In this time of enormous change, your nonprofit is more important than ever — sustaining and lifting up people and causes that need some help and some inspiration. On every episode of How to Market Your Nonprofit, nonprofit leader and marketing agency owner Lee Wochner and his guests dig into the how-tos of building awareness, increasing donations, making use of powerful new tools, tackling challenges, managing for success and other critical needs for nonprofits. Please join us.
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August 21, 202627 min
Do LESS marketing (but GET MORE)
Most nonprofit marketing advice adds to your list. More social posts, more email, more video, more tools, more data. In this episode of How to Market Your Nonprofit, Counterintuity's Lee Wochner argues the opposite: If your marketing results aren't adding up, the fix may be subtraction. Drawing on decades of running nonprofits, serving on boards, and working with hundreds of organizations, Lee walks through eight signs your team is doing too much, and what to do instead. Fewer tools. Fewer metrics. Fewer choices on your website. Fewer asks, made better. Deeper relationships with the donors you already have, instead of an endless chase for new ones. Doing less is not doing nothing. It’s focusing on what your team and your budget can deliver successfully.
July 22, 202650 min
If you collect it, protect it: privacy and cybersecurity for nonprofits
Picture a small arts nonprofit. Somebody calls and wants to give $500 a month. A staffer writes down the card number, drops it into a spreadsheet, and next month a colleague pulls it up and runs the charge again. That's four things that would make Lauren Wu wince. Host Lee Wochner and privacy and compliance attorney Lauren Wu cover what to do instead: where donor data should live, what should never go into an AI chatbot, and the three things any nonprofit can do this week to protect the data it’s entrusted to hold. Lauren's advice is clear and doable, even for organizations that are already stretched thin.
July 2, 202635 min
Stop guessing, start knowing
Most nonprofit leaders assume they know where their donors come from, which marketing channels are working, and what's standing in the way of growth. Some of these assumptions are right. But wrong assumptions can lead you down the wrong path, with your team optimizing the wrong things. This is part two of Lee Wochner's walkthrough of the discovery questionnaire that Counterintuity uses with nonprofit clients. This episode covers current challenges and friction points, marketing infrastructure and data, and how to define what winning actually looks like. One of the most useful questions Lee helps you answer is what single thing is preventing your organization from doubling its impact in the next 12 months? Not growing 10 percent. Doubling. Incremental targets produce incremental answers. Doubling forces you to name the real constraint. If you've ever relaunched a marketing tactic that didn't work the first time, aren't sure which of your channels is actually driving results, or think you might need to remap your donor journey from first contact to first gift, this episode is for you.
June 18, 202639 min
Words that work
Part 1: Who you are and who you're for If a stranger asked why your organization deserves to exist, could you answer in one sentence? No grant-speak. A real answer, one that stops them in their tracks and makes them want to help. Most nonprofit leaders can't effectively answer that question. Not because they don't know their organization, but because they’ve never sat down and put it into words, out loud, in plain language, with no jargon allowed. In this first episode of a two-part series, Lee Wochner walks you through a version of the discovery process that Counterintuity uses before a single word of copy gets written. Eight questions that focus on who your organization actually is and who you're trying to reach. Do this work first, and everything that follows, the website, the campaign, the fundraising appeal, is built on a solid foundation. Skip it, and you end up with marketing that's technically competent and strategically hollow. Grab a notebook. Let's get into it.
June 3, 202652 min
Focus is your superpower. Here’s proof
How one nonprofit leader's absolute focus, discipline, and determination are winning the day despite enormous challenges.Nikki Beasley, executive director of Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services, has spent 10 years turning a dormant organization into a force for housing equity in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this episode, she walks through how RNHS helps first-time homebuyers bust the myths holding them back, why she launched the Emerging Developers Program to build a pipeline of community-based developers of color, and how the "Protect Your Legacy" initiative ensures generational wealth actually transfers to the next generation. Nikki also gets candid about the funding pressures shrinking the DEI and philanthropic landscape, how she models an intentional leadership transition, and what she means by "carrying something is not caring." Practical, honest, and full of lessons any nonprofit leader can use.
May 21, 202632 min
Your best donors don't know you exist (yet)
If your nonprofit's funding isn't growing the way it should, the problem may not be what you think it is. In this episode of How to Market Your Nonprofit, host Lee Wochner makes the case that most fundraising challenges are really marketing challenges in disguise. The organizations that raise the most money have simply reached more of the right people: donors, funders, and advocates who heard about them long before any ask arrived. Lee breaks down why working the same donor list harder produces diminishing returns every year, what it actually takes to reach the right audience, and one question every nonprofit leader should be able to answer but often can't. If your mission is strong and your work is real but the funding isn't keeping up, this episode will show you where to look.
April 27, 202632 min
How AI is changing nonprofit marketing (and what to do about it)
If your website traffic has softened, your email open rates have slipped, or you're wondering whether your Google Ad Grant is still worth it, you're not imagining things. The marketing landscape has fundamentally shifted, and AI is driving most of it. Counterintuity CEO and Creative Strategist Lee Wochner cuts through the noise to explain what's actually happening and what nonprofit leaders can do about it right now. He covers the "zero-click universe" and what it means for search, the honest state of the Google Ad Grant, and five practical tactics you can act on today. Your mission, your community trust, and your real human stories can be competitive advantages in the AI era. Lee walks you through how to use them.
March 31, 202651 min
True to your roots
From a $25,000 grant to a $50 million organization. Twenty years ago, the Coalition for Responsible Community Development started with a single city contract for graffiti removal in South LA. Today, it's one of the city’s most respected nonprofits, with workforce development, housing, social enterprise, and real estate development all operating under one roof. That kind of growth doesn't happen without smart, community-rooted marketing. In this episode, Lee speaks with CRCD's director of marketing and communications, Alex Medina, about the strategy behind it all: how to reach audiences that have little in common with each other, how to build the kind of institutional trust that unlocks major funding, and how to keep your messaging honest and bold when the world might be telling you to play it safe. If you're ready to think differently about how you connect with your community, your funders, and the people you serve, this is where you start.
March 12, 202656 min
You have five minutes
When the phone rings at 3 a.m., the story is out, and a narrative is forming. What you do in the next five minutes may be the most important thing you ever do for your organization. PR veteran Mike Swenson, who spent more than 30 years advising nonprofits and corporations through crises, says the organizations that come out stronger are almost always the ones that were ready before anything started. Most organizations make the same mistake: They react instead of responding. In the age of social media, the difference can be fatal to your reputation. Here's what prepared organizations do differently: Before any crisis arrives, they identify a crisis team drawn from across the organization, map every plausible risk, establish the first seven steps they'll take, build three to five key messages for each potential scenario, and designate a spokesperson. When the phone rings, there's no scrambling. The team is already assembling, the first message is already drafted, and the organization is on offense within minutes rather than hours. Nonprofits have a real advantage in a crisis that most executives underestimate: goodwill. Years of community trust, a board of engaged civic leaders, corporate partners, and loyal volunteers are assets that can actively carry an organization through a difficult moment, if leadership knows how to activate them. (There's a sharper edge to this: The same mission-driven identity that makes a nonprofit scandal feel like a bigger betrayal is also what gets you forgiven faster, if you handle it right.) Mike also makes the case for measured response over reflexive action. When a named person or associated organization gets caught up in a public controversy, pausing before acting (gathering information before making a final call) is almost always better than a quick decision you can't walk back. The fundamentals of good crisis communication haven't changed: Be authentic, be succinct, and repeat your message more times than feels comfortable. What has changed is the speed at which you have to do all of it. And whether you're navigating a crisis or just trying to communicate more effectively every day, those three principles are a good place to start. Mike brings a perspective few crisis advisors have. He spent years as a broadcast journalist and television reporter before serving as press secretary to a governor, which means he has sat on every side of the table. He knows how reporters think, how politicians survive, and how organizations fall apart when they aren't prepared. The media environment makes all of this harder than it used to be. Newsrooms are a fraction of what they were, reporters are stretched across multiple states, and the old news cycle (morning paper, evening broadcast) is gone. The story moves whether you're ready or not. The good news is that getting ready doesn't have to be complicated. Mike Swenson developed a simple five-step process called Crisis Track, and in this episode, he walks former newspaper editor and reporter Lee Wochner through how it works and where you can go to put it into practice for your own organization. Any nonprofit, regardless of size or budget, can build a plan. So if the phone rings at 3 a.m., you're already on offense. Links https://crisistrak.com/
February 25, 202648 min
Money for mission: how marketing fuels nonprofit sustainability
On this episode, host Lee Wochner talks with Lori Carmona, CEO of YWCA Greater Los Angeles, about what it takes to lead effectively when everything around you is shifting. With over 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience, Lori brings hard-won wisdom about strategic focus, sustainable revenue, and why great missions need great marketing. Strategic planning is your North Star When Lori stepped into leadership at YWCA, she launched a strategic planning process with her board, staff, clients, and community. The result? A five-year plan with 10 clear goals serving as their North Star, providing direction while staying flexible on tactics. Money for mission "You have to have a good mission to fundraise. But then it takes fundraising to implement your mission," Lori explains. Her organization diversifies revenue through government contracts, individual giving, facility rentals, and earned income. But here's what connects all those streams: marketing. Funders need impact stories. Donors need compelling narratives. None of that happens if you can't communicate what you do. Your competition is Netflix, not other nonprofits "Nonprofits have to share that [marketing] space with companies that have really big budgets," Lori notes. YWCA Greater Los Angeles takes storytelling seriously, with social media, emails, and speaking opportunities all strategically designed to reach different stakeholders. Their Y-Her event and Justice for Her giving circle depend on visibility. Storytelling clarifies the stakes The best stories don’t need drama. They're everyday moments reframed. When a three-year-old says, "I'm brave today," that's courage being built. When preschoolers work through "conflict resolution" on the playground, that's social-emotional development. The job of marketing is to help people see what's actually at stake in the work you already do. Internal marketing matters With 130 staff across 10 locations, Lori uses monthly newsletters, quarterly all-staff meetings, and optional "Coffee with Lori" sessions to keep everyone connected. Your team can be your best marketers if they're equipped. When staff understand the full scope of your work, they become authentic ambassadors. Focus on the face of chaos The biggest challenge? "Focus, I think," says Lori. Mission creep happens when you try to do everything for everyone. Her solution: Define core programs in advance, partner strategically for adjacent needs, and plan for contingencies. "Because we had done the planning ahead of time, when you have these key decisions to make, you can be quicker." Listen now Hear the full conversation, and learn about person-centered service design, board engagement strategies, leading with realistic optimism, and more. Need help connecting your mission to your marketing? Counterintuity can help you explore how to use strategic communications to support your sustainability and impact.
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