Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast

I’ve known the incredible Ana Polanco for going on three years now. Ana is an intuitive, international coach, storyteller, and wisdom keeper who helps culturally diverse women and social change organizations find new ways of leading.

One thing that I have come to know and respect about Ana is how authentically she shows up in every space that she inhabits. She is a beautiful case study in how to do and lead deep social change work in a way that is aligned with one's values, past, and purpose.  

I’ve wanted to talk with Ana for this series on sustainable leadership for precisely that reason. Leading from a whole self-perspective requires practice and replenishment. 

This is a major theme in our conversation for this week’s podcast. Ana and I get into the nuts and bolts of what it means to move through the world and as one's whole self, how to reshape our own leadership practices to make them more reflective of our whole selves, and most importantly, how to bring work and lead in ways that refill our cups rather than deplete us. 

Ana Polanco: www.anapolanco.org

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 had the absolute joy of meeting this week’s guest - Marcella Tillet - in 2019, through her work as VP of Programs and Partnerships at the Brooklyn Community Foundation.  Marcella is an incredible steward of the philanthropic and programmatic work at BCF, as you’ll hear in our conversation. She is thoughtful and intentional and proactive in centering the experiences and perspectives of grantees and their communities, in it is because she is this way that she has such insight into our theme of sustainability.

Marcella and I talk about so many things… The role NPs play as anchors and sources of hope within their communities, and how when leaders burn out or organizations fail to thrive, that can send ripples of instability through communities. And about how for that reason - and many others - it is critical that we collectively crack the code on supporting both individuals and organizations in carrying out their missions in ways that can be sustained. 

And she has wonderful advice for nonprofit leaders seeking to partner with funders in creating an eco-system that supports their own sustainability and that of their organization more broadly. 

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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Today I'm speaking with management and leadership whiz, Kishanana Palmer.  Kishshana is an international speaker, facilitator, trainer, coach and strategist, and a quintessential social entrepreneur. 

Kishshana and I get deep into the why and the how of sustainability. She talks honestly about her path to greater sustainability, what it feels like to burn out, why sustainability is so important for our health, and why it’s so hard to maintain. And we discuss concrete strategies for moving and leading in a way that is truer to ourselves, and thus more sustainable in the long term.

Links references
Kishshana & Co - www.Kishshanaco.com 

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 month marks the one-year anniversary of the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was during this same month last year that I had the pleasure of talking with Vu Le, writer,  speaker, former ED of RVC on the West Coast, and author of fantastic Nonprofit AF, about this very topic of sustainability in the NP Sector. 

I'm resharing this conversation during this anniversary month, both as a way denoting how timeless this topic is, and because now, a year into this crazy and redefining moment, we may hear what he shares with fresh ears.  

Links Referenced:
Nonprofit AF: www.nonprofitaf.com
RVC: www.rvcseattle.org
2020 Fundraising Summit  (hyperlink)
Transcript of this conversation (hyperlink) 

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 episode, we speak with Chitra Aiyar.  Chitra is an attorney, educator, community builder, and former Executive Director of The Sadie Nash Leadership Project.

Throughout her career, Chitra has found that creating sustainable leadership is not a short-term process - that it must be viewed long-term. The question we discuss in this episode: How can we create an environment that will support the long-term practice of sustainable leadership? What are the trade-offs required? 

Listen in as Chitra and I explore whether we are asking the right questions about sustainability in the practice of leadership, whether we can discuss the idea of sustainability in the context of a single person or organization at all,  and how sustainability implicates the often-invisible structures and systems within organizations.
 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·      [2:27] What does sustainability in the context of leading a nonprofit mean?

·       [4:25] How wisdom lends itself to creating sustainability in leadership.

·       [8:35] The structural inadequacies that pressure and undermine creating sustainable leadership in the nonprofit sector.

·       [12:10] How Chitra realized she needed to change the structure to sustain growth and herself in her role.

·       [17:28] The importance of viewing sustainability as a value above an input.

·       [23:00] Finding compromise to create sustainability.

·       [35:00] Creating a continuous environment of learning to re-shape structure.

·       [40:30] Asking the right questions about sustainability.

Key quotes:

·       “Being sustainable is the ability to meet present needs without compromising future needs and I feel like it requires a long view.”

·       “Sustainability requires some give and take and some ebbs and flows. I think it requires a lot of learning.”

·       “There is a way in which one fixates on what’s the visible easy things, these measures that aren’t necessarily great measurements of long-term success.”

·       “The nonprofit sector is not geared towards sustainability. Nothing is. The nonprofit sector reflects a broader societal norm. To advocate for sustainability means to challenge norms.”

·       “To come in as a new leader and you come in as a woman of color, I think to try and challenge what are the measurements of success by positing other measures is really hard.”

·       “This idea of constant win-win, we do these things because everybody benefits, it can’t be true. There have to be trade-offs.”

·       “The idea that we can’t invest in women unless we say it makes everything better or even, we should have diversity because it makes all teams better … Maybe you do it because it’s the right thing.”

·       “We all know that if it was as easy as a logic model then we wouldn’t have the ongoing structural problems that we have. We all know but it’s as if we all suspend our own disbelief.”

·       “People want to win. They want to be part of a winning group and I think sustainability as an individual just feels a lot more challenging than as a group.”

·       “I do think it’s possible to feel good about the sector as a whole and feel more collaborative and less competitive.”

Resources Mentioned:

·       The Sadie Nash Leadership Project

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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Phil Li, President and CEO of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, is with us in this episode. The mission of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation is to create a more vibrant New York by investing in leaders, the organizations that develop them, and their networks.

Phil has seen and thought about leadership from so many angles. Since joining the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the organization has shifted its focus to investing in people as leaders. For Phil, he has seen that people are the most critical asset to any organization - the question now is how do we empower them to lead sustainably and equity? How can we create tool sets and communities to help support leaders in our organizations?

Listen in as Phil explores what leadership actually means, the relationship between leadership development, equity and sustainability, and why it’s critical to support and invest in the equitable practice of leadership.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·       [2:39] How Robert Sterling Clark has transformed its mission to focus on leaders as people over organizations.

·       [4:18] Why people are any organizations’ most critical asset.

·       [4:56] Investing in leaders to build better and stronger institutions.

·       [6:25] What does sustainable leadership mean?

·       [8:00] Creating tools to support leaders.

·       [9:30] How the pandemic has helped highlight the need for community.

·       [11:25] Equity in leadership going forward.

·       [13:00] What it means to practice leadership in a sustainable and communal way.

Key quotes:

·       “The most critical asset we have in our sector is our people and they get … not the kind of investment or attention I think they deserve.”

·       “This notion of investing in people, investing in leaders was a way that we thought we could leverage our resources in an important way.”

·       “Without people, without thinking, without creativity, without the passion that comes with people that are doing all this work and are motivated to do this work, none of this would happen or their sector wouldn’t exist.”

·       “We do think that by incorporating these ideas and taking them back that the organizations are better to handle it.”

·       “What we find is that our leaders go back and there’s a richness to their experiences from the leadership development programs that they have been a part of … In a sense we are building and supporting the sector as a whole.”

·       “I think this moment and this time and this whole era is an invitation to re-think that whole notion that it’s up to a person to be responsible for an organization … Leadership can happen from anywhere.”

·       “Leadership comes from all places, from all people. If we are looking at leadership through an equity lens … then adding new voices, adding new folks who may or may not have had the opportunity to lift up their ideas and experiences. That’s the opportunity we have now.”

Resources Mentioned:

·       The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation

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 episode, we speak with Jill Eisenhard, founder and former Executive Director of the Red Hook Initiative in Brooklyn. Since its beginning in 2002, the RHI has worked to create social change and overcome systemic inequities by empowering youth.

Since stepping down as Executive Director of the RHI, Jill has been reflecting on the role. It is a role that requires you to be 100% dedicated 100% of the time, often having to perform in areas that aren’t your strengths. What if it wasn’t? What if we could fundamentally change the structure of the role going forward to make it more inclusive and more collaborative?

Listen in as Jill explores creating a more expansive type of leadership, making it sustainable for those that want to step into leadership roles, and the baby steps towards equity that we are seeing.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·       [4:09] Jill’s perspective on the next normal and what it will look like.

·       [7:06] How the changes in thinking around physical spaces will impact the work that RHI does.

·       [11:30] What shifts can happen for Executive Directors and their role?

·       [15:23] How stepping out of an Executive Director ole has shaped Jill’s perspective on the position.

·       [18:30] Understanding the structural flaws of the role of Executive Director.

·       [22:10] The necessity of having broader conversations about the structural deficiencies of leadership when passing the torch.

·       [26:55] What should leaders bring to the next normal?

Key quotes:

·       “People … no matter what their industry or age or stage of life, are recognizing that this is a moment, a marker for change.’

·       “One big shift that I’m predicting that we’ll see is people realizing that you can be a productive worker and a member of a team and not have to physically be in the same space 9-5, Monday to Friday.”

·       “I think in some ways it has strengthened community-based organizations because people are more focused and staying closer to home.”

·       “I would really love, in the next normal, to be able to think about how can people grow in seniority and in job title and in pay, and stay close and connected to the thing they are really good at and how can there be more space for that.”

·       “I would really love to see more organizations and institutions exploring the model of co-Executive Directors.”

·       “I think having that space and distance and watching someone else very closely stepping into that and realizing that it was a lot more than it was advertised to me … I just have been thinking a lot about sustainability.”

·       “I think that in the nonprofit sector it’s not at all uncommon for Executive Directors to just have the mindset of I just have to find a way to do this and it matters. The consequence of not finding a way is telling someone who really needs something that they can’t have it.”

Resources Mentioned:

·       The Red Hook Initiative 

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 episode, I talk with Tene Howard, Executive Director of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project,  and Zareta Ricks, Executive Director of Opening Act.

Both women stepped into their leadership roles just as the world began to shift. They have both had to navigate getting to know their new roles, their staff, and how the funding landscape works and is shifting, all while navigating a global pandemic and seismic racial unrest.  They have also had to figure out their own leadership style while the way in which we should be leading shifts around them. 

Listen in as Tene and Zareta explore what it means to lead in the next normal with no road map, along with what they have come to understand about the meaning of equitable leadership. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·       [3:23] Experiencing leadership in a pandemic: How this monumental change has influenced leadership for Tene and Zareta.

·       [6:50] Carrying the emotional burden of leadership and forging connections in a digital workplace.

·       [10:20] Is there a distinction between what a leader would do and what you would do?

·       [12:32] The impact of the unrest during summer 2020.

·       [22:34] How do you keep going when the world is in upheaval?

·       [31:22] Wisdom for other leaders navigating into the next normal.

Key quotes:

·       “It’s been a lot of recalibration trying to get to know folks, especially as a black woman for me ... getting to know people is so core to my leadership.” – Tene

·       “People are looking to you for answers and so I learned that I had to lead and learn and go and grow at the same time.” – Zareta

·       “I was taken aback by the magnitude of what it requires to be a leader. The emotional burden.” – Zareta

·       “The books were not the place I could go to. I had to very quickly learn how to trust myself even more deeply than I ever have before.” – Tene

·       “In the first 90 days, I had decision paralysis. It’s not that I didn’t trust my gut, but there were so many things happening at the same time that I was questioning ‘is this Zareta or is this Zareta the Executive Director?’” – Zareta

·       “I realized this was not a monster, it was a systemic beast.” – Zareta

·       “I know that it was the chemical mixture of our hearts and minds and words together that enabled us to say what was on our hearts, and that has been a guiding energy for me in the months that followed.” – Tene

·       “I give myself permission to pause.” – Zareta

·       “I think that self-talk is really important and evolving it and recognizing that it isn’t going to be there the whole time.” – Tene

·       “The next normal is really deeply believing in and investing in what I possess and it’s worth and value in leadership spaces.” – Tene

·       “Leadership is not a destination ... it is a journey.” - Zareta

Resources Mentioned:

·       The Sadie Nash Leadership Project

·       Opening Act

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 episode, I talk with Dennis Williams, Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at Warner Media.

In this episode, we talk about what it really means to put resources to work to create a better, more just world;  What is the responsibility of partners outside of the nonprofit sector to push themselves beyond comfortable answers to tough questions about how to create true equity and inclusion, and how the nature of partnerships might need to change and expand to create more space for diverse stories and perspectives - both out in the world, and at decision-making tables. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

[2:46] How is social impact work changing and what changes have already occurred?

[5:24] The next step forward for creating inclusivity and breaking down boundaries.

[8:47] Re-thinking sharing power and platforms.

[11:00] What gets in the way of transformative power sharing?

[14:00] Believing in a shared humanity that benefits everyone.

[18:40] Broadening the conversation by looking at the whole eco-system.

[23:58] How the process for content creators partnering with platforms has changed.

Key quotes:

·       “The toxicity, the divisiveness, all of the things that we were seeing were, quite honestly, the canaries in the mine for so many people. Most of us were not surprised that we got to where we got to because we saw it coming all along.” 

·       “Are we just throwing the cheque over the wall instead of breaking the wall down? Instead of looking at the structures that were keeping people marginalized, paralyzed, crippled in the way that they needed to move through the world…Are we part of the solution that we’ve been working towards?”

·       “What more can we be doing? What can we do that’s different? Have we given this issue the same weight that we give other business priorities? That for us was the transformational question …”

·       “If you ask a different set of questions, you get different answers.”

·       “It’s not simply enough to have the most popular show that has the broadest reach. It’s realizing that after that show ends you are still able to do more with your platform.”

·       “There is space in this conversation for all of us. We all have a role to play.”

·       “If you aren’t availing yourself of every resource that your company has, especially when we’re talking about the people that comprise that company, if you’re not availing yourself of all their talents, then shame on you.”

·       “Part of progress is knowing what you don’t know.”

Resources Mentioned:

·       Warner Media

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 episode, we speak with Wayne Ho, President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council. They aim to promote the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities.

When we look to the next normal, we have to look back to the previous normal and ask ourselves if that is what we want to go back to. Wayne agrees that we must change in order to create true equity in society. Tough conversations need to be had and leaders have to be willing to make them. The pandemic has shown us that in many ways we are all tied together, so why aren’t we treated like it?

Listen in as Wayne explores the necessity of prioritizing racial equity now and in the next normal, how the administration’s response to the pandemic created an unsafe environment for Asian-Americans, and dismantling power structures.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·       [2:28] Is the next normal better than returning to the pre-pandemic normal?

·       [4:47] What can better look like? What should it look like?

·       [7:01] Rebuilding to prioritize racially equity: Is the current state purely performative?

·       [10:16] Why leaders need to be willing to have real conversations.

·       [12:01] Creating safe and brave spaces to facilitate tough conversations.

·       [13:40] Accountability in the next normal.

·       [14:24] How the pandemic, and the response to it, negatively impacted the Asian-American community.

·       [18:09] Creating processes for defining what accountability looks like.

·       [23:49] Deconstructing power structures.

Key quotes:

·       “I think the pandemic showed that there’s a lot of inequities and issues in our communities and we don’t want to go back to normal. We want to go to something better.”

·       “In the simplest core, human services nonprofits are trying to lift up all communities who are in some way marginalized, oppressed or not part of the socio-economic system, or not succeeding educationally or in other institutions. What can we do in human services … to make sure that people are moving towards thriving?”

·       “Why are we politicizing that a life matters?”

·       “What type of change can we do during this really hard time, where we’re trying to promote racial justice during this pandemic which is day to day life or death for many individuals?”

·       “It all starts with education; it starts with learning and it starts with having safe spaces and brave spaces to have these tough conversations.”

·       “Accountability doesn’t mean we stop doing the good things or the positive things. Accountability means stopping the bad things that are going on.”

·       “It’s complicated. There are good people in all sectors. There are bad people in all sectors … it comes down to us individually. Are you willing to learn? Are you willing to change?”

·       “Your protest can be at the table. It doesn’t have to be away from the table.”

·       “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that everyone is tied together.”

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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