Do you ever feel like you have to constantly babysit your team instead of focusing on your own job? It's like you can't take your eyes off them, so you always find yourself in their work and in their decisions, double-checking everything.

If that's your case, then this episode is for nonprofit leaders like yourself. I'm bringing five lessons from past clients and past podcast episodes to help you build high-performance nonprofit people managers.

This way, you'll get to finally operate as the leader and executive you are, and not the babysitter you've been forced to be.

▶️ Build Teams that Don't Need Babysitting 

▶️ Key Points:

0:01:20 What teams that need babysitting look like

0:04:14 Building trust

0:05:09 Providing clarity

0:05:55 Building skills

0:06:59 Developing your leaders

0:08:08 Using coaching techniques

Resources from this episode:

 If you want my support  in building teams that are aligned, efficient, and consistent, fill out this form so we can work together on your organization.

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

Your nonprofit has a strong 2026 strategy. But is your team ready to bring it to life? If your team isn't fully equipped to deliver on your goals, you could be missing the bridge between strategy and success.

That's why, in this episode, I'm sharing a little of what it takes to align your L&D efforts and your nonprofit strategy by breaking down the five steps you can take to build a training plan that enables your organization and your people to achieve those 2026 goals.

▶️ Five Steps to Align Your People Development Efforts with Your Nonprofit Strategy

▶️ Key Points:

01:20 The value of getting support to build  the right training plan

04:38 Step 1: Review your organization's strategies

05:15 Step 2: Define what your people need to do

05:48 Step 3: Identify the gaps, roadblocks, or pain points

07:08 Step 4: Prioritize the needs

08:41 Step 5: Determine how to close the gaps

Resources from this episode:

 If you want to learn more about how I can support you  in creating a plan for your team, fill out this form. 

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

We have all disagreed with our nonprofit stakeholders at some point in our careers,  but speaking up and sharing that disagreement can feel hard because we tend to want to avoid conflict and not burn any bridges.

However, there are times when voicing your disagreement is necessary because it's what's best for the organization and the mission.

That's why, in this episode, I'm sharing a 4-step method to disagree with your stakeholders without causing division, along with powerful tips to make these conversations successful.

▶️ How to Say "This Isn't a Training Issue" Without Burning Bridges with Your Nonprofit Stakeholders

▶️ Key Points:

03:02 The importance of having a strong relationship with your stakeholders

04:34  When you need to speak up if you disagree

06:36 Step 1: Discover

07:34 Step 2: Align

08:21 Step 3: Compliment

09:11 Step 4: Propose

11:48 How you can prepare yourself for these conversations

13:12 Five things to keep in mind when having these conversations

Resources from this episode:

Catch up with these episodes to learn how to build a strong relationship with your stakeholders:

• Episode 134: What It Means to Be a Good Partner in Learning and Development
• Episode 108: 3 Ways to Turn Your Subject Matter Expert into Your Biggest Asset
• Episode 54: How Can Learning and Development Teams Work with Subject Matter Experts Without Frustration?

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective Catalyst Tier this November to attend our upcoming group coaching session: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

Have you ever created a training only to launch it into the world and be met with crickets?

I see this happen often in learning and development. However,  I know how hard you work, and I know you're doing good, meaningful work in the nonprofit sector, so I don't want you to release a learning experience and be met with silence.

That's why, in this episode, I'm joined by Hannah Clark, Marketing for Learning® expert and strategist, and podcast host.  We talk about how you can avoid that silence and how you can create and market your learning so it really resonates with your audience and has  the impact it's intended to make.

▶️ Avoid the Silence: How to Create and Market Your Learning So It Resonates with Hannah Clark 

▶️ Key Points:

03:16 Hannah's love for marketing and how she fell into the L&D niche

07:39 Why learning experiences fail or fall flat

10:02 How to make sure you create learning that resonates

17:14 What to do to get your learning experience in front of learners

24:27 Copywriting and design: how to use these crucial marketing tactics

28:38 Simple tips for when marketing feels overwhelming

Resources from this episode:

Tune in to Hannah Clark's podcast, Marketing for Learning®, which I love.

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Hannah

LinkedIn: Hannah Clark

Website: maas-marketing.co.uk

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

Creating impactful training programs for nonprofit teams takes more than good intentions; it takes strategy. 

In this episode of Learning for Good, we’re diving deep into the hidden and high costs of getting training wrong. From budget overruns to burnout, I’m breaking down what nonprofit leaders risk when they don’t start with the right diagnosis—and how to get it right.

This conversation is especially critical for leaders focused on nonprofit leadership development, staff training and development, and building a culture of learning that drives mission impact. Whether you're exploring learning and development strategies or already implementing instructional design in nonprofit organizations, this episode gives you a practical lens for avoiding costly missteps.

▶️ Key Points:

01:52 Training doesn't always work

02:31 Wasted resources

06:32 Hidden costs

08:20 Missed impact

09:21 How to ensure you don't build the wrong thing

Resources from this episode:

Catch up with Episode 152: When Training Works and When It Doesn't and Episode 154: Why So Many Trainings Fail.

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective Catalyst Tier before November to attend our group coaching session around solving the right problems with the right solutions:  https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

Sometimes, when we work with nonprofit executive leaders, it's easy to jump to an assumption about what they thought or what they wanted. The problem is that when we act on that, things don't turn out the way either of us expects.

I don't want that to be you, so in this episode, I'm having a chat with Danika Mitcham, the Vice President of Supporter Operations at Compassion International. We delve into what nonprofit executives really want from learning and development, their expectations, and what we may be assuming wrong.

▶️ What Executives Really Want from L&D with Danika Mitcham 

▶️ Key Points:

02:49 Lessons that shaped Danika's approach  to work and leadership

06:43 L&D's critical role in a nonprofit organization's strategy

09:25 Why Danika invests in training as a Nonprofit Executive 

13:09 Balancing short-term pressures with long-term sustainability

16:14 What Danika looks for when she invests in training

18:46 The importance of measuring impact and a helpful tip

21:12 What L&D teams and executives should know about working together

Resources from this episode:

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective Catalyst Tier before November to attend our group coaching session around solving the right problems with the right solutions: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Danika

LinkedIn: Danika Mitcham

Website: compassion.com

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

If you are a nonprofit L&D pro, you know how to design learning experiences. You've got the experience. Yet, sometimes the trainings we spend time and money creating don't work.

And if you are a nonprofit leader, you want to ensure that what you spend valuable time and resources on works.

Over the years,  I've spent a lot of time thinking about this issue, and that's why in this episode, we're exploring the reasons why so many trainings fail and how to avoid that outcome, because your mission depends on it.

▶️ Why So Many Trainings Fail 

▶️ Key Points:

01:20 The reality of unsuccessful trainings

03:42 #1 Solving the wrong problem

06:12 #2 The scope is just too big

07:31 #3 Behavior change principles are missing 

09:35 #4 The lack of wraparound support

10:16 #5 Not actually measuring anything meaningful

Resources from this episode:

Find the full Workplace Learning Report 2025 here.

Catch up with episode 132, Translating Behavior Science into L&D Strategy: Lessons from Top Experts, to avoid reason #3.

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective Catalyst Tier before November to attend our group coaching session on this topic: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

Empathy might be one of the most essential skills for learning designers, and there's no better place to learn it than design thinking. That's why, in this episode, I am joined by Sheryl Cababa, a design researcher and strategist, and the Chief Strategy Officer at Optimistic Design, to give us some insight into her process.

She clarifies what design thinking is and what it entails, how it can help us design better learning solutions and navigate stakeholders in the decision-making process, and three principles that will get you a level deeper in the analysis phase.

▶️ 3 Design Thinking Principles for Learning & Development Pros with Sheryl Cababa 

▶️ Key Points:

03:37 How Sheryl is helping clients reimagine education with design

08:31 Design thinking or human-centered design in a nutshell

12:20 The significant benefits of using a design thinking approach in L&D

17:52 Understand everyone's incentives

19:42 Always center the end user in your work

20:45 Think about your most extreme users

24:28 Valuable resources to get started with design thinking

Resources from this episode:

Get Sheryl's book Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking For Designers.

For a toolkit with practical tips on applying human-centered design, access IDEO's Design Kit.

For a breakdown of what it means to do research around design and user experience, check out the book: Just Enough Research by Erika Hall.

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Sheryl

LinkedIn: Sheryl Cababa

Website: optimistic.design

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

Training is often the go-to solution in our nonprofits. But what if I told you that training isn't always the right solution?

In this episode, I discuss why jumping to solutions without first diagnosing the problem can be a bad idea, and I share some situations where training works well and others where a different solution is necessary.

▶️ When Training Works and When It Doesn't 

▶️ Key Points:

01:20 Training may not be the right solution

02:27 What must always be the first step

03:49 Four good use cases for training

10:02 Five times when training doesn't work

12:11 Where you can learn to know when to use training

Resources from this episode:

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective Catalyst Tier before November to attend our group coaching session on this topic: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms

When we think of a high-performance team, we usually think of things like productivity, how much effort people are putting in, accountability, and higher outputs and profits. All that is important, but there is one other thing without which a team will never be high-performing.

In this episode, I sit down with Ashley Cox, a leadership mentor who equips women to build high-performance teams they trust. She shares what the missing piece is for your team, as well as practical strategies to implement this key ingredient and ensure your team's success.

▶️ Team Struggling to Meet Expectations? THIS is the Missing Piece with Ashley Cox 

▶️ Key Points:

02:02 How Ashley's career started down an unexpected but welcome path

05:31 THE missing piece to building a high-performing team

09:12 The Triangle of Trust framework for high performance

11:16 Strategies for leaders to build trust in their team

16:07 Strategies for leaders to earn and maintain their team's trust

20:43 The value of having support as you work on building trust

22:46 Strategies to foster trust among team members

26:46 Signs that you succeeded in  creating high trust in your team

30:55 The impact ripples of not building trust among your teams

33:48 Vulnerability isn't a weakness

Resources from this episode:

Learn more about Ashley's book, Transform Your Stories.

Join the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective: https://www.skillmastersmarket.com/nonprofit-learning-and-development-collective

Was this episode helpful? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, follow and leave a review! 👇👇👇

Know anyone who would benefit from this episode? SHARE this with your friends. 🔗

Connect with Guest

LinkedIn: Ashley Cox

Website: ashleycox.co

Podcast: The Impact Ripple

Connect with Heather

LinkedIn: Heather Burright

Website: skillmastersmarket.com

Book an interest call with Heather here.

Learning for Good is the podcast for nonprofit leaders seeking practical L&D solutions. Hosted by Heather, an experienced consultant, we dive into leadership development, instructional design, change management, and staff management strategies tailored to nonprofit organizations.

Discover how to implement impactful learning solutions, foster belonging, and influence senior leaders. Each episode provides the tools you need to confidently navigate high-level conversations and drive meaningful change within your organization.

Let’s create lasting impact through innovative L&D solutions!

Produced by Ideablossoms