10 Things I have learned about Nonprofits in 100 episodes

6/17/2024

““What does a healthier nonprofit sector actually look like? How might we redefine the social contract of membership? How might we make work work for everyone? How might we build guardrails and model behavior that demonstrates it’s okay to be human and do good work? How might we slow down and plan for 85%, as Charlie Gilkey says, instead of the proverbial 110%? How might we create leadership roles, volunteer roles, and daily roles that people actually are excited to step in and do? How might we say no to passion, exploitation, extraction, overwork, and martyrdom? How might we favor progress over perfection? Ultimately, how might we say yes to more play, creativity, fun, joy, and thriving?””

— Carol Hamilton

In episode 100 of Nonprofit Mission: Impact, Carol Hamilton goes solo to celebrate this special 100th episode. She reflects on the insights and lessons learned from her podcasting journey exploring nonprofit leadership and organizational health.

Celebrating a significant milestone, she emphasizes the importance of creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive cultures, addressing toxic organizational behaviors, and reimagining a healthier nonprofit sector.

Through her conversations with various guests, she highlights the need for aligning mission and operations, valuing human-centric approaches, and fostering collaborative and supportive environments.

​The episode concludes with a call to action for nonprofit leaders to prioritize relationships, self-care, and a balanced, sustainable approach to their impactful work.

Episode highlights:
10 Lessons from 100 Episodes
**[00:01:16]** Reflection on various aspects of nonprofit leadership, from organizational cultures to sector-wide health.

 Lessons on Organizational Culture
**[00:03:32]** Lesson 1: A healthy organizational culture cultivates diverse, equitable, inclusive, and welcoming space by design.

**[00:04:28]** Lesson 2: Identifying and moving away from toxic organizational cultures characterized by lack of clarity, microaggressions, internal competition, and unaddressed conflicts.

 Overwork and Martyrdom in Nonprofits
**[00:06:13]** Lesson 3: Addressing overwork, perfectionism, and martyrdom, and understanding their prevalence in the sector.

 Healthy Nonprofit Organizational Cultures
**[00:12:00]** Lesson 4: Characteristics of healthy organizational cultures, including openness to mistakes, effective conflict management, clear roles, and strategic redundancy.

 Importance of Relationships
**[00:16:03]** Lesson 5: Emphasizing the importance of relationships in all aspects of nonprofit work and leadership.

 Collaborative Support
**[00:17:22]** Lesson 6: You Don’t have to go it alone! Encouraging leaders to seek support through coaching, peer groups, and collaborations.

 Defining Unique Contributions
**[00:18:27]** Lesson 7: Finding and claiming a unique niche based on strengths and contributions.

 Grace and Cultural Humility
**[00:21:00]** Lesson 8: Practicing grace, compassion, and cultural humility within organizational contexts.

 Organizational Alignment
**[00:21:22]** Lesson 9: Highlighting the power of alignment in organizational goals, strategies, and values.

 Embracing Human Imperfection
**[00:23:11]** Lesson 10: Emphasizing the importance of being human first in all things and embracing imperfection.

 Reimaging the nonprofit sector
**[00:23:49]** Carol poses important questions about redefining the nonprofit sector, making work sustainable, and promoting play, creativity, and thriving in the workplace.

Important Links and Resources:
Laziness does not exist by Dr. Devon Price

Start Finishing by Charlie Gilkie


Related Episodes:
My top 10 lessons from 100 episodes:

1. In order to cultivate healthy organizational cultures, the culture has to be diverse, equitable, inclusive, welcoming by design. It has to center cultural competence and cultural humility. 

   1. Episode 56: Applying an equity lens to your work

   2. Episode 39: Equity highlights from 2020 and 2021

2. What a toxic organizational culture looks and feels like

   1. Episode 11: Nonprofit Organizational healing 

   2. Episode 36: Conflict and Nonprofit Organizational Culture 

3. Why overwork, perfectionism and martyrdom are so prevalent in our sector

   1. Episode 5: Preventing burnout in the nonprofit sector 

   2. Episode 38: An invitation to do less

   3. Episode 50: Why more money and more staff are not always the answer

4. What are we striving for instead? What a healthy organizational culture actually looks like

   1. Episode 62: Healthy organizational culture highlights

   2. Episode 63: Healthy organizational culture highlights

5. It is all about relationships!

   1. Episode 45 Authentic marketing for your nonprofit

   2. Episode 65: Building a ladder of engagement

   3. Episode 67: Get that money honey

6. You do not have to do it alone!

   1. Episode 4: Strategic partnering for nonprofits 

   2. Episode 21: Investing in the next generation of nonprofit leaders 

   3. Episode 42: Building shared nonprofit governance 

   4. Episode 76: You don’t have to go it alone

7. Find your unique contribution

   1. Episode 99: Elevating nonprofit governance and leadership

8. Give yourself and others grace and compassion with a healthy dose of cultural humility

9. There is grace and power in organizational alignment

   1. Episode 94: Navigating power and conflict

   2. Episode 90: Five steps to a successful nonprofit strategic plan

10.  Be human first in all things

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