Find Your Values and Focus on the Community: Advice from Maria Rio of Further Together

This week, your host, Matt Barnes, sat down with Maria Rio, Founder and CEO of Further Together, to discuss trends in the nonprofit sphere.

About FURTHER TOGETHER

Further Together partners with nonprofit organizations, helping them to raise funds, reach the right audiences, and advocate for systemic solutions. They help turn organizations into fundraising machines through increased donor engagement, enhanced abilities to exceed fundraising targets, targeted use of resources, and elevated brand awareness.

NONPROFIT Challenges

Working with various nonprofit organizations, Maria has a bird's-eye view of their challenges.

She often sees executive directors feel isolated, unable to strategize or be open with their boards and staff. 

"Executive directors feel very lonely... They feel like the board doesn't 100% understand what they're going through, which most of the time, they don't, and they feel like they can't be open with their staff."

She recommends connecting them with peers in similar sectors for moral support and shared experiences or participating in programs, such as Epic Leadership, which helps execs evaluate their roles and transition if necessary. 

Many nonprofits also struggle to grow their donor list and engage donors due to a scarcity mindset and lack of planning. They often lack time for planning due to being overwhelmed with their daily operations. Maria recommends making planning part of your annual strategy so you can focus on strategic decisions. 

Many challenges stem from new nonprofits lacking the foundational strategies and planning required to be successful, so Maria recommends ensuring foundational elements are in place before expanding. 

Another common issue comes from the propensity to treat donors as celebrities and offer them special perks, even though donors generally prefer real partnerships and deeper involvement in solving problems. Thus, she recommends community-centric fundraising, emphasizing community engagement rather than donors. For example, she replaced expensive galas with a partnership model in an organization providing emergency food access, making the process less transactional. 

"It's like it's spelled in the community. But for who? Who are you purposely excluding? And how does that align with what you're here to do?"

Want more on nonprofit trends? 

Listen to this episode of the Nonprofit Connect podcast to hear the rest of Maria’s insights!