The Nonprofit CEO Briefing

Much of what we call “change management” is a way for the CEO to avoid being disliked.  This week, I talk with Jenn Petersen at World Hope International on The Nonprofit CEO Podcast. She was thinking about doing something scary: eliminating their only source of recurring revenue, a child-sponsorship

Nonprofit CEOs are always thinking about money—how to raise it, how to steward it, how to save it, how to raise it. (Yes, many seem to think twice as much about how to raise it as the other dynamics.) But money isn’t the most important currency in your

Some months ago, I was talking with a CEO about nonprofit board dynamics. She said: “I think there is something fundamentally wrong with boards. They're more set up for failure than they are for success in the very nature of how they've been created.” Bingo. This

Good news: you don't have tetanus. Bad news: you have another ailment. I started to see it while talking with Ann Graber Hershberger. She just retired from leading Mennonite Central Committee, the large international relief, development, and peace organization. When I asked her what parts of the CEO

A few weeks ago, I was heading to the airport in Phoenix after a CEO event. I said to the CEO I was with, “One of the things that is shocking to me is the lack of organizational discipline throughout the sector. In a big organization, it seems like it

It’s weird to have a totally blank slate for your vocation. What do I want? How should I contribute? What is my best and highest use? My last couple of years have included a lot of this sort of soul-searching, just like many of you. Where should I

At the start of 2025, I realized I was 25 years into my career. (Graduating in 2000 makes for easy math.)  I spent some time reflecting. Years at a coffee cooperative in Nicaragua, a college in western China, and a microfinance pilot project in South Africa. An MBA. Helping lead

Last summer, our daughter, Phoebe, was living in Indianapolis for an internship. She raved about this  local organization centered on art and neighborhood renewal.  She told us about Joanna Taft.  Joanna founded the Harrison Center and still leads it, 25 years later. In my experience, people in the arts are

When my wife, Christine, got her PhD, she found a role at a Wheaton College, about two hours away. She got the offer. (No small feat! There are not many jobs for cultural anthropologists.) At the time, our kids were at home and in school. I had a role that

Five and a half months into her role as CEO of Christianity Today, Nicole Martin sat down with her leaders.  “What do we do? And what would happen to the world if we didn't do it? What we realized in that moment is that we were doing five