Episodes

In this episode, you’ll get an inside view of the contradictions funders face when it comes to investing in the nonprofit workforce. And you’ll get the back-story of how Fund the People’s California Talent Justice Summit came to be. Fund the People’s President and CEO, Rusty Stahl, speaks with Leslie Payne, a former Initiative Director at the James Irvine Foundation, and current principal at Penlight Advising. Leslie shares her journey in recognizing the contradiction of being a workforce and j...

In this second installment of our "Defend Nonprofits, Defend Democracy" series, host Rusty Stahl shares insights from his recent experience at the 22nd annual Foundations on the Hill event in Washington, DC. Drawing from meetings with congressional staff and discussions with philanthropic colleagues, Rusty offers reflections and actionable ideas for addressing the political and policy threats to our sector. Emphasizing the importance of maintaining hope and agency in the face of significant cha...

In this enlightening episode, you’’ll learn how a growing group of funders is thinking about wellbeing – for grantees and themselves. Laura Bacon, strategy lead and facilitator of the Funders and Wellbeing Group, discusses how this new global group of a dozen foundations is working to transform philanthropic culture with regard to wellbeing. Through regular virtual meetings and annual in-person gatherings, the group explores ways to support both individual and organizational wellbeing in the soc...

Welcome to the Fund the People Podcast and our new special series, “Defend Nonprofits, Defend Democracy.” Why “Defend Nonprofits, Defend Democracy”? Because powerful nonprofits are part of a strong democracy, and a strong democracy benefits from powerful nonprofits. When nonprofits are under attack, democracy is under attack. And when democracy is at risk, nonprofits are at risk. It’s clear that investing in the nonprofit workforce (both paid and unpaid) is crucial to building powerful nonprofi...

In this episode of the Fund The People Podcast, you’ll get an inside view of one foundation’s journey to investing in healthy nonprofit executive transitions - and helping other funders to do the same. Host Rusty Stahl sits down withLiz Sak, Executive Director ofCricket Island Foundation, andHana Sun, a consultant who manages the Foundation’s Leadership Transition Fund. They discuss Cricket Island Foundation's approach to supporting nonprofit leadership transitions, particularly for small, gr...

Arum Lee Lansel, founder of ALL-in 4 Impact, shares her unique career journey from fashion design to international development, philanthropy, and venture capital. Driven by her immigrant family's experience and desire to create more equity, she has developed a deep understanding of how organizations can better support their employees. Her perspective bridges the worlds of venture capital and nonprofit sectors, highlighting the critical importance of investing in talent. Drawing from her exper...

In this episode of the Fund the People podcast, host Rusty Stahl interviews Nneka Payne, Executive Director of Choose 180, a Seattle-area nonprofit that transforms oppressive systems and supports young people's healing and development. Payne shares her personal journey from experiencing the juvenile legal system firsthand to leading an organization that provides alternatives to prosecution and incarceration for youth. Choose 180 has grown from one program to eight, expanding from court-based div...

In this illuminating episode of the Fund The People podcast, Geoff Green, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits), provides a masterclass on the economic and political power of California's nonprofit sector. Green explains how nonprofits, as the fourth-largest employer in California with 1.2 million workers, are often tasked with addressing the "externalized costs" of both business and government - from poverty wages to environmental degradation - yet are chronically unde...

When politicians and elected officials try to brand nonprofits as “thugs,” “sleazebags,” and “terror-supporting orgs”, will you freeze? Take flight? Or stand up and fight back? In this episode, you’ll get: Tips on how the incoming Trump Administration may behave toward philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, and some important ways your organization can prepare and respond; An overview of what FTP did for nonprofit workers in 2024, how we’ll build on that work in 2025, and how you c...

Pay equity is a critical factor in attracting and retaining talent in the nonprofit sector, and organizations need to address pay disparities to ensure their long-term sustainability. Our guest today is Sally Loftis, Managing Director of Loftis Partners, who discussed pay equity and the importance of investing in staff. We talk about the challenges faced by nonprofits in attracting and retaining talent, emphasizing the need for competitive pay and benefits that reflect the rising cost of living....

On this episode of the Fund the People Podcast (S7:E4), you’ll get a bird’s eye view of the threats to nonprofits, civil society, and social movements around the world. And you’ll hear how one global funder has responded. Our guest today is Jamaica Maxwell, the Civil Society and Leadership Director at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. We discuss the challenges faced by civil society globally, including shrinking civic space and threats to individuals and organizations working on cri...

In this episode, you’ll garner an important perspective on the nonprofit and philanthropic community from a professional coach who helps Black women executive leaders navigate the white spaces of our sector. Guest Kelli King-Jackson reflects on the impact of racial politics on organizational culture. We discuss the need for nonprofits to adapt to a changing workforce, including generational differences in communication styles. And we talk about how foundations can be more responsive to the ne...

In this episode, you'll get a free-wheeling, big picture view of how organized philanthropy does and does not address issues impacting the nonprofit workforce. Inside Philanthropy journalist Dawn Wolfe writes about how funding for living wages and other fundamental matters related to nonprofit staffing. Why should we all be 'following the money'? Why should the hiring crisis not have come as a surprise to anybody? How are the sector's funding practices actually hurting the groups they are try...

As the nonprofit workforce crisis evolves into 2025, how funders respond to nonprofit burnout, compensation, recruitment, and retention challenges will be more important than ever. After a summer and fall hiatus, we’re back with a brand-new season of Fund the People’s Podcast, featuring insightful guests and valuable resources to help you invest in the nonprofit workforce! Even though we haven’t been publishing, we've been busy behind the scenes! At the start of this episode, you’ll get a ...

We're launching Season 7 of Fund the People: A Podcast with Rusty Stahl tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 13! Tune in for interviews with knowledgeable guests as we explore nonprofit workforce funding challenges and success stories.

In our Season 6 finale episode, we mark Fund the People's 10th anniversary by launching our new initiative: the Funding that Works Academy. This new professional development platform equips funders, nonprofits, and intermediaries with the ideas and tools needed to provide effective funding solutions that advance good nonprofit jobs, and the wellbeing and sustainability of those working in nonprofits. The Academy was designed to help grant makers and fundraisers move philanthropic money in a way...

In this brief episode, Rusty offers our loyal listeners a special sneak-peek into a new program offering being announced shortly from Fund the People! Don’t miss the inside scoop! Rusty also wraps-up Season 6 by comparing and contrasting stories from some of our amazing guests this season, and offers two key “Aha! moments:” First: when funders invest in the grantee workforce, it can be extremely big, complicated and costly, or it can be small, simple, and take modest dollars. Or something in b...

This episode makes clear the need for and value of talent-investing for community foundations and other place-focused funders. Our guest, Elizabeth Kidd of the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area, demonstrates how even the most modest dollar amounts used in strategic, responsive talent-investing at key inflection points in the lifecycle of leaders and their institutions, can have exponentially positive impact for nonprofit executives, workers, organizations, and communities. Listen...

In this episode, you’ll gain important insights into current issues in the nonprofit workforce, and how professional development is evolving in our sector, particularly but not exclusively as it relates to leaders and workers of color. Our guest is Yolanda Coentro of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, one of the fastest-growing and most exciting professional development providers for nonprofits. Founded in 2007, the Institute now offers a portfolio of programs that serve nonprofit leaders fro...

In today's episode, you'll learn strategies and practical tips for creating happy, healthy, nonprofit workers and workplaces. Our guest Beth Kanter is a leading expert on nonprofit technology and she is co-author of the book Happy, Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact Without Burnout. You'll learn about tangible tools for preventing burnout at the individual and organizational levels, and learn what is available in her book. We discuss why she wrote the book, how nonprofit wellbeing has chan...

Dr. Akilah Watkins is President and CEO of Independent Sector, one of the national organizations that pulls together our sector and represents it in Washington. Dr. Watkins has been on a national listening tour of the nonprofit sector since she took on this leadership role in January 2023. In this episode, she shares what she’s heard about the challenges facing the nonprofit workforce. She also shares how Independent Sector is working to improve the policy environment for nonprofits as employers...

Have you ever thought that funder-sponsored organizational ‘capacity building’ may be detrimental to nonprofit workers and their communities? Today we talk about concrete ways we could improve the framing and practice of capacity building to better support the brilliance and resilience of diverse nonprofit workers and organizations. Today's guests are Melissa DeShields and Marcus Littles from Frontline Solutions, a Black-owned and -led social change consulting firm. We discuss our guests recent...

This episode offers a powerful example of how funders and nonprofits can collaborate and advocate to reform government contracting, so that it works better for the nonprofit sector and the nonprofit workforce. You’ll learn how Mercedes Elizalde (Board member of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon), Felicita Monteblanco (Northwest Health Foundation) and others teamed up to advocate for state contracting reform, and how that resulted in them serving as members of the Governor’s Modernizing Grant ...

In this episode, you'll get concrete tips for ensuring that nonprofit workers have access to retirement savings from returning guest Chitra Aiyar of Just Futures. Chitra first joined us in Season 3 Episode 10 in December of 2022, when we discussed what's wrong with nonprofit retirement. Today we'll discuss what's right with retirement. This episode is focused on practical approaches for nonprofit employers to establish or enhance retirement savings for their staff team. We also talk about some ...