Episodes

We're all witnessing some truly devastating and distressing actions against our immigrant neighbors. We may be watching this from afar, or we may be seeing it up close and personal. There are almost two reactions that happen at the same time. One is we are tempted to recoil in horror and push it away. And the other is to step forward and help. What is awesome about Nonprofit leaders is that generally we're wired to step in and help. It's what we do. But it would be e...

As a Nonprofit leader/advocate, you already know that information alone doesn't engage. But here's what I see as a flashing red signal. AI is transforming the information ecosystem. It's now easier than ever to get just about any information you might want or need, in fairly complex form, just by asking. The bottom line is that if decisionmakers just needed information, they would no longer particularly need us. They can get that on their own. They can just ask their favorite AI ...

There's a mistake that every Nonprofit leader makes from time to time. In fact, we all make this mistake, not just in our work, but in multiple aspects of our lives. And if we can be attentive enough and fix it, we can absolutely transform our results and massively reduce our level of frustration. Here's what I'm talking about. It's the curse of the expert. We know way too much about every aspect of the work that we do and the impact it has. And we correctly recognize that all those de...

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2026 is to make more mistakes. And I gotta tell you, it's been very interesting to see the reaction it gets when I tell people that. A few people get it and cheer me on. But a lot of folks look at me kind of funny and ask, why on earth would you wanna do that? That got me thinking about how much energy people put into trying to avoid mistakes and what that can wind up costing us. It also got me thinking about how this applies inside Non...

As Nonprofit leaders, we all have a relationship with power. But it's not something that we tend to take a look at much. And I think perhaps the reason for that is what a lot of Nonprofit leaders tell me – that they're not super comfortable with the concept of power. Today I want to really dig into some questions that will help us all understand our relationship with power a little bit better, and perhaps begin to shift that relationship a little bit. The thing is, our relations...

As we're coming right up on the close of 2025, I think it's always important to do a review and take stock of the year that's just gone by. And it might be more important than ever in this particular year, given what a wild ride it's been. There's a lot of different ways you can come at a year-end review, and you probably already have a process in place in your organization. But I'd like to call out something specific that I think is especially important at the close of 2025. And that'...

Why is there so much dumb public policy and what can we do about it? There's government money to address a service need in just about every arena, which is great. But the flip side of that is the rules that are attached to that money. The rules about who can be served, how they can be served, under what circumstances, how money can be spent. All those rules, more often than not, get in the way of Nonprofits’ ability to provide a high-quality service that is going to actually solve the probl...

I see three major mistakes that get made all the time among Nonprofit leaders when they're engaging decisionmakers. These mistakes will invariably cost you influence and results, especially funding results. Now more than ever, especially in this environment, you need both your existing funders and potential funders to be investing in your work at the highest level. But lately, when you go to talk to elected officials or government agency people or foundations, a lot of times you hear t...

What I suspect is true for you is what I'm hearing from a lot of my clients – there's just too much noise in the world. And more and more, we want to be able to focus on the essentials of what's going to work. When we're talking advocacy, there are two essential ingredients. If you don't have those two fully dialed in, your results are going to be disappointing. You'll keep finding yourself in that place where the decisionmaker doesn't fully get what you do. And because th...

At the beginning of this Thanksgiving week. I wanted to take just a few minutes to share with you my five greatest sources of gratitude right now, and a little bit about why they’re so significant. We're living in a time when it feels really hard to operate from a place of gratitude. There's a lot going on that is just not good for humans. And it's hard. Nonprofit leaders in particular are feeling super stressed and under attack in a lot of ways, and we're watching attacks on members of our com...

I want to tackle a thing that we all come in contact with on a regular basis. My clients tell me it's one of the most unsettling things that can happen in a meeting with a decisionmaker. And that's when they throw you some kind of curve ball. Maybe it's a question. Maybe it's a totally out there statement and you don't know what to do with it. It's happened to all of us probably more than once. So you know what I'm talking about. When that happens, you're caught a little b...

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a lot more optimistic than I was a week ago. In spite of daily news that can feel pretty daunting, I think we just got a lot of new information out of this past week's elections that give us a ton of reasons for optimism. And I want to share those with you. A number of my clients have said to me in the last few days, give us a reason for optimism. How are you feeling about this? And each time I've had this conversation, I've gotten clearer about exactly w...

There is nothing more exciting than talking with a money or policy decisionmaker who's all in on the conversation. They're leaning in, they're asking good questions. Their gears are turning as they think about how you can work together. That's awesome when that happens. And then, there are the times where you've got the opposite. They're not engaged. Their body language and their relative silence tell you so. They're listening politely enough, but it feels like they're just waiting for you ...

It is no secret that engagement is the key to influence. It’s one of the biggest themes of my work with my clients. We also focus on how and why information and data are not engaging on their own. We know great messaging is essential, but there's another piece. The biggest secret to engagement – and therefore the secret to having your message land with impact – is you. You can have fantastic core messaging and still mess up the engagement piece. And when that happens, when the messaging is goo...

I'm super energized to have this conversation on the heels of the massive No Kings protests of October 18th. The greatest mass mobilization to date against authoritarianism in this country. At the same time, I also understand that it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed with all of the bad things coming at us out of this administration. And how easy it is to feel like the actions of one person can't make that much of a difference. But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I was fortu...

There's a huge problem happening all over the Nonprofit universe and beyond right now, and that's fundamentally the problem of fear. In fairness, it's a pretty scary time. And fear is not unfounded for sure. There are genuine threats facing Nonprofits individually and the sector more broadly. And there are a lot of decisionmakers in all different roles who are also feeling under threat in one way or another. The thing we often don't take into account is that a lot of decisionmakers are ...

One of the sources of constant frustration that I hear from Nonprofit leaders is about not having the advocacy results they want. If that's you, you're in good company. A lot of Nonprofit leaders experience this problem. The other reality is that Nonprofit leaders are really busy. Too busy to spend your time on anything that isn't going to produce a clear, tangible result. So what we all need is to find the fastest, most effective way to get to the advocacy results we want. What's the shortest...

I want to share with you a story of something that happened to me that I think carries some powerful lessons for how we approach not just advocacy, but pretty much everything. But those lessons are only part of point. When you listen to this story, you’ll discover how storytelling can be one of the most effective tools for engaging others. But that engagement is not a given. There’s a way to tell a story that pulls the listener in and has them totally immersed in the story. And there’s a way t...

On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you in saying out loud that your organization's work and the results that you get are the best? The best. If you said 10, congratulations. You are in great shape on that front. But if your response was an 8 or below. Or if you didn't even answer, but instead said, well, “best” compared to what, or to whom? Or some other equivocation, then there are some questions to explore. If you're a Nonprofit leader who strives for excellence and who's looking to...

Here's something I think we probably all would agree is true: Nonprofit leaders are great at saying yes. We say yes to opportunities. We say yes to those who need our help. It's kind of in our DNA. I know many Nonprofit leaders who see their readiness to say yes as a virtue. But what if some of the things we're saying yes to are not really serving us? What if they're actually getting in the way of us making our greatest impact? The truth is, what you say yes to affects your effectivenes...

There is a thing going on out there that we have to talk about. It's making me crazy. I'm pretty sure it's making you crazy too. And that's this business of all these money decisionmakers, whether they're foundations or elected officials or government agencies, you name it. They're all singing the same song. “There's no money right now. There's not enough money.” Whatever the refrain is, it's all the same basic thing. You know what? It's time to call BS on that. And reset this co...

I hear from Nonprofit leaders all the time about how frustrating it is that they've explained their work to decisionmakers a million times and they still don't get it. And you respond by going out and gathering even more convincing data and information, thinking surely this will make them see the light. And then they still don't get it. I've been guilty of this myself. Of thinking that if I just explain it better, or break it down into simpler pieces or come up with even more powerful data, t...

Just about everywhere I go, folks are having some version of the conversation about how we're all responding to the crazy (stuff) that is going on in our world. How we’re responding both as citizens of this country and as Nonprofit leaders in particular. And the impact that's having on us personally, on our ability to cope and respond in a way that is productive and doesn't make us crazy. One of the pieces that doesn’t get talked about enough is how much this is about our personal power. And ...

We are in a time where more and more, for a lot of decisionmakers, pressure is a necessary component to our advocacy. At the same time, we're operating in an environment where some decisionmakers, including some very high-profile ones, are engaging in retaliatory behavior against people who would oppose them or challenge them in any way. So I can understand if you might feel a little concerned. In a perfect world, we would have influential collaborative relationships with every single decision...