“In this moment, people are committing to be reparationist and committing to reparations as a spiritual practice. At the same time, this is one of the most vibrant moments for the discussion of reparations, and I've never seen the proliferation of more reparations organizations, and that's wonderful.” In this episode, Michelle speaks with Dr. David Ragland, Director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign, about what reparations really is, police violence, inequity, complicity how to create...

Billionaires in America are changing the landscape of philanthropy. Journalist Teddy Schleifer of Vox’s Recode Daily podcast, joins Michelle to talk about what Billionaires are doing with their money, the debate about Donor Advised Funds, and large scale philanthropy. “One thing society might not appreciate is how much those entities [large East Coast Foundations] are going to seem like small potatoes. The amount of money being made in Silicon Valley and is theoretically going to be deployed...

“A lot of us, white women, are coming to our work with some deep martyrdom as the motivator. And this equation of ‘my worth is dependent on how helpful I am…’ well, helping is just the sunny-side of control.” We're on spring break! And since so many new listeners have joined us lately, we’re going to air our most popular episode from Season 1: White Women as Gatekeepers, featuring Fleur Larsen! With white women as the primary demographic of the nonprofit workforce, this episode begins...

With her podcast, Fare of the Free Child, a Ted Talk, 10 books out and an entire network devoted to the unschooling community, hundreds of thousands of people have been tuning in to Akilah Richards’ body of work. In this episode, Michelle talks with Akilah about how we can decolonize ourselves, centering community and unschooling, which Akilah defines as “...shedding the programming and habits that resulted from other people's agency over your time, body, thoughts or actions [and] designing...

There have been so many problematic practices we’ve used in nonprofit communications...so how do we start thinking about communications, differently? Well, in this episode, Michelle talks with Sarah Durham founder of Big Duck, a New York-based nonprofit communications firm, podcaster with The Smart Communications podcast and author of two books including Brandraising and The Nonprofit Communications Engine! We talk about the difference between communications, marketing and branding, how...

There have been so many problematic practices we’ve used in nonprofit communications...so how do we start thinking about communications, differently? Well, in this episode, Michelle talks with Sarah Durham founder of Big Duck, a New York-based nonprofit communications firm, podcaster with The Smart Communications podcast and author of two books including Brandraising and The Nonprofit Communications Engine! We talk about the difference between communications, marketing and branding, how...

“...it's really hard to promote the history of Black people and not address the inequities being experienced by Black people…it just felt disingenuous to not find a way to bring these things together.” Nneka Allen joins Michelle, to talk about her essay in the newly released book Collecting Courage for which she is co-author and co-editor. In this episode, Nneka shares the deep and meaningful work of saving one of the Underground Railroad sites - the Nazary AME Church (part of the Amherstburg...

The UK has had a foundational influence in building the problematic philanthropic and nonprofit sectors (Third Sector) in the US and other countries, which is why we are so happy to go straight to the source! Host Michelle Muri talks with Andy King and Tom DeFraine of UK podcast Fixing Fundraising! From topics like Captain Tom and the injustice of fundraising for government programs that should be funded by taxation, Brexit, the political nature of any nonprofit, dog whistles, the role of...

“...the processes we’ve used in evaluation are perpetuating a lot of the harms we thought we were helping with…” “we’re all using data problematically!” In this season finale, Michelle talks with Anna Rebecca Lopez and Vu Le about how the traditional ways that data has been collected and used can be harmful - causing misrepresentation, oppression and erasure. Anna Rebecca shares her personal journey with deep academic cred as a data nerd and disruptor and the three talk about what questions...

“...as activists...we really need to undertake our own healing as a way of transforming society. If we try to transform society from the level of consciousness that’s still traumatized and it’s reactive, then we are recreating the same patterns that have oppressed us.” In this episode, Michelle talks with Victoria Santos, a deep healer, community organizer, and brilliant facilitator who shares her self-healing journey after trauma and burnout. Listen as she shares wisdom around what we need...

Episode Summary “Faulty.” “Problematic.” “Racist.” In this episode, we talk about why these terms are now regularly used to describe the foundations that the nonprofit and philanthropic systems were built upon. Guest Christina Shimizu, a co-founder of Community-Centric Fundraising, briefly explores the relatively recent history of how these systems came to be, why they are built on deep injustices and how philanthropy and nonprofits are actually a political and economic system. Unpack all of...

“...while we know that systemic racism is real and we know that funders aren’t really supporting and investing in brown and black communities, when you see the data, it's staggering. And it's amazing to me how complacent we can get sometimes, even in our advocacy.” Community foundations are supposed to serve their communities! But many community foundations use the same donor-centrism philosophies that our nonprofits do, centering white communities and wealth. In this episode, Heather...

In this episode, we’re dipping into the world of kink, and BDSM - and specifically consent. With so much awful news, subjugation, disaster, political oppression and disempowerment, it is easy to brush past some of the day-to-day tools we can use to regain power. In this episode, we explore the framework of consent, applied beyond the kink world, with kink-trainer and activist L.T. We’ll talk about boundary setting, renegotiation, clear communication, power dynamics in npos and more. So buckle...

From tokenism to using community as unpaid consultants, from structural oppression to...more gatekeeping, and identity-based privilege, former City Councilman turned DEI consultant, Chuck Warpehoski, talks with Michelle about the common and -tired- ways in which institutions perform or attempt to work with the community and common pitfalls. Chuck also shares personal stories of mistakes he’s made while working to serve the community as a white man.

“A lot of us, white women, are coming to our work with some deep martyrdom as the motivator. And this equation of ‘my worth is dependent on how helpful I am…’ well, helping is just the sunny-side of control.” With white women as the primary demographic of the nonprofit workforce, this episode begins addressing white women in their role as gatekeepers. In this episode, Fleur Larsen, a DEI consultant and a white woman, talks with Michelle to answer questions like: Why are there so many white...

During a double pandemic and a recession, hear a powerful story about how and why one organization decided to make the somewhat radical decision to retain all staff and give raises. This inspirational story comes from Ananda Valenzuela, Interim ED of RVC, who talks with Michelle about how these decisions were made and how their family and personal history have shaped their work and worldview.

Fundraising is well-intended, but meaning well isn't good enough. Hear Vu Le, one of the most amplified voices in the nonprofit sector, talk with Michelle about how the principles of community-centric fundraising were created and how his family and personal history have shaped his work and his worldview.

Hey! Welcome to The Ethical Rainmaker - a new podcast where we host authentic conversations grappling with the questions we don't often ask in the nonprofit world. Follow @theethicalrainmaker on Insta or FB and sign up for our list to get updates: https://mailchi.mp/4f6d810aa474/subscribe