundraising, development side starts to take off. Was that a series of intentional decisions or was it a series of, like, opportunities and doors that naturally happened?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Good question. I would say. I would say a mix of both. I. I am a curious person. I just want to learn new things. And so, you know, it's funny, there are people who want to be highly skilled and they go into a job with, you know, extreme knowledge. You would want your doctor to be that way. For me, I feel like you could just give me a role and I'll figure it out. I'm going to get in there and I'm going to figure it out. And I love tackling something new. And so that was really my career trajectory was, wow, this sounds neat. Let's get in there. Wow, let's do this. So I was pretty scared. I became an executive director of a nonprofit at age I think I was like 25, or maybe I just turned 26. It felt young. All of the people that reported to me were older than I was. Right. I'm now responsible for fundraising, I've got to lead this organization. And as a volunteer center, you're connected to literally hundreds of organizations. So. So I just stepped into, you know, my. I had some mentors who said, you can do this. We've got your back. Former two executive directors had endorsed me and were helping me. And so I felt like I was well supported. And then from there, it just was, all right, well, I want to go get my, you know, graduate degree. I know about, you know, nonprofits now. And at the time, they didn't have a nonprofit, you know, management certificate or anything. So I went and got a master's in business technology. It was right when that was coming out, like, And. And so that I was the first class at my school. And so I did that because I just wanted to learn more about, you know, it and where technology. Where business and technology were going to go. And so from there, I. I stayed in this sector, but working with organizations who had large memberships, either of charities who were directly involved with philanthropy or who, you know, then moving into nonprofit tech who were working sort of at the cutting edge of, you know, new for the sector and innovation for the sector, and I loved that. And so to. To circle back to how did you get into marketing and fundraising and all of that? I. I believe that sales, marketing, and fundraising are all the same skills. You're going to use all the same skill sets. I would argue that fundraising is more challenging because, you know, you're not getting a physical thing as a result, but you're going to get so much more. And so. So I just feel like that skill set is something that is intuitive to a lot of people, but when they hear fundraising and you've got to get something and, you know, you've got to raise money, and we are not going to get back anything physical in return. I think that's where people get stuck, because your donors receive so much more in return than any physical thing could potentially give them.

[Ronnie Richard]

I want to come back to. You just mentioned that this idea of being curious and how that's sort of driven you into different roles. If we fast forward from volunteer Alexandria to today, what are you curious about? What's. What's the next thing that's driving you right now?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Oh, I am fascinated with the times today. How about you all? I mean, I just. I am. I am sitting on the edge of my seat. This is a transformational period in our sector, and I can't wait to see what. What is next. You know, I'd be remiss to say that AI wasn't driving a huge amount of this and the federal funding changes and the administration. So there's a lot of fear that is out there around where fundraising is going and where just funding it in general and where organizations are going. But what I would say is it's we're really resilient sector. We've gotten through so many other times and if we could just change our mindset from fear to excitement about what is next, boy, there is so much more that we can do. And so I sat on the edge of my seat wondering about how we can do more better, how we can deliver more impact in ways that are very strategic and purposeful and how we can make a non profit leader, a non profit marketer, a non profit fundraiser, maybe even our donors, our supporters, all of our lives better and easier as we go. And when I say that, I mean not making it just so hard to do so many things.

[Justin McCord]

What do you think is at the root of that? Acting in fear or leading in fear? Like what do you think? What are the, the driving forces that, that sit there?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah, there's been a ton of research on it, so folks can go. But I would say at the core, to answer your question, is that fundraising, nonprofit folks are afraid of misusing those precious dollars. Now one, it's the donor dollar, so you're so worried about that. But the other part is that we're just afraid of misusing those dollars because we know that they're scarce. Any organization would probably tell you that they could use more money for whatever they want to do. So there's always a feeling that we don't have enough your scarcity factor. And then two, it's just that we're going to do something wrong now there, that is not how it operates. In, on the other side, in the for profit world like you are, you are motivated to take risks. You know that you have to, your investors want you to. But here on the nonprofit side, we're afraid of it. And so one of the things that I often will advise folks to do is to set up an innovation fund. Talk with your board, set up an innovation fund, let it be known to the world that you have this innovation fund for testing and learning new things. And then get out there and test and learn and ab it a be it, see it like go for it. And what I think can happen, or what I've heard is that organizations, employees, you know, your nonprofit staffers can then feel more empowered to try new things. They can come, they can apply for some of the funds from the Innovation Fund. Right. Like, you can report back to your board and your donors how you're using these innovation funds. By the way, very savvy donors would probably want to invest in your Innovation Fund because they know that you are stepping out of the box and you're going to try new things. So then where we have been, where folks have been operating in this world of scarcity and fear, you're then empowered and you are financed to go out and try, try, try and learn.

[Justin McCord]

That's.

[Ronnie Richard]

That's so well said. Yeah, the scarcity mindset, it can really hold you back. And I love the idea of creating an innovation fund. So it's known that failure can happen and it's not, I don't know, it's not a penalty, it's not a bad thing. We know there's a chance and a risk at this. Going back to the idea of AI and that fear and uncertainty around it. Bonterra, you just came out with a report about AI readiness. And I wanted to ask you a little bit about, as you dug into that, some of these ideas, what were some things that stood out in that report? And like, what, maybe what was the biggest takeaway you got from it?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah, so some of the things from our. From Bontera's AI readiness report were around folks comfort with using AI. People now know that they should be using AI. It is the future. And over the last year, there's been a huge uptick in use. We do have some stats that we can share with you on usage and how people are feeling about it, but what I would say is that they don't always know how to use it. I know that I need to exercise, but I don't know which of the things in the gym, you know, I should be using to, you know, get bigger muscles versus a leaner body. Right. Like, so folks are now testing and learning as they go to figure out how to use AI more expertly. What they. What Bonterra did last year is we actually launched the first agentic AI platform for the nonprofit sector. We call it qu. And it's Q U E. Kind of a play off of. What is that show. What is the famous. Not Doctor who. Help me here.

[Justin McCord]

Bond.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Oh, James Bond.

[Ronnie Richard]

Yeah.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

James Bond.

[Ronnie Richard]

Yes.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

So it's a. Plenty of James Bond.

[Justin McCord]

By the way, I. I just, I love that you said Doctor who. Like, I don't want to lose the fact that you said Doctor who somewhere in there because that speaks to me and many other listeners that there are other Whovians. So I'M sorry, go ahead.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

I. Yeah, I totally. I'm. I'm just back from my holiday break and I'm like, oh, my brain, my brain needs to work a little faster. But I will say Q is so cool because Q is working behind the scenes to help nonprofit marketers and fundraisers do more with a base of knowledge. So what you can do within our platform is it's able to segment donors for you, it can draft communications for you, it can help you think around what your next ask amounts will be. You need to have a human in the loop, and that's a big thing. Within Bonterra, we know that the future of AI is depends on humans being in the loop, keeping an eye on it, right? Reviewing it, not just arbitrarily sending things out, beginning to train your AI tools to have your voice, to be able to show the impact that you're making. All of those things are critical. Got the human in the loop, but what it's also doing is it's bringing a coach in with you. So I lead a team of fundraising and engagement coaches that are working across the country, one on one with nonprofits. These are humans who are helping nonprofits around strategy, how to market more strategically, how to fundraise more strategically, how to increase their major gifts. They may be working with them about what to say to major donors or what your acknowledgments look like. And so as we built Q, we actually had a team of our expert fundraising coaches who have literally worked with hundreds and hundreds of nonprofits and collectively thousands. And we had them help train our tool. And so not only did we have the best developers working across seven time zones building Q, and we had all of these different, you know, we have our product expertise. We actually had fundraisers who were in their training and helping our product team really build a, an agent, an AI agent that, that is extremely strategic and, and can help organizations make a difference from the first time that they use it.

[Justin McCord]

I think a part of the, for me, a part of the antidote to scarcity is curiosity. And, and I believe that the right path with any AI application comes with a strong dose of curiosity because it does come down to, like, thinking about how to use something and drawing off of the experiences, to your point, of others that have maybe walked a couple of steps in front of you around that. And so I love that you have that application, but it, to me, it draws back to something that you said earlier just in terms of your natural bent towards curiosity. And so the, I'm curious, the. To what extent you think of curiosity as a muscle within leaders or not? And as a leader yourself, how. What kind of work do you have to do to stay curious? Is it innate within Kimberly, or is that something that. Is something that there is, like, a series of things that you do to stay in that mode?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah. Yeah. Great question. I love this because I'm actually a certified coach, and you keep on asking me questions. I'm like, oh, that's a great question. And usually. And that's one of those little triggers as a coach when someone says that back to you. You're like, oh, I'm getting to the good stuff. So thank you. You're really having me be introspective. Curiosity is there. But to take it over to AI, what I would say is we are all learning with AI and you can quickly get up to speed and surpass your peers at this point in time, because AI has been around for a period of time. Bonterra actually began using AI in our tools in 2017. So it's been around 20. You could say, well, we have all of this experience, which we do, but I would also say you can catch up quickly because there are tools out there that will help you catch up quickly. But what with anything, with any bit of learning, there's two pieces to it, right? There's a curiosity, and then there's the consistency. How are you training yourself to be curious but also always be learning? You know, what are you doing that's helping to enrich the work that you are doing as a leader? And I don't care if you've been a leader at an organization, the same organization, for 25 years or two years, it doesn't matter, because it's where you are right now. The presence is what matters. And right now is a period of great transformation within our sector. And so I encourage and I challenge everyone who is listening to this today to step out and begin learning something new this year, in 2026. There is nothing holding you back except for yourself. And so try and shake that off and begin that curiosity process. Now, some of that is by doing, creating discipline. Every day. I'm going to spend a half an hour doing X every single day. Look, when I wanted to get healthy about, I don't know, probably almost 10 years ago now, I told myself, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna walk every day. I don't care how much I walk outside. It might be 10 minutes, it might be 45. And I'll tell you what, I've been walking every Single day since. So it's creating that muscle, whatever muscle it is that you want, you just got to do it. And you just create that time and you force yourself a little.

[Ronnie Richard]

One thing I've noticed about people who are driven by curiosity is that they often pick up fun, different hobbies and things. They're always trying to occupy themselves with things. So what is it that, besides walking, as you just mentioned, what do you do when you're not, you know, in the office mode and work mode? What do you do for, for fun, for, just to, to scratch that curious itch?

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Yeah. Yeah. So I have to laugh because if you had asked me, gosh, five years ago, eight years ago, ten years ago, I, I, I would be asked that question. And in my head I, I mean, I give a good answer, but I also was like, hobbies. I am a single mom with a career and I am trying to do like my very best at these two things. I don't have a lot of hobbies other than like making sure my house is clean and seeing my family and calling family. Right. Like just existing. My children are now in college, and so my hobbies are going to see them and being present in their lives. Right. My son plays lacrosse, so I want to go see them. My daughter. And they're in different states, they're pretty far away. So it's intentionally being there for them showing up. And, and so I love that. I mean, I could tell you I love stand up paddleboarding, I love, you know, going to breweries and listening to live love, all of that. But I would say my biggest hobby right now is finding quiet, peaceful, focused time for myself. Little bit of home renovation and, you know, with my partner. Right. But really trying to get to my, my core being and that great sense of peace that I know, you know, I can have. It's not a balancing act. You know, as a single mom, a career woman, everything you hear, oh, you got to balance it. It's, there's the balance. The 5050 I just never found existed. But what I do find today is that I can be very present and intentional in how I live. And, and I only have so much more time one on one with my kids right before they go off and they have their own careers. So I'm going to put the phone down, I'm going to put the work down. And this past Sunday, I was at the Steelers Ravens game with my son and I focused on that moment. How about you all? How are you finding your intentional moments?

[Justin McCord]

That's, that's, I mean, That's, I think, precisely where Ronnie and I both find ourselves. Now. I'm a half step behind you. So I've got two high schoolers. Ronnie is a half step behind me because he's got one high schooler, one high schooler, one middle schooler. But it is the same thing. It is, you know, you find ways to occupy yourself. But basically the same way that I think curiosity can be a superpower, I think intentionality can be a superpower. And. And it's one that. Or a super muscle. And so I think being intentional with the time with those around you.

[Ronnie Richard]

Is.

[Justin McCord]

Exactly what this life is about. And I think it makes you a better spouse, it makes you a better partner, it makes you a better parent, it makes you a better leader. The more that you try to be intentional with those around you, not to the point of sucking the air out of every room, by the way. Like, that's not that there is a line that, like, it goes too far. But, um, but finding ways to, to, you know, allow yourself to be interrupted by your kiddos or by your friends. You know, if it's 11 o' clock and that's what time my oldest wants to unpack his day, I gotta work myself up for it, but it's worth it every time. And so I think intentionality as a, as a super muscle is, is. Is something that I find myself more and more trying to focus on.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

I learned a big lesson. My daughter was a cheerleader in high school. And I thought I was being, like, so savvy. I had my laptop on my lap, you know, at a game. And I'm working and I'm watching the game, and I'm working and I'm watching the game. All great, because I'm there. I am present. And then later on that night, my daughter was like, mom. All of my teammates were asking, whose mom was the one with her laptop open the whole time with her head down, cranking away? I. I wasn't there as I should have been. Yeah, I missed her fifth birthday because I was at a conference speaking, right. Like, I did those things and, and I certainly juggled it. And I. And I see it. I missed her birthday one year, and then I did not do it again. It meant something to her. It might not have meant something to another child. She was 5. She had a very happy birthday. But she will point that out to me at, you know, age 19, now that I missed her fifth birthday. And so those are the things that she just learned along the way. And we make mistakes. Yeah, we make Mistakes, we make mistakes as people. And so I think another part about intention, intention. Can I say it Today, tensionality and curio. Curiosity is also the fail fast or at least absorb and reflect on your learnings. Don't beat yourself up over it, but truly think about what's important. And we could carry that over from our personal lives and our hobbies and our loves, but we can absolutely carry it over to the work that we do. Of course. And in this day and age, in 2026, now more than ever, we need to be focused on some core things. One, upskilling not just ourselves, but our, but our teams on AI and the real practical ways that you can use it and that continuing to hone that muscle. And there are ways and strategies that you can do it as managers. That's one, two. It's just testing new fundraising tactics because there are plenty of those things. Ben Miller and I did a session which we called Born AI. I think it was at AFP this past year around all the other things that you can do beyond AI right now to up your fundraising and marketing gate. So there's that, but there's just, there's so much that you can be focusing on right now. How to help your, your workforce, your teams really feel connected to your purpose and become more high performing. There are some great tactics for that as well because you could have all the tools in the world and still not be a high performing team. And that exists within many organizations. You could say, oh well, they're a new organization and they're just going to start. No, no, no, no, no. Then you got these tier, you know, very, very, what's the word? I'm thinking of just very large charities, tenure charities, big name charities that are also struggling with some of the same challenges. They're very hierarchical. They need to cut through some of the red tape. They need to, to test and learn more. They need to, you know, really come together as departments cross functionally. So, so to just kind of circle or put a, put a point on that is, it's, it's about learning and adopting and going for it. Right? Going for it.

[Ronnie Richard]

Kimberly, I don't know if I can think of a better way to wrap up this episode than that. I mean, curiosity, intentionality. And I love the idea of you kind of grabbing this torch and saying, follow me and let's go for it. So thanks for spending time with us and, and, and sharing your thoughts with us.

[Kimberly O'Donnell]

Thank you, thank you and best wishes as we just tackle 2026. It's going to be an amazing year. And, and it can be an amazing year for all of your viewers, too. You know, just step into it and take it a step at a time with that curiosity. Group Thinkers is a production of RKD Group. For more information, including how you can partner with RKD to accelerate growth for your fundraising and nonprofit marketing needs, visit rkdgroup.com SAM.