Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Ep 196 | Rethinking Fundraising Success & Mission Impact in 2026 - Bruce Arbit

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Ep 196 | Rethinking Fundraising Success & Mission Impact in 2026 - Bruce Arbit · The Nonprofit Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, everyone is talking about unprecedented uncertainty like it's a crisis that we just need to outlast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: But uncertainty has always been part of this work.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: 9-11, the Great Recession, lit a pandemic.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Every few years, something breaks the world open.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: So what's different this time?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the fact that the old playbook, traditional fundraising, just doesn't fit the world we're in anymore.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Today I am talking with Bruce Arbit, 30 years in the sector, over$300 million raised, who's built partnerships between nonprofits, businesses, and social enterprises, proving that impact frequently comes from unexpected places, often when no one thought they would work.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to be talking about why this moment of disruption might actually be your leverage, what Bruce calls the business of impact, and why organizations making real progress right now are not acting like companies.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: They are showing up like communities.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're tired of waiting for stability, if you're ready to build inside the uncertainty, this conversation is going to be for you.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBox.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Britt Stalker, your fundraiser coach over here at DonorBox.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Each week we bring you practical strategies, clear insights, and inspiration to help you raise more, reach further, and take your nonprofit to the next level.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hey there, Bruce.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad we finally made it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you so much, Britt.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to bring those learnings to this uh conversation.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with uncertainty.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're all feeling it, right?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like this is some new conversation where anything new, we're approaching crises for the first time.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: This moment, I think, Bruce, it feels really different.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to ask you and start here, what do you think has actually changed?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's interesting.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: I've been listening to a lot of different um sources of information.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's this conversation underway, and it's there's sort of two dimensions of it.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: One is that, you know, we're really feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, you know, confused.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then I think on the other hand, it's like we can't keep doing things the same way.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it it really taps into my own uh very personal experience as a consultant.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of what's been going on in the world has disrupted traditional consulting practices.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, a lot of people being um, you know, displaced have gone into consulting, you know, with things like AI, people don't use consultants in the same way.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been going through the same process as well.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what's different is that there is this recognition that there is no going back to what we may be more familiar with.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: And the real voice that's sort of quiet that I want to pull out in this conversation is that recognition, that acknowledgement that I need to do something different, but I don't always know how to.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I may be even a little afraid because maybe I don't have what it takes.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I gotta say, I've had the same conversation with myself over the last year.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And what I realized is that in that conversation of confusion and concern, um, there was also this quiet voice that was like the old way wasn't really working for me.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think like a lot of the listeners, you sort of end up trying to be everything to everybody.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so there is this, like, I think, underlying question of what really matters.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think that's kind of what's different, is that people are are really wanting something different, but don't really know how to go about it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I hope we can tackle on today's call.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about kind of these unspoken rules.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're not holding up anymore, but we are in community with others.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Those communities are still there.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have partners, we have different types of stakeholders or community members that are still counting on us.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so leading into the second question, Bruce, what I find so fascinating about you is I don't know many other people like you who you've worked across nonprofits, you've worked across businesses, social impact sectors.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: What have you learned about making those partnerships actually work?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: I have to say, as someone who hasn't followed a traditional uh professional trajectory, I often have confused myself or questioned, you know, like I'm not a campaign consultant, and I'm not somebody who spent 30 years in one particular health organization or even sector.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I do find that it has given me a really unique perspective.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and the thing that I really, you know, have learned is that there's a world beyond nonprofits and philanthropic sector that is very interested in using their resources to make a positive difference in the world.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it's professional associations, small and large businesses, I've worked with real estate developers, chambers of commerce, technology companies, manufacturing companies, restaurants, um, social investors, individuals who are going beyond philanthropy, where they're literally making an investment in a real estate development that has some financial gain, so they'll make some money from it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it happens to be in an area that has been um passed over for years, some urban areas in New Jersey that people wouldn't invest in if these early investors, I call them social investors, didn't come in first and take some risk.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a much broader world.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and they're really interested in what we do and what your listeners are doing, whether we're consultants, nonprofit organizations, um, whatever you call yourself, if you're in the business, and I call this the business of impact.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: If you are, you know, doing work that has a positive benefit on others, like there's a very large ecosystem that exists.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: And um I'm excited to talk more about that, help your listeners understand what I mean by business of impact.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's dive into that a little bit more.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what comes to mind just as a former nonprofiteer executive director, development director, is power dynamics when interacting with other types of social impact folks, right?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like for me, it's I'm in that boardroom and I'm practically there, like apologizing for existing.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: There is like a real power dynamic happening.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when I think you alluded to this, we should be walking in, knowing what we have to leverage.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like these are folks that need us too, right?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um can you call out some of those things that we can use to our advantage when interacting with these other types of players?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's such an important point.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: And there's actually a couple of things that you referenced that I would definitely like to call out and name.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Let's start with what you just mentioned that uh very long-standing barrier for the nonprofit sector of is this power dynamic where it's sort of us versus them, you know, like us being the people that are looking for resources and money, and them who have the resources.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that um it sets up this artificial barrier to really uh genuine, authentic relationships, because we're always sort of coming at it somewhat with a deficit, like we need what you have.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: And what this, what I again call the business of impact, which we'll talk a little more specifically about, is really challenges those dynamics because if you're in the impact business, the impact that you're providing, whether it's um looking for cures to diseases or helping people dealing with domestic violence, and that impact, that change that we uh deliver in our sector, that has real currency, real value.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, my company is actually named Mission Impact Advisors.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: I just wanted that name right out there because it is this acknowledgement that we have huge value being in the impact sector, leading it.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: And we need to really claim that when we have these meetings and conversations.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like we have something hugely of value that the person who is investing, however they're doing it, philanthropy, whatever form it takes, they want what we have.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And just to reiterate what I'm what I'm bringing out here, Bruce, it's like only we, like only our listeners, they have that community knowledge.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're deeply embedded in their communities.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: They actually have those relationships, they actually are able to make things on the ground.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not something that our private sector peers can necessarily do alone, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's real leverage that we can own.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: You and I, we've talked about this idea of business of impact, something I've never even heard.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, can you break that down?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think first it's really this recognition, right, that there is this broad universe of um entities and they're formed in different ways, right?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Ultimately, when we talk about nonprofit, it's an IRS designation.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm talking about groups that have different kinds of motivations for their uh impact decisions, right?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes, some of the folks that we're talking about.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're looking at this from not just a mission uh perspective, which is what we typically get in the nonprofit sector, but they yes, they start with how am I going to make the case at my business that this has some real economic value?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it starts with a recognition that there are different motivations for being part of this business of impact.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And and there's some real tangible shifts, you know.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: So a few of them, and actually I have an article we'll be publishing around the same time the podcast comes out that gets into this a little bit more.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, we're talking about things like shifts from what we typically talk about in the nonprofit arena from outputs and outcomes to this notion of collective impact, you know, recognizing that sustained, meaningful, long-term change requires diverse partners around shared goals and shared accountability.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like that we can't do that alone.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that's uh referenced as you know, collective impact.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: There's also this um shift from top down, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like that the that the people at the head of a company or even the head of a nonprofit is making the decisions on what programs are priorities and what we should do to more of what I think of as a place-based strategy, which is more of a ground-up approach to strengthening local communities, revitalizing regional economies, and creating shared prosperity.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: So, but I think the notion of while it is a specific methodology to focus on revitalizing a geographical area, it speaks to this like shift in power that a lot of the answers are closer to the problems in the communities that we're serving.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: It also sort of shifts our mindset from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think even in the name nonprofit sector, right, sometimes not for profit leans into what we're not and doesn't really speak about what it is that we do and what we offer.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: And if you do think of an impact sector beyond nonprofit, beyond any one sector or industry, you see that there is a broader, more abundant world.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: And the last I would say is it sort of shifts from just fundraising, which is critical, to kind of broader terms around social and community investing, which blend philanthropy and financial capital, entrepreneurship.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so brings more resources to the table and kind of mixes them.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I'm going to give a couple of examples before we move on, um, you know, to create value, unlock new resources, and develop new solutions.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: So those are some of the shifts.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it's this um acknowledgement that there's a much broader world of impact and that they come at it from different motivations.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And this just kind of goes back and closes the loop.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is really a reckoning of all these old rules.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's a reimagining of those um mindsets.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: And but with that, Bruce, you and I talked about part of it too, is being okay with the messy and it for nonprofits to be able to move forward, it requires a level of experimentation.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if you've kind of followed us to this point, it's like, okay, I see that maybe happening out in the world.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: I see different people coming to the table and interested in what we do or could be interested.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so how do I leverage that, take advantage of it?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say, first of all, it it I got to be really clear.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't start with fundraising.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's gonna be really hard for a lot of our listeners.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it really has to start with genuine engagement and conversation.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, typically we sort of have our priority set, we have what we need to raise money for, and then we go out into the world and say, you know, will you support these pre-packaged priorities?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, yeah, a lot of our tried and true will, but if you are looking to go beyond that tried and true, you know, you're really gonna have to start more with where the people that you're talking to are at.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I think it's more about, you know, here's the problems that we're trying to solve.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Here's why you should care about these problems for whatever reason.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, here's what's working, frankly.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Here's where we're having a little challenge, you know, really being authentic about um acknowledging that we're open to doing things differently.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: That really signals to people like, oh, you want me as uh like co-creator, as a partner, and maybe not just as a donor, where my expectation and there's this role, sort of this old role of like, I'm passively going to give you money to do the things that you want to do, where we're talking about like you're really trying to wrestle with some challenges and you need new partners.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: And so, how can we collaborate?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: What's in it for me, and how can we come together?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you start with that kind of framing, um, and you know, this really requires talking to people outside your organization.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to acknowledge that a lot of times, you know, it can be hard in the organizations themselves, like the CEOs and the board members, I think in particular.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: I sit on a couple of boards, and you know, I think because of our governing role, there's this like baked-in risk aversion.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we we are often uh you know skeptical about things that we don't we don't know of and what hasn't been done before.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we have to go outside our organization, you know, get some of this input.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it moves to, you know, where you're talking about of like, okay, you know, what are people telling us?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: What are we trying to do?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe there's some tweaking of a program that we were going to launch, or maybe there's a need that we could get some early um stakeholders, early partners around to raise some small money.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is that notion of like experimentation, really uh not having to have it all figured out.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, having it all figured out is probably a detriment because that sort of cuts the learning and cuts the potential innovation.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it really embraces not fully knowing.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: And again, that's a big shift.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: What's sort of like unlearning some things?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, and so there's this whole process of rapid experimentation, pilot testing, um, real small kind of initiatives that bring people together, kind of you know, identify and address a very specific kind of issue, um, test it, and then, you know, learn from it and see if it could go to something larger and larger scale.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I mean by um, you know, rapid experimentation.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Bruce.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I would love to hear an example.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about business of impact.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Can you bring some of your lived experience?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Our listeners would love to hear more.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: So there was one very recent that I was a part of um as a consultant and as actually uh part of their team.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: But what I think is important for people to understand is this was a nonprofit organization, a professional association.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: And their biggest asset, and this is part of what we we figure out here, is their value.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: And their value as a professional association was convening stakeholders from different parts of the industry.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: They were in the engineering and STEM space, and they brought together connections to university partners and industry corporations and other STEM associations.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: So they use that kind of asset, I call it, that value that they add to bring people together in this exercise to understand what are the critical issues our industry, our profession is facing, and what should we be doing to be on the you know the front lines of of the future challenges and opportunities.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so we took the information that we heard from all these different stakeholders and we put them into uh what we ended up calling five transformative priorities.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: They were the kind of things that, you know, there was broad agreement on what the profession and the industry really were all saying and doing, but in different ways.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so we picked one of them, which was about the safety and ethical responsibility of the sector.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so we started with one initiative, and it was this thing called undergraduate process safety learning initiative.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it was this credentialing for students that were graduating with an engineering degree but didn't have practice in the field.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so we provided practice, we um engaged professors in going to actual plants where the manufacturing was happening, really brought people together, kind of got them out of their comfort zones, and we raised money around this undergraduate process safety learning initiative, this credentialing program.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then once that was successful, that's testing that initial pilot.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: We learned a lot of things.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't make it really big.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: But once we learned about what worked, once we had some success, we kind of moved into what ultimately became the doing a world of good campaign, which over the years has become a$60 million multi-sector collective impact initiative to uh put the engineering and STEM fields at the forefront of our society.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: You were talking about like there was agreement.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: You you know, you all convene and there was agreement, but I imagine that part wasn't easy to get to that point.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or was it?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't easy, but I think the fact that we were uh really going in with some genuine um questions.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: We knew some things, right?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is not about starting from scratch.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: We knew what organizations and companies were doing.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so we had a starting place, but we really did go in with a genuine intention of listening.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: And they told us.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot more agreement, I think, than we think there is, even though people are doing it in different ways, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like the universities sometimes didn't think of the manufacturing companies, Dow Chemical and and ExxonMobil, as partners because they're, you know, these big corporate entities.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: But once we got it down to they really care about safety and responsible practice as much as the universities that are teaching it, that created that kind of shared.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Understanding and agreement that allowed us to all come together towards these bigger priorities.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: But in the first place, it's like just having that to get to shared power, you really need to have that mindset shift of who you invite to the table.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's a typical mindset about these corporate entities, but something had shifted from the very get-go to even invite those types of players to the conversation.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I would just say this is what I say about that experience, because this engineering society around chemical manufacturing is not who you typically think of on the front lines of social change.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I would just say that impact often comes from really unexpected places.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: One thing we do, Bruce, is we try to give our listeners something that they can take away and put into practice.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've talked about the business of impact idea.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: You even given what that looks like in practice, but can you dial that down?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: If listeners were to start somewhere and put something into practice this week, what does that look like?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, there is a process of experimentation.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: And interestingly enough, um, I'm putting together an accelerator, and it really outlines the steps that uh you take, kind of a pathway for this rapid experimentation and learning that I'm talking about.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a one-pager that will talk about like the steps of this rapid acceleration and how you can do it, you may already be doing it and not know it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: So this will kind of walk you through that a little bit.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm also launching uh this accelerator that is an established program for walking individuals and organizations through this experimentation and learning and initial fundraising process.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, there's ways that they could even become part of the testing of this new program by sharing, connecting with me on LinkedIn or reaching out via email.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: And listeners, just to reiterate and reinforce what Bruce said, we're gonna drop his LinkedIn in the show notes and you can find him there and connect with him directly.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Bruce, thanks.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: We finally did it, right?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're all the way over on the East Coast.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in the what, the north, upper west part of the United States, and we made space.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining me today.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, listeners, if there's one thing that kind of stuck with me personally, and I don't know about you, I love to hear your thoughts.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's that no one's gonna come to save us, right?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's we're not gonna get the perfect moment.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Partnerships are actually not gonna move the needle if we don't do that work, if we don't try something new.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna feel weird, it's gonna be messy, but we got to just take that first step.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being part of the nonprofit podcast community.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Your work matters, and we are honored to support it.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: If you've enjoyed this episode, share it, leave a review, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, take that first step and stay inspired.
• 25:09
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• 25:14
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• 25:23
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