Taking you and your organization to new heights

As CEO, you become the default container for every emotional overflow in the organization.

The very thing that draws people to nonprofit work—deep passion for a cause—can also become the source of an organization's greatest challenges.

2026 doesn't have to be about perfection. It's about progress, growth, and showing up for yourself in ways that actually matter.

Before You Start: Is a Nonprofit the Right Fit?

While nonprofits have been quietly retreating from the public policy arena, the needs of the communities they serve have only grown more urgent.

We've all been there. You announce a team retreat or all-hands meeting, and someone immediately responds: "Great! But PLEASE, no icebreakers."

Perhaps the most transformative leadership philosophy to emerge in recent decades is servant leadership, introduced by Robert Greenleaf in his groundbreaking 1970 essay The Servant as Leader.

As nonprofit leaders, we regularly pour time and resources into planning retreats for our organizations, yet rarely give ourselves even a fraction of that time to reflect on our leadership.

Here's the hard truth: 60% of nonprofit executives say attracting and keeping skilled people is their biggest challenge for 2026

nsurance costs aren't just rising—they're exploding.

An estimated 80% of individual donation revenue comes from just 20% of donors. For some organizations, that ratio is even more concentrated at 90/10.

A lack of understanding about the basics of rewards can result in some unanticipated results causing your employees to not feel rewarded and even feel punished because of your reward programs.

The numbers tell a compelling story. According to McKinsey & Company, the nation's 1,000 largest corporations have committed $200 billion to racial equity since 2020, with the majority coming from financial institutions.

Thanks to Harvard Business Review for this insightful look at strategic planning and where we can fail at reaching our goals: https://hbr.org/2017/11/many-strategies-fail-because-theyre-not-actually-strategies

I’ll admit it, I’ve been on a board fundraising kick lately in the blog (here and here). I just think that if your nonprofit is going to...

One often-overlooked element: compensation decisions should flow from a robust performance evaluation process.

Running a nonprofit is hard enough without tripping over preventable mistakes

Joining a nonprofit board should be a rewarding experience that allows you to leverage your skills for meaningful impact.

Even experienced professionals need nonprofit-specific training. No two boards operate the same way, and governance best practices differ significantly from corporate boardrooms.

Picture this: Your program director announces, "I'm not comfortable managing programs." Your finance director declares, "I'm not really into budgets." Your executive director admits, "Strategy isn't my thing."