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The Podcast
Essential Listening for Development Leaders Who Want Real Answers
Beyond Grants features practitioners, not theorists. Every episode is a direct conversation about how organizations are rebuilding their financial foundations, and what that process entails, in every sense.
Introduction of the Podcast Series
Episode 1
Chris Maclay - Jobtech Alliance
How Mercy Corps helped to build a market-based model that serves low-income workers without relying on donor capital.
Episode 2
Shannon Hesel - Water for South Sudan
The executive director of Water for South Sudan on confronting a funding cliff, and what she's doing about it.
Episode 3
Bill Morris - Blue Star Recyclers
How Blue Star Recyclers built a thriving social enterprise by employing people with disabilities in electronics recycling – and why they never needed a grant to prove the model works.
Episode 4
Perry Yeatman - Save the Children Global Ventures
Save the Children Global Ventures on building an investment arm inside one of the world's most recognized humanitarian brands.
Episode 5
Scott Roy - Whitten & Roy Partnerships
Whitten & Roy Partnership on rewiring the NGO mindset — and why selling well and doing good have never been in conflict.
Episode 6
Craig Zelizer - PCDN
PCDN Global on building a social enterprise from scratch — and why chasing donors is a trap most NGOs never escape.
Episode 7
Tom Hart - InterAction
"We cannot fundraise our way out of this." InterAction's CEO on what NGO leaders are really saying behind closed doors, and what comes next on April 14th and beyond (grants).
Episode 8
Chris Meyer zu Natrup - MzN International and Human Planet
"The sector faces three choices: go bankrupt, manage a decline, or genuinely add private capital." The founder of Europe's largest NGO consultancy on why most organizations are solving the wrong problem – and what blended finance actually requires.
Episode 9
Pamela Ruiz - Inteleos
"Get out of your own head. Stop pitching. Start listening." The Chief Business Development Officer who has sat across the table from medtech corporations on why NGOs are losing partnerships before they even begin – and what it actually takes to build one that lasts.
Episode 10
Rubayat Khan - Endless
"What would we have built if grants didn't exist in the first place?" The health tech entrepreneur who built a network of 35,000 pharmacists in rural Bangladesh – and watched an $80 million USAID investment walk away from communities it could have served for decades – on why the sector's real problem isn't the funding crisis. It's the system we built before it.
Episode 11
Andrew Behar - As You Sow
"Most organizations already have assets that could generate revenue. The question is whether the culture will let them do anything with it."
The startup founder who brought three internal ventures to life inside a grant-funded nonprofit – and offered partner organizations a free, revenue-generating tool that almost no one took – on why the sector's real problem isn't a lack of opportunity. It's the wiring.
Episode 12
John Simon - Total Impact Capital
"Do a stock taking. Which of your activities could support themselves through their own revenues? That's where you start." The impact investor who has mobilized over a billion dollars across a dozen vehicles – on what blended finance actually delivers, why technical assistance comes before capital, and the one type of person inside your organization who can make this work.
Episode 13
Mark Dobosz - Mozaic Senior Life
​"A 501(c)(3) is a tax status. It's not a business model." The nonprofit veteran who has raised over $100 million across four decades – on why revenue diversification takes two to three years to build, why boards are measuring the wrong things, and the one question every organization needs to answer before the next funding crisis hits.
Episode 14
M. Fern (SciRise) - C. Tanca - D. Freehling (Contempus Leadership)
50% of nonprofits depend on a single revenue channel for more than 85% of their income. That's not a funding problem; that's a structural vulnerability." The data scientist who analyzed 300,000+ nonprofit tax filings and the organizational change specialist who works inside the leadership rooms where these decisions are made, on why the sector knew this crisis was coming, why it still hasn't changed course, and what a resilience portfolio actually looks like in practice.
Episode 15
Keith Polo - Missio Invest
"Frame your investment thesis on the demand that is on the ground. Not donor priorities. What people actually need." The managing director who has deployed $48 million in patient capital loans across 15 countries in Africa – on what impact investors look at before the financials, why finding your niche is the first and most critical step, and how long this transition actually takes.
Episode 16
Selena Coles - BUILD Networks for Good
Money always moves through relationships. If people aren't upset, you're probably not shifting very much." The network strategist who has helped impact organizations build multi-stream revenue models from their existing communities – on why your network is already a funding source you can't see, what organizations get wrong about the relationships they track, and how a three-course Funding Menu replaces the grants treadmill.
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