With this being a milestone episode, I'm doing a solo episode because there’s a topic I really want to discuss. It's a question I think so many nonprofits are wrestling with right now, as they navigate as marketers and fundraisers in this time where undivided attention seems increasingly scarce.

It’s a question I saw writ large at a recent conference: the Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization Summit, or the NIO Summit. It’s an annual conference that brings in nonprofit professionals from the U.S., Canada, and beyond. I was asked to speak, which was a memorable experience, discussing nonprofit storytelling with 600 people in the crowd. But I also sat in the crowd and listened to most of the other speakers, and I could see before me the very clear crossroads so many of you are facing in the nonprofit storytelling space: quantity vs. quality.

In some ways this is an age-old debate. But it’s right there in front of all of us now because of a variety of changes to the storytelling landscape.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

The beauty of this work we do is that we are surrounded by people who put their hearts into improving our world. As a video storyteller, as a speaker, and as someone who gives workshops for nonprofits, I’m always meeting truly wonderful people doing fascinating work.

And then, every so often, I meet someone where I’m just blown away: like, “Wow, this person gets it. They’re dedicated to it. They are just a difference maker."

My guest for this episode is one of those people. She is part of an advocacy movement, and she has such an exquisite grasp of everything such a movement requires from a storytelling standpoint. Tracie Gardner, executive director of the National Black Harm Reduction Network, joins DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

What an important time! End-of-year game-planning is afoot. Galas are drawing near. Giving Tuesday is three months away. My guest is a super-skilled development director who I met last year and got to work with this year, and from the start I’ve been so impressed with her clarity for fundraising, specifically around events. From the Global Village Project in Atlanta, Lane Strickland joins DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

If you’re a loyal listener of this podcast, or if you’ve followed me in any context – social media, my workshops about nonprofit storytelling – you’ve probably heard me talk about Lekotek of Georgia. For nearly 15 years I have been on the board at this terrific nonprofit in the Atlanta area. In that time, we have built up a culture of storytelling that I always reference as a model for other nonprofits of a similar size: meaning, relatively small. It’s only fitting that I’d devote a full episode of DOT ORG to interviewing the woman at the heart of the organization, Helene Prokesch. She’s been the executive director of Lekotek ever since she founded it in 1983.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

We’re 16 episodes in, and we’re breaking new ground: two guests! It's a special moment for a special subject: ethical storytelling, and how nonprofits protect our clients while advocating and fundraising for our organizations. My guests do exactly this through their work with YWCA Southern Arizona. Magdalena Verdugo is the Y's CEO. Frank Velásquez is the founder of 4 Da Hood. They join me on DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

This is an episode I’ve been anticipating for months, because it’s about a project I haven’t really said much about publicly. But it’s a project that means so much to me, and it’s a project that I think could be of such great use for nonprofits nationwide looking to, quite simply, change the conversation.

I was approached early last year by Candice Jordan, the Chief Development Officer for Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. She was interested in video beyond the ample video they already do. She was looking for a project of major scope that would change the conversation around affordable housing and place homeownership in the center of that. The result is a 15-minute documentary called Rooted that is rolling out publicly this spring.

Jordan is my guest for this episode of DOT ORG.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

Let me take you back almost five years. I had just accepted a job with Scripps Media to be a national correspondent. Scripps owns more than 60 local TV news stations. I would travel the country, putting together stories to air on all of those stations. The subject? The issues the news didn’t cover enough, and the people, groups, and communities bringing solutions. My first task was to become as well-read on as many issues as possible facing our towns and cities.

That’s when I discovered Next City, a nonprofit news outlet telling those very stories in print form.

Over the next few years, the perspective and insights I gathered from groups like Next City guided my own storytelling in so many ways. I’m a regular listener to their podcast. I’m happy to have their executive director, Lucas Grindley, on mine. He’s here to talk about storytelling from a nonprofit news model … and storytelling tips any nonprofit can use.

I was a broadcast journalist locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and separate themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That’s my mission. This podcast, DOT ORG, is an offshoot of that mission. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization’s story.

This interview is not only going to be insightful for you; it’s a personal one for me. In fall 2025 I produced an impact video for Community Farmers Markets in Atlanta. It was a true pleasure, because I’ve been going to their different markets for years. Working on their video, I was so impressed with CFM’s approach, in a few ways that I think will be illuminating for your organization: (1) having a brand and brand strategy that informs your storytelling goals; and (2) trusting your community with the challenges you face. My guest is Ana Maria Páramo, co-executive director and creative director of Community Farmers Markets.