The Nonprofit Power Podcast

If you're like so many Nonprofit leaders that I work with, you have a big vision, or maybe a big new ambitious goal. And you know it has the potential to make a huge impact. You're inspired and excited about it. Yet you find that you keep putting off taking the actions that will start moving you toward that big thing. You have lots of good reasons for that. Now's not a good time. Maybe when things calm down a little, we can focus on that, but right now we have too many urgent things to...

There is a huge messaging problem that happens all the time with Nonprofit leaders that is virtually invisible to us, and yet can be incredibly costly. And I don't want that to be happening to you. But the truth is, it probably is, at least with some of your decisionmakers. Here's how you know that it's happening. If you have any decisionmakers who still aren't getting it about what you really do and the impact of it and its value, there is most definitely a hole in your messaging. When they'r

We've got ourselves a five alarm fire here, and not a lot of time to do something about it. If you currently have or are thinking of applying for any sort of federal grant funding for the work that you do, this is of utmost importance to you. The current administration's Office of Management and Budget has proposed a new set of rules around how federal grants will be handled that have the potential to have tremendously negative impact on Nonprofits, and on your ability to access ...

Whether you love it or hate it, negotiating with decisionmakers is part of the job of a nonprofit leader. You have to negotiate with funders, contracting partners, policymakers, and more. Like most things, negotiation is a lot more enjoyable when you get good at it. The secret of those who love negotiating is they’ve learned the keys to success, and developed the skills to use them well. But there’s another piece. The reason a lot of folks have trouble with negotiation is not that the skills ar

I hear from so many nonprofit leaders that they struggle to figure out how to go after a particular policy goal, even when they're really clear about what they want. The problem is the path from here to there is not at all clear. There’s one piece of advice I give to every client who’s feeling frustrated by this problem. There's really one person you need to have that is going to make your life so much easier. And you want to start by finding that one person. That’s the person who knows how st

Nonprofit leaders spend a lot of time selling to one kind of funder or decisionmaker or another just about every day of the week. We spend a lot of time selling, but we don't necessarily talk about it as sales. And I think that's a bit of a mistake. And here's the thing. When you get into nonprofit leadership, people don't tell you you're going to be a salesperson. They don't tell you that's going to be a big part of the job. Part of what I want to do today is to first of all call out the actua