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 […]
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 […]
2020 continues to uncover the many social problems we need to solve, and broken systems we need to reinvent. This is crystal clear most recently with the horrific wildfires that have demonstrated how desperate we are for a solution to climate change. 2020 has been crisis after crisis, but these crises are also incredible opportunities. […]
I have been feeling lately that we social changemakers are on the cusp of something really big and new. It is an opportunity — an opportunity we have likely been training for our entire lives — to remake the world in ways we could formerly only imagine. Social change leaders, who have for so long […]
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 […]
These past few weeks have been heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. The protests around the country, around the world, fighting for racial justice and equality are growing by size and number every day. And those protests are already starting to result in some policy changes that only a couple of weeks ago felt […]
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 […]
There is much discussion lately about the financial doom that this pandemic is unleashing on nonprofits. Cancelled galas, shrinking corporate donations, fearful foundation donors, disappearing government coffers. It seems that the entire way nonprofits and social change are funded might be crumbling before our eyes. It’s about time! That’s because how money flows to the […]
Perhaps one of the worst things about this pandemic is that in practicing social distancing for days on end we begin to believe that we are alone. Zoom calls, emails and conversations with the same few people you are quarantining with can only get you so far. The silence, the physical distance from staff, board, […]
Did you know that when you choose to focus on the positive aspects of a difficult situation you can transform it? Like when you are trying to re-engage an errant board member. You could choose to focus on their many absences, how frustrating they can sometimes be, the countless missed opportunities they’ve created. Or, you […]
I love to imagine things that I want to come true. As you well know, I’m a huge proponent of the tremendous power of imagination (here and here) to create the world you want. I’m telling you, there is enormous power here for you, too. Lately I’ve been really excited about imagining an army of […]
I will admit that I am often the QUEEN of going it alone. I sometimes (ok, maybe more often than I’d like to admit) believe that it’s all up to me. And I see this so often in social change leaders just like you who unknowingly suffer from the “Go it Alone” mentality. This mentality […]
Do you suffer from the misguided belief that many nonprofit and philanthropic leaders do? The belief that you can save someone else – your clients, your staff, the world – before you save yourself. The truth is that you can’t. Because you have to first fully embrace and address your own needs before you have […]
There is an incredibly powerful tool in your possession, but I bet you rarely use it. Your ability to imagine the world you want to see. So often as social change leaders we focus on the problems we see in the world – the inequities, the injustice, the illness, the brokenness. The problems are big […]
“Joy” is such a foreign word in the nonprofit sector. Let’s be honest – in the world in general, especially right now. It may feel, as you work tirelessly to fix what ails the world, that you are surrounded by everything but joy — anxiety, frustration, depression, exhaustion. But the fact is, you will be […]
I’ve been thinking about energy a lot lately. Not the wall socket variety, but the energy that flows between two human beings – like you and your prospective funder. Think about the last time you met with a potential funder. Picture that meeting – whether it was in person, over the phone or (everyone’s favorite) […]
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’ve been on a journey for the last 5 years – likely for my whole life – back to my power. It’s been a journey from worrying what others think, to feeling rock solid in my own knowledge. A journey from doing what others think I should do, to doing only what brings me joy. […]
