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 […]
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 […]
There was a really interesting article in Inside Philanthropy last week arguing that nonprofit leaders desperately need sabbaticals, therefore more funders should fund them. I completely agree with the first part, but strongly disagree with the second. Nonprofit leaders, like any human being, need large chunks of time away to rest, recharge, find inspiration again, […]
Now that I’m back from my summer sojourn taking my little Airstream camper all around the Western United States, I’m excited to reconvene our Free Training Series. This month’s training is Stop Resisting Money. If you struggle to attract enough, sustainable money to realize your social change goals, then this training is for you. Because […]
A key step in opening your organization to receive all the abundance — of money, people, influence, and power — you need to achieve your mission is fully embracing what is not working. Wait, what?? My guess is that you don’t like something about yourself as a leader and/or your organization. You might be the […]
If you haven’t attended one of the free trainings in the Social Velocity series about moving from scarcity to abundance, you are missing out! I have been blown away by the energy and engagement of the hundreds of people who have already participated in our monthly free training series. I hope you can join me […]
I have been having so much fun making the rounds of social change, philanthropy and nonprofit-related podcasts. Many amazing podcast hosts have generously invited me on their shows to talk about my new book Reinventing Social Change: Embrace Abundance to Create a Healthier and More Equitable World and how the way we do social change […]
I was talking with a foundation leader the other day who was bogged down with the trauma of the past year – or years, decades even – of blows to progressive social change. He was worn down, disillusioned, demoralized. He felt powerless in the face of what seems, to him, to be a growing list […]
