Mission: Impact podcast & blog
Build a better world without becoming a martyr to your nonprofit cause
Listen on:
 In episode 105 of Mission: Impact, Carol Hamilton continues to celebrate her four year podiversary by reflecting on how nonprofits can create healthier and more sustainable organizational cultures. Through a series of guest responses, the episode explores the necessity of fair compensation, flexible work environments, and the importance of mental and physical health for nonprofit staff. It also touches on the exploitation of passion in the sector, the need for diversity and inclusion on nonprofit boards, and the importance of strategic foresight in nonprofit governance. The episode underscores the collective responsibility of nonprofit leaders to foster environments where staff and volunteers can thrive, with a focus on stewardship, progress over perfection, and creating roles that align with both organizational needs and individual aspirations. Episode highlights: [00:00:00] Imagining a healthier and more sustainable nonprofit sector
Sabrina Walker Hernandez and Liz Scott discuss the ongoing challenges of diversity and inclusion in nonprofit leadership, particularly on boards. They call for accountability in creating inclusive cultures and emphasize the need for boards to reflect the communities they serve. [00:24:00] Strategic Foresight in Governance
Important Links and Resources:
BoardSource’s Leading with Intent: https://leadingwithintent.org/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-findings/ Be Well, Do Good, Self Care and Renewal for Nonprofit Professionals and Other Do Gooders https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/be-well-do-good-lauren-brownstein/1142829280 Related Episodes: Episode 42: Building shared governance Episode 55: Helping nonprofit boards move toward greater equity Episode 62: Healthy nonprofit organizational culture highlights, part 1 Episode 63: Healthy nonprofit organizational culture highlights, part 2 Episode 72: Exploring passion exploitation in nonprofit organizations Episode 85: Building equitable compensation frameworks for nonprofit organizations Episode 102: Nonprofit board’s duty of foresight Click "Read More" for a transcript of the episode.  I love to read. One of my favorite parts of any book is the Acknowledgments section. I haven’t written a book yet - and I may never do that - but I would like to acknowledge all the people this year who were generous enough to have me on their podcast to talk about my favorite subject - nonprofit strategic planning. Every time I get to talk to someone about strategic planning, why I do it and why it is important for nonpropfit organizations, I learn something new about the practice and process. I am not necessarily a “think out loud” external processor and yet through these conversations I deepened my understanding by having to explain things to others that sometimes seem obvious to me. One thing that I certainly have learned over the course of my career is that what is obvious to me - or anyone - is NOT necessarily obvious to others or even how they think about a thing. And that in itself is one of the reasons I love facilitating strategic planning processes. Folks have to talk through with each other what might be obvious to them and implicit in how they work – but needs to get explicit if the whole group is going to get behind the idea and move a strategic initiative forward. Because of that learning and deepening I am so grateful for each opportunity I had to explore the topic this year. Connecting to my valuesDuring my Own Your Expertise interview with Emily Crookston, PhD., I realized that my faith tradition’s 1st and 7th principles - the inherent worth and dignity of every human being and the interconnectedness of all things really undergird my work with nonprofit organizations. I don’t think I had made that connection before we talked.  Reevaluating your strategic planIn my conversation with Carolyn Mozell, the host of Use Your Powers for Good podcast, we talk about how to stay accountable to the strategic plan and why it is so important for your nonprofit organization to agree on a process for reevaluating and reviewing your plan on a regular basis - whether that is quarterly, every six months - or at minimum every year.  Making the nonprofit strategic planning process worth your timeTalking with Stu Swineford, host of the Relish this podcast, we explored what goes into making a nonprofit strategic planning process worth it. As Stu put it, it’s a valuable exercise that aligns your team, creates thrust for your nonprofit organization, and builds an actionable plan to keep you on track for the short- and longer-term. I really appreciate the idea of a plan helping generate momentum that propels the organization forward.  Moving beyond the fears of strategic planningWith Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast, we talked about what people fear about strategic planning and how that gets in the way of making it effective.  Letting go of past bad experiences with nonprofit strategic planningBetina Pflug, the host of the Wisdom for Nonprofits podcast, and I talked about the frequent bad past experiences people have had with nonprofit strategic planning and how to make the process fun and useful. And why I do NOT have group’s start with a review of their mission and vision.  VUCA doesn't mean planning is uselessDavid Pisarek, host of Nonprofit Digital Success, and I explored why you don’t need to throw out the idea of nonprofit strategic planning even though we do live in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic and Ambiguous) world. Nonprofits are essentially a network of people working together towards a common goal. The conversations the group has over the course of a strategic planning process helps everyone get clear about what is really important to focus on in the next 3-5 years and some first steps on how to move towards those goals. Without having those conversations periodically, a lot of “static” builds up in the system and folks may actually be working at cross-purposes instead of in a more powerful, aligned way.  It's your nonprofit organization's plan, not mineHugh Ballou, host of the Nonprofit Exchange, and I talked about the myths about nonprofit strategic planning. One we honed in on was why it is important for the group, not the consultant, to write their own plan.  Thanks! So thanks again to Emily, Carolyn, Stu, Julia, Betina, David, Hugh.
And thanks for the service each of them provide the sector by creating their shows and helping those in the sector learn and deepen their practice.  Brief discussion of attempted murder from 26:27 until 26:38
In episode 43 of Mission: Impact, Carol and her guest, Travis Johnson discuss:
Travis Johnson is the host of the Nonprofit Architect Podcast. Travis shares his perspective as the former Vice President of Books by Vets; a board member at the S.H.I.N.E. foundation; he’s donated over $30,000; volunteered over 1,500 hours; raised more than $500,000; helped start 6 nonprofits; event coordinator; and published author. Travis is currently serving as an active-duty officer in the United States Navy, married with two children, and on move #50. His humble beginnings include 36 moves before graduating high school at 17, 6 states, 5 foster homes, and surviving 2 murder attempts. Although this was very rough, there was always a person, group, or church willing to help him and his family. Now that he’s in a position to give back, he’s made it his mission to “Help the Helpers”. Important Links and Resources:
 My goal is to interview a variety of people who help nonprofit and association professionals do their work more effectively. I hope to learn from them.
Mission: Impact is the podcast for nonprofit professionals who want to do good in the world without being a martyr to the cause. I especially hope that our conversations will spark insights for you that you can apply to the work you do in your organization. |
Categories
All
Archives
August 2024
Grace Social Sector Consulting, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of the Mission: Impact podcast, as well as the Mission: Impact blog with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.
|
RSS Feed