Nonprofit Insights | THRIVE IMPACT

Explore articles and insights written specifically for Impact-Driven Leaders.

Restorative Conversations vs. Letting Employees Go: Which Path to Take?

I don’t know how to reconcile something… It’s been said that for employees, wisdom is to “hire slow; fire fast”. But is that wisdom helpful? I just experienced a conversation between my teenage son, his boss, and his boss’ boss (I have multiple sons, so I hope this helps with anonymity). My son and his […]

May 31, 2024

The Inner Workings of Creating Alignment

This month, we at THRIVE IMPACT facilitated a workshop for a well-known community foundation. The goal seemed simple: to help staff and board align on what had been accomplished last year and invite folks to imagine the future. Of course, nothing is simple, particularly when an organization is large and a lot is going on, […]

January 31, 2024

The Imperative of Rest for Impact-Driven Leaders: Insights from Professional Athletes

Professional athletes’ training regimens require the balance between performance and recovery, otherwise injury becomes much more prevalent. Recovery periods are vital for the body to rest, rejuvenate, and repair. As Lebron James’ trainer says, “We keep recovery as our number one focus.” While it seems to make sense for these professionals, why has this concept […]

January 31, 2024

The Pain Of An Irrelevant Strategic Plan

Every month at our free THRIVE IMPACT 101 workshop I ask, “Have you ever dealt with the pain of an irrelevant strategic plan?” And do you know how many people raise their hands? Every. Single. Leader. Why are strategic plans so painful for so many nonprofit leaders? Especially with how much we invest in them. […]

January 17, 2022

Three Words for 2021

Happy New Year! You may be totally into new year’s resolutions. But if you’re like me, they don’t work very well for execution on a daily basis. Mainly because what I need are guideposts along the way that help me make focused decisions. So, what I’ve found much more helpful is a practice called “My […]

January 1, 2021

6 powerful insights from 2020 in order to thrive in 2021

One thing we know is that as humans we don’t learn very well from our experiences if we don’t intentionally reflect on them and see how specific insights can help us moving forward. So we asked ourselves… From all of the conversations, all of the workshops, all of the feedback and data we’ve gathered from […]

January 1, 2021

Why Nonprofit CEOs Must Deal with Conflict

All Nonprofit CEOs have conflict. Sometimes people say I am crazy, but I don’t believe that conflict is necessarily a bad thing. Maybe it is because I spent nearly a decade managing national conflict resolution programs at the United States Postal Service. Or maybe it is because my life story has been shaped by some […]

April 8, 2020

Making the Donors the Hero of the Story

How many times have you opened your inbox to see an email from a nonprofit that starts something like this: “If you give just 15 cents a day, nonprofit X can save the life of a child living in poverty.” Or, “Nonprofit X is the best steward of your dollars. 95% of your donations go […]

April 2, 2020

What’s the Best Leadership Advice You’ve Received? 7 Nuggets From My Years As A Nonprofit CEO

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a junkie for the latest trends in business or leadership books. I am the kind of person who loves envisioning ways to enable cultures to thrive and processes to be more efficient and effective. Honestly, whenever you’re hired as a turnaround CEO with nonprofits facing financial shortfalls and burned […]

March 25, 2020

Three Words for 2020

January 2, 2020

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