Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.
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 […]
This summer, after much convincing, one of my clients (who was close to burnout) reluctantly took a long weekend off. She said it felt amazing. But she also felt guilty. It is insane that three very short days away felt somehow wrong to this beleaguered nonprofit leader. But, her plight, nonprofit leader burnout, is so […]
There is a fairly ubiquitous notion about the nonprofit sector. We as a society often believe (either consciously or subconsciously) that nonprofit leaders and their work are less valuable. Nonprofit leaders have been told for so long that they must scrape by without the amount of funding, people, or attention that they truly require. But […]
I have said many times before that the social change system is broken. Because of deep historical, normative, and structural limits placed on social change leaders for decades, an overwhelming feeling of scarcity pervades the social change sector. Nonprofit leaders and funders alike believe that there simply is “never enough.” There is never enough money, […]
Note: I was asked by the Council on Foundations to blog about their “Leading Together Conference” last week. My post that follows originally appeared on their website here. I came away from the second day of the Council on Foundations’ Leading Together 2021 conference with an enormous amount of hope. Hope in humanity and in […]
If you are feeling — as we hit the middle of 2021, a year almost as difficult as 2020 — exhausted, overwhelmed, worn out, you are not alone. Because I see you. I see you hang up after a call with a discouraging funder and put your head in your hands. I see you reliving […]
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 […]
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 […]
One of the things I’ve been working on lately in my coaching practice with nonprofit leaders is finding the balance between truth and hope. This is because I think it’s much easier to create momentum for change if truth is laced with hope. And also because I believe we need a lot more of both […]
In the age of Big Data there has been a real push among funders, government, and thought leaders to encourage nonprofit leaders to make decisions based on data. I have been among the many who have heralded the importance of gathering and using data to improve performance. And I still believe data is incredibly important. […]
One of the many books I read on my social media hiatus last Fall, was Tara Mohr’s Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create and Lead. Her argument is that there are countless women out there who could be contributing so much more to society but are holding themselves back […]
I have a heavy heart today. I found out yesterday that my first boss, long-time mentor, and most influential teacher of all things nonprofit management died over the weekend. Mary Jubitz was the CEO of SMART (Start Making a Reader Today), a statewide early literacy nonprofit in Portland, Oregon. I met Mary when, as a […]
One thing that most nonprofit leaders have in common is that they often have at least one (or more than one) challenging board member. You know — the one who doesn’t show up for board meetings, or doesn’t do what she says she’ll do, or never makes a contribution, or derails meetings with his own agenda. […]
