Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast

This week’s conversation is with Payal Beri, CEO, and Founder of RK Empathy. Payal has worn many hats over the course of her professional life - clinical psychologist, leadership coach, and now advisor, consultant, and coach to start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike - all around this beautiful concept of empathy.  That has been the throughline that ties her many journeys together, and that is what she and I talk about in today’s episode.

More specifically, we talk about empathy as a set of practices that leaders can leverage to build and sustain healthy teams and aligned cultures. 

She and have a great conversation about how we define empathy in practice, how we can use the framework of compassion, empathy, and accountability to build strong teams and better understand our communities, constituents, and supporters, and how, ultimately, empathy is at the root of almost everything we do as leaders. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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I wanted to start off our year on this podcast with a brief overview of what I call the Architecture of Impact. It’s the framework around which all of my teaching and coaching is built. 

The basic idea is this:  We talk about impact in so many ways, and ultimately,  this impact is our organization's north star.  It is what guides us programmatically and organizationally. If we’re doing it right, it serves as a foundation for our strategic vision, our fundraising, our hiring, who we partner with… 

There is a method to achieving that impact. There is an architecture behind the achievement of this impact: Specific,  concrete structures, systems, and processes that all healthy, high impact organizations set up to enable them to achieve their impact. 

My Architecture of Impact framework offers the broad strokes of how to think about, define, and set up whatever that architecture is for your organization. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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In today’s episode, I have the absolute delight of talking with Jennifer Ching, Executive Director of the Northstar Fund here in NYC. Northstar is a social justice fund that supports grassroots organizing led by communities of color building power in New York City and the Hudson Valley.

I was excited to talk with Jenn about the report that they released, in partnership with the New York Foundation, called Streets To Statehouse.  The first part of the report shares the lessons learned from two 2019 statewide campaigns that were led by grassroots organizations working in coalition with broader policy and advocacy networks. The second part of the report examines how grassroots organizing is not only essential for building campaigns from outside City Hall or Albany, but is also critical in building a more robust multiracial democracy.  

Jenn talks about the purpose and focuses of the report in our conversation, and she does a fantastic job of articulating the “why” and “how” behind the research. But I wanted to share my own reasons for why it felt so important to me to have a conversation about the report.

First, I am always on the lookout for tools that the growth stage-organizations that I work with and care so much about can use to build their capacity for true and lasting impact. So when I come across a report that functions like a how-to guide for creating systems change, I get really excited. Jenn and I talk not only about the actual how-to lessons that the report shares, but also how organizations - whether they use organizing as a primary vehicle for creating change or not - can use the findings as a tool. 

Which relates to the second theme that Jenn and I touch on, which is near and dear to my heart. True, lasting social change requires looking beyond the walls of our own organizations and mission and working in partnership and collaboration with other groups - especially those that use different methodologies. And it requires centering the lived expertise of people most impacted by the problems we’re working to solve. Whether you’re a direct service provider or an advocacy group, collaborations and networks must be part of your vision for impact. This report introduces some concrete ways to plug in to systems work.

Finally, Jenn and I talk about how long true impact takes, and how it’s incumbent on funders to invest in models that may take longer, but that create more tectonic shifts in our society. 

I always truly love talking with Jenn, and this conversation is no different. It’s a great blend of the why and the concrete - enjoy! 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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The Transformative Power of A Truly Engaged Board, with George Suttles

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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Many of you have an organizational vision - the broad statement (end world hunger) that helps give shape to your mission and values and culture.  I argue that the annual vision is in many ways more important as a tool for intentional planning and growth. 

Creating an annual vision lays the foundation for your goal setting and your budget. It transforms the process from one that is iterative and in the weeds, into one that drives forward movement. 

Your vision answers two questions that are central to effective planning:  Where are we going and why? When done authentically, and not just as a box to be checked, your vision can provide you and your team with emotional fuel to achieve the goals that you set. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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This week I get to talk with Vanessa Luna, co-Founder and Director of Programs at ImmSchools. ImmSchools is an immigrant-led nonprofit organization that partners with K-12 educators to transform schools into safe and welcoming spaces for undocumented students and families.

I had a hard time deciding what to call this episode, because Vanessa and I talk about so many great and important things, and because she shares insights into so many aspects of working with her co-founders to grow the organization. 

We talk about some of the strategies and tactics of scaling an early-stage organization - quickly and with tremendous impact from early one, which is both exciting and a huge responsibility. Organizational growth never happens in a vacuum - you don’t grow for the sake of growing. You grow so that you can do more and impact more and bring about more and deeper transformation in our world. Vanessa talks about how deeply that drive is connected to her own experiences and values. 

Vanessa and I have a really frank conversation about COVID and what it has meant and felt like to try to stay relevant and responsive in their work, while also rooted in a mission and theory of change. 

Finally, perhaps my favorite theme that we talk about is identity - and the many powerful and nuanced ways in which our multiple identities and lived experiences influence everything from how we structure our organizations and programs, to how to move through the world as leaders. 

This is a really rich conversation for leaders at all stages of organizational growth. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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This conversation was such a delight for me! I got to talk with a friend I’ve known for 20 years, from back in our graduate school days at the Kennedy School -- Jennifer Anastasoff. Jennifer is a serial entrepreneur who has spent the past two decades identifying gaps, breakdowns, and inefficiencies in our social systems, and responding by building real, lasting solutions. 

Her superpower is bringing together incredible talent - building high functioning, high-impact teams that work together to solve real social problems. 

She was a founding member of U.S. Digital Service at the White House and served as Head of People from 2014 until 2017, helping to create a diverse, cross-functional pipeline of digital talent from around America into our federal government.  She also served as founding CEO of Fuse Corps, as well as founder and CEO of multiple other social enterprises focused on bringing technical and operational skills to the public sector. 

Because she has founded and grown so many organizations, I wanted to talk with Jennifer about life lessons.  That’s what this conversation is - and I love it! Jennifer is just so great at sensemaking - looking at the times an initiative or organization has not worked out the way she planned, and translating those failures into fuel for future experiments; looking at the times she’s gone farther than she imagined - an initiative has surpassed the impact shed dreamed - and culling those lessons as fuel as well. 

Jennifer is one of those people who clears a new path through the brush. She is the person who inspired my own social entrepreneurship back in my early, early 20s, and I'm thrilled to have her share some of her inspiration on this show. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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In this week’s episode, I’m talking with Don Waisanen. Don is a Professor of public communication in the Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, as well as an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University and New York University. He teaches seminars, courses, and workshops on topics ranging from communication strategy and leadership to storytelling and improvisation.  

I’ve known Don for close to a decade, when he joined the board of the organization that I had founded and of which I was ED. I was super excited when I saw his new book - Improv For Democracy, and wanted to talk with him about this unique - and actually really powerful - idea about how to find common ground and move to action with people whose beliefs and values we might think are different from our own. Then I learned about his second new book - both came out this year! - Leadership Standpoints, and we just knew we would have a great discussion about something that has felt increasingly urgent to both of us in recent years: how to work across differences to actually bring about change.

 We're in a time of such division and polarization, and the social change and social justice work that nonprofits are doing feel even more immediate - if that’s possible - than when I got into the work twenty years ago. At the same time, teams are changing - how we work with the people INSIDE our organizations: our staff, our board -- how we need to think about communication and partnership is shifting in subtle but powerful ways. 

This conversation with Don is exactly what I had hoped for -- a frank, engaging discussion about actual communication and leadership strategies that leaders can use to meet people where they are, open up possibilities for partnership and collective movement towards action - on their teams, board, and in their broader work.. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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Starting this month I’m doing something new!  It’s something I’ve been super excited about, and heading into the final stretch of the year felt like a great time to start. Each month, one show/ month will be a solo show where I take a look at some topic, specific to growth stage nonprofits, exploring some aspect of mindset or strategy. 

This Month's Topic: Nonprofit Life Cycle Assessment As A Tool To Guide Growth

As we head into the end of the year and we all begin to explore possibilities for the next, I find that many of the EDs and board members I work with are reflecting on the “state of their organization.” 

I was recently asked by a student in my Impact Accelerator about the best way to determine where to focus energies in the new year. The nonprofit lifecycle is one of my favorite tools to accomplish this task.

So this month, my solo show is about the life cycles of a nonprofit, and how to assess - and respond to - your organization’s stage of growth.

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

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This is the fourth and final installment of my short series revisiting some of the incredible conversations I’ve had with folks as part of my Next Normal series at the beginning of this year. I’ve been struck, as we head into yet another phase of this pandemic, by just how different so much feels different, and yet oddly familiar. It’s like my favorite book from growing up - 100 years of solitude. The idea of time turning in a circle - returning to the same place that is somehow fundamentally and forever altered. So much of our work in the social justice space - so much of our leadership - our goals, challenges, and questions - are familiar, yet fundamentally changed from before COVID.

That is the next normal. 

So I’ve wanted to revisit some of the core themes that come up in one's leadership of a nonprofit through a few different lenses: leadership itself, working with funders, sustainability, and now, building teams. 

This week, I’m revisiting two of my most enjoyable conversations - one with my very dear Sister, Darcy Richie, and the other with a dear friend and colleague, Toya Lillard. They share their insights and deep perspectives on how to build and hold high-impact teams that are rooted in - and field by - trust and respect. 

Want to work together?

Apply for the Next Level Nonprofit Mastermind, a high-touch coaching and training accelerator for established organizations with $1M+ budgets that are ready to design for impact sustained at scale.  

Budget under $1M? Join Elevate and get proven step-by-step playbooks + coaching support to build each of the core elements of your nonprofit's operating system - strategic clarity, a fundraising engine, a high-performance team, and an active and engaged board!   

Connect with me!

• LinkedIn
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• YouTube