Episodes

Whether you love it or hate it, negotiating with decisionmakers is part of the job of a nonprofit leader. You have to negotiate with funders, contracting partners, policymakers, and more. Like most things, negotiation is a lot more enjoyable when you get good at it. The secret of those who love negotiating is they’ve learned the keys to success, and developed the skills to use them well. But there’s another piece. The reason a lot of folks have trouble with negotiation is not that the skills ...

I hear from so many nonprofit leaders that they struggle to figure out how to go after a particular policy goal, even when they're really clear about what they want. The problem is the path from here to there is not at all clear. There’s one piece of advice I give to every client who’s feeling frustrated by this problem. There's really one person you need to have that is going to make your life so much easier. And you want to start by finding that one person. That’s the person who knows how stuf...

Nonprofit leaders spend a lot of time selling to one kind of funder or decisionmaker or another just about every day of the week. We spend a lot of time selling, but we don't necessarily talk about it as sales. And I think that's a bit of a mistake. And here's the thing. When you get into nonprofit leadership, people don't tell you you're going to be a salesperson. They don't tell you that's going to be a big part of the job. Part of what I want to do today is to first of all call out the actual...

I hear from so many nonprofit leaders who want to establish themselves as thought leaders in their niche. But the whole process around how you do that tends to be shrouded in mystery. It’s time to demystify! There are 7 basic ingredients, and today we break them down and give you a roadmap to becoming a thought leader. In this episode, we reveal: What thought leadership can do for you Individual as thought leader vs organization as thought leader – how and when to choose How thought leaders t...

Identity is one of those things that we really tend to take for granted. We often don't recognize just how much of an impact it's having on how we show up in all aspects of life. When we think to ourselves, “I am…” or “I am a…” Whatever follows, however we finish those sentences, is far more important than we often realize. Because they speak to our identity as we see it. And our identity drives our perspective, our priorities, and perhaps most importantly, it drives how w...

There is no question that voting rights are under extraordinary attack right now in this country. And the people being targeted are pretty much one and the same as the people most of us serve. This is not entirely new, as we know. There have been attempts for years to systematically erode people's voting rights. And there have been multiple attempts at voter suppression in all kinds of ways. We've watched that unfold across the news and in our own lived experience in many of our states. But all ...

Last week, I tackled how to diagnose exactly what's going on when funders say they love you, but they're still not investing at the correct level. In that conversation (Episode 145) we laid some really important groundwork to help you map out exactly where the problem is occurring, how it’s manifesting with each decisionmaker, and what exactly is causing it. Today, as promised, we'll get into how you fix it. You won't be surprised to learn that this is almost entirely about mess...

I want to talk about a problem that is way more common than you might think. The one where funders say they love you, but still under-invest in your work. Chances are good you know exactly what I’m talking about. You've got these various decisionmakers, and often this is particularly a problem with elected officials. But it cuts across all types of decisionmakers. Whether it's electeds or government agency decisionmakers, foundations, corporate funders, all of them. They know something about you...

We all know that stories are important when we're engaging decisionmakers. But we don't always know what story is going to be the right story. And how to tell that story in a way that is really going to pull that decisionmaker in, and actually move them closer to yes. So often I hear from Nonprofit leaders who tell me they brought what they thought was their best story to a conversation with a decisionmaker, and it didn't really seem to shift anything. It's not that it didn't land at a...

Tell me if this has ever happened to you. You were solid with your messaging. You had that dialed in, and you'd engaged the decisionmaker and gotten them to the point where they're interested in your stuff. And then when you pivoted to the pitch and named the price, they didn't buy. Maybe they said things like, maybe next year. Or, I'm not sure this is right for us at this time. Or some other thing that tried to let you down gently, but didn't result in the investment you were asking for. I hear...

For a change I want to share what it feels like for me to be on the receiving end of some amazing coaching. There's so much value in working with great coaches. They help me stretch my sense of what’s possible, they ask the right questions to get to the heart of what’s in the way, and they help open the path to achieving those stretch goals. I've just come back from an amazing retreat where I got to spend two full days with my favorite coaches and peers. There were about 150 of us total hanging ...

What if you only had 60 seconds to capture the attention of that decisionmaker? You're in the room with somebody important and you need something from them. From the moment you walk in the door, the risk that they’re not going to engage goes up for every second that you’re not actively engaging them. 60 to 90 seconds is not an exaggeration. And you know, it's not that they won't be polite and listen. Of course they will. But there's a huge difference between polite listening and ...

Right now, maybe more than ever, it's so important for Nonprofit leaders to be as effective in our advocacy work as possible, while dealing with the fact that we have super-limited bandwidth. So anything we can do to be faster and more efficient and more effective getting to those results, the better. I had a call with a client a few days ago that was a case study in all the things that can make us crazy when we're advocating with government decisionmakers in particular. Whether we're ...

We have reason to celebrate this week! And I want to celebrate with you. We all just experienced a profound demonstration of the power of collective action. I hope you were able to participate in one of the thousands of No King's events this past weekend. I was there for the event in my community and it was awesome. Fantastic energy, lots and lots of people. A wonderful collection of friends and neighbors and people I'd never met before. All of us gathered together in common cause, and to levera...

One of the biggest challenges that we deal with is what happens when we inevitably fall short of expectations. The reality is it's going to happen. It happens to everybody now and again. It could be expectations set by others for us, or expectations we set for ourselves. Either way, when we fall short of those expectations, that tends to carry a lot of emotional weight. And it's that emotional weight, and the stuff that unfolds from that, that can cause a whole lot of problems for all of us, and...

We all deal with the same essential obstacle to our greatest results. And the aggravating thing about it is it's an obstacle we tend not to be aware of. Here's the thing. The expectations you set really matter. They will basically determine your outcomes. Think about it. When have you ever gotten great results by setting low expectations? Of course, most Nonprofit leaders don't go around deliberately setting low expectations. But they can happen in the background without us realizing it. The rea...

I know how much work it is to score a big policy win. If you're working toward one right now, I am cheering you on. And I'm affirming that you're gonna get that policy win. So the last thing I want to see happen is for you to make one or more of three common mistakes that can wind up greatly diminishing that win. Whatever you're working on that's a policy change at whatever level of government. Getting that legislation or other policy that you've advocated for, getti...

When it comes to successfully engaging decisionmakers and getting them to invest fully in our work, it's all about skills. Of course, no matter where you are in your messaging and engagement skill-development journey, there’s always a next level to master. But the real test of how urgent it is for you to increase your skills, is the results you're getting. If every time you go talk to a decisionmaker, they're leaning in, they 100% get the value of your work and they can't wait to invest. I'd say...

A lot of us, especially Gen Xers, were taught a lot of things about how important it is to be modest. Don't brag about yourself. Heck, don't even talk about yourself. We were taught to regard modesty as a great virtue. But there's a serious problem with that when we're talking about getting decisionmakers to invest in our work. Because they need to know how great our work is, and how great we are at making a huge impact through that work. They need to know how we're leading the field with our wo...

We hear all the time about how important it is to tell client stories. But we seldom get much more guidance than that. And the truth is that number one, client stories are only a small part of the overall storytelling toolkit for Nonprofit leaders. And number two, even with client stories, simply telling them does not guarantee any sort of a result or impact. Storytelling can be an incredibly powerful tool in your advocacy toolkit, IF you build your stories for results . Like every other part of...

How many times have you dealt with a funding decisionmaker who is tempted by the low-cost alternative to your services? And how many times have you been challenged on your prices? This is a really common problem and it came up in a session with one of my coaching clients last week. As we were talking, it became clear they were missing a critical ingredient in their messaging that’s essential for dealing with this specific problem. Here’s what was going on. My client was dealing with a group of d...

We're all witnessing some truly devastating and distressing actions against our immigrant neighbors. We may be watching this from afar, or we may be seeing it up close and personal. There are almost two reactions that happen at the same time. One is we are tempted to recoil in horror and push it away. And the other is to step forward and help. What is awesome about Nonprofit leaders is that generally we're wired to step in and help. It's what we do. But it would be e...

As a Nonprofit leader/advocate, you already know that information alone doesn't engage. But here's what I see as a flashing red signal. AI is transforming the information ecosystem. It's now easier than ever to get just about any information you might want or need, in fairly complex form, just by asking. The bottom line is that if decisionmakers just needed information, they would no longer particularly need us. They can get that on their own. They can just ask their favorite AI ...

There's a mistake that every Nonprofit leader makes from time to time. In fact, we all make this mistake, not just in our work, but in multiple aspects of our lives. And if we can be attentive enough and fix it, we can absolutely transform our results and massively reduce our level of frustration. Here's what I'm talking about. It's the curse of the expert. We know way too much about every aspect of the work that we do and the impact it has. And we correctly recognize that all those de...