If your executive director announced tomorrow that they were leaving, what would leave with them? I’m not talking about their leadership style or the relationships they’ve built. I’m talking about everything they know about your organization. Why certain decisions were made. What happened when a program didn’t work as expected. The history behind a longstanding…
At a nonprofit where I led marketing, our mission statement was “Creating a Better World by Serving People in Need.” We believed in it. We felt strongly about it. We felt it in our guts. In short, we lived it every day. The organization provided several very different social services. Our mission gave all of…
Years ago, when I led marketing for a nonprofit, I learned how quickly a brand could take on a life of its own. Our organization had multiple programs serving very different people. Each program had its own staff, priorities and history. People were trying to do good work. They were also trying to get things…
What happens when the person who knows how everything works leaves your organization? That question is at the heart of Critical Knowledge Transfer: Tools for Managing Your Company’s Deep Smarts by Dorothy Leonard, Walter Swap, and Gavin Barton. The book explores how organizations can identify important knowledge held by experienced employees and transfer it to…
I read a recent Defector article about the resurgence of bookstores with two very different emotions. The first was joy. I love books. I love that bookstores are thriving. People are gathering again for author events and book clubs. They’re looking for places where they can browse, discover something unexpected, and spend time with their…
I’ve participated in many conversations lately about the state of the nonprofit sector. Leaders are feeling the upheaval of the last few years deeply, and many are uncertain about what comes next. A scarcity mindset isn’t new to the sector, but I’ve seen it become more pervasive. Faced with uncertainty, organizations are pulling back. Leaders…
I’ve always wanted to attend the Bridge Conference but never had the chance. The FOMO was especially strong this year because marketing professor Americus Reed II delivered the keynote. While I had to settle for reading the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage afterward, I was grateful to see someone bring a thoughtful conversation about brand to…
Organizations rarely lose knowledge because they lack information. More often, they lose the shared understanding that gives that information meaning. Discover how strategic communications helps organizations capture institutional knowledge, align teams, and make better decisions.
Every Answer Had a Different Expert One of the most important lessons I’ve learned about good leadership had nothing to do with marketing. When I started a new management role, I focused on learning the organization. Like anyone in a new leadership role, I spent a lot of time asking questions. I wanted to understand…
Why the Sector Can’t Solve Tomorrow’s Problems With Yesterday’s Practices I read Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy by Vu Le last winter, but a conversation this week reminded me just how relevant it is. I was talking with a colleague about new research projecting the future of human services in Central Ohio. The findings were sobering.…
