Purity culture is a form of supremacy and oppression — controlling and dictating how people express themselves, causing anguish and keeping us from our best work. Michelle and Lorraine Nibut talk about large breasts, gun culture, our clothes, the sexualization of little girls, fetishization and consent violation ... basically the many ways purity culture holds us down — and what we can do to fight back against it!

Back by popular demand: "White Lady Wrangler," Fleur Larsen! Fleur joins Michelle to talk about white nonsense in the workplace, mean girls, martyrdom, tone policing, connection over correction, perfectionism, accountability and cringe-worthy behavior. We could have sector wide transformation if white women could center and hold a clear commitment to racial equity. So what does that look like? Fleur breaks down some nonsense with ownership and responsibility in four calls to action.

What's up with the controversies around Patagonia’s generosity? Fraud in Captain Tom’s household? BrewDog’s shock tactics and hypocrisy? Tokenism of Indigenous Tribes at Forterra? Michelle is discussing shock tactics, wealth hoarding, trust issues and more, with "The UK’s most influential fundraiser,” Andy King!

Traditional philanthropy has been asking nonprofits to jump through ridiculous and paternalistic hoops since its inception. But as movements like CCF require institutions to rethink how we do our work, we are not questioning our evaluation and metrics practices! In a world where tech money wants us to quantify our work, what is truly meaningful and how do we change!? Michelle talks with Marcia about Equitable Evaluation Framework and how our practices are so wrong and how to do better.

We throw shade and cause guilt and shame in social justice work all the time! But is finger pointing effective or does it just make us feel better to make someone else wrong? In this ep, Michelle and Anu, author of Oprah-loved book Beyond Guild Trips, build analysis through a lens of travel ethics and what it means to truly move forward.

Nonprofits and Foundations engage in power play all the time but this kinky practice in the third sector is rarely consensual. In this rewind episode, Michelle discusses negotiation and consent practices with L.T. a radical pleasure based sex educator! Cum explore this Rewind!

Big money is thrown around when it comes to impact investing, but are these ‘incubators for social impact projects’ and ‘five-star conferences’ actually doing anything other than stroking egos? In this ep, Michelle and The Osborne Group’s Bob Osborne discuss their experiences and analysis!

Nobody quit for 2 years. That’s the kind of culture that Rickesh Lakhani and his teammates at Future Possibilities for kids in Toronto, Ontario, were able to build. Michelle sits with Rickesh to discuss what it takes to build a beautiful workplace culture.

For the 2-year anniversary of the Ethical Rainmaker and Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF), Michelle sits with Rachel D’Souza Siebert and Henry Ramos to discuss where CCF is at today … and why it’s making itself at home because it’s here to stay.

In this third and final-for-now episode of our Drizzle Miniseries, our Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle talks with Stacy about the emotions that can sabotage us when it comes to money! They discuss the impact of our personal narratives and family of origin stories — and how all of that shows up in how we run nonprofits and fundraising.

In the second episode of our Drizzle Miniseries, our Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle shares the three biggest mistakes she made as an in-house fundraiser, including themes on event extortion, process predicaments and burn out blessings.

In this inaugural episode of our Drizzle miniseries, the Ethical Rainmaker host Michelle shares her origin story, (with chapters that include bullying, Classical music, the CIA, fate, therapy, and more!)

Cancel culture. Disbanded groups. Severed ties. Intent vs Impact. Most of us are shit at dealing with problematic behavior - our own or others! Whether in our nonprofits, our neighborhood groups, activist communities or families - our unresolved conflicts cause damage, chaos and separation - in times where we need unity, repair and one-ness to best serve our communities. Enter Kevin Baker whose mission is to make sure people can bring their authentic cultural selves to the workplace, creating...

Medical violence. Stigmatization. Criminalization. These are just a portion of the harms we, as nonprofits, cause the people we are supposed to serve. That’s why Soma Snakeoil and Stacey Dee created The Sidewalk Project, an organization that advocates for the dignity and rights of people living on the streets. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, have their needs met, and receive medical care, but our unhoused neighbors are often denied even the most basic compassion and dignity....

Are you slowly killing yourself or your joy through over-working? Toxic productivity may be a buzz phrase currently, but it’s also becoming the norm — and it can ruin your life! In this episode, Marina Martinez-Bateman and I talk about Work with a capital W — whether it’s laboring for labor unions, the carrots of accolades, work culture, and the bedtime story moment that changed everything for Marina.

Honesty. We crave it and we don’t get enough of it! In this episode, award winning poet, hip hop artist and teacher Matthew Cuban Hernandez of Street Poets Inc. (LA) talks with Michelle about honesty in our interpersonal relationships and in our organizations, rites of passage, structural racism and ageism in working with young people and…giving work away!

International comedienne, performance artist, actress and elected official Kristina Wong, talks about the subversive game, the performance of her lifetime (elected office) and her journey as an accidental sweatshop overlord through her latest mutual aid project and book The Auntie Sewing Squad. Based in LA, California learn about the connection between art, organizing and radical politics.

When community-centric fundraising launched their content hub and 10 principles, thousands of organizations and people took note - and many took action. Lea Whitehurst-Gibson and Bekah Kendrick of Virginia Community Voice talk about how they built and delivered their Courageous Fundraising Principles and how they center community in their work based in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy. Learn about strategy and tactics in this story!

TV celeb and James Beard Award-winning chef, Tomme Beevas talks about how the lynching of George Floyd - less than two miles from his restaurant, played out in the creation of Pimento Relief Services, a truly community-centered organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Learn about liberation in action through this inspiring story!

How can love be a metric and what does it look like to measure that instead of fundraising goals? The Oregon food bank surprised many folks in the nonprofit community when they revealed a new concept, measuring love instead of fundraising. In this episode, Nathan Harris and Vivien Trinh of the Oregon Food Bank, describe the thinking and process around how they changed the practices of the Oregon Food Bank to center love!

Phillip Chavira talks about why Capitalism is trash, how money is a tool for and against the movement and where we have power to make decisions that center our communities and our values.

Controversial. Polarizing. Divisive. Liz LeClair has gained a reputation for her famous call outs of both sexual assault and racism within the nonprofit world. In S3:E1, Michelle interviews this writer, fundraiser and badass who talks about calling out white fundraisers for their racism, taking responsibility for being part of the problem, and her experience speaking out about sexual harassment in the fundraising space, including cofounding the National Day of Conversation in Canada. “Every...

By popular demand, Christina Shimizu is back as a guest for Part 2 of The Racist Roots of Nonprofits & Philanthropy, LIVE at the Washington Nonprofits conference! “How on Earth can we solve the issues our communities face if we can't first acknowledge that there is a problem?” On this, the last episode of Season 2, Michelle and Christina go deeper with the recent history of how some of our ethos in philanthropy came to be, why philanthropy is built on deep injustices and a little about...

In this episode, Michelle speaks with Kishshana Palmer, the Let’s Take This Offline podcast, The Rooted Collaborative and Kishshana + Co about living well to lead well, performative alllyship, authenticity, financial fortitude and her new podcast! Please join us for this rich conversation!