In a recent survey, 30% of departing executive directors reported that they were leaving because of their boards of directors.  Do boards have a big part to play in the recent leadership turnover that’s happening across the country?  Sounds like it!  Sometimes boards forget that their CEOs are human beings with feelings and needs and children at home and bills to pay.  How can boards better support their nonprofit leaders?  How can boards set up their new executive directors for success?  In this revealing conversation with Olliette Murry-Drobot of 02 Strategic Partners and Meg Crosby of PeopleCap Advisors, we’ll look at ways that boards can keep their executive directors fed, watered, and happy!

In the nonprofit sector, we can sometimes overuse words to the point where they completely lose their meaning.  Other times, words have an underlying connotation that can alienate your stakeholders.  And then there are those pesky words that no one understands, but we use them anyway to sound smart!  How does this impact our communication with funders, clients, and staff?  Does this really help us effectively share our vision and impact with those we serve?  (Probably not.)  In this lively conversation with April Carter of Momentum Nonprofit Partners and Carrie Burke of Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation, we look at words and phrases that we should all consider rethinking or eliminating.  This is a continuation of the conversation from our first season, and we have even more words and phrases that get under our skin!

Do you feel like your organization is invisible to the general public?  Are you having a hard time fundraising because people just don’t know what your organization does?  Time to get a plan together to fight for public awareness!  In this episode, Marvin Stockwell of Champion the Cause and Denzel Alexander of KQ Communications talk about how to employ earned and paid media, providing tips on effectively engaging social media, reporters, and consultants to get your nonprofit out from under its invisibility cloak!

In an era of quiet quitting and the “Great Resignation,” many nonprofit employees are daydreaming about being their own boss.  Being a nonprofit consultant, though, isn’t just a glorious life of lounging poolside drinking margaritas while you write a fund development plan for a nonprofit client!  The consultant life takes discipline, humility, gumption, and a whole lot of money management!  Join national fundraising consultants Mel & Pearl Shaw as they de-mystify the consulting life and provide guidance to wannabe nonprofit consultants.  Margaritas not included!

Nonprofits need to engage at the local, state, and federal level to ensure that those laws are fair, support nonprofits, and reduce harm to the communities they serve.  Collectively, the million+ nonprofits in the United States have a lot of power, but we have to use it or we could lose it! Despite the importance of public policy to the welfare of our nonprofits and our communities, many nonprofit leaders shy away from engaging in public policy.  There is vast misunderstanding about what 501(c)3 nonprofits can and cannot do, and this episode sheds light on what nonprofits can do related to public policy and advocacy, why it matters, and what’s at stake.  Join Jessica Mendieta and David L. Thompson from National Council of Nonprofits as they set the record straight on this important topic!

Fundraising doesn’t sound like it carries a lot of risk, but it does!  From having a secure donation processing platform to ensuring donor privacy to having a codified resource development plan, nonprofits must be mindful of the risks and liabilities associated with fundraising.  In this episode, we talk with risk management expert Ted Bilich of Risk Alternatives about the do’s and don’ts of fundraising through the lens of risk and resiliency.  We also discuss that darn impending recession that they keep warning us about and how that will impact your organization’s fundraising! 

In a work environment, everyone is responsible for ensuring that the organizational culture is healthy and rewarding.  Though ultimately the buck stops with the leader of your nonprofit, every employee must take personal accountability for their role in perpetuating healthy or unhealthy workplaces.  Being mindful of how your own actions impact the culture is important, and self-awareness is a skill that can be constantly improved. In this episode, we are joined by Foluke Houston-Gaddis of P³ Human Capital Solutions, who will discuss how to increase your self-awareness as a staff member so that you can successfully contribute to a positive work environment and not be “that employee.”

Human resources can be the most complicated and least fun part of a leader’s job, and it’s even more difficult when you have to manage a messy employee—or a bunch of them! Messy employees may not have malicious intent, but they can cause all sorts of problems within your organization.  Manipulation, incompetence, insubordination, poor people skills, negative worldviews, and other traits are messy enough, but sometimes leaders make the mess even bigger by not addressing the problems right in front of them.  In this episode, we talk with Dr. Bev Vitali of Christian Brothers University and Cassandra Webster of Memphis Challenge about how to effectively manage “messy” employees. 

If you’ve ever worked in a toxic workplace, you know how detrimental this can be to you and the organization as a whole.  Whether it’s an abusive boss, a culture driven by unhealthy competition, or just way too much gossip at the water cooler, toxic organizations can zap your energy and make you run for the door.  The worst part of all of this?  Toxicity in your nonprofit organization ultimately hurts the communities you serve by distracting everyone from the mission.  Turnover increases, work productivity lowers, and staff and volunteers can lose their passion for the cause.  What’s a leader (or staff member) to do?  In this episode, we speak with Brittanie Young, Founder of Rejuvenate HR, about what to do if you find yourself in the middle of a toxic organization!

With thousands of nonprofits, churches, and government agencies fighting poverty in our community, why is poverty still so prevalent? Are we simply putting Band-Aids on the problems without actually addressing the systemic roots of poverty?  In this episode, guests Ayanna Johnson-Watkins of MICAH and Sutton Mora of Community Foundation of Greater Memphis discuss why our current system isn’t producing the results we want to see.  We take a critical look at what’s not working and identify nonprofit and philanthropy’s role in changing the narrative.