Podcast
We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits
Hosted by We Are For Good · EN
The We Are For Good Podcast brings nonprofit professionals + everyday changemakers into conversations with the most innovative, heartwired leaders in social impact. Hosted by Jon McCoy + Becky Endicott, each episode unpacks fresh mindsets, practical skills + inspiring stories designed to help you work smarter, build healthier cultures + accelerate our collective impact.
Join our value-aligned community—it’s free—at weareforgoodcommunity.com.
About We Are For Good
We Are For Good is a storytelling, learning + activating community built for nonprofit professionals + everyday changemakers. Through our podcasts + media, purpose-driven activations + global gatherings, we equip for-good leaders with the connection, skills + inspiration to grow their impact. Because we believe community is everything—and together, we can create an Impact Uprising.
Learn more at weareforgood.com.
152episodes
Episodes
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716. Stories to Fill the Hope Gap: How Story Becomes the Strategy to Shift Culture - Ai-jen Poo, Caring Across Generations
2d ago00:24:23Summary readyAs Co-Founder of Caring Across Generations and President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Ai-jen Poo has spent decades working at the intersection of policy and culture — because she knows you can't change one without the other. A MacArthur Fellow, Time 100 honoree, and author of The Age of Dignity, she's now launching a million-care-conversations campaign and a new production label, Give Not Take Media, to get care stories into film and television at scale. 🩵In this episode, you'll hear:Why culture change has to come before policy change — and what that sequencing means for your organization's communications strategyHow Caring Across Generations scaled their story strategy, and what it can teach any org about how media scales missionHow to plug into the 1 Million Care Conversations campaign right nowYou'll walk away understanding why story isn't just a communications tool, it's the strategy that shifts culture, changes policy, and moves people to act.Episode Highlights:Ai-jen's grandfather and the personal roots of Caring Across Generations (2:09)Changing policy and culture — why you can't do one without the other (6:09)Care as infrastructure: the framing that changes the conversation (8:22)Why emotional truth drives behavior more than facts (10:35)Give Not Take Media and the film Take Me Home at Tribeca (13:21)1 Million Care Conversations campaign — how to get involved (16:01)A story of generosity: the donor who honored her nanny (18:07)One Good Thing: reach out to a caregiver in your life (20:19)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/716Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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715. Working Session: The Email Infrastructure Every Nonprofit Needs - Katelyn Baughan
4d ago00:19:36Summary readyMost nonprofits treat email like a megaphone. They show up loud when they need donations and go completely quiet in between. Katelyn Baughan has worked with UNHCR, Amnesty International, the Trevor Project, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and she has seen this pattern cost nonprofits thousands in unrealized donations.Her fix: stop thinking about campaigns and start building infrastructure.In less than 20 minutes, Katelyn walks you through the automated email system that works in the background to build donor relationships, nurture loyalty, and raise more money, even when you're not hitting send. 📧In this episode, you'll hear:The difference between email campaigns and email infrastructure, and why most nonprofits are missing the piece that actually builds long-term donor loyaltyThe three foundational automations every nonprofit should have running right now: subscriber welcome, new donor onboarding, and monthly donor welcomeWhat deliverability actually means (it's not the same as delivery), and how to find out if your emails are landing in spam without you knowingStart building your system this week. Your donors are waiting to hear from you. 🩵Episode Highlights:Working Session Intro (0:29)The Megaphone Problem: Rethinking How Nonprofits Use Email (2:20)Infrastructure vs. Campaigns: The Plumbing Analogy (4:18)Where to Start: Building Your Welcome Series (6:08)The Three Foundational Automations Every Nonprofit Needs (7:32)New Donor Onboarding: The Window You Can't Miss (8:23)Deliverability vs. Delivery: What the Difference Means for Your Inbox (13:41)Google Postmaster Tools and How to Use Them (14:35)One Good Thing: Stop Worrying About Bothering Donors (15:49)How to Connect with Katelyn (18:32)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/715Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/wsl#podcast//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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714. Stories to Fill the Hope Gap: The 3 Part Formula Behind Sesame Street’s Storytelling - Scott Cameron
1w ago00:41:50Summary readyScott Cameron is a two-time Emmy Award-winning creative leader who has spent his career executive producing international adaptations of Sesame Street, bringing this iconic brand to audiences in 190 countries and 31 languages. He joins us for this special episode to talk about what 57 years of research-driven storytelling has taught him about how story actually changes people. 🌟In this episode, you'll hear:How the Sesame model — a Venn diagram of creative production, education, and research — creates content that changes behavior, not just awarenessWhat happened when Sesame Workshop partnered with the IRC to bring Elmo and Cookie Monster into mobile health clinics in conflict-affected Jordan, and why the research surprised everyoneWhy knowing your North Star is the only thing that keeps a mission-driven organization from playing whack-a-mole with every new trendWalk away from this conversation with a framework for intentional storytelling, and a new appreciation for the most trusted institution already sitting in your community. 🩵Episode Highlights:Scott's Origin Story: Growing Up With Sesame Street (2:53)The Origin of Sesame Street: A 1966 Dinner Party (5:57)The Sesame Research Model: Where Story Meets Science (9:35)Funding Disruption and What Sesame Did Next (12:27)Bringing Sesame to Conflict Zones: The IRC Partnership (13:37)The ABCs of Emotion: What Research in Jordan Taught Them (16:02)AI, North Stars, and What to Actually Pay Attention To (19:00)The Most Trusted Institution in Your Community (21:36)Netflix, PBS, YouTube and Going Global (24:07)Creating Digital Ecosystems and What Comes Next (27:00)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/714//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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713. The Case for Playing the Long Game in Philanthropy - Matthew Oh, FOREFRONT Charity
2w ago00:36:06Summary readyMatt Oh was an engineer with a stable career and a 9-to-5 when a mission trip to India stopped him in his tracks. He saw something he couldn’t unsee — women and children spending 10 hours a day walking to collect dirty water.In 2015, he founded FOREFRONT Charity with a few college friends and one water well. Today, more than 100,000 people across India, Kenya, and East Africa have been impacted through clean water, education, medical care, and empowerment. 105 water wells drilled. A school built, in which 20% of the students once worked in child labor, that now serves more than 250 first-generation students. A 90% program efficiency rate. Clearly, an engineer is running this. 💡In this episode, you'll hear:Why “treating symptoms” is a stewardship failure, and how Matt’s five whys framework helps you fund root-cause solutions that create lasting changeWhat 11 years of local partnerships taught FOREFRONT about trust, and why sustainable change is slow to build, easy to lose, and worth protectingHow FOREFRONT came within $1,000 of shutting its doors twice, and what those struggles taught themWalk away from this conversation with a new lens on donor stewardship, a challenge to stop moving fast when the community you serve needs you to stay, and proof that the long game is worth it. 🩵Episode Highlights:From Engineering to Purpose: Matt's Origin Story (3:36)The Five Whys: Applying Engineering Thinking to Nonprofit Impact (9:15)Root Cause vs. Symptoms: What Real Stewardship Looks Like (10:19)A Decade of Local Partnerships and What Trust Actually Requires (14:10)Persevering Through Hard Seasons (18:14)FOREFRONT Forward: Scaling What Works Globally (19:54)The School Story: What Grit Really Looks Like (25:09)One Good Thing: Play the Long Game (31:29)How to Connect and Support FOREFRONT Charity (33:04)Episode Show Notes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/713//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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712. Stories to Fill The Hope Gap: How Art is Healing Veterans - Richard Casper, CreatiVets
2w ago00:33:17Summary readyThis episode includes themes of combat trauma, mental health, and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.Meet Richard Casper 👋 Richard is a Marine Corps veteran, Purple Heart recipient, CNN Hero, and co-founder of CreatiVets, a nonprofit that helps wounded veterans heal from PTSD and TBI through songwriting, visual art, and performance. His own healing started with one chalk pastel and a tribute to his friend Luke. That moment sparked a mission that led to 700+ songs, 25 million streams, and thousands of lives changed.In this episode, you'll hear:How CreatiVets reaches the veterans who will never ask for help, and the storytelling model that makes showing up irresistibleWhy every song they write becomes a new story to share with the world, and what that means for how nonprofits think about contentThe story of James: a veteran who found hope at a country music festivalHow to build programs that give people tools for life, not just for the length of a programThe vision for a 24-hour creative arts center where any veteran can walk in and start to healEpisode Highlights:Richard's origin story and the call to serve (0:44)Camp David, survivor guilt, and choosing to go to Iraq with his unit (3:42)How a room full of strangers understood Richard’s story before he did (8:46)Meet the mission of CreatiVets (12:51)Designing programs that give veterans tools for life, not just for the program (15:21)James's story: the moment a CreatiVets sign saved a life at a country festival (19:37)Why story is the most underused tool in the nonprofit sector (22:23)CreatiVet’s vision: a 24-hour creative arts center for veterans in Nashville (28:57)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/712//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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711. How Fiscal Sponsorship Is Rewriting Who Gets to Lead Change - Vincent Jones
2w ago00:27:40Summary readyWhat does it actually mean to fund community power? Not a one-time grant, not a single big donor relationship, but real, sustained infrastructure for the leaders closest to the problems. Vincent Jones has spent three decades figuring that out.Meet Vincent Jones 👋 He is the CEO of Beyond Impact, formerly known as Tides Advocacy, a national 501(c)(4) intermediary that serves as fiscal sponsor, funder, and convener for more than 90 projects across 20 states. Beyond Impact sits at the part of philanthropic infrastructure most nonprofit conversations never reach: what happens when giving goes beyond foundations to include how communities build power, influence policy, and drive long-term structural change.In this episode, you'll hear:Why philanthropy's current funding structure is a design failure and what a better model actually looks likeWhat fiscal sponsorship is (explained simply), and why it's the infrastructure that lets community leaders focus entirely on the workA moment of generosity that changed how Vincent sees his own worth, and what he wants every listener who has ever doubted themselves to hearThis one will change how you think about who holds power in your organization and how you fund the work that matters. 🌱Episode Highlights:Meet Vincent Jones (02:09)Why philanthropy's funding structure is a design failure (06:12)Democratizing donors: the Uplifting Change Initiative at Liberty Hill (07:20)The real cost of last-minute, cycle-based funding (10:24)What fiscal sponsorship actually means (12:22)Beyond Impact's 90+ projects (13:16)A moment of philanthropy that changed Vincent's life (20:45)One good thing: "Do good, have fun, and help others do the same." (25:11)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/711//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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710. Stories That Fill the Hope Gap: Closing the Hope Gap with Story - Afdhel Aziz
3w ago00:21:23Summary readyThere is a growing gap in our world between hope and despair. And storytelling might be the most powerful tool we have to fill it.Welcome to Stories That Fill the Hope Gap, a 10-part limited series created in partnership with Good is the New Cool and We Are For Good. Every Wednesday for the next 10 weeks, we are bringing you a changemaker who is using story to cut through noise, build connection, shift culture, and move people to action.We open with the conversation that started it all: the keynote Afdhel Aziz delivered live at ImpactUp: Story, framing the big idea that runs through every episode that follows.In this episode, you'll hear:What the Hope Gap is, where it came from, and why it matters for every changemaker telling stories right nowWhy pop culture, social media, and news are all feeding despair, and what that means for how we communicateGallup's 2026 finding that hope is the number one thing people want from their leaders, outpacing trust, compassion, and stability combinedAfdhel's 3-step storytelling playbook: start with hope, spark wonder, inspire courageous actionWe need your stories to help fill the hope gap. Share yours at weareforgood.com/hopegap. 🩵Episode Highlights:Welcome to the series: what Stories That Fill the Hope Gap is (0:03)Grief, fear, and this moment we are in (5:19)Storytelling: the single greatest tool to change civilization (8:00)The current crisis of storytelling (9:00)Despair is paralyzing. Hope is galvanizing. (12:00)Gallup 2026: hope outpaces trust, compassion, and stability combined (12:30)Meet The Solutionaries (13:30)The 3-step playbook: start with hope, spark wonder, inspire courageous action (17:30)Share your story at weareforgood.com/hopegap (19:58)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/710Series Hub: https://www.weareforgood.com/hopegap//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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709. Working Session: Fundraising as a Team of One: What to Do When You Don’t Have Time for Everything - Christina Martin Kenny
4w ago00:27:21Summary readyMeet Christina Martin Kenny 👋 She is a career fundraiser and the founder of Guava Tree Strategies. She has been a fundraising team of one more times than she can count, and she literally wrote the handbook on surviving it: The Solo Fundraiser Survival Guide.In this Working Session, she is bringing the entire playbook to help you figure out what to prioritize, what to let go of, and how to actually move the needle when you feel like you are juggling everything and dropping all of it.In this Working Session, you'll hear:How to stop doing everything and start doing the right thingsHow to match your time to where your money actually comes fromHow to replace your to-do list with three weekly priorities that actually move the needleWelcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let's get to work.Episode Highlights:Outsourcing doesn't have to cost money (5:00)It's okay to do less: the diverse revenue myth (6:05)Revenue matches time: the core framework (8:00)Time tracking exercise: where are your hours actually going? (8:30)The Good Enough Checklist (11:10)Good bones: your donation processing platform (11:30)CRM basics and the three metrics that matter (12:30)Automated acknowledgement letters: plain text beats branded (15:00)From overwhelm to activated: the three weekly priorities (17:00)Revenue driving, relationship building, system strengthening (19:00)Tiny Tasks Before 10 (20:00)One good thing: protecting your time is a strategic decision (21:00)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/709👉 Christina's Good Enough Checklist//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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708. Working Session: How to Build a Story Engine for Your Nonprofit - Amanda Green
May 1300:19:43Summary readyMeet Amanda Green 👋 She is a journalist turned Communications Consultant with more than 20 years of newsroom and public relations experience, including 12 years in TV newsrooms. She is the founder of In Your Voice Media Works, where she helps cause-led organizations build their own internal newsrooms: the systems, the workflows, and the editorial instincts that turn scattered content into a sustained story engine.Her take? Content calendars and campaigns don't build momentum. If you want storytelling to drive real change, you need to think like a media organization.In this Working Session, you'll hear:Why nonprofits need to stop asking "what should we post this week?" and start asking "what is the story, and how do we work it?"Amanda's 5-step story framework: define your beat, work your story pipeline, report and produce, publish and distribute, and measure and adjustHow to run a 10-minute editorial meeting that gets every department contributing stories, from your board to the person who sweeps the floorsWelcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.Let's get to work.Episode Highlights:Meet Amanda Green (1:22)Think like a media company: the mindset shift (2:30)Stop asking what to post. Start asking what the story is. (2:50)The editorial mission statement and guidelines (4:00)Audience analysis and building editorial judgment (5:00)How to run a 10-minute editorial meeting (7:00)Step 1: Define your beat (8:00)Step 2: Work your story pipeline: story leads and channel leads (8:30)Step 3: Report and produce (10:00)Step 4: Publish and distribute (10:30)Step 5: Measure and adjust (10:45)Community as storytelling: the "everybody has a story" approach (11:00)Story is the heartbeat of connection (13:00)The 3-tab spreadsheet story planner (15:00)One good thing: listen to the people in your community (16:47)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/708//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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707. How to Break Philanthropy Out of Hypothesis Mode - Casey Lardner, Ph.D., GenSpace
May 1100:30:03Summary readyIs philanthropy stuck in hypothesis mode?In science, there are two kinds of research: hypothesis-driven, where you predict the outcome before you run the experiment, and exploratory, where you map the landscape and stay open to what you find. The biggest breakthroughs almost always come from the second.Meet Casey Lardner 👋 She is a neuroscientist and the Executive Director of Genspace, the world's first community biology lab in Brooklyn, New York. Part biology lab, part design studio, part classroom, part community space, Genspace has been opening the doors of science to artists, entrepreneurs, students, researchers, and curious humans since 2009.In this episode, you'll hear:Why philanthropy is stuck in hypothesis mode and what the sector is missing because of itWhy uncertainty isn't a problem to solve. It's the work.How to lead your organization with the curiosity and rigor of a scientistThis one will change how you think about impact, innovation, and what we might be leaving on the table. 🩵Episode Highlights:Meet Casey Lardner (0:37)What Genspace is: lab, classroom, studio, community (8:16)Hypothesis-driven vs. exploratory science: the difference (10:00)What hypothesis-driven philanthropy is costing the sector (11:09)Who carries the risk of uncertainty? (15:00)How Genspace secures exploratory investment from funders (17:52)How to start thinking like a scientist as a nonprofit leader (20:59)Casey’s One Good Thing: Curiosity as a habit of mind (26:32)Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/707//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.comSay hi 👋LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
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