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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
As a nonprofit leader, you are likely suffering under the delusion that you have little power. For far too long, nonprofit leaders have been operating from the (incorrect) belief that they are largely powerless to impact much beyond their own boardroom (and sometimes not even there). I talked about the philanthropic side of this feeling […]
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 […]
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 […]
