In this episode, nonprofit finance expert Gretchen Upholt joins Rusty to introduce Nonprofit GPS, BDO’s free new online toolkit for scenario planning, business model resilience, and short-term coaching. Learn how your organization can navigate revenue risk and make informed financial decisions in 2026, as the impact of the Trump Administration's War on Charity continues to roll across the sector. Itching for more Fund the People Podcast? Join the new Premium version of the show on Patreon! Visit patreon.com/fundthepeople to join. You'll get extended episodes, videos, bonus content, and community conversations. Plus, you'll get Riverside Reflections, an entire new weekly show only available to premium subscribers! Get the inside scoop on Fund the People while getting outside for a walk and an intimate conversation with host Rusty Stahl. Download an edited transcript of this episode. Related Episodes: Funders Confront Reality and Myth of Nonprofit Overhead with Rodney Christopher, BDO MacArthur President Chooses Courage, Not Quiet with John Palfrey, MacArthur Foundation How Many-Year Grants Strengthen Nonprofit Jobs and Impact with Betsy Leondar-Wright, Fund the People Resources Mentioned: Nonprofit GPS website (free tools from BDO and their partners) Strong Nonprofits website Nonprofit Financial Commons website BDO Nonprofit and Education Funding for Real Change, the website that resulted from the Real Change, Real Costs Initiative On our 'PodPage', stream this and all episodes, find links to our show on your favorite podcast player, and more. Resources Mentioned: Nonprofit GPS website (free tools, templates, webinars, coaching from BDO and their partners) Strong Nonprofits website BDO Nonprofit and Education Funding for Real Change, the website that resulted from the Real Change, Real Costs Initiative Guest Bio: As a Managing Director with BDO’s Nonprofit and Grantmaker Advisory practice, Gretchen Upholt leads the team’s Cohort & Initiative programs, where BDO partners with funders to provide large-scale capacity building programs for their grantees. She also serves as a lead for several key product areas including training and finance technology consulting, and as a representative of BDO to nonprofits and funders in the Midwest region. In addition to her leadership in the practice, she splits her time between playing an active role as trainer, coach, and curriculum developer for cohort and other training initiatives and as consultant to nonprofit clients across the country, helping nonprofit leaders improve their financial management skills and processes. An experienced staff and program manager, Gretchen is skilled in training, capacity building, research, and program and volunteer management. Previously, Gretchen served as the head of the Volunteer Department at the Thabyay Education Network in Thailand. In that role, Gretchen developed a strategic plan to improve monitoring and evaluation and program management in her department. She also served on the leadership team for the organization, where she reviewed and approved budgets for the organization’s 22 programs and worked on a plan to restructure the organization’s finance and operations staffing and systems. Gretchen’s widely diverse nonprofit experience includes working on the corporate citizenship team at the TCC Group, designing and implementing a pilot research study on nonprofit talent costs for the Talent Philanthropy Project (now Fund the People), as a project manager with the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, and as Chorus Manager for The Choral Arts Society of Washington. She also served as a Community Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, where she designed project frameworks, wrote grants, and led a committee tasked with making funding decisions for USAID-funded grants.
