Nonprofit Leadership Podcast

Growing a nonprofit takes more than just passion and creativity: it takes great leadership. The right leadership skills will help guide your organization effectively through the challenges you will face. In fact, effective leadership is the engine that runs healthy nonprofits. It moves a vision to reality. Without good leadership, everything falls apart.  Rob’s guest today is Pamela Davis, th...

When it comes to those who hold the most power in a nonprofit or a company, most people assume it’s the CEO or Executive Director. However, the reality is that the board is the group who has the most power. The board hires and fires the CEO and is tasked with stewarding the future of the organization in business. Rob’s guest today is Helle Bank Jorgensen and she has a 30-year track record of retur...

Leading and motivating staff is a difficult job for every leader, especially the CEO or Executive Director of an organization. Staff communication, staff conflict and staff competition are very real issues that all leaders have to navigate through as they seek to move the organization towards a common mission. Could you imagine having two staff members who are literally working side by side who ar...

When it comes to nonprofits, is working together really better? For two of our country’s largest nonprofits, the answer is yes. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America just announced a new collaborative partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA to help young women create lasting and meaningful relationships.   Rob’s guests today are Artis Stevens, the first black CEO of Big Broth...

When it comes to nonprofits, is working together really better? For two of our country’s largest nonprofits, the answer is yes. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America just announced a new collaborative partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA to help young women create lasting and meaningful relationships.   Rob’s guests today are Artis Stevens, the first black CEO of Big Broth...

Too often, nonprofits think they’re the cause that the community wants to support. But nonprofits are not the cause. They’re the conduit for the cause. Rob’s guest today is Bill McKendry, a marketing expert who’s spent 35 years successfully doing marketing for many for-profit companies. He pivoted out of the for-profit world to not only start a nonprofit, but is now an author of a book...

Change is the one constant in our world, and most of us reluctantly acknowledged this truth perhaps never more than this past year. We all have been through so much change and we’re still going through more change. How can you as a leader adapt effectively to our ever-changing environment, especially as it relates to your organization’s culture and leadership challenges?  Rob’s gu...

Our world continues to change in so many areas, particularly in regards to technology, and specifically, smart tech. Smart tech is not just changing how we use technology, but it’s actually changing the way people make decisions.  Rob’s guests today are Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, co-authors of the upcoming book entitled The Smart Nonprofit . They point out that smart tech and other a...

20 years ago, at what she thought was the height of her career, Virginia Jacko was diagnosed with a condition that caused her to gradually become blind. She then went to the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired to learn how to thrive and live independently as a blind person. Today, Virginia thrives in her life there.  Rob’s guest today is Virginia Jacko, who became president a...

Did you know that on average, most nonprofit leaders and organizations are only tapping into 13% of their current donors’ potential? In other words, 87% of your current donors are not being fully connected with your mission, which could in turn generate an exponential increase in their support of your organization. Rob’s guest today is Bob Westfall, Founder and Chairman of Westfall Gold, a donor f...

There’s no doubt that we’ve moved into a new normal in our culture in the wake of the COVID pandemic. How should we lead in this new normal? Do nonprofit leaders need to shift their leadership style, change fundraising, or retool programs and services?  Rob’s guest today is Gaston Warner, the CEO of Zoe Empowers, a nonprofit organization that envisions children who once lived in poverty becoming e...

When it comes to leadership, is there a difference between leading in the nonprofit sector versus the for-profit sector? Or are the principles of leadership essentially the same, regardless of the sector?  Rob’s guest today is Jada Hoerr, who moved from a successful career at Caterpillar to now work at the Midwest Food Bank as their Chief Resource Officer.  The Midwest Food Bank will distribu...

Passion and dedication is the fuel that nonprofits run on. When you find an individual, whether that be a paid staff, person or volunteer who is passionately dedicated to your organization’s vision, they can become a raving fan. But how can you develop and cultivate raving fans for your nonprofit? Rob’s guest today is Jeffrey Heller, a raving fan who has dedicated thousands of hours to raisi...

Did you know that we’re heading into an unprecedented wealth transfer? It’s been said that within the next few decades, as much as 68 trillion in wealth will pass from the Baby Boomers to the next generation, specifically Gen-xers and Millennials. This is a critical moment for nonprofits to connect meaningfully with their potential donors. So how can you best connect with donors in a truly m...

How do you manage a global nonprofit organization during a pandemic in such a way that not only maintains your current programs, but actually grows and scales many of those same programs? Rob’s guest today shares how his organization, Smile Train, has done just that.  Rob’s guest is Dr. Richard Hopper, who is the Surgical Director of the Craniofacial Center at Seattle Children’s Hospita...

Everything you see at the White House, the furnishings, artwork and artifacts are all maintained by a nonprofit. The White House Historical Association is responsible for all of these items, and in fact, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the White House Historical Association since its founding by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Rob’s guest today is Stewart McLaurin, who is the president of t...

Cryptocurrency is all the rage in many ways right now, but there still remains a lot of skepticism about the long term sustainability of cryptocurrency and just the uncertainty around it. There’s a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to cryptocurrency’s use for nonprofits and philanthropy. This is part two of our series on cryptocurrency and part one featured Robbie Heeger from Endaoment.&...

Cryptocurrency is here to stay and it’s coming to a nonprofit near you. Understandably, many of you might be very skeptical when it comes to cryptocurrency, in general, and certainly when it comes to how it might impact your nonprofit fundraising efforts.  Rob’s guest today is Robbie Heeger, the CEO of Endaoment, a new public charity that offers donor-advised funds (DAFs) built atop the...

Having passion and being mission-driven does not necessarily guarantee that you will be successful when starting or growing a nonprofit. It takes a lot more than that. It takes a lot of work and a relentless commitment to fundraising. It also takes a willingness to tell your story as much as possible, and on as many platforms as possible. Rob’s guest had a vision while she was living in the Philip...

One goal of this show is to introduce you to leaders who are providing not just good products and services, but are providing those services in a unique way. Rob’s guests are based in the UK, and are considered in the UK as a community interest company, or CIC for short, which is the equivalent here in the US of a social enterprise business. They now have expanded into both Australia and the US, a...

There’s an art to fundraising but there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach for effective fundraising. At the same time, however, there is a science to why and how people give. In fact, there is a growing industry around the neuroscience of philanthropy and fundraising that helps us understand how people make decisions and what drives their behavior. Rob’s guest has many years of experience i...

One of the pandemic’s biggest impacts on society has been on children’s social and emotional skills. All of the time spent in remote school or interacting from behind masks has been tough on developing brains and has resulted in a learning gap for this generation. Luckily, a very creative initiative from several for-profits and nonprofits is working to address this issue. On today’s show, Michael...

Every nonprofit needs to have an effective digital presence in today’s world. But how do you go about building your digital presence and what are the most important social media platforms? Is it Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram? And then beyond social media, how important is it for nonprofits to have their own videos as part of their overall social media strategy? Rob’s guest has grown his dig...

This is the third installment of the Emerging Leader Series featuring young, emerging nonprofit leaders who really want to invest their lives into making real change in our world.  Rob’s guests today are Sayan and Sohil Bhatia, who’ve started their own nonprofit called Start STEM Early. Their goal is to advocate and provide STEM-focused programs, activities, and competitions to elementary and...

Do you struggle with how best to advocate for those you serve? So do many in the nonprofit sector. Today’s guest, Joanne Goldblum of the National Diaper Bank, is here to shed light on the importance of advocacy, specifically in the context of serving those poverty in the US. In this episode, Joanne will discuss: *Why the lower class in the United States bore the brunt of the pandemic and how the p...