The Charity Charge Show - Nonprofit Podcast

Charity Charge
  • 4.9 (46)
  • Non-Profit
  • Weekly

The Charity Charge Show features candid conversations with nonprofit executives, founders, and social impact leaders about what it actually takes to run a mission-driven organization: funding, operations, leadership, and the lessons nobody puts in the annual report. The show is hosted by Stephen Garten, founder and CEO of Charity Charge, a Public Benefit Corporation founded in 2015 in Austin, Texas. Charity Charge provides financial tools built exclusively for nonprofits, including a credit card underwritten to the organization's EIN with no personal guarantee and no annual fee. More than 3,000 nonprofits have used Charity Charge to manage their spending. Learn more at www.charitycharge.com

  1. 6d ago

    Building Detroit's Next Workforce, and the Revenue to Fund It - Urban Alliance Detroit

    Urban Alliance Detroit lost federal funding and kept growing. Executive Director Alphonso Amos explains how: renting idle training space for unrestricted revenue, exploring licensing for a nationally recognized curriculum, and building employer partnerships where companies fund the interns they host. He also shares the personal story behind his work and why he hires for values over skill set. In this episode: How Urban Alliance grew from six students at Anacostia High School in 1996The earn-and-learn model that pays young people to trainWhy employers fund interns, and what they get backTurning existing assets into unrestricted revenuePreparing young people for the skilled trades gapHiring for value alignment over skill setGuest: Alphonso Amos is Executive Director of Urban Alliance Detroit, a youth workforce development nonprofit serving young people ages 16 to 24. Follow the Charity Charge Show wherever you listen. --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    Building Detroit's Next Workforce, and the Revenue to Fund It - Urban Alliance Detroit

  2. Oct 20

    How Friends of the Children Builds a 12-Year Promise Through Mentorship

    How do you make a 12-year promise to a kindergartner and keep it? Jorie Das, Executive Director of Friends of the Children Los Angeles, joins Stephen Garten to explain how her chapter grew from under $4 million to a $9.2 million organization by treating collaboration and financial health as part of the mission. She shares how to partner with other nonprofits without competing for donors, and the personal story behind her work. In this episode: How professional, paid mentoring works over 12+ yearsUsing child welfare data to decide where to expandBraided public and private funding, and what public dollars don't coverHow to collaborate with 60+ agencies without competing for donorsThe hub-and-spoke model that keeps overhead lowMaking the ROI case to funders without reducing a child to a dollar figureGuest: Jorie Das is Executive Director of Friends of the Children Los Angeles, a professional mentoring organization serving 300+ children across Los Angeles County. --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    How Friends of the Children Builds a 12-Year Promise Through Mentorship

  3. Oct 13

    Camp Financial Assistance: How YMCA Camp Cullen Funds Access

    The only reason YMCA Camp Cullen turned families away this summer: no beds left. Executive Director Bobby Thomas on funding camp for every kid, Texas's new camp safety laws, and leading without blame. Bobby Thomas leads YMCA Camp Cullen, the 530-acre overnight camp and conference center of the YMCA of Greater Houston. He and host Stephen Garten cover how the camp raises about $750,000 a year in financial assistance, what it takes to maintain 48 buildings serving about 18,000 people a year, how a Safe Summers Fund grant helped the camp meet Texas's new safety laws, and why one week without screens matters more than ever. Chapters:0:00 Intro: Bobby Thomas and YMCA Camp Cullen0:44 What Camp Cullen is: summer camp, outdoor education, retreats4:08 Saying yes to every camper: $750K in financial assistance6:29 Horses, the lake, the quarry, and what brings kids back10:09 From scholarship camper to executive director12:24 The year-round ED job: facilities, risk, and grants14:30 Texas camp safety laws and the all-camp PA system16:42 International camp partnerships and the Mid-America Camping Conference20:04 Collaboration over competition24:11 Screen addiction, digital detox, and AI27:19 Phones at camp and keeping parents connected28:48 Leadership: walking alongside your team32:14 The Power of Moments33:56 How to support YMCA Camp Cullen --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    Camp Financial Assistance: How YMCA Camp Cullen Funds Access

  4. Oct 6

    Innovate or Die: How HumanGood Rethinks Aging, Partnerships, and Revenue

    What happens when a century-old nonprofit decides it has to disrupt itself? John Cochrane, President and CEO of HumanGood, joins Stephen Garten to explain how his senior living organization became a research partner, a startup advisor, and a venture fund investor. It started with one realization: HumanGood was giving away something valuable for free.In this episode: Why senior living is shifting from care and custody to lifestyleHealthspan vs. lifespan, and HumanGood's mission of more good years for more peopleWhy a nonprofit invested in a venture fund backing aging-tech startupsHow the Buck Institute partnership moves research from lab to lifeInnovate or die: why success can anchor organizations to the pastFrom lawyer to CEO, and why you should bring your passion instead of searching for itGuest: John Cochrane is President and CEO of HumanGood, which operates life plan and affordable housing communities for older adults across nine states. --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    Innovate or Die: How HumanGood Rethinks Aging, Partnerships, and Revenue

  5. Sep 29

    Building Nonprofits That Survive Funding Shocks: Christina Sass, President & CEO, International Youth Foundation (IYF)

    Most nonprofits are one lost funder away from a crisis. Christina Sass, President and CEO of the International Youth Foundation, joins the Charity Charge Show to talk about how her 36-year-old organization absorbed steep USAID funding cuts without losing its core programs, and what she learned building Andela, a venture-backed tech talent company, before moving into nonprofit leadership. In this episode: Why diversified funding matters more than the size of your mission What a "small but mighty" endowment actually buys a nonprofit in a crisisHow IYF pitches corporate partners on solving a hiring problem, not a charity askBuilding an internal AI chatbot to scale labor market data instead of headcountMeasuring nonprofit impact through employment outcomes, not certificatesLessons from Christina's father's career and what it taught her about opportunity --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    Building Nonprofits That Survive Funding Shocks: Christina Sass, President & CEO, International Youth Foundation (IYF)

  6. Sep 22

    The Nonprofit Lesson Nobody Teaches: David Harris, President and CEO of Christel House International

    David Harris has spent 25 years building organizations around one goal: moving kids out of extreme poverty for life. As President and CEO of Christel House International, he leads a school network that stays with students for up to 18 years, from pre-K through their first job. In this conversation, David shares the origin story of Christel House, why the years right after high school graduation matter more than most nonprofits realize, and the single biggest lesson he's learned about working with funders: treat them as partners, not prospects. In this episode: The origin story behind Christel House International Why the no-fee school model produces stronger outcomes How Christel House supports graduates for years after they leave school The story behind founding The Mind Trust in Indianapolis Why David treats every funder relationship as a partnership What he tells new nonprofit founders about taking risks David Harris is President and CEO of Christel House International, a global nonprofit operating no-fee schools across five countries. He previously founded The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that reshaped the city's charter school landscape. --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    The Nonprofit Lesson Nobody Teaches: David Harris, President and CEO of Christel House International

  7. Sep 15

    Project Sanctuary, Why Collaboration Beats Competition in the Nonprofit World

    Most nonprofits are taught to think of every other organization in their space as competition for the same limited pool of donors. Heather Ray, founder and CEO of Project Sanctuary, and her colleague Catherine Ganley say that mindset is exactly backwards, and it may be one reason so many organizations struggle to grow past their first few years. On a recent episode of the Charity Charge Show, they explained how a collaboration-first approach, paired with a genuinely specific niche, has kept Project Sanctuary operating for close to 20 years. Project Sanctuary provides therapeutic retreats and up to two years of follow-on support for military, veteran, and first responder families, treating the whole family unit rather than just the service member. Ray started the organization after recognizing that veterans returning home were getting help while their families were not, leaving a gap that no other organization at the time was filling. --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    Project Sanctuary, Why Collaboration Beats Competition in the Nonprofit World

  8. Sep 8

    HawkWatch International, 40 Years of Raptor Data, Diversified Revenue, and Donor Loyalty

    Most nonprofits that fold don't fail because the mission stopped mattering. They fail because 80% of the budget sat on top of one grant, one donor, or one contract, and that one thing disappeared. HawkWatch International has avoided that trap for 40 years, and CEO Nikki Wayment says the fix is not complicated: stop putting all your eggs in one basket, and start treating every donor relationship like it's worth building for a decade, not a campaign. HawkWatch is a Utah-based raptor conservation nonprofit built on migration research. It has weathered four decades of funding cycles, a pandemic, and the kind of donor fatigue that hits every cause-based organization eventually. On a recent episode of the Charity Charge Show, Wayment walked through exactly how the organization has stayed financially sound long enough to reach its 40th anniversary, and the lessons apply well beyond conservation work. Quick Summary HawkWatch International has operated for 40 years by continually adding new, uncorrelated revenue sources instead of depending on one.Personal donor stewardship (handwritten notes, thank you calls with no ask attached) converted a $50 a year donor into a $250,000 estate gift.Only about 5% of most people's net worth sits in cash, which means nonprofits that only ask for checks are missing the other 95% of what donors could give.A 16 acre property gift and a corporate card built for nonprofit cash flow both show up in the episode as the kind of unplanned, unconventional support that keeps a mission-driven organization solvent. --------------------------- About Charity ChargeCharity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

    HawkWatch International, 40 Years of Raptor Data, Diversified Revenue, and Donor Loyalty
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About

The Charity Charge Show features candid conversations with nonprofit executives, founders, and social impact leaders about what it actually takes to run a mission-driven organization: funding, operations, leadership, and the lessons nobody puts in the annual report. The show is hosted by Stephen Garten, founder and CEO of Charity Charge, a Public Benefit Corporation founded in 2015 in Austin, Texas. Charity Charge provides financial tools built exclusively for nonprofits, including a credit card underwritten to the organization's EIN with no personal guarantee and no annual fee. More than 3,000 nonprofits have used Charity Charge to manage their spending. Learn more at www.charitycharge.com

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