Our second episode with Erin Straza turns to the practical mechanics of donor management—highlighting the importance of clean CRM data, consistent tagging, and documenting every donor interaction to track passion, advocacy, and giving habits over time. She rejects binder-thick academic segmentation models in favor of practical, usable systems that a nonprofit staff can realistically maintain.

Key takeaways include:

• You cannot engage donors well without a functioning CRM

• Passion is measured through behavior (attendance, volunteering, giving consistency, social engagement), not surveys

• High-end donors require highly personalized, strategic touchpoints throughout their annual cycle

• Maintaining clean data today prevents massive organizational pain later.

e welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

In this conversation, Community Cats Podcast host Stacy LeBaron unpacks her decades of nonprofit leadership, using the lens of animal welfare to illustrate how organizations evolve from scrappy, all-hands-on-deck startups into strategically focused, governance-driven institutions. Drawing on her experience mentoring 80+ organizations and running a successful feline rescue nonprofit, Stacy explains the realities of cat overpopulation, the challenge of transitioning boards from operational to governance roles, the complications of hiring an executive director, and the tensions that arise when long-time board members struggle to relinquish hands-on duties. She highlights the importance of clear communication, strong leadership structures, and succession planning as nonprofits mature, and underscores how internal dynamics, not funding alone, ultimately determine organizational stability.

Key Takeaways

• The Community Cats Podcast focuses on turning passion for cats into community action, with an emphasis on reducing cat overpopulation and improving access to affordable spay/neuter services.

• Stacy created the Catmobile, a mobile spay/neuter clinic, as a scalable solution that transformed Massachusetts’ cat population management.

• An “adolescent nonprofit” is one shifting from reactive habits to strategic planning, typically when boards begin moving from operational involvement toward governance.

• Operational boards often mix volunteer duties with oversight, creating confusion—especially when staff are hired for roles board members still want to perform.

• Transitioning to a true governance board requires clarity, transparency, and sometimes a dramatic reshaping of board membership; Stacy’s board shrank from 22 to 11 in one day.

• Healthy board–executive director relationships depend on communication structures that prevent bottlenecks while preserving accountability.

• Hiring a first executive director often raises questions about financial sustainability and fundraising responsibilities; expectations must be explicitly discussed during recruitment.

• It can take three to five years for a new executive director to fully hit stride and begin delivering significant programmatic and fundraising growth.

• Mature boards come in different forms—some are ED-led, some are institutionalized—but all require succession planning to prevent stagnation or collapse.

• Organizational maturity is defined less by funding levels and more by leadership stability, role clarity, and the ability to function smoothly despite staff or board turnover.

e welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

Erin Straza explains the difference between basic fundraising tactics and a true donor-engagement strategy, emphasizing that nonprofits often exhaust themselves with endless low-ROI tasks—especially social media—without first defining their “why” or mapping donor journeys. She stresses that strategic messaging, clarity of purpose, and relationship-building yield far stronger returns than disconnected tactical scrambles. Key takeaways include:

• Shift staff time away from low-impact busywork, build a donor-journey framework that can be used year after year

• Focus on personalized communication especially for high-capacity and high-passion donors

• Use strategy to reduce burnout and turnover by creating clarity and coherence in development work.

e welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

In this conversation, fractional CFO Stephen Newland joins to break down what financial leadership actually looks like inside a nonprofit—and why it doesn’t need to be complicated. Stephen explains that his core role is acting as a financial translator: turning dense, intimidating financial reports into meaningful insights that help leaders make informed decisions.

He emphasizes the critical role of forecasting, calling it one of the most underused yet most powerful tools available to nonprofits. While budgets are static snapshots, forecasts are “living, breathing documents” that give leaders visibility into the next 6–12 months. Without a forecast, executive directors are making decisions “in the dark,” relying on gut feelings instead of useful financial data.

The conversation also tackles the cultural components of financial leadership—modeling curiosity, encouraging teams and boards to engage with the numbers, and demystifying the jargon-heavy language of finance. When leaders show interest in numbers, the rest of the organization follows.

e welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

Gustavo Zilberberg, CEO of Vitalcy, visits the SnapCast to introduce the company as a web-based platform that helps nonprofits build long-term financial stability by re-engaging and maintaining relationships with their community of supporters, including former members, staff, volunteers, and donors.

Key takeaways:

• Nonprofits Are Leaving Support on the Table Vitalcy’s mission is to help organizations reconnect with the huge pool of former staff, volunteers, donors, and program participants who often fall out of touch simply because teams don’t have the bandwidth to engage them consistently.

• Bandwidth, Not Intent, Is the Problem Gustavo stresses that nonprofits want to steward these relationships, but day-to-day pressures keep them focused on immediate needs. Vitalcy automates the re-engagement process so this important work doesn’t get deprioritized.

• The Sector Has Become Too Transactional Fundraising often centers on asking for money rather than building lasting relationships. Vitalcy flips that model by cultivating community, mission alignment, and long-term loyalty—ultimately driving more predictable, recurring revenue.

• AI-Powered Content Keeps Supporters Connected The platform scrapes publicly available material, digitizes historical content, and uses AI (with nonprofit approval) to generate ongoing stories and updates that make supporters feel seen, remembered, and part of the mission.

• Subscription Pricing with Strong ROI Vitalcy charges a monthly subscription fee scaled to organizational size. One client—a summer camp—tripled its annual donations after using Vitalcy to re-engage its broader alumni community.

• Built for Long-Term Stability, Not Quick Wins Gustavo frames Vitalcy as infrastructure: a way for nonprofits to build durable financial health through consistent stewardship and relationship-building. He invites organizations to reach out and explore what the platform can do for them.

We welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

Daniel Gordani, founder of Global Health Shift, joins Mickey to discuss his nonprofit’s mission to close healthcare gaps by bringing permanent, free primary-care clinics to communities—especially U.S. “healthcare deserts” where 75 million people lack basic access. Unlike temporary relief models, his organization aims to build lasting clinics near universities, staffed by medical and nursing students supervised by licensed physicians. These sites would provide early detection, preventive care, and referrals through partnerships with hospitals and specialists, reducing both community health burdens and hospital system strain. Still in early stages and run entirely by volunteers, Global Health Shift faces major challenges: fundraising for multimillion-dollar clinic builds, navigating state-by-state regulations, and working within (or around) entrenched insurance systems. Gordani outlines an ambitious funding model centered on corporate philanthropy and PR visibility, and he invites collaborators to join the effort at globalhealthshift.org.

e welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

Mickey gets to visit with Amanda ReCupido to talk strategic plans, board and staff buy-in, and impact. Key topics discussed:- The importance of operationalizing a strategic plan, not just creating a document

• Strategies for getting board and staff buy-in and engagement with the strategic plan
• How a strategic planning process can expose issues and identify solutions across an organization (fundraising, communications, programs, etc.)
• Amanda's work with a local library foundation, helping them expand their advocacy role and identity beyond just supporting the library
• Tips for nonprofits, especially volunteer-run organizations, to maximize their impact and resources

e welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.

Mickey reconnects with Gung Wong, CEO and co-founder of Civic Champs, for a look at the state of volunteerism as nonprofits head into 2026. Gung reflects on how volunteer engagement has shifted since Civic Champs launched in 2019 (through pre-pandemic growth, the collapse of in-person volunteering during COVID, and the slow climb back). Some key takeaways:

• Volunteerism has rebounded since COVID, with individual volunteers returning in 2023 and corporate engagement resurging in 2024
• Adoption of volunteer management tech has increased from ~25% in 2019 to ~50% in 2025
• Experienced volunteers boost new volunteer retention by 10%, but COVID caused an exodus of experienced talent
• Civic Champs learned to stay focused on core product development, avoiding distractions from tangential opportunities

The conversation also covers the rise of volunteer management technology, with adoption of platforms and digital tools rising from about 25% in 2019 to roughly 50% today. Gung speaks candidly about Civic Champs’ own lessons, especially the importance of staying focused amid waves of “shiny object” opportunities during COVID.

We welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit SnapCast website. Learn more about Nonprofit Snapshot's consulting services.