Change Management Insights From Nonprofit Leaders

Nonprofit leaders - here's a trap I see many boards and executives falling into, and it's hurting their organization's strategy, culture, and effectiveness. It's the perspective of valuing new brilliance over consistently getting better. When new nonprofit CEOs and Department Heads come into their roles, there's a weird thing that happens. It's the expectation - and sometimes requirement - that the leader will bring brilliant, NEW ideas that will fundamentally shift the trajectory of the organization. So many hiring processes favor "brilliant innovators" who seem to be full to the brim with amazing ideas. The result: Organizations put all their energy into launching new programs, incorporating new technology, creating new culture initiatives. They end up losing sight of the things they already do well, opportunities to improve their existing offerings for greater impact, and creating the right amount of time and space to do things well. Brilliant new ideas can be exciting and impactful, but without proper strategy, budgeting, alignment across the organization, staffing, operational planning, etc., we won't fully realize them - and may actually do more harm than good. And since a significant percentage of strategy and change initiatives fail, these "brilliant" ideas often end up being just another big disruption and item in a long laundry list of "stuff we tried that didn't work." To avoid this trap, organizations can instead focus on consistently getting better. That means: → thinking critically about your organization's strengths and role → setting realistic goals → adopting a strategy that's actionable (not just aspirational) → incentivizing your team to contribute their thoughts on improving the ways your organization thinks, plans, and works → having strong input and decision-making processes for determining what ideas to pursue. Getting better may not seem as exciting as new ideas or moments of brilliance, but it pays bigger dividends in long-term organizational impact and effectiveness. #nonprofit #leadership #management #OrganizationalEffectiveness #strategy ---- Hi, I'm Veronica LaFemina - a strategic advisor helping nonprofit CEOs and department leaders advance their causes while navigating the day-to-day realities of organization management. On LinkedIn, I write about practical approaches to improving the ways we think, plan, and work.

A nonprofit leader told me: "If I don't continue to do this, I don't know who is going to continue to do this after me." My heart broke. Not because she was wrong, but because she was trapped. 70-hour weeks. Barely making ends meet. Carrying an entire community's needs on her shoulders. Sound familiar? Here's what I've learned after working with dozens of nonprofit leaders: You're not the problem. The system you're operating in is. When you're the only one who knows the donor passwords, runs the programs, AND fixes the printer, you're not leading an organization. You're drowning in one. And your community deserves you at your best and healthiest, not to watch you burn out. The strongest nonprofits I know aren't built on heroic individuals. They're built on repeatable systems that multiply impact. Think about it this way: What if your 70-hour weeks are actually limiting your mission? Every hour you spend being irreplaceable is an hour you're not training someone else to expand the work. Every task only you can do is a bottleneck preventing growth. Every system that lives in your head instead of on paper dies when you leave. I've watched organizations transform when leaders shift from "How can I do more?" to "How can WE do this better?" Start small: • Document one process this week • Delegate one meaningful task • Teach someone else one critical skill    Your community doesn't need you to sacrifice yourself. They need you to build something that lasts. They need you healthy, strategic, and focused on what only you can do, while empowering others to do the rest. The goal isn't to make yourself dispensable. It's to make the impact inevitable. Because the measure of great leadership isn't how much depends on you. It's how much continues without you. What one thing could you document or delegate this week to start building beyond yourself?

In 2023 70% of nonprofits said their orgs were in need of significant change. At the same time, 50%+ of those orgs said they had no plans to change... But WHY??? Change and evolution in the nonprofit sector is critical. Without a commitment to meaningful change, we risk losing our impact. That's why it was critical that we better understand the resistance to change. This year we asked thousands of nonprofit leaders and frontline staff to tell us what is holding their organizations back from meaningful change. 💡 78% of respondents said limited staff/time inhibits change To this I ask, what if we just stopped doing low value, low margin activities and instead put those valuable hours towards the changes that would significantly improve our organizations and our impact? This is a LEADERSHIP-level decision. Nonprofit leaders...if you want different results, you have to be willing to do things differently. 💡 61% reported that communication gaps in their org limit change To this I ask, what would it mean if leaders showed up every day and spent the first 30 minutes of the day briefing the team, sharing the vision for the future, and being open and transparent about the need for change, the expected impact of change, and the risks of inertia? This too is a LEADERSHIP-level issue. Nonprofit leader...your people want and need more and better communication from you. 💡 49.3% said that unclear strategy is keeping them from enacting change To this I ask, what if we focused on clear, simple, actionable strategy instead of complicated, meandering, and confusing plans? If you can't explain it to a five-year-old, it's too complicated. This too is a LEADERSHIP-level issue. Nonprofit leader...don't waste time and energy complicating strategy. Simple, actionable, understandable strategy will drive meaningful change. Stay tuned for more insights from DickersonBakker's 2024 Nonprofit Leader study focused on the inhibitors of change in the nonprofit sector.