Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.
In my last blog post, I talked about how making decisions from a place of fear is solidly rooting you in the world of scarcity. And that’s the last place you want your nonprofit and your social change work to be. Yet, scarcity is such an omnipresent ethos in the social change sector — from […]
It feels like right now we are surrounded by can’ts. We can’t be near most other humans, we can’t travel as we used to, many can’t find work, we can’t really plan for the future because things seem to change by the minute. The can’ts seem to be everywhere. The sadder part is that in […]
Scarcity thinking is incredibly pervasive in the nonprofit sector. And it makes sense that it would be. Nonprofit leaders have been told for so long that they must scrape by, are not worthy of real investment, and deserve only the leftovers. No wonder the belief that resources are scarce is baked into their DNA. This […]
I’m not gonna lie, last week was rough. As I know you are well aware, there was a palpable sense of fear and anxiety everywhere you looked. Even my friends in other countries reached out to say they, too, were watching our elections in the U.S. with fear and anxiety. No matter who you voted […]
If this year of turmoil has taught us anything, it is that we need those with solutions to be fully empowered. That means you, social change leaders. In order to benefit from the solutions you offer for the many social problems we now face, we need you to reclaim your power as the social change […]
These are really dark days. We are in midst of a global pandemic that shows no sign of weakening, while we simultaneously begin to reckon with centuries of racial violence and inequality. Emotions are running high. People are worn out. There is simply a pallor of exhaustion, hopelessness, overwhelm that pervades much of our world […]
Despite the fact that we are in the midst of a global health and economic crisis, I still believe that abundance is possible. In fact, I believe that an abundance mindset is what is required to lead us beyond this very crisis. Let me explain this heresy. We are currently surrounded by — in fact […]
These are incredibly challenging times. I have often found myself — as I imagine you have as well — worn down, exhausted, overwhelmed, discouraged, depressed by the various blows this pandemic is dealing our world. While for the most part I have tried to stay positive (especially through the many kindnesses and amazing displays of […]
There was a really interesting report in the Chronicle of Philanthropy last week about how nonprofits are losing top talent because they aren’t paying enough. Shocking news, I know. But let’s talk for a minute about what is underlying this and how we might move beyond it. The problem, in my mind, is that nonprofit […]
Recently I was leading the final board meeting of a strategic planning process for one of my clients, and something interesting happened. A board member, who was very much stuck in a scarcity mindset, threatened to derail the very exciting, bigger direction we had charted. The new strategic plan we were presenting to the board […]
Often, and nauseatingly, the nonprofit sector is told to be more like the business sector. From admonishments to be more cost-effective, more innovative, more data driven, it is a common refrain — essentially we are saying “Nonprofit sector, be smart like businesses.” I have often argued against this very limited and patronizing view of the […]
