For years, I used the story of people floating in a river, unable to reach the shore, to describe the difference between social change organizations and more traditional charities.

In case you’re not familiar with it, it goes like this:

A passerby saw a person floating down the river, jumped in and saved him. Day after day, more people were found floating in the river, unable to reach the shore. The community organized, set up teams to watch for and save the floating people. Eventually, someone asked why they were showing up in the river in the first place. She headed upstream to see why these folks were ending up in the water and to determine how to help prevent it from happening. [Read more…]

When people ask one of us what we do for work, we might answer with genuine joy: “I’m a coach” or “I train nonprofit leaders.” And we are super clear on what we do and, to a team member, believe deeply in the impact of our work.  But recently one of us was talking to someone who ostensibly knows what we do, as she is a listener of our podcasts and reader of our blogs. And she said, “I know what you guys do, and also, I actually have no idea. What is it that you do for nonprofits?”

And so we decided that her question was a good one, and worth answering. And we want to do that and also add another question we want to answer for you today: How are our clients different and better after they have engaged with the Fundraising Leadership team? [Read more…]

Mentee to Mentor: A Leadership Journey

Having a mentor became a foundational element for me that impacted the trajectory of my career. I’m not talking about one session with a mentor or remembering something inspirational that “changed my life.” I’m talking about the continuous mentoring web woven into my education and career by the dozens of people who provided consistent and unconditional support, advice, and guidance, both purposefully and simply by example. 

I now have a mentor mindset, so this entire post is written in an attempt to provide you with some helpful tips if you’re considering finding a mentor or becoming one.

My Journey as a Mentee 

The first mentoring environment I was a part of was (mostly) accidental. Accidental in the sense that when I started college at the University of Puget Sound to study business, I was part of the Business Leadership Program. The program took my already small class size of 500 hundred down to roughly 30 students providing me with easy access to faculty, staff, advisors, classmates, and every built-in support network I needed to succeed academically and professionally. I knew that I was excelling because of a supportive community filled with mentors at every turn. [Read more…]

It was a lot of years ago, but it’s still a story I tell: I was skiing fast, right at my edge, which is on the high side. I snagged my ski in a bit of soft snow and went down hard onto my shoulder and my head. It was the second day in my life that I ever wore a helmet, inspired by my then-young children who wondered, reasonably, why I made them wear helmets when I didn’t sport one myself.

Despite my new red helmet (decorated lovingly by my children with cool alien stickers), I hurt myself pretty badly. In fact, I later – like a couple days later – learned that I had a severe concussion and a broken arm, but, believe it or not, I popped up out of that snow immediately, attuned only to my bleeding fat lip.

I skied down, took the lift back up and went to lunch. I was having a little trouble carrying my tray, but still didn’t accept the fact that I was hurt. I headed down, again on my own power, only a bit dizzy. Later, I went out to dinner, but couldn’t eat because I felt like throwing up.

Maybe it was the head injury that kept me in such an abysmal absence of self-care (I only went to the doctor two days later and only then because my boss sent me, noticing that I wasn’t functioning well). But I’m sharing this story again now because self-care seems like a really important topic in this moment. It’s been a summer of chaos: news stories that have led to despair and grief, travel that has been long-anticipated and difficult, more Covid … Maybe more reality than many of us want or welcome. [Read more…]