NGO Soul + Strategy

Summary

How can nonprofit organizations leverage human emotions to enhance the impact of their campaigns?

What can NGOs learn from cognitive science to create more effective, empathetic communication strategies during a time of poly-crisis?

How can organizations shift from traditional advocacy approaches to more agile, psychology-driven methods for mobilizing communities?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Diya Deb, Executive Director at MindWorks Lab, about harnessing the power of cognitive science to transform nonprofit campaigning in today's challenging landscape.

Diya's Bio:

• Executive Director of MindWorks Lab, a global cognitive science innovation lab incubated at Greenpeace
• Nearly two decades of experience in grassroots and international nonprofit leadership
• Former Campaign Director at Greenpeace India and Amnesty International India
• Led global youth mobilization efforts alongside Indian Nobel Peace Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi
• Co-founder of PowerSouth, an initiative focused on amplifying women's leadership in grassroots movements
• Advisor to multiple nonprofits on strategy, advocacy, and decolonizing research practices

We Discuss:

• Diya reflects on how MindWorks has grown since its early days within Greenpeace, evolving from theoretical frameworks to hands-on applications in the field.
• Diya highlights the urgency of adapting campaigning strategies to the current era of poly-crises, where overlapping global challenges are exhausting communities and donors alike.
• MindWorks has pivoted to focus on the role of emotions like anger and powerlessness in shaping people's responses to crises, drawing on new case studies from India and Indonesia.
• She explains how MindWorks seeks to decolonize research practices, shifting away from Global North-centric methodologies by grounding their work in diverse cultural contexts, especially in East Asia.
• The conversation explores MindWorks’ unique approach to agile campaigning, emphasizing rapid experimentation and applying cognitive science insights to their internal operations.
• Diya shares her thoughts on the implications of this research for philanthropy, urging funders to shift towards more adaptive, emotionally resonant approaches to support nonprofit campaigns.

Quotes

“Doomsday communications have clearly proven not to work”

“We focus on social empathy as an enabler for activism”

Resources:

MindWorks Lab Website

Diya Deb's LinkedIn Profile

YouTube video of this podcast (ADD LINK!)

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Or email Tosca at [email protected] if you want to talk about your social sector organization’s needs, challenges, and opportunities.

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Summary

What are the key principles of African leadership that nonprofit leaders globally could benefit from adopting?

How does the African concept of Ubuntu translate into practical leadership strategies for nonprofit organizations?

How does African leadership balance individual and collective success, and how might nonprofit teams benefit from seeking the same balance?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Albert Anoubon Momo, axecutive, author, and board member, about leadership lessons we can all learn from African cultures.

Albert's Bio:

• Co-founder of a brand new company offering geospatial consulting services to emerging economies
• Former Vice President and Executive Director, Emerging Markets and Funded Projects at the Trimble company
• Former Director of Institutional Business Development at Trimble
• Management and Program Analyst at USAID
• Albert played multiple other roles as senior geo-scientist and GIS and software engineer, including at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inside the US Government.

We discuss: 

• Albert has been a student of leadership from early adult life onwards, and he runs a large Facebook group on leadership. His experience has been primarily in the private sector , though he also plays governance roles in the nonprofit sphere, such as his role Board Chair of Cadasta (where Tosca is also on the board)
• Albert urges listeners to focus on what the African continent can bring to the rest of the world, and not to assume Africa just consumes from the rest of the world (especially when it comes to West-influenced leadership models)
• Subregions within the huge continent of Africa have had different influences on leadership approaches and practices: in Northern Africa and the Sahel, Islamic influences have prevailed while French colonizers brought more hierarchically oriented thinking to leadership; in coastal Africa, colonizers introduced Christianity which persists till today; and in Southern and Eastern Africa, Zulu-inspired Ubuntu philosophy has dominated
• Ubuntu as the most well known African philosophy emphasizes interdependence, solidarity, shared community, and communalism (also within organizational leadership and management) – different from the individualism more prevalent in Western societies
• What Western leadership practices can learn from African leadership approaches regarding employee engagement, shared value, shared futures, solidarity, and humanism
• In African cultures, traditionally councils of elders have played an important conflict resolution role; it is beneficial for global North/Western nonprofits to take account of these Councils' approach to seeking win-win resolutions rather than zero-sum litigation, their focus on the common good, common ground and shared goals.

Resources:

Albert’s LinkedIn Profile

Albert's Facebook group on Leadership

Book

YouTube video of this podcast

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Summary

Is it that people resist change? That they fear change? Or rather that people fear loss?

As a change management consultant, what is the most difficult or frustrating while supporting clients with change management efforts?

What is one word most alive right now in the world of change management support?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Michael Randel, Founder of Randel Consulting Associates, on mastering the ever-complex world of organizational change management.

Michael's Bio

• Owner of Randel Consulting Associates, a boutique consulting firm that supports change processes across sectors
• Former Change Consultant in the World Bank's Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness department
• Worked for a Danish development agency in South-East Asia
• Started as an  Organizational Development practitioner in South Africa, at the YMCA during the anti-apartheid struggle.

We discuss 

• Michael worked as a young professional in the South African YMCA youth organization during South Africa’s apartheid struggles, which was a formative experience for him. It launched his career in change management
• He consults on change management across the private, public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. His clients all have in common: a social purpose.
• Early in his career, he discovered that we overestimate rationality in change management; instead, emotion is a significant factor. We also are simply unable to foresee all factors that will be at play in our change-planning efforts
• Michael uses a Gestalt approach in his work: in this approach, the forces that energize change are faced with forces that resist change – and Lewin’s forcefield analysis tends to apply. Put simply: people tolerate the current state of affairs till it is no longer tolerable. 
• The Gestalt approach stipulates that we may need to intervene at the individual, team, unit organization, or sector level (or a combination)
• Michael appreciates Rick Maurer’s framework on resisting change, which emphasizes 3 factors, embodied in ‘I don’t get it’; ‘I don’t like it’; and ‘I don’t like you’. Each requires its response – and the three should not be confused.

Quotes:

Eisenhower’s quote (paraphrased here) is relevant in change management: “Plans are useless, but the process of planning is useful”

Resources:

Michael’s LinkedIn Profile

Randel Consulting Associates Website

Blog post: Resistance to change is often misunderstood

YouTube video of this podcast

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Summary

What does it Busara's tagline mean: 'transformational leadership, from the inside out'?

To what extent are there truly different global south-normed leadership models?

Does personality still play an important role as well, in addition to national or regional cultural differences in leadership approaches?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Taaka Awori, Founder & CEO of Busara Africa, a leadership development services company, on redefining leadership in Africa.

Taaka's Bio:

• Founder and CEO of Busara Africa, a pan-African leadership development firm based in Accra, Ghana
• Author of the book Leadership Redefined: Untold Stories
• Associate Certified Coach with International Coaching Federation (ICF)
• Podcast host of Leadership Redefined: Untold Stories
• Member of the editorial board of Coaching Perspectives
• Chair of the board of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
• Former Country Director of AAI
• Assistant Social Development Adviser, DFID (now called FCDO)
• Degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities

We discuss: 

• Taaka started specializing in leadership development and organizational development, after discovering as a Country Director at ActionAid that what was most needed from her was good leadership – not any technical specialization
• Busara’s tagline is - transformational leadership from the inside out – signals that leadership starts with self-awareness and self-regulation
• Equally, good leadership is a combination of not just intellect or analytical capabilities, but also innate and learned wisdom, and the heart
• Other premises of Busara: let’s build on the examples of excellent leadership in Africa (not the negative examples); and feminist leadership
• 70% of Busara’s clients are NGOs; the rest are private sector and government agencies
• How are African leadership models distinct, if in any way, from global North-formed models? 
• Another distinct element is the explicit inclusion of politization and thus the need for leaders to be aware of this, and to navigate it in a mission focused manner 
• Busara is also interested to learn more about what’s to be learned from leaders of informal, non-registered organizations: informal worker associations, social movements and networks
• Interesting sub-continental dimensions of leadership within the African continent

Resources:

Taaka’s LinkedIn Profile

Taaka’s Website

Taaka’s book: Leadership Redefined: Untold Stories

Leadership in Africa Redefined Podcast

Busara Africa Website

YouTube video 

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Summary

How should INGOs discern what roles are still relevant, legitimate, and needed, at this moment in civil society history?­­ 

And which roles they therefore  should *stop* playing?

Is there more here, over and beyond stopping service delivery? (Which on its own is quite the shift)

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Dylan Mathews, Chief Executive Officer at Peace Direct. Peace Direct has been quite vocal, and has acted as a thought leader on this role question -- which I consider fundamental, and which I don't see INGOs facing head-on sufficiently yet.

Dylan's Bio:

• Chief Executive Officer of Peace Direct 
• Director of International Programs at Y Care International
• Program Manager at CARE
• Worked on conflict countries and issues with Landmine Action, Oxford Research Group, and the British Red Cross

We discuss: 

• While the sector is changing, once again, on several fronts (in terms of programming approaches, shifting authority/decision rights to the place of program impact representation, biz models, operating models etc.), what seems to get less attention is whether the organization should go through a fundamental role shift
• Common sense would say role and function, as well as strategy, should come before the other types of changes mentioned above
• One organization that is advocating that NGOs need to tackle the fundamental question of role shift is PeaceDirect, with Dylan Mathews as its leader. 
• So what roles are still appropriate, especially for global North-founded INGOs?
• Dylan explains the nine roles that Peace Direct thinks are still appropriate for INGOs 
• What are, importantly, the implications of a change in role and function for, for instance, board competencies and mindsets, organizational size, staff competency profiles, and culture?
• Dylan shares what gives him hope as INGOs traverse this journey, but also what makes him skeptical that the role shifts Peace Direct points to will actually take hold among INGOs,

Resources:

Peace Direct Website

Dylan’s LinkedIn Profile

Peace Direct reading resources: Link1, Link2, Link3

YouTube video of this podcast

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Summary

Conflict management and mediation are skills that come up frequently as a weak area in many of our social sector organizations.

And these days, more than ever conflict is on the rise within our organizations.

So how can we work through our conflicts more skillfully and effectively?

Nathalie has answers for us. She's a trainer conflict mediator (as well as a Corentus, Inc. team coach) who helps teams and organizations develop better conflict management capabilities. 

And she's a valued colleague in a broader team I am a part of. Which means I get to learn from her!

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Nathalie Thompson, Owner of 5 Fold Consulting, on conflict mediation.

Erica's Bio:

• Owner of ‘5 Fold Consulting’, a consulting and coaching firm focused on conflict management skill building and mediation
• Core Practitioner and Faculty at the Corentus team coaching company
• In short: mediator, facilitator, and coach

We discuss: 

• It is often useful to work on task-related conflicts as a precursor to working on relationship-based conflicts.
• There are cross-national cultural differences in how humans deal with conflict. As a mediator, it is important to first build relationship, to inquire what makes for a good conversation for the person, and how to structure the conflict mediation process
• There are also gendered dimensions to conflict expression and management. Society tends to ascribe the term ‘aggressive’ to women (negative framing), for instance, when they engage in conflict, while men tend to be labeled as ‘assertive’ in the same context (positive or neutral framing)
• One way of minimizing interpersonal conflicts within organizations is to clarify expectations, styles, and preferences. Similarly, to clarify goals and parameters, and how to do the work. 
• Also, to agree to tackle breakdowns in relationships by agreeing upfront how difficulties will be raised, and to work through the Corentus ‘6 question framework’ for dealing with breakdowns.
• Nathalie is among others an ombuds. This is an originally Swedish term that literally means: ‘representative of the people’, and is an independent, neutral person to whom staff in an organization can go for confidential advice, feedback on policy, procedure, or when they seek accommodation. Ombuds are independent from HR and can offer mediation, and raise sensitive issues such as harassment and performance issues with those in authority.
• The apparent rise in intra-organizational strife in civil society organisations is an extension of the external polarization in society: a tendency to think in terms of ‘one true way’ instead of accepting there are many different ways

Quotes:

“In the nonprofit sphere, people tend to be expected to be ‘so nice’; this makes it harder to exert accountability, and to say what needs to be said”

Resources:

Nathalie’s LinkedIn Profile

Nathalie’s Email

5 Fold Consulting Website

YouTube video of this podcast

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Summary

What constitutes a culture of philanthropy within nonprofits and NGOs? It's a term easily bandied around, but how do I see when it's in place?

How has the field of direct giving by small donors, and monthly giving as one donor practice in particular changed in the last 10-20 years?

Are there hurdles to be overcome in persuading donors to adopt monthly giving? 

Finally, there is a lot of discussion about the need for a shift towards ethical storytelling, with local program participants in the driver's seat, and while focusing on the local person's agency. The raison d'etre for this is clear; however, is this aligned with what motivates donors (at least in traditional fundraising 'markets') to give?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Erica Waasdorp, President of A Direct Solution, a consulting agency with expertise in direct giving and monthly giving, on trends in direct fundraising.

Erica's Bio:

• Author and Speaker, and a Master Trainer affiliated with the Association for Fundraising Professionals
• Expertise in Direct Marketing, Monthly Giving, International Fundraising
• US Ambassador for the International Fundraising Congress (IFC)
• Before launching A Direct Solution, she held several consulting, coaching and direct marketing roles in various consulting agencies, nonprofits, and in the publishing industry.

We discuss - particularly with regard to the US donor arena: 

• Online donations have blossomed since 2011, to the point where people now have access to many online payment platforms, donation-by-text, etc.
• Religious people are more generous than non-religious people; and so are low to mid-income people (in relative terms, as a proportion of their income), as compared to wealthy people
• Monthly giving is an important strategy to underpin financial sustainability since it guarantees nonprofits potentially significant levels of dependable unrestricted revenue; this in turn allows the agency to do long-term planning.
• In the short term, when setting up monthly giving as one avenue, it is more capacity and resource-intensive for an agency
• Monthly giving as one donation strategy has been around for decades, but many nonprofits have only started focusing on it in a serious way in the last 10 or so years
• There is some tension between the NGO sector’s aspired direction of ethical, authentic storytelling – what Erica calls ‘the complete story’ --, that starts from a program participant’s strengths and assets and the opportunities they have rather than from a deficit perspective, and the need of donors to feel that they contribute to a clear need. This tension is not yet fully acknowledged.
• Intermediary nonprofit ranking and rating sites (e.g. Guidestar, Charity Navigator, Give Well, etc in a US context) fulfill a donor’s felt need for transparency and the ability to trust an agency, but such data is unlikely to shape  donation behavior of new donors in a major way. 
• Child sponsorships are likely to continue as a vehicle for fundraising, but at a lower level than before. Many nonprofits’ donor pools are aging (a lot), and this will remain the case till current day Millenials and subsequent generations age themselves.

Resources:

Erica’s LinkedIn Profile

A Direct Solution consulting agency, founded by Erica (the site provides lots of free resources on direct fundraising)

YouTube vid

Summary

What does the name Taimaka mean?

To what extent are there challenges, as an organization, when you aim for evidence-based decision-making?

What kind of culture is needed to truly live the aspiration of being evidence-based?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Dr. Umar Abubakar and Justin Graham, co-founders and co-directors of The Taimaka Project -- an NGO working in Gombe state, Nigeria, on what happens when a start-up nonprofit wants to nurture an evidence-based culture.

Umar Abubakar's Bio:

• Co-founder and director, Taimaka Project, an NGO working on child malnutrition in Gombe state, Nigeria
• Medical doctor, Ministry of Health, Nigeria
• Umar has degrees in clinical medicine as well as public health
• He runs the medical side of Taimaka’s malnutrition program
• Umar manages Taimaka’s team of nutrition care specialists, oversees hospital partners, and ensures that  patients receive the best possible standard of care

Justin's Bio:

• Co-founder and director, Taimaka Project
• Worked in the past for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
• Former intern at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
• Justin oversees technology, finance, and innovation at Taimaka
• He handles Taimaka’s tech portfolio and manages in-house digital case management database

We discuss: 

• Taimaka Project is a start-up NGO working on child malnutrition in Gombe state in N-W Nigeria.
• Taimaka Project stands out in how much attention it gives to rigorous evaluation of its program treatment methods (in this case with regard to child malnutrition related interventions). 
• Using this approach entails the following question: what is the most amount of impact we can ‘produce’ or contribute to, per dollar spent? 
• This can come across as utilitarian to some, and  a vigorous discussion about the ethical trade-offs of such an approach is always a good thing
• If you want to promote an evidence-based culture, what does this entail? One facet: when you are told you are wrong, whether you are a leader or staff, you should take this personally. 
• Taimaka regularly collaborates with academics on rigorous program evaluation. What are the ins and outs of working with academics, as a practitioner organization?
• Taimaka is also shifting from a start-up into a ramp-up phase and is currently experiencing fast growth. What does this imply for policies, systems, and processes that now need to be built or adapted, and how do we preserve what is precious about the org's culture? 

Quotes:

·       “We go a layer deeper in our measurement and evaluation”

Resources:

Dr. Abubakar’s LinkedIn Profile

Justin’s LinkedIn Profile

Justin’s Email

The Taimaka Project (sign up for their email newsletter if you want insight into their evaluation and (cost) effective measurement approaches)

Tamaika LinkedIn Business Page

YouTube video 

Click 

Summary

Quite a few smaller size social sector organizations assume that program evaluation is too complex or demanding an undertaking for them. Is that the case, though?

If we want to introduce program evaluation to staff, leadership, and boards who have not yet been inducted into the importance of program evaluation: what are the most effective questions to generate genuine interest in and motivation to engage in such program evaluation?

How can we build a more evaluation-friendly culture all around?

Chari Smith, President and Founder of the consulting company Evaluation into Action has written a book that gives clear answers to these questions: Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple (2021). She explains her core argument in this podcast episode.

Chari's Bio:

• Program Evaluation enthusiast: Author, Speaker, Consultant, and Trainer
• President/Founder of Evaluation into Action, a consulting company
• Program Evaluation Associate at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

We discuss: 

• Chari’s book is meant for small to midsize nonprofits who have not yet taken up program evaluation, to make it achievable to them. The book is also meant for entry-stage evaluators
• Chari values Beth Kanter's and Aliza Sherman’s definition of organizational culture  – “Organizational culture is a complex tapestry made up of attitudes, values, behaviors, and artifacts of the people who work for your nonprofit.”
• If you apply a collaborative, inclusive, participatory, and non-siloed approach to introducing program evaluation, your chances of increasing buy-in grow considerably
• Only collect data that you will actually analyze and synthesize into actionable data and that is likely to influence decision-making
• A program evaluation-friendly culture cannot be ‘mandated’, on the one hand
• On the other hand, the role of culture ambassadors – people who already are in favor of program evaluation – is important in instilling an evaluation-friendly culture
• What's also important is the role of organizational ‘heroes’, and the use of stories, images, and narratives, while organizational artifacts (tangible objects that can be seen around the organization) can be used to signal a desired culture.

Quote:

•  “By gathering data, nonprofits can pivot from a reactive stance to a proactive one, by acting on the data gathered”

Resources:

• Chari’s LinkedIn Profile
• Website of ‘Evaluation into Action’
• Book ‘Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple’

Summary

What are the main benefits of a network structure, where power, authority, and leadership are dispersed and shared across regions, from an effectiveness perspective? 

What are the most important enabling habits, practices and behaviors that go with that, as a change leader?

And what are the most valuable network-related frameworks, concepts, resources, and tools at work in moving towards this structure?

In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Anu Kumar, President and CEO at Ipas, on the why, the what, and the how of changing an organization from a hub and spoke to a horizontal NGO model.

Anu's Bio:

• President and CEO at Ipas
• Former Chief Strategy and Development Officer as well as Executive Vice President at Ipas
• Senior Program Officer, Program on Global Security and Sustainability, Population and Reproductive Rights, MacArthur Foundation
• Program Officer, MacArthur Foundation
• Social Scientist in Human Reproduction, WHO

We discuss: 

• Ipas is the leading technical org that advocates for access to contraception and abortion services, globally
• Traditionally, Ipas has had a hub-and-spoke organizational model, like many traditional NGOs
• A strategy change – for Ipas to contribute to a sustainable global contraception and abortion access ecosystem – demanded that countries would take over much of the lead in Ipas. So form followed function
• Ipas started its change towards a network model by defining what decentralization meant for itself
• It then defined shared leadership as its management model, and articulated change behaviors, practices, and management set-up as required next steps
• Subsequently, it changed its structure to that of a network in which the US no longer was the primary member, and a Network Leadership Group, a Staff Community Council, and a NetCare group were formed -- the latter nurtures the network
• Ipas explicitly chose not to become a (con)federated organization and to remain a corporate hierarchical structure
• As a next step, it adopted horizontal decision-making for some of its decision-making on budget aspects and recruitment
• Adopting a horizontal management approach does *not* mean there is no hierarchy anymore: the CEO, CFO, and a few other executive leaders still have some positional power, but their  realm of decision-making is now reduced
• Decentralized decision-making means faster decision-making; more cross-country collaboration is also happening that's not involving the US.
• Role clarity is still an issue to be improved upon. On the other hand, global coherence was facilitated through a codified collaboration agreement
• Ipas' board, still based in the US, retains fiduciary responsibilities, so compliance continues to be important

Resources:

• Anu's LinkedIn Profile
• Ipas Website
• LinkedIn article on Ipas change approach by Anu Kumar
• Bridgespan consulting group article on Re-imagining Multi-Country NGO Operating Models
• Samantha Slade’s book was informative for Ipas's change journey: Going Horizontal

YouTube