The Nonprofit Power Podcast

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

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 stuf

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 actual

I hear from so many nonprofit leaders who want to establish themselves as thought leaders in their niche. But the whole process around how you do that tends to be shrouded in mystery. It’s time to demystify! There are 7 basic ingredients, and today we break them down and give you a roadmap to becoming a thought leader. In this episode, we reveal: What thought leadership can do for you Individual as thought leader vs organization as thought leader – how and when to choose How thought leaders t

Identity is one of those things that we really tend to take for granted. We often don't recognize just how much of an impact it's having on how we show up in all aspects of life. When we think to ourselves, “I am…” or “I am a…” Whatever follows, however we finish those sentences, is far more important than we often realize. Because they speak to our identity as we see it. And our identity drives our perspective, our priorities, and perhaps most importantly, it drives how w...

There is no question that voting rights are under extraordinary attack right now in this country. And the people being targeted are pretty much one and the same as the people most of us serve. This is not entirely new, as we know. There have been attempts for years to systematically erode people's voting rights. And there have been multiple attempts at voter suppression in all kinds of ways. We've watched that unfold across the news and in our own lived experience in many of our states. But all