Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

Jaksot

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  385: No Margin, No Mission: Building Nonprofits That Last (Cecilia Haag) 10.09.2026 46min

  385: No Margin, No Mission: Building Nonprofits That Last (Cecilia Haag) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders are told that the urgency of the mission will carry the organization, and that financial and operational discipline is something the corporate world worries about. Cecilia Haag, President of Thompson Impact Consulting, came out of that corporate world, joining the 140-year-old human services organization Thompson as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer after watching it decide to take...
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  384: How to Launch a Planned Giving Program in One Week (Tony Martignetti) 03.09.2026 44min

  Episode 384: How to Launch a Planned Giving Program in One Week (Tony Martignetti) Episode Summary Small and mid-sized nonprofits routinely tell themselves that planned giving belongs to hospitals and universities, that it takes a lawyer and a brochure to begin, and that raising it with a donor means starting a conversation about death. Tony Martignetti, founder of Planned Giving Accelerator and host of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio, has worked in planned giving since 1997 and spent more...
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  383: What Nonprofit Leaders Get Wrong About Growing Fast (Steve Isom) 27.08.2026 38min

  383: What Nonprofit Leaders Get Wrong About Growing Fast (Steve Isom) Episode Summary Nonprofit professionals often come to the sector craving mission, not metrics, and the discomfort that creates around money, growth, and hard numbers can quietly limit how far an organization goes. Steve Isom, Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Bloomerang, has spent nearly six years professionalizing the finance, operations, and customer functions behind the giving platform that now serves more than ...
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  382: From Shoe Drive to Global Movement (Andrew Lovedale) 20.08.2026 50min

  Episode 382: From Shoe Drive to Global Movement (Andrew Lovedale) Episode Summary Too many nonprofit founders assume that the people who love them will automatically support the mission they've built, and few learn how costly that assumption is until donors who cheer from the sidelines never actually give. Andrew Lovedale, Founder and Executive Director of Access to Success (A2S), learned that lesson firsthand after a shoe drive he started as a Davidson College basketball player, whose...
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  381: What Leaders Must Know to Build Cross-Sector Power (Karen Riordan) 13.08.2026 46min

  Episode 381: What Leaders Must Know to Build Cross-Sector Power (Karen Riordan) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders often assume advocacy, cross-sector partnerships, and funding diversification are someone else's job — but Karen Riordan, President & CEO of Together SC in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, argues that building real power for the sector starts with everyday relationship-building. Drawing on three decades of for-profit marketing experience before her move into nonprofit leadershi...
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  380: Relationships Shape Everything: What Leaders Must Know to Build Community (David “Dae-Lee” Arrington) 06.08.2026 49min

  #380: Relationships Shape Everything: What Leaders Must Know to Build Community (David “Dae-Lee” Arrington) Episode Summary Many nonprofit leaders believe they've built real community and trust within their organizations — but David “Dae-Lee” Arrington argues that what looks like connection is often just proximity, and that gap is costing leaders more than they realize. Founder and CEO of Bridge Builder Leadership in Charlotte, NC, Dae-Lee shares how his own journey - from a Black, working-...
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  379: How to Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor (Derric Bakker) 30.07.2026 54min

  379: How to Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor (Derric Bakker) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders and fundraisers are exhausted, and the instinct when results slip is to simply work harder. In this episode of Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, Derric Bakker, Founder & CEO of DickersonBakker, argues that today’s struggle is not a down cycle teams can out-hustle but a structural shift in how people give, driven by demographics, the widening wealth gap, fraying community and religio...
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  378: The Money Myths Holding Your Nonprofit Back (Sean Hale) 23.07.2026 54min

  378: The Money Myths Holding Your Nonprofit Back (Sean Hale) Episode Summary Too many nonprofit leaders quietly avoid their own finances, trusting that a clean audit or a capable CPA means everything is handled, and that blind spot can put a mission at real risk. In this episode, Patton talks with Sean Hale, founder of Nonprofit CFOs, who busts five money myths that hold organizations back: that the audit has them covered, that finance is the CPA’s job, that nonprofits aren’t supposed to ma...
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  377: Stop Pushing Harder: How Great Nonprofits Build Momentum (Suzanne Smith) 16.07.2026 48min

  377: Stop Pushing Harder: How Great Nonprofits Build Momentum (Suzanne Smith) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders are exhausted, pushing harder and still feeling stuck. Suzanne Smith, Founder and CEO of Social Impact Architects, offers a different path. Drawing on sixteen years of consulting and her forthcoming book, The Nonprofit Flywheel, she reframes Jim Collins’s flywheel for the social sector: translate business practices, don’t transplant them. Suzanne walks through the six elements, im...
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  376: Who Should Be Part of Your Strategic Planning Process? (Renee Rubin Ross) 09.07.2026 44min

  Episode 376: Who Should Be Part of Your Strategic Planning Process? (Renee Rubin Ross) Episode Summary Too many strategic plans end up gathering dust on a shelf, or worse, frustrating the very people who were left out of building them. In this episode, Renee Rubin Ross, Ph.D., Founder of The Ross Collective and author of the new book Inclusive Strategic Planning, makes the case that who you involve in planning matters just as much as the plan itself. Drawing on more than twenty planning pro...
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  375: Outrageous Kindness: A Framework for Unlocking Philanthropic Potential (Kristina Joy Carlson) 02.07.2026 45min

  375: Outrageous Kindness: A Framework for Unlocking Philanthropic Potential (Kristina Joy Carlson) Episode Summary When disruption hits, many nonprofit leaders go quiet and wait for conditions to settle before they act, and that pause quietly signals to donors and communities that the mission can wait too. In Episode 375, Kristina Joy Carlson, CFRE, Founder and CEO of Outrageous Kindness, makes the case that perfect is never coming, and that the leaders who keep moving are the ones who buil...
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  374: A Roadmap to Nonprofit Excellence: What Most Leaders Miss (Lauren Deiorio) 25.06.2026 49min

  Episode 374: A Roadmap to Nonprofit Excellence: What Most Leaders Miss (Lauren Deiorio) Episode Summary Most nonprofit leaders don’t fail because of mission. They get stuck running one part of the operation well while neglecting the rest, often because they rose through programming and never learned the business of running an organization. In this episode, Lauren Deiorio, President & CEO of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, shares the Roadmap to Success, a practical tool...
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  373: Turning Leadership Transitions into Organizational Breakthroughs (Jeffrey R. Wilcox) 18.06.2026 44min

  #373: Turning Leadership Transitions into Organizational Breakthroughs (Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE) Episode Summary Most nonprofits treat leadership change as an emergency to survive rather than a future to plan for — and the cost of that blind spot is mounting. In this episode, Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE (ret), CEO of Third Sector Company and founder of the Interim Executives Academy, names the “perfect storm” that has left the sector unprepared: taboo conversations about people, resource develo...
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  372: The Culture Work No One Warns You About in a Nonprofit Merger (Marcia Beckner) 11.06.2026 37min

  Episode 372: The Culture Work No One Warns You About in a Nonprofit Merger (Marcia Beckner) Episode Summary Too many nonprofit leaders treat a merger as a last resort, proof that something failed, when it can be the boldest strategic move they make. In this episode, Marcia Beckner, Founder and CEO of Culture CARES® Global, reframes merger as a path to greater impact, drawing on her own experience founding MyLifeLine Cancer Foundation and merging it into the Cancer Support Community. Sh...
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  371: Stop Scaling, Start Listening: Building Nonprofits That Actually Work (jacob adams) 04.06.2026 48min

  371: Stop Scaling, Start Listening: Building Nonprofits That Actually Work (jacob adams) Episode Summary Too many nonprofits have become experts at performing impact - hitting metrics, writing polished reports, scaling programs - without ever stopping to ask whether they’re actually changing the lives of the people they serve. In this episode, Patton sits down with jacob adams, Founder and Executive Director of Inner Spark Learning Lab in Los Angeles, to explore what it looks like whe...
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  370: How to Stop Losing Half of Your Recurring Donors (Dave Raley) 28.05.2026 46min

  370: How to Stop Losing Half of Your Recurring Donors (Dave Raley) Episode Summary If your organization celebrates a 42% recurring donor retention rate (the national average), you may be focusing on the wrong number - because the real story is the 58% you’re losing every year. In this follow-up to Episode #301, Patton welcomes back Dave Raley, Founder and CEO of The Center for Sustainable Giving in Poulsbo, Washington, for a deeper dive into sustainable giving. Dave unpacks the two distinct...
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  369: No Money, No Mission: Rethinking How Nonprofits Are Built to Survive (Ryan Dewey Smith) 21.05.2026 37min

  369: No Money, No Mission: Rethinking How Nonprofits Are Built to Survive (Ryan Dewey Smith) Episode Summary Most nonprofits don’t fail because their mission stops mattering - they fail because the structure holding that mission together was never built to last. In this episode, Patton sits down with Ryan Dewey Smith, Founding Executive Chairman & CEO of Inperium, Inc., based in Reading, Pennsylvania, to explore the structural fault lines quietly threatening even well-intentioned ...
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  368: Before You Merge: Five Factors Every Nonprofit Leader Must Weigh (Staci Barfield) 14.05.2026 55min

  368: Before You Merge: Five Factors Every Nonprofit Leader Must Weigh (Staci Barfield) Episode Summary For too many nonprofit leaders, the word “merger” lands like a verdict, a sign something has gone wrong. Staci Barfield, Senior Director of Consulting Excellence at Armstrong McGuire in Cary, NC, argues the opposite: a merger belongs early on a leader’s strategic menu, not at the end. Drawing on her work facilitating the Arise Collective and MATCH (Mothers and Their Children) merger, Staci...
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  367: Activate Good - Leading with Fearlessness and Purpose (Marjorie Maas) 07.05.2026 45min

  367: Activate Good - Leading with Fearlessness and Purpose (Marjorie Maas) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders carry the weight of the next grant, the next major gift, the next board meeting - and that constant worry doesn’t make the work more productive, it just makes it heavier. In Episode #367, Patton talks with Marjorie Maas, CEO of Share Good, based in Omaha, NE, about what it actually looks like to lead with fearlessness when stakes are high and resources are tight. Marjorie leads a nat...
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  366: Stop Writing for Your Organization. Write for Your Donor. (Tom Ahern) 30.04.2026 51min

  366: Stop Writing for Your Organization. Write for Your Donor. (Tom Ahern) Episode Summary Most nonprofit communications are, in Tom Ahern’s blunt assessment, built to fail. Not because the work isn’t worthy, but because organizations keep writing about themselves when they should be writing for the donor. In episode #366, Patton sits down with Tom Ahern, founder of Ahern Communications, Inc. and one of the most influential voices in fundraising copywriting, to unpack why so many appeals, n...