Fundraising Forward – Navigating Trends, Challenges, and the Future of Giving.

James Misner is the founder and CEO of The Kipos Group. Over his career, he has facilitated the raising of 100’s of millions of dollars to support nonprofit organizations. A trusted expert in the realm of fundraising strategy, staff, culture, and implementation, he and The Kipos Group bring a sharp focus on small and mid-sized organizations engaged in direct service.

James says, “My message to nonprofit leaders and clergy is about shifting their mindset and approach to fundraising. I want them to see fundraising not as a burden, but as a vital extension of their mission – one that requires strategy, adaptability, and buy-in. I’ll challenge outdated perspectives, equip them with actionable insights, and help them navigate shifts in donor behavior, policy changes, and organizational priorities. The goal is to empower them to build sustainable funding models, retain donors, and lead with confidence in a changing nonprofit sector.”

 

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou:
Welcome to the nonprofit exchange. This is Hugh Ballou, your host and founder of SynerVision Leadership Foundation, where we as leaders create synergy because we’re very clear on our vision and our vision is to provide value to other people. That’s why we’re here, nonprofit leaders. I have a really great topic today and some fresh perspectives on the old thing of fundraising. And I hear lots of, lots of people talk about in no, no fun terms. So James Misner is going to talk about navigating trans challenges and the future of giving. James, tell people a little bit about yourself and your background and your passion for doing this work, please.

SPEAKER_01:
Well, Hugh, thanks for having me on. I’m excited to be here today. My passion for this goes back decades. I have always been a person that has wanted to see some of the hardest, most intractable problems in the world solved. And I wanted to do that through church and ministry, which is a great thing to do. I wanted to do it through government. That’s debatable if that’s a great thing to do. I tried both. But what I found is that nonprofits solve problems that government hasn’t been able to wrap its head around and that big business hasn’t been able to monetize. And without nonprofits, our society would completely, completely fall apart. But they all face the same challenge. finding funding. Most people don’t realize this, but only 2% of nonprofits in America ever reach a million dollars in revenue, and only 0.4% ever reach 10 million dollars in revenue. And if these organizations are there to change and solve the most intractable problems that our society faces, they need more funds to do it. So for the past 20 years, I have been helping organizations do that both in-house as a chief development officer, and then three years ago, started the Kipos Group, our firm to help small and mid-sized nonprofits learn how to raise more money and have fun doing it.

Hugh Ballou:
Have fun doing it. I love it. Now, you’re just tuning in, watching this online. James Meissner is my guest today. Meissner is my guest today. I got it wrong. I knew I’d do that. So he has, as you can tell, and he’s got some important things to say. You’ve already got two really good sound bites. Don’t worry if you can’t take notes fast enough. The transcript is on the page for this interview. The nonprofitexchange.org will lead you there. So James, we have a lot of misconceptions about fundraising and maybe about money in general. What are some of the major misconceptions that people have that are running a nonprofit?

SPEAKER_01:
Well, the first misconception that nonprofit leaders have, particularly the CEO, and most nonprofit CEOs come up through the program side of the organization, they think that people are loathe to give their money away, that they don’t want to do it, that they have to be little Orphan Oliver, please, sir, may I have some more, when in reality, people who give money receive amazing amounts of joy. when they give. And for me when I learned that you know over 20 years ago it changed the entire relationship that I had with fundraising from a beggars mentality to a mentality where I’m trying to help givers solve the problems that they want to solve in the world. And if you can make that case that you can solve a problem that they see in the world, the money part is just an easy part of the conversation that comes towards the end. That’s the first misconception I see. And then the second misconception is that there are just all of these funding organizations out there. And there are. We all know them. The Doris Duke Charitable Trust, Kellogg Foundation, the Gates Foundation. But the reality is, Hugh, that two-thirds of dollars given to philanthropy every year in the United States comes from individual givers. Individuals like you, individuals like me who say, I want to see a difference made in our world in x, y, and z, fill in the blank area. So I’m going to be generous. I’m going to sacrifice. I’m going to give of my resources. To say this in a faith way, I have been blessed, so I am going to be a blessing to others. And they give that money away. And they’re individuals. And so many nonprofit leaders want to work on grants and with the government. And that’s good. There’s a lot of money there. But the real money is with individual families who are saying, I want to change the problem in the world with these funds I’m going to give away.

Hugh Ballou:
I want to change the world. And I’m old enough to be on the other side of this and tithing. We practice that. And it’s a joy. And most of them are faith-based organizations, churches, but there’s also arts groups and community service groups. So we spread it out and you’re so right. There is, there’s a joy in making sure that people can do the work they’re called to do. So I have people come to me and say, Oh, I’m going to start a nonprofit. I don’t need to bother with all this writing of plans and stuff. Cause it’s really, I’m doing this important work and people are just going to give me money. What’s wrong with that scenario?

SPEAKER_01:
Oh my goodness, I think there’s so much wrong with that scenario. Number one. I deeply believe that nonprofits solve these intractable societal problems, but there are a lot of nonprofits out there, Hugh. Okay? There are a lot of them, and I don’t think that all of them should be in existence. I think some of them are duplicative. I think some of them have bad program models. Just going out and starting something willy-nilly is not the way that you solve an intractable problem. Nonprofits that succeed bring deep thought, to the problems they’re solving. They develop theories of change for the problems they’re solving. They involve the communities and the populations they’re serving in creating the solution that will benefit them. So just putting out a shingle and saying, hey, let’s do some good, I don’t think that’s the way that the world really changes. The other thing is you need to be able to demonstrate to funders that you’re actually taking their money and stewarding it well. When people write a check, particularly a big check, they want to have trust in you. that that check, that those resources are going to be used judiciously. And just starting a nonprofit willy-nilly is not going to communicate to somebody without governance structures, without financial accountability, that that money is going to be judiciously used to solve the problems that they want to solve in the world. So if you are a nonprofit leader and you’re trying to go after big money, you need to be able to prove and demonstrate both through stories of transformation as well as through technical impact data that you’re making a change or else people aren’t going to keep giving you money.

Hugh Ballou:
Let’s expand on this a little bit. I want to just let people know that we didn’t approve questions ahead of time. I’m just throwing some hard ones at you, and you’re doing great. So I like having fun, and you’re right on with me. So you have started the conversation about what helps a nonprofit be fundable, and some of those are the parameters. So go back over that. This is an important piece. I’m sure people come to you that aren’t ready to be funded, right?

SPEAKER_01:
By the time people get to me, they’re usually ready, but they don’t have their pieces organized. So maybe that’s where we can go. What are some of the pieces that you need to be fundable? The first and the key one is basic, but so few nonprofits have it. It’s your case for support. It’s your five to seven page document that says, here’s what we’re about, here’s what we’re doing, the problems we see in the world, our organizational track record, and here’s the funding we need to take it to the next level. And the reality is, Hugh, that of all the organizations we’re working with this year, 2025, about 30 of them on our books right now, only two had a case for support when they started with us. And what that means when they don’t have it is that the messaging is all over the place because there’s no core defined way that the organization is talking about itself. And so we talk about it this way to this guy, we talk about it this way to this woman, and the message gets diffused. What we then do and recommend is that you take that case for support and you turn it into that one or two pager, that brand script. That’s going to govern everything you put on your website, every social media post, every event that you host or speaking gig that you get. It’s going to refer back to this brand script so that the core elements that people need to understand about your organization are always there. The problem that you’re solving, you have to agitate that for people, make them feel that. You have to show them that they can trust your organization. So you have to show them stories of success, both individual stories, as well as data stories. Hey, here was Jane, her life before she intersected our nonprofit, how we worked with her, her life after. And oh, by the way, we helped 1,700 Janes every single year. We need your support to take that to 2,000 Janes per year. Those are the types of things that nonprofits need. Once they get that, then the task becomes about developing relationships and stewarding those relationships over multiple years to get people and families engaged in the organization.

Hugh Ballou:
Wow, wow, wow, wow. That’s an awful lot of good stuff. So I remind people that there’s a transcript on the website. So the case for support, you’ll be pleased to know that my organization, Cinevision Leadership Foundation has a case for support and we update it on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_01:
I’m glad to hear that.

Hugh Ballou:
Like we update our strategic plan, well, I have two CFRPs for financial planners as part of my advisors. So having advisors that are skilled in the areas of fundraising and whatever we need for non-profit is vital to our support. Talk about the two things here. We’re talking mostly about the majority of money in most nonprofits comes from individual donors. We’ve clarified that. That’s universal. And I hear a lot of people, oh, I’m going to get a nonprofit. I’m going to write grants. I’m going to be successful. I’m getting these big grants. Well, Think again, so you might get grants, but the bread and butter, the operational stuff is, is about, you know, the people who you’ve built relationships with and you can demonstrate the impact. So talk about how people need to up their game. You said to raise the bar a little bit on the problem, but let’s raise the bar on how we talk about the impact. Give us some specific advice there, please.

SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. People. people give out of a very different portion of their brain than they make strategic decisions out of. I am not a scientist, but I’ve read a little bit, I’ve listened to a lot of really smart people. When people make a giving decision and they scan their brain, you know, what those light up, you know, maps when they’re doing it, when they give the emotional center of the brain highlights, It’s very emotional for people. When they invest, if they’re a business person making a business decision, the logical rational section of their brain flashes on that map. Most people think they need to start with the logical linear case of impact when it comes to giving. That s further than the truth. They need to start with what we in the fundraising space call the story of the one. The story of one individual whose life was impacted. Oftentimes we can’t get our mind around statistics like 27 million people in modern day slavery or whatever the actual number is right now. We can’t get our mind around the number of food insecure kids in a city, but we can get our mind around the story of one person. And then we can connect to the logical center of the brain with transitions. There are 27 million other people like this. This is what they face, and here’s what we do about it. But unless you start with that emotional, and I’m not talking about, gross, emotional, overly sensationalized, stories told with dignity. You back it up with proposals. You back it up with reports. You back it up with some impact data. That’s what really gets people to give. Very few people are going to read a 100-page program analysis from your nonprofit. A lot of people will read a two-pager that starts with a story and gives them the top-of-the-fold data that proves that your organization is making a difference.

Hugh Ballou:
In the planning room, which is where I live, I help people build their strategy and then connect the dots to performance. So that’s a key document I think would be useful in your work. And one of the elements of that is your unique value proposition. What do you do differently than anybody else? And I’m thinking of cases where I’ve spoken prematurely and people say, well, I’m already given in this organization because they do the same thing. So how important is it to differentiate our work with that value statement, that unique value proposition that sets us apart.

SPEAKER_01:
I think differentiating is so key when you get into marketing and messaging. I mean, the phrase, we are the only dot, dot, dot is very, very helpful. Now, a lot of programs folks or technical folks are going to Quibble with that, right? Because oftentimes, you’re not the only, the true only. But you could be the only one. I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC, doing XYZ in Washington, DC. You could be the only one doing such and such in Virginia, where you live. Whatever you put after we are the only can be very varied, but you have to show them that you are unique in what you do and that you’re bringing something to the table that not everybody else is bringing.

Hugh Ballou:
And why that matters, correct?

SPEAKER_01:
And why that matters. Absolutely.

Hugh Ballou:
Oh, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. You’ve done this for a while. You know your stuff really well. So I hear a couple of things. I’ve heard it once. I’ve heard it 100 times. Two things. I want your response to both of them, please. One is, oh, I hate begging for money. And the other one is, oh, money is not important. We help people.

SPEAKER_01:
I think they’re both horrible statements. Let’s start with the second one. I don’t want to think about money, I just want to help people. Well, we all know the phrase, blank makes the world go round. Money makes the world go round. You need air conditioning, you need heating, you need light, you need salaries, you need a tech stack for your marketing and for your finance and accounting teams. That all requires money. No matter what type of nonprofit you have, it requires money. I have a core conviction that most non-profit leaders do what they do because deeply embedded in them is a sense of love for the people they are serving. It is unloving if you truly care about somebody to withhold something from them that you might be able to provide and that they need. Okay? I’ll jump then to say that it is unloving for a nonprofit leader who cares deeply about homelessness in a community. It is unloving for a nonprofit leader who cares about childhood development or kids at risk in a community. It is unloving for them to say, it’s just about people. It’s not about the money. Because with additional resources, they could be able to do so much more for the people that they love. So let’s stop kidding ourselves that it’s not about money. It’s not all about money. You need relationship. You need strategy. You need smarts. But money’s at the center of that. You can’t implement any of those things without resources. So if you really love the people you’re serving, we’re going to get over this fear of money. You, OK? You want to say something?

Hugh Ballou:
Yeah, yeah. It’s almost like you buy a new car and it’s all ready to go. You learn to drive and all that, but you got to put gas in it. So the money is like the gas that makes everything work. So yes.

SPEAKER_01:
It absolutely is. It absolutely is. And I think most of us who are older remember that point in time, you know, where mom and dad stopped paying for your gas and you have to, you know, raise, you know, raise the money on your own and get a job, you know, right. Uh, you gotta do that. So that’s, that’s number one. That was the first thing you said. Uh, the second thing was the comment of, I just hate begging for money. I don’t think fundraising is about begging at all. You started this podcast talking about your company Acknowledging that leaders and CEOs provide value for their staff, for their shareholders, for their board, for their customers. Nonprofit leaders do the same exact thing. They provide value. Of course they provide value for their staff. It’s a job. Of course they provide value for their program participants. It’s their mission. They also provide value for their givers. People who give money Like we said before, deeply want to see something changed in the world, and they’re often unsure about how to bring about that change. You as a nonprofit leader, instead of begging for money, can provide value by helping to bring that individual or that family along on a journey where they understand what it is that causes the problem in the world that they care so much about. and where they understand solutions that actually change it. If you provide that value and then say something like, hey, Hugh, does it seem good and right to you that the next stage of our conversation would be about how you and your family can invest your financial resources to serve more people or to expand to a new area or to do X, Y, and Z? That changes the conversation from, hey, Hugh, I have this problem. Can you be the solution to it? To, hey, Hugh, you have this problem. I think we can be the solution to it.

Hugh Ballou:
Whoa.

SPEAKER_01:
So I’ll give a real-life example, okay? We’re an international family. My wife is Ugandan-American. We have two biological kids and a third kid that is adopted from East Africa, from Burundi. We care deeply about giving to the community where our adopted son is from. Right? When he is older, he’s four years old now, when he is 14 and 10 years and he says, great mom and dad, you did this for me, what’d you do for the hundreds of other kids that you weren’t able to adopt? I want to be able to have an answer for him. I also want to be able to, you know, allow him to make decisions about investing where he came from. So every year our company gives away, we tithe, you use that theological word a few minutes ago, of the company’s profits and we put it into a donor advice fund and we give it away. And a great fundraiser who got to know us, instead of just telling us everything that she thought we needed to know about their organization, figured, hey, let me get to know James and Sabrina and the Keepos Group team, and figured out about them. She learned about this, and then she presented us an opportunity to give in Burundi. in the community where our son was from and in some of the issues that we as a family care about. What that did for me was not feel guilty so I wrote a check. What it did for me was alleviate the pressure that I felt to do hundreds of hours of research into community-based solutions into an East African country very few people have ever heard about. She provided me that solution. She created value for us and we invested in it. And now my wife and I and our three kids are journeying with that community. Great fundraisers, great non-profit leaders do that, and they flip the equation from one of begging to one of providing value to families. And I bet you if this person comes back in 2026, Hugh, and says, hey, here’s the next thing we have going on, it’s going to be hard to say no to that.

Hugh Ballou:
I love it. All right, let’s go to your website and there are people listening as well as people watching. So what will people find when they go to your website?

SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, so they’ll find some basic stuff. One, we care about growing revenue for your nonprofit. That’s what we’re all about. We specialize in small and mid-sized nonprofits. You’ll also see that there. I think there’s two or three things that people would be interested in. One is our blog page. Every few weeks, we write a fairly in-depth guide on something. The one we wrote last month was the non-profit CEO’s Guide to Fundraising. It quickly became the number one thing you search for on Google when you type in how to fundraise as a non-profit CEO. It’s not a short article that’s probably 3,500, 4,000 words, but it gives you a lot of value. You can also see the Nonprofits Guide for Fundraising, lapsed donors, donor development strategies, all of that. So I am a big believer in sharing value without anybody having to pay me a penny. I think the other thing that you can find on there that would be helpful is that we offer free sessions for people. Our schedule a discovery call button is all over the website. and click on that. Schedule a free 30 minutes for me. I am not going to twist your arm. I am not going to spend 25 of those 30 minutes telling you all the reasons you should work with us. I’m going to spend 25 of the 30 minutes asking you questions and giving you, based on your responses, the best advice I can to help your nonprofit grow. And if you want to work with us after, great. And if not, I’m really glad that I got to help. You can also see on here, you know, service plans that we have, case studies, other podcasts that we’ve been on. So yeah, if you’re interested after hearing us today, after hearing me today, go to the website, thekiposgroup.com. And Kipos is K-I-P-O-S, thekiposgroup.com.

Hugh Ballou:
Very clear, very clear. So James, what’s a thought you want to leave people with today or a challenge or a tip? What do you want to leave people with today?

SPEAKER_01:
I want to leave people with a story. Okay, I’m a big believer that stories stick and facts fade. Okay, people often ask me, Hugh, what does the word kipos mean? Okay, and kipos is the Greek word for garden. And I know that you come from a faith background, and many of your listeners come from a faith background, but it appears a few times in the Greek New Testament, the Greek scriptures. And the most famous is about a garden, and the gardener planted a mustard seed. And that seed, even though it was the smallest seed, grew to one of the biggest trees and provided for all the birds, you know, of the air around it. Our job as a company, and I believe that your job as a nonprofit leader audience, is to, even if the seed that you have to plant is the smallest one out there, you are doing your stewardship responsibility when you plant it, water it, tend to it, weed around it, so that you create an ecosystem that provides for your community. Don’t shy away from doing the hard work of cultivation around financial resources, because if you want to grow something beautiful that provides for the people and things that you care about, it’s the only way to do it.

Hugh Ballou:
James Misner, thank you for being our guest on the Nonprofit Exchange today and for inspiring us to think differently about this important topic of fundraising.

SPEAKER_01:
Thanks so much to you. It was great to be here with you.