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 […]
I was talking to a nonprofit leader earlier this week who was unknowingly torturing herself. One part of her had a big vision for growing her nonprofit to reach more people and create change to a broken system. But another part of her felt stuck because she lacked so many things to make that big […]
I received a great comment from a reader of my recent post, “The System for Funding Nonprofits is Crumbling. That’s a Good Thing.” While blog reader Vanessa agreed with my assessment that how we fund social change is horribly broken, she very rightly wanted to know what an individual nonprofit leader can do to overcome […]
Last week Shari Graydon — editor at Informed Opinions, a Canadian nonprofit working to elevate women’s voices in the media — wrote a beautiful article about the opportunity that the pandemic is offering us. She argues that this crisis is an opportunity to decide what we want to take forward with us, and what we […]
These are crazy times. I can’t remember another time in my life where there was such a palpable sense of fear and uncertainty. The rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus has everyone around the world understandably anxious. The fear may be particularly tough in the nonprofit sector, a sector whose omnipresent scarcity mindset makes any […]
Do you give yourself enough love? Social change efforts like yours – nonprofit organizations, foundations, social movements – are so often borne from an act of love. It might be love for your fellow human beings, the animals we share the planet with, or the earth itself. Someone sees an injustice and creates an organization […]
Here’s a radical idea for you: What if the funders you seek, fear and/or worship are actually just like you? What if the money they hold (and you likely covet) came to them not because they are smarter, luckier, more worthy, or more privileged than you, but simply because they believe more strongly than you […]
I have a Giving Tuesday gift for you! From now through this Wednesday, you can get the e-book version of Reinventing Social Change for FREE! I believe so strongly that this book can help social change leaders like you dramatically grow: The amount of money you raise The number of supporters and volunteers in your […]
I love it so much when a fundraiser shifts their mindset from scarcity to abundance and then attracts a huge money windfall. This happened again for another one of my clients just the other day, let’s call him “Bob.” Bob emailed me to tell me that the shift I helped him make to an abundance […]
A funny thing happened to a nonprofit leader the other day. A funder called to let the Executive Director know that their funding priority areas had changed again (Ugh!). So, the ED quickly moved into program development mode to see if she could adapt to keep this funder happy. Not funny, right? And it didn’t […]
Last week I gave you a quick tool for making hard decisions. But did you know that when you’re agonizing over a tough decision what’s actually happening is that your brain and your gut are at war? Your gut knows the right path forward, but your brain is throwing up all kinds of roadblocks, usually […]
Let me be honest for a second. As a social change leader you are the victim of so many defeating messages, on likely a daily basis. If you’re like a lot of my clients, you probably don’t even realize how much you’ve internalized these messages. As a society, we say things to nonprofit leaders like: […]
The thing I love best about my work is seeing absolute transformation. It’s so exciting to see someone who is working to make the world a better place step out of the shadows and into her tremendous power. I saw this transformation again the other day with one of my clients — “Mina”. Mina came […]
I am in love with a new (for me) TV show. I’m sure you’ve heard of it since I’m late to the game — “Ted Lasso” is about a lovable American leader of a troubled English soccer team. But really the show provides an example of how to go through life as a force of […]
The most amazing thing happened for one of my clients the other day — she shifted her fear into $500,000. I was in a session with one of my Strategic Advising clients (let’s call her Beth) who was anxious about an upcoming meeting with a long-time funder. It was time to approach this program officer […]
