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INSPIRATIONAL TRAINING
Articles, Videos, Podcasts
Keep up with the latest trends with practical and inspirational content about topics like leadership, fundraising, organizational development, board engagement, governance, capacity building, and much, much more. You'll also find content about how to find and work with the best nonprofit board retreat/training facilitator, or the best strategic planning facilitator so your day is a resounding success.
For the podcasts, use your favorite podcast player and search for the title names.
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Board Development Facilitator - Find the IDEAL Facilitator
Finding the ideal board retreat facilitator. Ever walked into a board retreat hoping for clarity and inspiration… and instead found yourself silently begging for the lunch break to arrive?
Maybe the facilitator droned through slides, spent half the morning wordsmithing statements no one cared about, or delivered content that felt stale, generic, and disconnected from reality.
Read on to learn more about how to find a great facilitator!
Looking for the Best Board Retreat Facilitator? - Here's How to Find a Gem!
Choosing the right board retreat facilitator matters more than most boards realize. The guide below highlights qualities you'll want to look for when selecting someone who can actually strengthen your board, elevate your discussions, and produce real outcomes.
9 Essentials for Choosing a Board Retreat Facilitator Who Won’t Waste Your Time
Let’s be honest: most people don’t dread board retreats because of the work.They dread them because of the facilitator.
You know the type—reading wordy slides, talking at the room, draining every ounce of energy while half the board secretly scrolls through emails. If your last retreat ended with people feeling bored, frustrated, or completely unchanged, it’s a sign your facilitator wasn’t the right fit.
Find a great facilitator . . . here's how!
Boot Camp for Board Members: What It Really Takes to Build a High-Performance Organization
Most nonprofit leaders dream of running an organization that’s stable, respected, fully funded, and wildly impactful. But too often, the day-to-day grind feels like a military obstacle course you weren’t trained for. That’s exactly why “Boot Camp” exists—an intensive leadership series designed to sharpen your mindset, expand your operational strength, and help your nonprofit rise above the noise of a fiercely competitive sector.
The video is Day 1. An Overview. Enjoy.
Why Quality People Are the Core of Every Gold-Standard Nonprofit
Quality People. Why does this pillar sit at the top building a high-performance nonprofit?
Because everything your nonprofit accomplishes—every dollar raised, every program delivered, every ounce of impact—starts with people. Without human capital, there is no nonprofit. It's imperative to bring on and retain the highest quality people possible. Learn more now! . . .
How to Bring On High-Quality People to Your Nonprofit
How do you actually bring on (and keep) those high-quality staff, volunteers, and board members?
The nonprofit world is a human endeavor. Without people—staff, board, and volunteers—you can’t run programs, raise money, or fulfill your mission. It all starts with Human Capital.
The higher the quality of your people, the higher the quality of your impact. Learn more now!
Retaining High-Quality People You Worked So Hard to Bring On
How do you keep those A-players once you have them?
People are the most precious commodity in the nonprofit world. Staff, board members, and volunteers are the engine that generates your resources and impact. Without people, you can’t raise money, run programs, or move your mission forward.
So if you’ve done the hard work to assemble a team of high-quality people—great! But now what? Read on!
Authentic Passion: Why Lip-Service Is Slowly Killing Your Nonprofit
If your organization has ever welcomed a “passionate” volunteer, board member, or partner—only to watch their enthusiasm evaporate faster than a dropped Popsicle on asphalt—you’re not alone.This post dives into the difference between real passion and lip-service passion, why it matters, and what happens when nonprofits let their passion go flat. Learn more about authentic passion now!
Authentic Passion: The First Tactic to Build a “Do Something” Culture — Commitment
On Day Five, we kicked off the Authentic Passion series by exploring the difference between lip-service passion and authentic passion—and why talk without action does nothing to help your mission.Today, we dive into the very first tactic required to build an authentically passionate, do-something culture across your nonprofit: Commitment. Learn more about authentic passion and commitment now!
Why a Clear Sense of Purpose Builds a DO SOMETHING Culture
On Day 6, we continued exploring how nonprofits can transform lip-service passion into authentic passion. We looked at why commitment—true, action-driven commitment—is foundational.Today, we move to the next essential tactic required to build an authentically passionate, DO SOMETHING culture:A Clear Sense of Purpose. Learn more now!
Turning Work & Service Into a Culture of Engagement
On Day 7, we continued our journey toward building authentic passion inside your nonprofit.
Yesterday, we explored the importance of having a clear sense of purpose—a guiding framework that tells people where they’re going and what’s required to get there.
Today, we tackle the next essential tactic: Work and Service, also known as Engagement.
Because passion without action is still just… lip service. Learn more now!
Keep Authentic Passion Fresh in Your Nonprofit
Today, we continue our series on authentic passion—the driving force behind every thriving, high-performing nonprofit. You’ve done the work to define your mission, clarify your purpose, and build a culture of engagement. But here’s the challenge:
People forget.
If you want authentic passion to stay alive and active in your organization, you must continually bring it back to the forefront of people’s minds and hearts.
Today’s tactic is simple but transformative: regular re
Inspire Others by Sharing Authentic Passion
Sharing authentic passion! When people internalize your mission, something powerful happens: They want to talk about it.They want to share stories. They want others to catch the same fire.
This is the “authentic passion flywheel.” As each person shares their experience, more people connect emotionally with your work—and that connection leads to involvement, support, and generosity.
How Authentic Passion Transforms a Nonprofit
Authentic Passion Must Be a Cornerstone To build a high-performance, “Do Something” nonprofit, authentic passion must be a structural, cultural, and philosophical cornerstone.
Everything depends on it: Your sustainability.Your operations.Your fundraising.Your mission impact. Learn more now!
How to Build a “Get It Done” Culture
You can hire brilliant, passionate individuals, but if each person is operating in their own silo—focused only on personal passions without a shared sense of mission—you’ll end up with fragmented efforts, inconsistent progress, and no unified team momentum.
A high-performance nonprofit requires a unifying culture that aligns everyone around shared beliefs, shared values, and shared responsibility to fulfill the mission. Learn more now!
Why Defining Culture Is Essential for a Get It Done Nonprofit
Culture is a First Things First principle because the most innovative, high-performing organizations have something powerful in common: a unifying ethos that connects hearts, minds, and actions to fulfill the mission.
If there’s no shared purpose… no collective value system… no directed action…Then a nonprofit will develop a dysfunctional culture—one unsure of who it is, what it stands for, or where it’s going.
Why You Must Define a Culture Early On
When culture isn’t defined early, you run the risk of a dysfunctional or lackluster culture taking root. Once an unhealthy culture forms, it can spread into every corner of your nonprofit—board, staff, operations, programming, and relationships.
And the deeper the infection, the harder it is to heal. Learn why it's important to define a culture earlier than later.
The Elements That Make Up a Get It Done Culture
Your mission tells people what you do.Your vision tells people where you’re going.But your culture tells people who you are—What you stand for. What you believe.How you behave.
If you don’t have clarity on who you are or what you stand for, it becomes nearly impossible to fulfill your mission or reach your vision. Learn more about culture now!
Two Essential Cultural Facets Every Nonprofit Should Embrace
A well-defined culture creates a unifying force—an ethos that binds the hearts, minds, and actions of everyone connected with your nonprofit. It shapes how people behave, communicate, and collaborate. Learn why the culture elements of "safety" and "voice." are essential.
Cultural Facets of Getting Personal and Kindness and Caring
If you spend enough time in the nonprofit world, one thing becomes clear: the most successful organizations intentionally foster close personal relationships. The result is a team-oriented culture that is friendly, resilient, and enjoyable.
“Getting personal” is an essential cultural facet because relationships play an outsized role in nonprofit success—especially in emerging organizations where staff and boards are small. Learn more now how this effects your culture now!
Why Flex Time Is a Powerful Cultural Facet for Staff
Staff at nonprofits routinely work longer hours and earn less than their for-profit counterparts. Offering two weeks of paid vacation and national holidays is a good baseline—but it’s rarely enough.
One of the most meaningful ways to deepen staff culture is to reward people with time, not just words.
Time is valuable.Time restores energy.Time communicates trust. Learn more now!
Why You Must Continually Reinforce Your Culture
Today I want to talk about why it’s so important to remind staff and board members of the culture they’ve chosen to adopt.
Once you establish a culture, your work isn’t done. Culture must be nurtured, reinforced, and kept front and center—because people forget. It’s that simple.
If you don’t actively remind people of your cultural facets and your culture statement, they will eventually collect dust—just like many strategic plans do. And we’ve all seen that happen.
Learn m
How to Reflect and Celebrate Your Culture
If a board and staff serious about adopting a culture, it must be authentic in how it reflects that culture.
Culture isn’t defined by what you say—it’s defined by what you do. Learn more now!
The Reality of Building Culture
The Reality of Building Culture. Let’s be honest: building a culture—whether board, staff, or organizational—takes work.
Defining culture is challenging because culture is an abstract concept, much like happiness or beauty. It’s easy to recognize when it’s unhealthy. You can feel a toxic work environment or see disengaged board members from across the room. But defining a healthy, intentional, and high-functioning culture requires thought, clarity, and commitment.
Learn mor
Want to Make Inspired Change? Then Let's Talk Today!
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