Successful Nonprofits Podcast

The Busy Executive Director's Guide to Planned Giving with Tony Martignetti

Join the live virtual audience for podcast recordings (and bring your question for the Q&A). Topics, guests, and times are announced in my newsletter, and you can sign up

How to Deliver Bad News to Your Board

If you're in the chief executive seat long enough, something will eventually go wrong. A cash-flow crisis, the loss of a key funder, a serious audit finding, critical new

How Nonprofit CEOs Get Buy-In Across Political Divides with Chandra Brown

If you are a CEO responsible for moving your mission forward in a polarized environment, this conversation will sharpen how you lead. Your ability to communicate with p

Your Board's Fundraising Retreat: 6 Activities to Make It Count (Nonprofit Board Fundraising)

Can one board retreat turn reluctant board members into fundraising superstars? Anyone promising that is selling something they cannot deliver. But a well-designed retrea

The One Spreadsheet Every Nonprofit Manager Needs

What recurring tasks does each person on your team actually own? It's almost impossible to remember everything a team member is responsible for, and a job description u

Are Fundraising Events Worth Your Time? A 10-Hour-a-Month System with Mary Thompson

Whether to spend staff time and resources on a special event is an important decision that rests with you as the chief executive. Fundraising events can consume hundred

Stop Doing $25-per-Hour Work

Never miss an episode: Sign up for our newsletter Your calendar is full, your inbox is under control, and the copier is finally working. You were productive today, righ

Stop the hijacking hyena in your boardroom

One person's loud and persistent certainty can become the board's decision. Not because everyone agrees, but because everyone else has grown tired of resisting and just w

Top 5 Mistakes Nonprofit Executive Directors Make with Marvin Webb

Nonprofit chief executives are expected to protect the mission, lead the team, and keep the organization financially healthy, often without a CFO sitting beside them. In

Can Your Employees Afford to Stay?

We may say that our organization values equity, inclusion, and our mission. But many of us still pay wages that leave employees struggling to cover basic necessities. Tha

6 Clauses for your executive director contract

Your employment agreement is not just paperwork. It shapes how you and your board handle compensation, performance reviews, incentives, leave, renewal, and the end of the

A Sabbatical Made My Nonprofit Stronger with Rebecca Stapel-Wax

Many nonprofit chief executives dream about taking a sabbatical, but few believe  their organization is too small to offer sabbaticals. In this episode, SOJOURN Executive

The Executive Director's Fire Drill

When everything feels urgent, it becomes almost impossible for a nonprofit chief executive to focus on the work that actually moves the organization forward. I share a si

The Three Roles of an Executive Director

Many executive directors spend their days in meetings, emails, staff questions, funder requests, budget tweaks, and personnel issues. At the end of the day, they have bee

70% of nonprofit CEOs get fired or forced out!

While the nonprofit sector rarely talks about it openly, 35% - 70% of executive directors are forced out — usually without even realizing the warning signs. In this epi

The Lifecycle of an Executive Director with Claudius Hildebrand

Claudius Hildebrand, co-author of the best selling book Life Cycle of a CEO, explores the five stages of a nonprofit executive director's tenure, revealing how these insi

The Podcast Returns June 16th!

New episodes will be released on June 16th with a sharper focus on providing actionable advice and support for nonprofit executive directors.   If there's a CEO-level

World-Class Benefits for Nonprofit Teams with Curt Ellis

Could your nonprofit offer staff benefits they couldn't even get working for a Fortune 500 employer? Curt Ellis, co-founder and CEO of FoodCorps, joins Dolph Goldenburg

5 Ways to Raise More Money at the End of the Year

As the rest of the world counts down the last weeks of the year, this is the perfect time for leaders like you to harness your donors' holiday-giving spirit to generate m

Are You an Eagle, Parrot, Owl, or Dove? With Manish Shah

What if understanding your team could be as simple as recognizing four birds?  In this episode, Manish Shah introduces the "four birds" personality model—a game-changin