NGO Soul + Strategy

Summary Did you know.... When nonprofits signal they are financially trustworthy,  they actually give up to half of their potential impact. Why is this "financial trustworthiness signaling behavior” so pervasive, when it has this high a cost? In this podcast episode, I interview George Mitchell,  Professor of Nonprofit Management at Baruch College, City University of New York – and a long-tim...

Summary What can we learn from civil society leaders who wish to spur the adoption and implementation of innovations? How do humans – within organizations, and particularly in NGOs – react to change? What is the best advice when leading NGOs through innovation, from a senior team leader’s perspective? Today, I am interviewing Dermot O'Gorman of WWF Australia on the do's can don'ts o...

Summary Why has it taken so long to mainstream disabled people's concerns, when 15% of the global population has some form of disability? Has it been helpful to see disability integrated into Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) approaches -- or have there been some downsides to this approach? Are there disadvantages to being perceived as a single-issue organization (i.e. disabled people’s...

Summary What works in establishing personal relationships and developing trust and bonding in the virtual space, when we as leaders have never met our colleagues face to face? Some  NGO leaders and managers started their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic and led entirely virtually for a long stretch - onboarding, developing personal relationships, bonding, trust development - the whole deal. ...

Summary Today, I am interviewing Kirthi Jayakumar of World Pulse and founder of the Gender Security Project, and Leila Billing , senior advisor on youth, gender, and social movement building on Feminist Leadership. Leila, along with Natalie Brook, runs an open enrollment Feminist Leadership training program ( We are Feminist Leaders) , and Kirthi is one of its alumni. As some NGOs and development...

Summary What happens when NGO leaders take a 4 months sabbatical?  What happens to the mind -- what journey does it go on during a 4 month's rest from work? What happens, especially when we are talking about a leader who was already quite steeped in mindfulness and meditation before he started his sabbatical? In this podcast episode, I discuss with Chris Proulx, Global Director at  Humentum t...

Summary The new generation of 'smart technology' -  chatbots, AI, machine learning, natural language processing, robots etc.  can bring major benefits to nonprofits - if they can discern what they need to do to remain human-centered in their choice of technology. And if they remain aware of the potential for bias in AI-generated data, given its profound potential negative impact? What ca...

Summary Christine Sow is the CEO of Humentum, a global support organization for NGOs who wish to enhance their operational performance. Humentum helps NGOs translate their aspirations into operating models that give them the ability to deliver on those aspirations. In that capacity, and given that Humentum among others facilitates peer sharing among CEOs on lessons learned in improving operating m...

Summary What is the future for conservation NGOs?  Is there a future?  If so, what kinds of roles, mandates, organizational culture, and capabilities do conservation NGOs of the future need to embrace?  That was the question that a small team of consultants, including yours truly, tried to address by providing 15 - sometimes bold -- propositions for changes in roles and mandates.   In this episode...

Summary Why might the assumptions we frequently make about the ‘virtue narrative’ that surrounds NGOs be problematic? Aren't they meant to create social good in the world? In this podcast episode, I discuss this with Aseem Prakash, a well-known academic who focuses on nonprofits as well as on environmental activism, particularly focused on climate change.  Aseem wrote an article, problematizi...

Summary What is the 'halo effect' when it comes to NGOs, and why does it matter? Here's a rough definition of ‘the halo effectj. The term comes out of the psychological academic literature: if the first impression of a person or an entity is positive for a person, this tends to stick with people. This tends to be the case for NGOs: NGOs are assumed to be ‘good’; thus they are glorif...

Tosca is in conversation with Christian Meyer zu Natrup, Managing Director of MzN International, a boutique consulting firm that focuses both on nonprofits in international development, and on businesses that wish to do good, in this final episode of our 3 part joint podcast series. The other 2 episodes cover ‘Chasing innovation’  (episode #33) and ‘Chasing funding’' (episode #34). Summary No...

Summary NGOs are sometimes labeled fairly critically as 'dinosaurs' or 'legacy organizations'. How can they create a more innovation-ready or innovation-friendly culture?   What can  NGOs learn from other types of organizations when it comes to generating more innovation, either in the broader civil society sector or outside of it? What stands in the way, in terms of organizati...

Tosca is in conversation with Christian Meyer zu Natrup, Managing Director of MzN International, in the second episode of our 3 part, joint podcast series. The other 2 episodes cover ‘Chasing Innovation’ (episode #032) and ‘Chasing impact’ (episode #34, expected to be aired around Feb 23). Summary Good projects/programs need good funding. But why do some organizations continue to grow and some sta...

Tosca is in conversation with Christian Meyer zu Natrup, Managing Director of MzN International, in the first episode of of a three-part podcast series. The other two episodes which will air in February 2022 will cover ‘Chasing Funding’ and ‘Chasing Impact’ Summary Are INGOs inherently inefficient, slow and lack innovation to the point that they will go, or ought to go, extinct? And if not, what s...

  Summary Monica is a change management specialist par excellence. She is also thoughtful about all things management and leadership. How does she see the linkages between change management and virtual/hybrid team leadership - something we all got thrown into big time in the last 2 years  (if we did not already practice it before)?  What is the biggest thing(s) we may be missing about not working...

Summary Nell Edgington, a well known American consultant who serves US domestic nonprofits  is of the opinion that nonprofit leaders maintain too many self-limiting beliefs and mindsets. In her new book ' Reinventing social change: Embracing abundance to create a healthier and more equitable world'   she explains how these self-limiting beliefs have seeped into the collective mindset and...

Summary   What are the biggest limitations social movements encounter, time and again?  What are the good examples of positive collaboration between INGOs and social movements?   And what characteristics, what attributes made that collaboration positive?  In this podcast episode, I discussed with May Miller-Dawkins about the potential and peril when NGOs collaborate with social movements.   May’s...

Summary How has strategic planning changed during the pandemic? What are general blind spots when it comes to strategic planning in our social sector? What are jazzy new approaches to strategic planning that civil society organizations should consider? And what are the warning signs, as a strategy consultant, that tell you you should not get involved? In this podcast episode, I discuss with Dave A...

Summary Why do people resist new ideas, including inside organizations, and including with regard to organizational change initiatives? And what can we as change managers/leaders do about this? What's more important: making your new idea more 'shiny', more attractive, or removing obstacles that stand in the way of people accepting new ideas? Would resistance to new ideas play out di...

Summary   What are the advantages and disadvantages (if any) when an organization is in a position to start almost as if with a new slate after a large core grant infusion, and thus can propel an ambitious DEI agenda? And how do local authorities and national governments in global South countries respond to a localization push by an initiative like the Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative, part of the...

Summary How often does it happen that three of the biggest INGOs are all headed by three Latina women. Not often -- and definitely a reason to celebrate. Sofia, Julia and Gabriela discuss their perspectives on leadership When it comes to crafting the new employee experience after COVID, what changes in that experience stand out? To what extent the interviewees experience that women leader still ca...

Summary What is wrong with the current approach to organizational ethics and integrity in NGOs? Why is using a lens of power analysis so helpful to bring INGO governance into focus? Only by looking at the very core of how organizations work,  we can begin to achieve the deep and effective change needed across the sector.  In this episode, we discuss organizational ethics and integrity concerns in...

Summary What is social power? And how does this concept relate to Feminist Leadership? And how does it show up in organizational dynamics within civil society organizations (CSOs)? Are there any cross-cultural aspects to Feminist Leadership? I discussed these topics during an interview with Srilatha Batliwala, senior advisor at CREA and Gender at Work, a well-known social movement 'pracademic...

Summary Dorothy Nyambi took on the top leadership role in MEDA two years ago as the only person of color in the senior leadership team. She since then has led change with that awareness in mind: What do we mean by culture change, and how to see and operationalize it? Politics and power within an organization, from a change leader’s perspective. How to lead and manage organizational change? What fr...