Next in Nonprofits

Ad Grants Pilot with Steven Aguiar

Steven Aguiar [https://adgrantspilot.com/about-agp/] is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ad Grants Pilot [https://adgrantspilot.com/], which is "Ad Grants on easy mode. Turn Google's $10,000/month in free ads into real donors and impact — without hiring an agency." Steven is also the Founder of BlueWing [https://bluewing.co/] Digital, a media company with a focus on community missions. Google for Nonprofits offers a free grant for Google search ads up to $10,000 of total value for a month. Approximately 300,000 nonprofits have a Google for Nonprofits account, but nearly 10 million could be using it. A recent M+R benchmark reported the average nonprofit may be getting $1300-1400 in value against the $10,000 offered. Ad Grants Pilot is designed to help nonprofit organizations actually leverage the grant using AI tools to help manage the process. Steven talks about the Ads Grants process requiring things like conversion tracking, the need to use keywords correctly, quality scores on ads and website for conversion goals. Steven further describes how the tool helps avoid common problems that have occurred in the past and prevented many nonprofits from using the grants. He also describes how maximizing search ads can improve GEO, Generative Engine Optimization (AI summaries inserted into search) as well. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. [https://www.nextinnonprofits.com/podcast/] Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Nonprofit AI Adoption Study with Carly Berna

Carly Berna [https://virtuous.org/blog/author/carly-berna/] is the Fundraiser in Residence at Virtuous [https://virtuous.org/], a "modern fundraising platform that creates inspiring moments for donors and grows giving." The State of AI Adoption Report [https://virtuous.org/resource/the-2026-nonprofit-ai-adoption-report-download/] is a free download that details the findings from a study of hundreds of nonprofits regarding their use of Artificial Intelligence tools. The big finding: "92% of nonprofits have adopted AI. Only 7% say it’s actually expanded what their team can accomplish. The rest are stuck on the efficiency plateau: faster drafts, quicker emails, same results." There are some commonalities of organizations which are seeing meaningful impact that are detailed in the report. Carly urges some basics of these success metrics. Elements such as creating and documenting policies, having a cross-functional AI team, and more. The report expresses some urgency to get on board as the tools are changing and becoming more capable. Carly and Steve talk about when and how to use data, such as taking great care to not put identifiable donor data into public versions of LLM (Large Language Model [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model]) tools.

Evaluation Essentials with Dr. Beth DaPonte

Dr. Beth DaPonte [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethdaponte/] is the author of the new edition of Essential Evaluations [https://www.bookstores.com/books/evaluation-essentials-beth-osborne-daponte/9781394234783] and a consulting serving nonprofit organizations from Social Science Consultants [https://www.socialscienceconsultants.com/whoweare]. Dr. DaPonte has served with the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the United Nations and been a Lecturer, Yale School of Management amongst many other roles. Beth joins host Steve Boland to talk about the new edition of her Evaluations Essentials book, and why and how nonprofit organizations can develop and use program evaluation in their work. She discusses the basics of a theory of change, logic models, and more. The book covers ideas including early literature reviews, the use of a program evaluation reference group to provide a broad array of stakeholders to prioritize questions and access in evaluation. Beth talks about how unexpected challenges over time in evaluation (COVID shut downs for example) can become part of the evaluation story. (Also, thanks to XKCD for the causation v. correlation [https://xkcd.com/552/] cartoon!). Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. [https://www.nextinnonprofits.com/podcast/] Please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or your platform of choice. Thanks!

Judy Garland Museum for #Podcasthon 2026

Janie Heitz is the Executive Director, and John Kelsch is founder and Curator, of the Judy Garland Museum [https://judygarlandmuseum.com/]. The Museum is home to an eclectic Judy Garland and Wizard of Oz collection and is housed in the 1920’s restored birthplace home of Judy Garland in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. #Podcasthon [https://podcasthon.org/] is an annual event asking podcasts to highlight the work of a single charity John and Janie tell the story of the founding of the museum, the evolution of the work over the decades since it's founding over fifty years ago, and much more. One of the more unusual stories of the Museum involves the theft of the Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz, which were in the Museum at that time for display. The slippers were eventually recovered, and documentaries about that part of the story have been made since that time. The Museum is a part of the Grand Rapids community, but also a larger fan community across the world. Learn more at their website [https://judygarlandmuseum.com/] about how to visit the museum and learn more. Donations are welcome [https://judygarlandmuseum.com/donate/]! Listen now by clicking the player above, download the file for later here [https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/nmn4f7rv8rkxwd99/scenechange.mp3], or subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. [https://www.nextinnonprofits.com/podcast/]

Scene Change with Alan Harrison

Alan Harrison is the author of the Scene Change book series [https://501c3.guru/scene-change], and has worked for 30 years in the nonprofits arts sector. Alan begins his book series with the first Scene Change book emphasizing the importance of community impact in their missions. The next book speaks to the role of boards of directors in this mission work, and now there is Scene Change 3, with stories of nonprofit arts organizations which can show their impact in community. Alan says art is essential for human beings, and artists are magical in their creation. He goes on to emphasize the need for metrics of success for nonprofits that goes beyond just the production of art and public participation through things like ticket sales. Scene Change 3 contains examples to help charities focus on their changes in community. Subscribe to the podcast on your phone for automatic updates. Get more details on how to subscribe on our podcast page. [https://www.nextinnonprofits.com/podcast/]