Brad Wendling

Run The Mission

Business EN ↓ 12 episodes

Your mission is solid. Your operations aren't — yet. Run The Mission is the weekly podcast for nonprofit leaders who know their org could run better but don't have a COO to show them how. Host Bradley Wendling brings 25 years of real nonprofit ops experience — food banks, disaster response, federal compliance — to every episode. Practical frameworks, honest conversations, zero filler. Because when operations break down, the mission suffers. Get started: wendlingconsulting.com

Author

Brad Wendling

Episodes

Ep 12: Winning the first fifteen minutes of audits 09.07.2026 15:58

Marcus and Claire dive into the 7 documentation gaps that trigger audit findings. Drawing on Bradley’s career managing 11M+ lbs of food annually with zero failures, they explain the "defensive documentation" posture provided by the Embedded COO tier ($5,500/mo) and how to use the Compliance Risk Radar to stay audit-ready. https://wendlingconsulting.com/

Ep 11: Breaking the nonprofit founder bottleneck 02.07.2026 19:15

If your nonprofit stops when you take a vacation, you don't have a system; you have a dependency. Marcus and Claire discuss how to break the founder bottleneck by building SOPs and leveraging Bradley Wendling’s 25 years of experience scaling organizations from single pilots to 300+ sites. They highlight the Embedded COO tier ($5,500/mo) as the solution for building infrastructure that outlasts...

Ep 10: The First 90 Days: A Field Guide for New Nonprofit Executive Directors 25.06.2026 20:51

What to do, in what order, so nothing critical gets missed. The EDs who struggle in year one almost always skipped the listening phase. Here's why that matters. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 09: Building a Partner Network That Actually Works When You Need It 18.06.2026 17:37

Why most nonprofit partnerships are transactional — and how to build ones that activate under pressure. The four types of partners every nonprofit needs.

Ep 08: The Fractional COO Model: What It Is, What It Isn't, and Who It's For 11.06.2026 20:51

An honest explanation of fractional operations leadership for nonprofit EDs. What embedded looks like in practice — and how to know if your organization is the right fit. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 07: What Your Board Actually Needs From You 04.06.2026 20:04

A practical guide to board reporting that leads to better governance. The 6-section format that transforms passive boards into engaged ones — and why most reports fail. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 06: The Real Cost of Staff Turnover in Nonprofits — And What to Do About It 28.05.2026 37:21

Why high turnover is almost always a structural problem, not a people problem. The retention infrastructure that works — and why compensation alone isn't the answer. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 05: Emergency Operations: What Katrina, Michael, and COVID-19 Taught Me 21.05.2026 17:24

The disaster preparedness lessons that only come from actually being in the work. Your emergency response is only as strong as the relationships you built before the emergency. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 04: How to Scale a Nonprofit Program Without Breaking What's Working 14.05.2026 21:28

A field-tested framework for multi-site expansion. Most programs don't fail at scale because the model was wrong — they fail because the infrastructure didn't scale with it. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 03: Federal Compliance for Nonprofits: What Most Organizations Get Wrong 07.05.2026 20:35

After 25 years managing CACFP, SFSP, and multi-funder compliance — the 5 most common gaps and the 3-binder framework that prevents most findings. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 02: 5 Signs Your Nonprofit Is Growing Faster Than Its Systems 30.04.2026 19:20

How to recognize the gap between program success and operational capacity before it becomes a crisis. The five warning signs and the three questions that tell you where you are. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com

Ep 01: Why Nonprofit Operations Is Mission — Not Overhead 14.04.2026 21:25

The case for treating infrastructure as a strategic investment. Why the overhead myth damages the organizations it's meant to protect — and what strong operations actually looks like in practice. Learn more and Book a Discovery call at wendlingconsulting.com