We recently connected with Hannah Berger and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

The Philanthropy Coach is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in Nonprofit Management and Fundraising. We support organizations that are looking to scale their revenue and social impact.

I have worked in the social sector for over two decades as an executive in a variety Nonprofit organizations, mostly as a professional fundraiser. As a frontline fundraiser, I was responsible for ensuring enough resources were available to social service organizations to provide the life-changing and life-saving programs and services these community-based organizations offer.

Social service organizations include everything from schools, both public and private, to hospitals, universities, youth development centers, food banks, and anything you can think of that helps fill the gap socially. The organizations that stabilize society when things get rough.

I started The Philanthropy Coach after 20 years of working on the front lines as a nonprofit leader, and about a decade of working as a consultant as a side hustle. I want to make sure that the social sector and the people who work in it are empowered with the right tools, training, and coaching support so they can generate all of the money that they need to do the good work that they do. Sounds pretty simple, but it is not.

The sector is typically burdened with a scarcity mindset and an unrealistic expectation from outsiders that magically, people running nonprofits can turn a dollar into $10,000 overnight.We teach our clients how to tell their stories in a concise and compelling manner, how to convey the passion they have for the work they do and the communities they serve, in particular to people with the ability to make monetary investments and might not understand the challenges of the communities they serve, or understand why their work is so important. We see our work through The Philanthropy Coach as bridge building. We connect good people to one another across social, economic, political,and geographic barriers for mutually beneficial partnerships.

In addition to helping clients become good at communication, we also help them envision, and prepare for, bold futures. We provide training for nonprofit boards, the governing bodies that oversee everything an organization does, and the staff that manages the daily business.

Our firm is different from a lot of consulting firms because we want all of our clients to outgrow us! Everything we do at The Philanthropy Coach is based on the premise that if you give a person a fish, they can eat for one day, but if you teach them to fish, they can eat forever…and feed others.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into the social sector and nonprofit fundraising by accident. I thought I was going to be a marriage and family therapist. I attended the University of CA, Irvine, for a psychology and cognitive science degree. In my junior year of undergrad, I wanted to do something serious. It was the very early 2000’s, the beginning of this cultural revolution we’ve had around influencers. I was so tired of talking about Paris Hilton (no shade on Paris) and wanted to talk about something serious. So I got an internship in Washington DC because, in my young, sweet, naive mind, real social change happened in our nation’s capital! That’s where all the serious intellectuals were, right?!

I did a summer internship for the American Association of University Women, a very large 100-year-old at the time, nonprofit. I learned a lot about the sector and was laid off a couple of years into the full-time job that the internship turned into because of organizational debt and budget cuts. I was doing program development at the time, not fundraising. I hightailed it back to Los Angeles and found an administrative job at Cal State Northridge, the university closest to my family home. It ended up being in the office of University Advancement, where the Vice Chancellor for Advancement (AKA fundraising) took a liking to me and put my 25-year-old self in many situations I had no business being in.

I realized in that role that if I could get really good at raising money, I would become indispensable in the sector. So that’s what I did. Fast forward 20 plus years, half a dozen other roles with progressively bigger responsibilities and titles.. I became proficient in the practice and started teaching others how to do it as a consultant and an adjunct professor.

What sets me apart from other nonprofit fundraising consultants is that I’m also a Coach. I’ve been trained in coaching. I am a purveyor of life coaches. I’ve had several at this point.
So when I work with clients, I’m more than just recommending what they do, advising them on what to do, discussing strategy, and putting plans together. I’m actually modeling the behavior they need to take on, working with them on their mindset and systems and the messaging they use to talk about not only their own organization but themselves and the role they play.

I founded the firm in 2021 after having my own pandemic realization. We’ve already supported dozens of clients in major moments in their organization’s evolution.

Knowing that the work we do is mostly behind the scenes to elevate these organizations that are changing lives. I mean, helping kids in foster care find homes and working with our enlisted military members to ensure they have food and places to live. Working with federally qualified health centers to make sure they can scale their services so that people in our communities get healthcare they so desperately need, youth development organizations are ensuring that kids born into poverty don’t stay in the cycle of poverty that goes to college. They get training to get promising careers. We get to be a part of all of that. It’s extraordinary, and I’m proud of the good work that we’ve done to date.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Word of mouth. It’s the best reputation builder. Previous clients tell future clients about the work that we’ve done together. That kind of endorsement can’t be purchased. It only comes from experience. I think that’s been number one.

Number two, and I tell this to all of my clients and anybody attempting to start positioning themselves as a thought leader in any sector, LinkedIn is one of the most valuable tools we have at our disposal. I’m beginning to write and publish on LinkedIn, chiming into conversations that other people start in networks that I wanna be a part of or a that I’m already a part of. I want to elevate my company as an organization that can provide thought leadership.

That has also been a tremendous help in elevating the philanthropy coach, our brand, and me, as the principal, picking the three best sources of new clients for us. I love public speaking and teaching, and spring is usually conference season. I love going to conferences and doing great workshops that get people fired up and have them walk away thinking I’d really like to work with that person.
Generally speaking- conferences, speaking engagements, and webinars are really great sources of new clients. So I always encourage new consultants and freelancers to get themselves out there and be exposed via teaching opportunities, whether it be like a partnership webinar, sitting on a panel at a conference, putting in proposals to do keynote speaking, or anything of that nature is really great for generating leads for clients.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I love anything by Seth Godin. I love everything by Brene Brown. I don’t think that most people would think of Brene Brown when they think of entrepreneurship, but she is a social worker by trade and an organizational development expert.

I recently completed the Dare to Lead program with one of her trained facilitators. I’ve read every book she’s ever written. Her teachings have helped shape how I communicate with my clients, my team, and family members. I mean, she’s a master of helping to break down what open communication, vulnerability, what leadership looks like, and how it can be tremendously empowering. So I push her books onto everybody that’ll take them.

As a coach, the most impactful book I’ve read to date is The Prosperous Coach, which most coaches would probably giggle reading or hearing. Um, but it is sort of the bible of the coaching industry, and it’s got a very tactical approach to creating, selling, and thriving in a coaching business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thephilanthropycoach.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahheartsphilanthropy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahberger/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fthephilanthropycoach.com%2F