Jun 25, 2025
Many nonprofits invest valuable time and money into messaging that never quite connects. In today's episode, Josh Gryniewicz interviews Kurt Shaw about innovative strategies for finding and amplifying the voices that inspire action and change. You'll learn practical techniques for building trust, co-creating stories with community members, and using both fictional and non-fictional narratives to reveal deeper truths that challenge the status quo and create more genuine, transformative communication.
Want to suggest a topic, guest, or nonprofit organization for an upcoming episode? Send an email with the subject "NPFX suggestion" to contact@ipmadvancement.com.
Additional Resources
[NPFX] Flipping the Script: Using
Narrative Strategy to Improve Messaging and Prevent Donor
Attrition
https://www.ipmadvancement.com/npfx/flipping-the-script-using-narrative-strategy-to-improve-messaging-and-prevent-donor-attrition
[NPFX] When Your Nonprofit's Case
for Support Just Isn't Working
https://www.ipmadvancement.com/npfx/when-your-nonprofits-case-for-support-just-isnt-working
Josh Gryniewicz, founder of Odd Duck,
a storytelling for social change consultancy, has spent his career
in nonprofit. He served as the communication director for Cure
Violence, an internationally renowned violence prevention program
featured in the award-winning film The Interrupters.
Josh helmed the rebrand of Integrate Health, a global health
initiative in West Africa, helping increase their budget by nearly
$1 million. Most recently, Josh led communication efforts for Data
Across Sectors for Health (DASH), a program focused on national
multi-sector data sharing to address social determinants of health.
He is the co-author of the national bestseller, Interrupting Violence, a moving story of
redemption and social change.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgryniewicz/
https://oddduck.io/
Kurt Shaw studied
philosophy at Williams and classics at Harvard, but his most
formative education came from two years in Central American refugee
camps and Colombian slums, where he found the thinking of poor and
marginalized people more compelling than that of many
philosophers. Kurt built the world’s largest network of
grassroots organizations serving street children, helping reduce
the number of kids living on Latin American streets. With
co-director Rita da Silva at Usina da Imaginação, he pioneered
collaborative filmmaking with youth — directing the first feature
made entirely by ex-child soldiers, producing an indigenous
telenovela in Bolivia, and creating the first fictional film in the
Amazonian Tukano language. Their film The Princess in the Alleyway was named Best
Film of 2017 by the Subversive Cinema Society, and their 2019
documentary The Other Side of the Other aired for two
years on Brazilian public TV. In addition to publishing
academic articles, novels, and books on topics from political
philosophy to Amazonian epidemiology, he’s also produced hip-hop
and pop albums, and earned a Fulbright, Harvard’s First Decade
Award, the Freedom to Create Prize, and the UN Intercultural
Innovation Award. In 2022, he was named an Academic Visitor at
Oxford University.
https://usinadaimaginacao.org/
https://br.linkedin.com/company/usina-da-imagina%C3%A7%C3%A3o/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7QgkCOElSc
https://shinealight.org
Russ Phaneuf, a
co-founder of IPM Advancement, has a background in higher education
development, with positions at the University of Hartford, Northern
Arizona University, and Thunderbird School of Global Management. As
IPM's managing director & chief strategist, Russ serves as lead
fundraising strategist, award-winning content creator, and program
analyst specializing in applied system dynamics.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russphaneuf/
Rich Frazier has worked
in the nonprofit sector for over 35 years. In his roles as senior
consultant with IPM Advancement and founder of VisionConnect LLC, Rich offers extensive
understanding and knowledge in capital campaigns, fund development,
strategic planning, and board of directors development.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richfrazier/
https://www.visionconnectllc.com/