The Nonprofit Power Podcast

In the many years I've been coaching Nonprofit leaders, I've learned a lot of things. One of the things that really interests me is how some leaders are super coachable and they make giant leaps when they get great coaching. And others, even when they have great coaching, don't tend to make the same kind of progress. What I've realized over time is that there are certain traits or aspects of a leader that actually cause them to be more coachable. These are traits that anyone can cultiva...

It's time we talk about a really common problem that actually has a simple solution, but that Nonprofit leaders are often very nervous about trying to address. And that's when your champions are getting your messaging wrong. You spend a lot of time and effort getting your messaging dialed in so that it is clear and compelling around all aspects of the true value of the work that you do. And then a champion who you otherwise love goes out and gets a key piece of messaging w...

We're a little more than 30 days out from the 2026 elections, and I don't have to tell you there's a lot at stake up and down the ballot. From Congressional and Senate races to state legislatures, and on down to city council, county board and school board races. All of them matter. And all of them have the potential to have a big impact on the wellbeing of your clients and their families. Hopefully, most of your eligible clients are already registered to vote, perhaps with your help. Yay! Reg...

If you’ve ever said to yourself, “If only I had a paid advocacy person/team, everything would be great,” you’re in good company. But you might be surprised by the path you need to take to get there. It’s not as intuitive as it might seem, and there are some common mistakes that often block that path. Here’s the thing. Even if a funder dropped a ton of money on you today to go do advocacy work, and you went out and hired a policy and advocacy staffperson. We can't just say to that person, “go do

I had a conversation with a client recently that surprised me. Then I thought about it some more and I realized it was something that a lot of nonprofit leaders struggle with. It's just that this client was experiencing a version of the problem that was a bit unusual. This client is a CEO who has decades of experience and accumulated wisdom and perspective. But one day, this CEO shared with me that although she was considered a big expert in her previous field, she didn't have the same expert r

If you’re like many Nonprofit leaders, you already have a big vision that you want to make happen. Taking that big, amazing vision and bringing it into being requires being able to bring along the influential and powerful decisionmakers who can help you make it happen. Even the most amazing visionaries don't bring their vision into reality in the world without involving other people. And for those of us in the Nonprofit universe, some of the people that we absolutely need to have bought into o