The Brave and Balanced Fundraiser

Erin McQuade-Wright
  • 5.0 (7)
  • NON-PROFIT

The Brave and Balanced Fundraiser is the podcast I wish had existed during my 15 years in fundraising. It’s a love offering to the people behind the mission—the professional fundraisers who give their hearts and energy every day to make the world better. This show isn’t about strategy, metrics, or money. It’s about you—the human being doing the work. Each episode offers real tools and soulful conversations to help you regulate your nervous system, reconnect with your purpose, and renew your energy so you can lead with clarity, compassion, and courage. If you’ve ever felt stretched thin, overworked, or caught in the constant pressure to perform, this podcast is your invitation to return home to yourself. Join me to learn how to cultivate balance, resilience, and authentic impact—from the inside out. Full Episode Transcript: https://share.descript.com/view/fkFZpmNYF3v

  1. 1D AGO

    Fundraising Resilience: What Are You Making It Mean?

    How donor “no’s,” board scrutiny, and grant rejections shape your nervous system—and how to build real resilience from the inside out. Fundraising is a profession built on exposure to rejection. Donors decline. Boards stress-test your plans. Grants fall through. Finance departments stay cautious. None of this is unusual—but what you make it mean about you can quietly erode your confidence over time. In this episode of The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, Erin explores the hidden nervous system impact of repeated “failures to be perfect” and why resilience in fundraising isn’t about grit—it’s about recovery. You’ll learn: Why personalization is the biggest threat to fundraising resilienceThe cumulative nervous system effect of repeated rejectionHow to tell if you’re becoming more resilient—or more reactiveWhy resilience cannot be outsourced to donor behaviorProven, research-backed tools to build internal steadinessThis episode includes practical reframing questions, a 90-second emotional processing tool, and simple nervous system resets you can use immediately after setbacks. Journal Prompt: What am I making this mean about me? If you want support strengthening your resilience and leading from clarity instead of bracing, you’re invited to explore working with Erin. You’ll find the link in the show notes. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    28 min

  2. MAR 17

    Reactive Boss, Constant Pivoting: How Fundraisers Handle Workplace Whiplash Without Burning Out

    How to stop managing everyone else’s anxiety and protect your clarity, confidence, and fundraising results. If your workplace feels like emotional whiplash—full speed ahead on a campaign one day, questioning the entire strategy the next—you’re not imagining it. Reactive leadership creates instability, and fundraisers often end up absorbing the emotional fallout. Here’s the hard truth: you cannot regulate another adult. Not your boss. Not your board chair. Not your colleague. (If that’s hard to swallow, Erin references The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins*.) What you can regulate is yourself. In this solo episode, Erin breaks down how nervous system dysregulation shows up as constant pivoting, second-guessing, and emotional contagion in fundraising workplaces—and how to stop unconsciously managing everyone else’s anxiety as part of your job description. You’ll learn how to: Recognize when workplace chaos is a nervous system issue, not a strategy issueStop personalizing reactive leadershipIdentify what overwhelm feels like in your body before it hijacks your decision-makingWelcome difficult emotions instead of suppressing them (and why neuroscience supports this)Protect your clarity, confidence, and fundraising effectiveness—even when leadership feels unstableErin also shares a simple regulation ritual you can try immediately—including a medicinal-strength lavender and chamomile tea practice—to help you discharge stress and return to steadiness. Because steady fundraisers raise more money.  Clear-headed leaders make better decisions.  And burnout is not a prerequisite for impact. Journal Prompt: What am I trying really hard not to feel? If you want support applying this in real time—whether you’re navigating a reactive boss or noticing your own leadership insecurity—Erin offers coaching designed specifically for fundraisers working in high-pressure environments. You’ll find the link to connect below. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    19 min

  3. MAR 10

    Fundraising From Abundance with Beth Ann Locke

    Practical major gift strategies to reduce fundraising anxiety, build trust, and stop operating from pressure—with insights from a 30-year fundraising veteran. Major gifts aren’t just strategy—they’re state. In this episode of The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, Erin is joined by major gift specialist Beth Ann Locke, a 30-year fundraising veteran who teaches connection-based, customized strategies that grow major gifts without turning fundraisers into exhausted social butterflies or transactional “donor-chasers.” Together, they explore what happens inside a fundraiser’s nervous system when money pressure is high, confidence is battered, or the workplace rewards hustle over relationship. Beth Ann offers practical ways to build donor conversations around trust, curiosity, and alignment—plus simple operational shifts that create more capacity (like deep-work boundaries and post-meeting decompression time). They also discuss Beth Ann’s role in catalyzing the early sexual harassment survey that helped prompt AFP’s broader research—bringing visibility to a workplace reality too many fundraisers have been forced to carry alone. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why “everyone is a prospect” is a fast track to burnout—and what to do insteadA powerful reframe for donor silence (and how to stop personalizing it)What “non-extractive” donor engagement actually sounds likePractical ways to protect deep work and reduce internal interruption overloadWhy naming harassment and bullying in fundraising workplaces changes the cultureConnect with Beth Ann Locke: Instagram: @thefundraisercoachLinkedIn: Beth Ann LockeBlog: Follow her writing for major gifts + fundraising leadership insights at https://www.thefundraisercoach.com/If this episode helped you, share it with a fundraiser friend who’s been carrying too much pressure—and leave a review so more fundraisers can find the support they deserve. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    1h 3m

  4. MAR 3

    Is Your Fundraising Working, or Just Wearing You Out?

    How to Measure Fundraising Success Beyond Dollars Raised What does it really mean for fundraising to be “working”? Most fundraisers are trained to answer that question by looking at external metrics: dollars raised, donor retention, number of asks, meetings held, emails sent. And while those numbers matter, they don’t tell the whole story. In this episode of The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, Erin McQuade-Wright invites you to look at fundraising success through a wider lens—one that includes not just outcomes, but internal cost. How are you sleeping? Are you able to rest when you’re off work? What’s happening in your nervous system as you move through donor conversations, deadlines, and expectations? You’ll explore the difference between external metrics and internal metrics, how chronic stress and anxiety affect fundraising performance, and why a regulated nervous system is not a “nice to have,” but a professional asset. This episode is for fundraisers who are technically successful—and quietly exhausted—and who suspect there might be a more sustainable way to do this work. If you’ve ever wondered whether your fundraising is working… or just wearing you out, this conversation is for you. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    17 min

  5. FEB 26 ·  BONUS

    A Guided Meditation to Release Fundraising Anxiety

    A calming, somatic reset to help you regulate, soften, and return to yourself. This gentle guided meditation is your nervous-system reset—a place to soften the pressure, reconnect with yourself, and release the anxious momentum that fundraising can create. In this bonus episode, Erin leads you through a grounding practice designed to help you separate who you are from the sensations of anxiety moving through your body. You’ll tune into love, safety, breath, and presence… and remember that anxiety is not a personal failing, but a messenger asking for compassion and attention. This meditation will help you: Slow down an activated nervous systemMeet anxious sensations with warmth instead of fearReconnect with someone or something you loveCreate internal spaciousness when your thoughts feel tightReturn to a grounded sense of “I am not my anxiety”Use this anytime you feel overwhelmed, tense, or disconnected from yourself. Your inner world is yours to lead—and every time you pause to reset, you’re building the resilience that supports you, your donors, and your mission. Send Erin a text ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    9 min

  6. FEB 24

    Before You Quit Your Fundraising Job: Power, Control, and Choice

    A guided inquiry for nonprofit fundraisers navigating burnout, job stress, and career decisions. The average fundraiser stays in their role for just 16 to 24 months — a statistic that points to burnout, pressure, and chronic stress in nonprofit fundraising jobs. If you’ve ever thought: I can’t do this anymoreMy boss expects too much of meThe board doesn’t understand fundraisingThis episode is for you. In this guided episode, Erin leads nonprofit fundraisers through a gentle inquiry process adapted from Byron Katie’s The Work (https://thework.com/), designed to help you slow down, question stressful beliefs, and reconnect with your own power before making a major career decision. Rather than asking “Should I quit my fundraising job?”, this episode explores: Where you may be outsourcing your power at workWhat’s truly within your control — and what isn’tThe difference between quitting from clarity vs. quitting from emotional urgencyThis is not about convincing you to stay or go.  It’s about making an empowered, informed decision rooted in agency instead of burnout or scarcity thinking. You may want to listen once to absorb…  and again with a journal to work the inquiry more deeply. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    30 min

  7. FEB 17

    Scarcity vs. Abundance in Fundraising: How Your Nervous System Impacts Donor Giving

    Why the “Come-From” Energy of Fundraising Shapes Donor Relationships, Confidence, and Results Fundraising isn’t just about strategy — it’s about the state you’re in when you ask. In this episode, Erin explores how scarcity and abundance live in the body, not just the mind, and why your nervous system plays a bigger role in donor relationships than most nonprofit training ever acknowledges. You’ll hear how early experiences with “no” can quietly wire scarcity patterns that follow us into adulthood… and into fundraising. Erin also shares a real-world example from her own career, where an organizational culture of fear and over-politeness led to fewer donor connections, less risk-taking, and missed opportunities. Most importantly, this episode offers practical, immediately usable tools to help you regulate your nervous system before donor conversations — so you can show up calm, confident, and connected, regardless of the outcome of the ask. In this episode, you’ll learn: What “come-from energy” means in fundraising — and why donors feel itHow scarcity patterns form early and quietly shape fundraising behaviorWhy anxious or over-careful fundraising cultures push donors awayThe role of the nervous system in donor conversations and decision-makingA simple 30-day scarcity-pattern journaling practiceHow to soften the body before an ask to access a sense of abundanceWhy your worth is never tied to the dollars you raiseResources & Practices Mentioned: Scarcity patterning journal (60 seconds a night for 30 days)Pre-donor-meeting nervous system regulation (breath + body awareness)Abundance awareness practice using the natural environment💬 Join the conversation You’re invited to share your experience and reflections inside the Brave and Balanced Fundraiser Facebook group — a supportive space for fundraisers who want to do this work without judgment and with a lot of heart. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    13 min

  8. FEB 10

    Money, the Nervous System, and the Fundraiser’s Body with Claire Messett

    How Money Psychology Shapes Fundraising Conversations, and What You Can Do About It Episode Summary Money is part of a fundraiser’s daily work—but few fundraisers are ever taught how money impacts the nervous system. In this episode of The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser, Erin McQuade-Wright is joined by money psychology coach Claire Messett for a grounded, insightful conversation about what really happens in the body during fundraising conversations. Drawing from her background in neuropsychotherapy, Claire explains how early experiences with money shape our sense of safety, worthiness, and power—often long before we’re consciously aware of it. Together, Erin and Claire explore how scarcity thinking, nervous system dysregulation, and identity patterns can quietly hijack donor conversations, and how fundraisers can return to presence, agency, and calm. This episode is especially relevant if you: Feel anxiety before donor meetings or major asksStruggle with worthiness when asking for large giftsNotice a gap between “knowing better” and feeling regulatedWant to ask from a place of abundance rather than scarcityIn this episode, you’ll learn: Why money activates the nervous system—even when it’s not your moneyHow the brain stores early money experiences and replays them laterThe difference between asking from contraction vs. inviting from expansionSimple grounding practices to use before high-stakes donor conversationsWhy fundraising is a relationship skill—not a personal worth testResources & Links Learn more about Claire Messett: http://www.clairemessett.com About the Podcast The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser is the podcast for professional fundraisers who want to regulate their internal climate so they can show up with courage, clarity, and sustainability—without burning out or abandoning themselves in the process. Send Erin a text Book your 1:1 Brave and Balanced Breakthrough Coaching Session here: https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough ✨ Stay Connected & Continue Your Fundraising Growth Listen to all episodes + subscribe: https://thebraveandbalancedfundraiser.buzzsprout.com Join the community: The Brave & Balanced Fundraiser Facebook Group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/braveandbalancedfundraiser Book a Brave & Balanced Breakthrough Call: A personalized 1:1 session to support your inner clarity and fundraising wellbeing. 👉 https://calendly.com/vitalistcoaching/brave-balanced-breakthrough Learn more about Erin’s coaching & nervous-system based support: VitalistCoaching.com Connect on Instagram: @erinmcquadewright

    54 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

The Brave and Balanced Fundraiser is the podcast I wish had existed during my 15 years in fundraising. It’s a love offering to the people behind the mission—the professional fundraisers who give their hearts and energy every day to make the world better. This show isn’t about strategy, metrics, or money. It’s about you—the human being doing the work. Each episode offers real tools and soulful conversations to help you regulate your nervous system, reconnect with your purpose, and renew your energy so you can lead with clarity, compassion, and courage. If you’ve ever felt stretched thin, overworked, or caught in the constant pressure to perform, this podcast is your invitation to return home to yourself. Join me to learn how to cultivate balance, resilience, and authentic impact—from the inside out. Full Episode Transcript: https://share.descript.com/view/fkFZpmNYF3v

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