Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.
There is something that I find nonprofit leaders often forget. And this is that you are immensely powerful. You are, in fact, powerful beyond measure. But there are so many ways that our society attempts to strip you of your power. To name a few: Legal and norm limits on your ability to influence policy […]
I have often discussed (along with many others) how nonprofit leaders are (annoyingly) told to behave more like business leaders. But there are many ways in which business leaders could emulate nonprofit leaders. The biggest one is empathy. My guess is that the vast majority of nonprofit leaders are highly empathetic. Typically people start or […]
Nonprofit leaders are, as a rule, a pretty compassionate bunch. By definition, someone who has decided to start or lead a nonprofit probably has a greater ability than the average person to see pain and feel compelled to relieve it. Whether it’s a desire to ease the suffering of homeless populations, or help kids access […]
Did you know that self doubt is one of the biggest hurdles you face? Truly. You think your funders, your board members, your staff, or policymakers are a tough crowd? I bet your toughest crowd is actually you, yourself. You know what I’m talking about. It’s that voice that wakes you up in the middle […]
I know how scared you sometimes get. I see you tossing and turning in the middle of the night, terrified about how you will make payroll. Or worried that you will never attract truly helpful board members. Or working 80 hour weeks because you fear no one else will help. Or anxious to check your […]
My guess is that if you are leading a social change effort, you have likely been denying your own needs, and thus your own power, for far too long. I have found that the people attracted to the social change sector tend to be so concerned about their fellow humans that they more often than […]
So I did something scary this week. I deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time (years, honestly). But I was afraid. I was afraid that if I did, people wouldn’t be able to find me, I’d miss important conversations, I’d feel left out, that it […]
As if 2020 hasn’t been hard enough, this weekend we lost a true social change warrior, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A stalwart for gender equality, she spent her life working to make life better for women. Her death came on the heels of the death of another champion for those who have been held back — […]
There is a palpable sense that people are hitting a wall. 2020 has been exhausting. I think particularly for social change leaders, who have borne the brunt of the tremendous social upheaval this year has brought, there is a sense of looming burnout. So I beg you — take a vacation. Every summer I work […]
We are now halfway through 2020. What an exhausting, overwhelming, anxiety-producing, crazy ride it has been. The question before us now is how will we choose to experience the second half. Because my guess is that it will be equally, if not more, unpredictable. We can choose to be tossed around by it, or we […]
I’m excited to announce that this Thursday I’ll be participating in a Facebook Live conversation with BoardSource about how nonprofit leaders can lead us forward during these unprecedented times. As I’ve been writing on the blog over the last few months, this crisis offers a real opportunity for nonprofit leaders to step into their power […]
These are scary times, there is no doubt. But sometimes, surprisingly, the antidote to fear is looking it squarely in the eyes and moving forward anyway. Believe me, since mid-March I have woken up most mornings with a constant companion — worry — waving from the sidelines. But each of us has the power to […]
Whenever I’m meeting with a prospective client one of the first questions I ask is, “What is your vision for your organization? What do you want ultimately to accomplish.” It never ceases to amaze me how often the answer is either: Some version of “I hadn’t really thought about that”, or worse, “Just a bit […]
