Show Notes
In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., welcomes Jasmin Graham, founder, president, and CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences, for an energetic conversation about leadership, vision, representation, and yes, sharks. Jasmin shares how her lifelong connection to the ocean, her curiosity for science, and one fateful Twitter exchange with other Black women shark scientists helped launch an organization dedicated to moving people “from fear to fascination” while broadening participation in marine science. What began as a club quickly became a nonprofit after Jasmin and her co-founders planned to raise $24,000 in a year and instead raised it in a week. That is not a fundraising goal; that is a cannonball into the deep end of donor enthusiasm.
Bill and Jasmin explore how Minorities in Shark Sciences tackles both ocean conservation and systemic barriers in the scientific field. Jasmin explains that marine science often relies on unpaid internships or “pay-to-play” opportunities, creating financial obstacles for students and professionals who do not have a safety net. Her organization offers K–12 outreach, field trips, camps, workshops, internships, fellowships, and hybrid programs for people changing careers or returning after disruptions. The mission is beautifully twofold: conserve endangered sharks and rays while uplifting scientists and conservation leaders from communities that have historically been left out of the boat, off the dock, and nowhere near the grant-funded snorkel gear.
The conversation really gets its sea legs when Jasmin starts myth-busting sharks. While many people immediately picture Jaws, she reminds listeners that most sharks are about three feet long or less, many live in the deep sea, and some are downright adorable, including shy sharks, pajama cat sharks, and bonnetheads. Jasmin also offers a sobering statistic: sharks kill one or two people per year on average, while humans kill around 100 million sharks annually. In other words, sharks are not roaming the oceans looking for snacks; they have much more reason to fear us than we have to fear them.
Bill and Jasmin close by connecting her leadership journey to fundraising success. Jasmin reflects on building a team with different communication styles, noting that each staff member’s strengths naturally aligned with their role, from programming to operations to communications. She also offers a powerful lesson for nonprofit leaders: create a vision that is authentic to your mission, not one designed merely to “sell.” Early on, some people told her that Minorities in Shark Sciences was too narrow, but Jasmin stayed focused on the slice of the pie she was best equipped to change. The takeaway is clear: big ideas attract big support, but precise passion attracts the right support. Stay true to the mission, find donors who share it, and then go make waves.
More from First Day Podcast
In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Christy Coulter, MA, CFRM, CEO of Apex Legacy Consulting and a faculty member at The Fund Raising School, to discuss the growing importance of planned gift fundraising. Once viewed as a complicated area that many nonprofits were reluctant to pursue, planned giving is attracting renewed interest as organizations consider the opportunities associated with the great wealth transfer. Coulter explains that an estimated $120 trillion in wealth could change hands over the next 20 to 30 years, much of it held in non-cash assets. As nonprofit leaders recognize the potential of these gifts, fundraisers must demonstrate how planned giving can strengthen long-term sustainability without compromising immediate fundraising priorities.
In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Jasmin Johnson, executive director and founding staff member of the Baton Rouge Area Youth Network, to discuss fundraising for intermediary organizations. Unlike nonprofits that provide direct services, intermediaries strengthen the organizations doing that work through coordination, partnerships, and capacity building. Johnson explains how the Baton Rouge Area Youth Network, known as BRAYN, began as a volunteer-led network of out-of-school-time programs and expanded to connect educators, health care providers, mental health organizations, and other youth-serving partners. Its four pillars, connect, strengthen, align, and sustain, frame a distinctive fundraising challenge: helping donors understand the value of an organization whose impact happens through the work of others.
In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Carla Knorowski, Ph.D., a veteran fundraiser and advancement leader whose work has included institutions such as The Henry Ford, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and the U.S.-based foundation supporting Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Knorowski shares how she became involved with fundraising for Notre-Dame shortly before the devastating April 2019 fire and how the crisis transformed an effort originally focused on long-term support into an urgent global campaign to save, restore, and rebuild one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks. The experience offers fundraisers a vivid example of how powerful storytelling can connect donors to a mission, even when they may live thousands of miles away from the organization or cause.
In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Angela Seaworth, Ph.D., MBA, ACFRE, Instructional Associate Professor at the Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University, to explore how fundraisers can move beyond annual and major gifts toward transformational giving. Seaworth explains that a transformational gift is not defined by a particular dollar amount. While headlines may focus on gifts of $20 million, $50 million, or more; a $250,000 gift, or even a much smaller investment, can be transformational if it changes an organization’s trajectory, expands its capacity, or makes exponential impact possible. The key is for each nonprofit to define transformational giving in the context of its own mission, scale, and ambitions.
In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Jeff Grandy, Vice President of Client Development at Catapult Fundraising, to discuss why every nonprofit should be thinking seriously about legacy giving, and why the best planned gift prospects may already be hiding in plain sight. Grandy explains that while surprise million-dollar bequests make headlines, they are not the typical story. More often, legacy donors are ordinary, deeply committed supporters whose long-term loyalty to an organization matters far more than the size of their annual gifts.