Sprout Nonprofit | the podcast for small shop nonprofits · Rachel Bearbower

56 | Can anyone be a fundraiser?

·24 min·1 clip

Rachel starts the episode by greeting listeners from the Sprout Podcast and setting it up as a place for small shop nonprofit executive directors, founders, and changemakers who want to reclaim their time, build their blueprint, and boost their impact by fundraising smarter and prioritizing real connections. From there, she moves into a personal story she says is worth sharing. The setup is familiar to many fundraisers: a non-fundraiser says, in effect, just write a grant, as if the money will simply appear. A recent example makes that frustration concrete. Her boyfriend Mike, who is a farmer, engineer, volunteer firefighter, mechanic, dog dad, old man basketball player, and committed blood donor, found a FEMA grant and decided to look into it. The timing was rough from the start. The grant was due on Friday, which left only about 48 hours to make sense of it. Rachel did not want to take it on, so Mike stepped in to try anyway. A couple of hours later, he came back with a different perspective and a lot of questions about grants. That shift matters more than the application itself. He started to understand that grant work is not just filling out paperwork. It asks people to think about fit, effort, deadlines, and what it would actually take to pursue the money well. Rachel then describes how Mike came home from work the next day energized after researching grants all day, with a list of possibilities, deadlines, and ideas about different angles they could take. The story lets her make her larger point without sounding abstract. Grant work can look simple from the outside, but the people doing it have to judge what is worth the time. She is also clear that grants are not her thing, which keeps the advice grounded instead of dreamy. The practical thread stays steady throughout. Good fundraising depends on mission alignment, judgment, and knowing when to be selective. Small nonprofits do not need every opportunity. They need the right ones. The episode closes with the usual thank-you and a reminder about the free quiz on the Small Shop Strategies site, which promises a curated playlist of episodes based on what the listener needs right now.

As heard by us

A grant story that cuts through easy answers and lands on steady, practical fundraising.

The episode pushes back on the familiar "just write a grant" line and treats fundraising as work, not a shortcut. Rachel's story about a FEMA grant due in two days, along with Mike's outside view, shows how fast a simple funding idea turns into a question of fit, timing, and…

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Why you'd press play

A grant-deadline story that shows why fundraising is more than "just write a grant."

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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