Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

385: No Margin, No Mission: Building Nonprofits That Last (Cecilia Haag) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders are told that the urgency of the mission will carry the organization, and that financial and operational discipline is something the corporate world worries about. Cecilia Haag, President of Thompson Impact Consulting, came out of that corporate world, joining the 140-year-old human services organization Thompson as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer after watching it decide to take its model across six to seven southern states. She walks through what that growth actually required: a Tennessee expansion that added roughly a hundred staff at once, a Network Integration Mapping process so nothing is missed when a new program opens, a ninety-day minimum before anyone expects footing, and a weekly, monthly and quarterly operating rhythm that starts with how the team won the week. She also names the red flag that ends a partnership conversation, an unwillingness to talk about what the work actually costs. Listeners will walk away with a working definition of discipline, a short list of the numbers worth watching, and a case for building leaders before the opening exists. About Cecilia Cecilia Haag is President of Thompson Impact Consulting, the practice that grew out of Thompson, a 140-year-old human services organization founded in Charlotte and now operating across the South. She spent most of her career in the for-profit sector helping growing organizations build the infrastructure to scale, and was at Insperity when Thompson became one of her clients during the COVID and social justice period, watching the organization work through the strategic planning that set its growth path. She joined as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, spent her first years examining where Thompson could absorb more growth, and helped carry the mission into new markets including Tennessee and Seminole County, Florida. When peer organizations started asking how Thompson had done it, Thompson Impact Consulting was the answer. A mother of a high schooler and a middle schooler, she runs her own year on a Full Focus Planner and sits down with her husband every couple of years to decide where the family is headed. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, Inperium: inperium.org Conference for NC Nonprofits, October 20-21, 2026 in Concord. Use code PATH26 for discount: ncnonprofits.org . Already a member? Use code PATHMEM for $100 off through October 19! Cecilia's LinkedIn ; Thompson Impact Consulting: thompsonimpact.com Chop Wood, Carry Water by Joshua Medcalf The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership , and please leave a review! Leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Episode 384: How to Launch a Planned Giving Program in One Week (Tony Martignetti) Episode Summary Small and mid-sized nonprofits routinely tell themselves that planned giving belongs to hospitals and universities, that it takes a lawyer and a brochure to begin, and that raising it with a donor means starting a conversation about death. Tony Martignetti, founder of Planned Giving Accelerator and host of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio, has worked in planned giving since 1997 and spent more than twenty years consulting almost exclusively with small and mid-sized shops, and he takes apart every one of those assumptions here. He walks through the three-step, one-week launch at the center of his new book: query your database for loyalty rather than capacity, including the donor whose average gift is five dollars sustained across twenty-five years; start with gifts in wills and nothing else; then ask three to five of those donors, face to face, whether they would consider including you in their will, and stop talking. Listeners will walk away with a program they can launch next week, with no wealth screening and no legal expertise required. About Tony Tony Martignetti is the founder of Planned Giving Accelerator, through which he has devoted his practice to launching planned giving programs at small and mid-sized nonprofits, and the author of Planned Giving Accelerated, publishing September 15. He went to law school, practiced for two years, disliked it enough to re-engineer his career entirely, and entered planned giving in 1997 as a frontline fundraiser and director of planned giving, first at a college and then at a university, before beginning his consulting work in 2003. He has hosted Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for more than sixteen years, covering the full range of what small and mid-sized shops wrestle with, and his stated goal is to help at least a thousand organizations start a planned giving program. He is also, by his own description, an Italian and a big hugger, the kind of fundraiser who will get up and embrace a donor who has just said yes. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, Inperium: inperium.org Tony’s new book, Planned Giving Accelerated, publishing September 15 wherever books are sold. Join the waitlist at plannedgivingaccelerated.com Tony’s website, home to his Planned Giving Accelerator work and his podcast, Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio: tonymartignetti.com Tony's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tonymartignetti Book recommendation: Planned Giving Simplified by Robert F. Sharpe Sr. (Wiley) Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership | ArmstrongMcGuire.com

383: What Nonprofit Leaders Get Wrong About Growing Fast (Steve Isom) Episode Summary Nonprofit professionals often come to the sector craving mission, not metrics, and the discomfort that creates around money, growth, and hard numbers can quietly limit how far an organization goes. Steve Isom, Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Bloomerang, has spent nearly six years professionalizing the finance, operations, and customer functions behind the giving platform that now serves more than 24,000 nonprofits, and in this conversation he draws a direct line between his own path from Wall Street investment banking to nonprofit-adjacent leadership and the mindset shifts he sees separating scarcity-minded organizations from ones that grow without losing themselves. He talks candidly about scaling Bloomerang from 114 employees to roughly 600 without sacrificing the culture that built it, why hiring the “great people” leaders think they can’t afford is usually the real unlock, and the three principles now guiding Bloomerang’s approach to AI: mission is the metric, the relationship stays human, and your data stays yours. Listeners will walk away with a clearer case for treating fundraising and finance as fuel for the mission rather than a distraction from it, and a practical framework for growing fast without losing what made their organization work in the first place. About Steve Steve Isom is the Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Bloomerang, an Omaha, NE-based giving platform that unifies CRM, fundraising, and volunteer management for more than 24,000 nonprofit customers. He began his career in investment banking on Wall Street before moving into private equity investing in technology companies, then ran FP&A and finance for high-growth tech companies. He joined Bloomerang nearly six years ago, brought in by JMI Equity to professionalize the company’s finance, accounting, legal, and IT functions, and earlier this year expanded his role to lead Bloomerang’s customer organization as well, overseeing support, onboarding, and customer success. Isom serves on multiple nonprofit boards and has met with more than 100 Bloomerang customers in person over the past five years. Outside the office, he’s a self-described “Type A” list-maker who still writes everything on scrap paper before consolidating it each night, and a devoted LEGO collector who runs his own LEGO fan account on Instagram. Resources Steve’s LinkedIn Bloomerang Bloomerang’s three AI principles: mission is the metric, the relationship stays human, your data stays yours Bonus: Steve’s LEGO fan account, @lego_doug_not_dad on Instagram Book recommendation: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (not a past guest) Join the Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy! www.institutepl.org Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire — ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Episode 382: From Shoe Drive to Global Movement (Andrew Lovedale) Episode Summary Too many nonprofit founders assume that the people who love them will automatically support the mission they've built, and few learn how costly that assumption is until donors who cheer from the sidelines never actually give. Andrew Lovedale, Founder and Executive Director of Access to Success (A2S), learned that lesson firsthand after a shoe drive he started as a Davidson College basketball player, whose run to the 2008 NCAA Elite Eight alongside teammate Steph Curry helped raise the first 10,000 pairs, grew into a nonprofit now serving thousands of children and families across Nigeria. He walks through how A2S evolved from handing out shoes to building a longitudinal, community-designed model that spans an after-school academy, university scholarships, and entrepreneurship programs; how he rebuilt his donor base from scratch once his own athletic platform faded; and why he now asks donors to treat their giving like a long-term investment rather than a quick transaction. Listeners will walk away with a sharper way to build donor relationships around shared passion rather than personal affection, and a reminder that sustainable impact takes years, not headlines. About Andrew Andrew Lovedale is the Founder and Executive Director of Access to Success (A2S), a Davidson, NC-based nonprofit that provides sustainable, holistic programs for Nigerian children and their communities, from an after-school academy and university scholarships to workforce development and entrepreneurship initiatives that now reach roughly 10,000 people a year. Born and raised in Nigeria, he earned a basketball scholarship to Davidson College, where he and teammate Steph Curry led the Wildcats to the 2008 NCAA Elite Eight before he moved on to a brief professional basketball career. What began as a personal shoe drive for friends back home, sparked by a moment in the Davidson equipment room, grew over more than 15 years into A2S's current ecosystem model, which has produced results ranging from students turned software engineers to a former A2S scholar who became a medical doctor in her twenties. Lovedale now leads A2S's two boards, one in the U.S. and one in Nigeria, as the organization pursues a dual sustainability strategy aimed at generating 25 percent of its revenue from Nigeria by 2035, and he still travels there each quarter to host A2S Community Talks, the sessions where the people A2S serves help shape what the organization does next. Resources Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-lovedale-81b40833/ Access to Success (A2S): https://a2sfoundation.org A2S Community Talk (ACT): the quarterly town hall sessions Andrew holds in Nigeria to gather direct feedback from staff, scholars, and community members, now also held for U.S. donors Book recommendation: When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert Join the Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy! www.institutepl.org Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Episode 381: What Leaders Must Know to Build Cross-Sector Power (Karen Riordan) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders often assume advocacy, cross-sector partnerships, and funding diversification are someone else's job — but Karen Riordan, President & CEO of Together SC in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, argues that building real power for the sector starts with everyday relationship-building. Drawing on three decades of for-profit marketing experience before her move into nonprofit leadership, Riordan makes the case that nonprofits are businesses too, deserving of the same respect, visibility, and strategic rigor as any company in the community. She shares how to build relationships with lawmakers long before you ever need something from them, why chambers of commerce and civic groups are an underused bridge to the business community, and how to have hard budget conversations with your board before a funding crisis forces the issue. Listeners will walk away with concrete, low-lift ways to build cross-sector alliances, advocate for their organization without feeling like a lobbyist, and lead with pride even when the funding landscape feels shaky. About Karen Karen Riordan is President & CEO of Together SC (formerly the South Carolina Nonprofit Association), the statewide network that strengthens and champions the nonprofit sector across South Carolina, a role she stepped into in 2024. She spent three decades building brands in the for-profit world, first in the tourism industry and later in automotive marketing, where she managed teams of up to 1,200 employees, before moving into the nonprofit space by way of the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, where she founded both Keep Myrtle Beach Beautiful and Partnership Grand Strand. A journalism graduate who has volunteered for nonprofits since high school - across subsectors from animal welfare to food insecurity - Riordan now channels that business rigor and marketing instinct into raising the visibility and respect of nonprofits statewide. She's an avowed re-reader of Jim Collins' Good to Great and a self-described “maniac” for a good thriller series in her downtime. Resources Karen's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/karen-riordan-72a88a2 Together SC: TogetherSC.org Check out Together SC's “Nonprofits Get It Done” campaign (modeled on the National Council of Nonprofits) and their upcoming scenario-planning workshops for budget diversification Book recommendation: Impact Networks by David Ehrlichman Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

#380: Relationships Shape Everything: What Leaders Must Know to Build Community (David “Dae-Lee” Arrington) Episode Summary Many nonprofit leaders believe they've built real community and trust within their organizations — but David “Dae-Lee” Arrington argues that what looks like connection is often just proximity, and that gap is costing leaders more than they realize. Founder and CEO of Bridge Builder Leadership in Charlotte, NC, Dae-Lee shares how his own journey - from a Black, working-class neighborhood in Norfolk, Virginia to a mostly white, affluent Charlotte suburb at age nineteen - sparked a career spent helping leaders move from transactional relationships to transformational ones. He introduces the idea that “growth can hide fragmentation,” explains why psychological safety and trust function as an under-built layer of leadership infrastructure, and walks through the three-question framework: Who Am I? Who Are They? Who Are We? that grounds his Bridge Builder cohorts. Listeners will walk away with a concrete first step for building trust across difference, and a challenge to examine whether their own relationships are truly authentic or simply convenient. About Dae-Lee David “Dae-Lee” Arrington is the Founder and CEO of Bridge Builder Leadership, a Charlotte, NC-based organization that builds relational capacity and trust infrastructure among leaders across sectors, race, and generation. Raised in the Huntersville neighborhood of Norfolk, Virginia, he moved to Charlotte at nineteen in 2001, an experience that reshaped how he thought about community and connection across difference. He studied multimedia web design at the Art Institute of Charlotte and spent his early career split between the tech and entertainment worlds, working as a producer and recording artist while using music to bring people together in Charlotte's faith community and later as part of the Creative Mornings leadership team. Prompted by conversations with fellow leaders following the death of Keith Lamont Scott in 2016 and the events of 2020, Dae-Lee launched Bridge Builder Leadership to help leaders build the relational foundation - self-awareness, trust, and authentic connection - that he believes is missing from most leadership development. Over the past five years, he has led ten cohorts of leaders through that work, and describes himself, fittingly, as “an introverted lover of people.” Resources Dae-Lee's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daeleebridgebuilder/ Bridge Builder Leadership website: https://www.webridgebuild.com “Growth Can Hide Fragmentation” (read and add your voice!): https://www.webridgebuild.com/growth-can-hide-fragmentation Book recommendation: The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire

379: How to Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor (Derric Bakker) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders and fundraisers are exhausted, and the instinct when results slip is to simply work harder. In this episode of Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, Derric Bakker, Founder & CEO of DickersonBakker, argues that today’s struggle is not a down cycle teams can out-hustle but a structural shift in how people give, driven by demographics, the widening wealth gap, fraying community and religious ties, and donors who now expect the personalized experience every consumer brand delivers. Returning after his 2022 conversation (Episode #181), Derric makes the provocative case behind his new book: the relational behaviors long reserved for the top 1 percent of major donors, listening first, personalizing every touchpoint, stewarding consistently, and protecting trust, can become the operating system for fundraising at every level. He explains where AI makes that possible at scale, where it must never replace the human on the other end, and what a practical first step looks like, from rethinking donor survey data to reimagining portfolio size and gratitude. Listeners come away with a clear-eyed diagnosis of why the old model broke and a hopeful sense of the leadership and board decisions that move an organization toward a better way. About Derric Derric Bakker is the Founder & CEO of DickersonBakker, a fundraising consulting and agency firm that helps nonprofit organizations grow, thrive, and make a bigger impact, with a team of more than 50 working with over 100 clients a year. Across more than three decades in the sector, Derric moved through three chapters, roughly a decade as a frontline practitioner, a decade in consulting, and leadership of the firm he launched in 2010 that later merged to become DickersonBakker, and he is now entering a fourth focused on writing, teaching, and thought leadership as Andrew Olson takes the helm as president. Mentored early in his career by the legendary Jerry Panas, Derric built his expertise on relationship-based major gift fundraising, the foundation of his new book. Reflecting on the pace of change, he often points out that nearly everything about the work has been transformed by technology since he started, yet many of fundraising’s core assumptions have stubbornly stayed the same. Resources Connect with Derric Bakker on LinkedIn and learn more about DickersonBakker Derric’s book: A Better Way to Fundraise: Treat Every Donor Like a Major Donor — explore the book and discussion guides at betterwaychampions.org Recommended reading: Nonprofit AI by Nathan Chappell (who, with Brian Crimmins, was a past guest on Episode #211, Is Philanthropy in a State of Crisis? ) Registration is open for Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy - Learn more at institutepl.org Learn more about Inperium, a nonprofit that helps health and human services organizations grow without sacrificing their mission: Inperium.org Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

378: The Money Myths Holding Your Nonprofit Back (Sean Hale) Episode Summary Too many nonprofit leaders quietly avoid their own finances, trusting that a clean audit or a capable CPA means everything is handled, and that blind spot can put a mission at real risk. In this episode, Patton talks with Sean Hale, founder of Nonprofit CFOs, who busts five money myths that hold organizations back: that the audit has them covered, that finance is the CPA’s job, that nonprofits aren’t supposed to make a profit, that confusing financial reports are just part of the territory, and that you say yes to whatever a funder asks. Drawing on more than two decades inside the sector and a contrarian, plain-English style, Sean explains what a standard audit actually does and doesn’t catch, why a whistleblower policy and strong internal controls protect an organization far more than people realize, how an executive director can engage with the numbers in twenty minutes a month without becoming a bookkeeper, and why building a modest annual surplus is one of the smartest things a board can do. Listeners will walk away with practical, doable steps to raise financial literacy across their whole organization and the confidence to push back when a grant simply isn’t worth the cost. About Sean Sean Hale is the founder of Nonprofit CFOs, a team of finance and accounting professionals who provide nonprofits across the country with bookkeeping, fractional and interim CFO support, and special projects such as grant due diligence. His path into the sector started early: his mother led a nonprofit for thirty years, and his first job there involved pushing a broom for minimum wage. As an adult, Sean has worked in the sector since 1999, wearing nearly every hat across four different nonprofits over twenty-one years before launching his own practice. He found that he could make the biggest difference in the finance and administrative side of the work, helping organizations get their operations buttoned up so they can focus on mission. Known on LinkedIn for his sassy, contrarian, and occasionally grumpy take on nonprofit finance, Sean is on a mission to help leaders ditch the jargon, ask better questions, and stop accepting the pain. Resources Connect with Sean on LinkedIn ; Nonprofit CFOs Get Sean’s Financial Dashboard Starter Kit, free with code PATTON2026 at nonprofitcfos.com The Thief in Your Company by Tiffany Couch Learn more about Inperium, a nonprofit that helps health and human services organizations grow without sacrificing their mission: Inperium.org Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership at www.armstrongmcguire.com/podcasts Find more leadership resources at ArmstrongMcGuire.com

377: Stop Pushing Harder: How Great Nonprofits Build Momentum (Suzanne Smith) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders are exhausted, pushing harder and still feeling stuck. Suzanne Smith, Founder and CEO of Social Impact Architects, offers a different path. Drawing on sixteen years of consulting and her forthcoming book, The Nonprofit Flywheel, she reframes Jim Collins’s flywheel for the social sector: translate business practices, don’t transplant them. Suzanne walks through the six elements, impact, brand, revenue, and operations, held together by culture and governance, and explains why momentum builds only when all six align. She shares proof from the TACA arts accelerator in Dallas, where participating organizations saw average budgets rise roughly 40 percent and foundation support climb 77 percent, then challenges leaders to rethink old norms through what she calls Nonprofit 2.0. Listeners walk away with a practical diagnostic for finding the friction in their own organizations and a reminder that lasting impact comes from working smarter, not harder. About Suzanne Suzanne Smith is the Founder and CEO of Social Impact Architects, a social change agency in Dallas, Texas, that helps nonprofits, government agencies, and cross-sector systems move from stuck to strategic. Describing herself as “trilingual” in nonprofit, government, and business, Suzanne began her career as a lobbyist after earning a government degree from the University of Texas, then went on to complete her MBA at Duke, where she studied social entrepreneurship under pioneer Greg Dees. Over the past sixteen years she has founded nonprofits, served as a board chair, and taught the next generation of social entrepreneurs as an educator and consultant. She writes the Social TrendSpotter newsletter, a top nonprofit publication on Substack, and her TEDx talk, Everyone Is a Changemaker, reflects her belief that anyone can make a difference. She calls herself half therapist, half mechanic, a nod to her therapist mother and her love of finding the right tools to get unstuck. Resources Connect with Suzanne on LinkedIn ; Social Impact Architects ; MeetSuzanne.com Social TrendSpotter - Suzanne’s weekly newsletter on the future of the social sector TEDx talk: Everyone Is a Changemaker The Nonprofit Flywheel: A Playbook for Sustainable Growth, Smarter Strategy, and Lasting Impact by Suzanne Smith, launching October 1, 2026, with a free digital edition and companion resources The Power of TED (The Empowerment Dynamic) by David Emerald Learn more about Inperium, a nonprofit that helps health and human services organizations grow without sacrificing their mission: Inperium.org Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership at www.armstrongmcguire.com/podcasts Find more leadership resources at ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Episode 376: Who Should Be Part of Your Strategic Planning Process? (Renee Rubin Ross) Episode Summary Too many strategic plans end up gathering dust on a shelf, or worse, frustrating the very people who were left out of building them. In this episode, Renee Rubin Ross, Ph.D., Founder of The Ross Collective and author of the new book Inclusive Strategic Planning , makes the case that who you involve in planning matters just as much as the plan itself. Drawing on more than twenty planning processes, she walks through her five-step spiral, kickoff, discovery, prioritization, planning, and implementation, and introduces a simple framework for deciding who belongs in the room: deciders, builders, and sharers. Renee explains how to know whether your organization is even ready to plan, how to scale the work up or down when capacity and funding feel shaky, and how to keep a plan alive through consistent communication and disciplined implementation. Nonprofit leaders will come away with a practical, inclusive approach that turns planning into a source of energy, alignment, and focus rather than another document destined for the shelf. About Renee Dr. Renee Rubin Ross is a recognized leader in board and organizational development and strategy, and the founder of The Ross Collective, a consulting firm that designs and leads inclusive, participatory processes for social sector boards and staff. Committed to racial equity in the nonprofit sector, she guides leaders and organizations through strategic plans and governance processes that deepen social change, racial justice, engagement, and community strength. Renee is the author of Inclusive Strategic Planning: A Five-Step Process to Expand Energy, Alignment, and Opportunity . She also directs the Nonprofit Management Certificate program at Cal State University East Bay, where she teaches strategic planning and board development. A past board member of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management and a member of the Technology of Participation facilitators’ network, she earned her doctorate in education and Jewish studies from New York University, where her research explored parent participation in schools. She lives in Northern California. Resources Listen to the episode: www.armstrongmcguire.com/podcasts Connect with Renee on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/reneerubinross The Ross Collective: therosscollective.com Inclusive Strategic Planning: A Five-Step Process to Expand Energy, Alignment, and Opportunity Book recommendation: My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem Cal State University East Bay Nonprofit Management Certificate program Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership , and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at ArmstrongMcGuire.com

375: Outrageous Kindness: A Framework for Unlocking Philanthropic Potential (Kristina Joy Carlson) Episode Summary When disruption hits, many nonprofit leaders go quiet and wait for conditions to settle before they act, and that pause quietly signals to donors and communities that the mission can wait too. In Episode 375, Kristina Joy Carlson, CFRE, Founder and CEO of Outrageous Kindness, makes the case that perfect is never coming, and that the leaders who keep moving are the ones who build the strongest relationships. Drawing on decades in global philanthropy and a personal season of loss and recovery, she walks Patton through her KIND Method: Know More (challenge the assumptions that quietly kill donor relationships), Impact (reconnect to your own why so authentic passion does the persuading), Navigate (communicate honestly and bring a plan when funding shifts), and Deliver (do what you said, then circle back so people know their gift mattered). Along the way she offers a simple impact audit any leader can run today, a reframe of asking as a muscle you strengthen with use, and a reminder that asking a good question and truly listening may be the most outrageous kindness of all. Listeners will leave with a practical roadmap for leading with generosity when the conditions are anything but ideal. About Kristina Kristina Joy Carlson, CFRE, is the Founder and CEO of Outrageous Kindness, a mindset, method, and movement she built to help nonprofit organizations create stronger relationships, healthier cultures, and greater impact. She has spent most of her career in global philanthropy, helping organizations connect with people, engage donors, and grow the resources that fuel their missions, work that took her into campaigns, leadership transitions, and seasons of significant disruption. The daughter of a fundraiser and minister, she learned early that generosity changes the giver, the people around them, and the community, a conviction that now anchors her writing, speaking, and consulting. She is the author of Outrageous Kindness and will keynote the North Carolina Philanthropy Conference on September 3 with a talk titled “Perfect Isn’t Coming.” Based in Oxford, Mississippi, she leads through hard seasons with the same belief she teaches: your circumstances do not define you. Resources Kristina Joy Carlson on LinkedIn Outrageous Kindness The Seven Faces of Philanthropy by Russ Alan Prince and Karen Maru File An American Life by Ronald Reagan Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — and please leave a review! Leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Episode 374: A Roadmap to Nonprofit Excellence: What Most Leaders Miss (Lauren Deiorio) Episode Summary Most nonprofit leaders don’t fail because of mission. They get stuck running one part of the operation well while neglecting the rest, often because they rose through programming and never learned the business of running an organization. In this episode, Lauren Deiorio, President & CEO of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, shares the Roadmap to Success, a practical tool she helped build that breaks nonprofit excellence into nine “destinations”: governance, HR, financial management, fundraising, communications, technology, strategic collaborations, community empowerment, and grant strategy. Drawing on a finance and public accounting background and nine years leading her foundation, Lauren explains why treating your nonprofit like a business, with engaged boards, strong internal controls, diversified revenue, and clear communications, is what earns donor confidence. She offers a concrete way to put the roadmap to work as a self-assessment, pairing a staff member with a board member on each destination throughout the year. Listeners will walk away with a mental checklist for diagnosing where their organization is strong, where it’s vulnerable, and exactly where to start. About Lauren Lauren Deiorio is President & CEO of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, where she leads a nonprofit resource center dedicated to helping local organizations grow stronger and run more like a business. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Lauren earned a degree in finance and spent years in public accounting before moving into the philanthropic sector, first as the fund development director for her local school district and then, for the past nine years, at the helm of the Community Foundation. A self-described numbers person who joined her local public relations association to sharpen her communications skills, she co-created the foundation’s Roadmap to Success, now in its second edition with an accompanying workbook nonprofits across the region use as a self-study guide. Based near Orlando, she’s a fan of common-sense customer service, and has led her own staff through a book study on the subject. Resources Connect with Lauren: LinkedIn | lauren@ocalafoundation.org Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County: ocalafoundation.org Roadmap to Success: the nine-destination nonprofit handbook and workbook (order at ocalafoundation.org) Book recommendation: The Customer Rules by Lee Cockrell Also mentioned: Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

#373: Turning Leadership Transitions into Organizational Breakthroughs (Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE) Episode Summary Most nonprofits treat leadership change as an emergency to survive rather than a future to plan for — and the cost of that blind spot is mounting. In this episode, Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE (ret), CEO of Third Sector Company and founder of the Interim Executives Academy, names the “perfect storm” that has left the sector unprepared: taboo conversations about people, resource development defined only as money, a scarcity mindset that turns pipelines into pipe dreams, an unmanaged generational shift, and boards and staff running on separate tracks. Drawing on a career that began at United Way and 25 years building the field of interim leadership, Wilcox reframes succession planning as the stewardship of a purpose rather than the replacement of a person, and makes the case for the professionally trained interim executive as a catalyst — not a stopgap — for organizations bridging their proudest past and their hoped-for future. Listeners will come away with a practical, five-part view of what real succession planning requires, a sharper sense of when an interim is the right call, and a renewed conviction that the sector’s most valuable asset has always been its people. About Jeffrey Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE (ret), is CEO of Third Sector Company and founder of its Interim Executives Academy and Interim Development Directors BootCamp, and a nationally recognized pioneer in leadership succession solutions for community-impact organizations. An author, columnist, and popular speaker, he advises nonprofits, trade and professional associations, and congregations on succession planning, talent development and retention, and strategic interim executive solutions. His early career was spent at United Way, including as Senior Vice President of Community Development for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, where he watched countless organizations treat leadership change as a surprise, a project, and an interruption — an experience that became the impetus for the firm he founded in 2002. Since then, Third Sector Company has served more than 900 organizations across the West Coast, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Western Canada, and was named a “Top 10” Interim Executive Services firm by Manage HR Magazine in 2023 and 2024; its Academy is the oldest and longest-running certificate program of its kind in the U.S. and Canada. The former nonprofit columnist for the Long Beach Business Journal, Wilcox authored The Nonprofit Leader of the New Decade in 2010 and remains a tireless advocate for returning nonprofit leadership to its cause-based, movement-focused, activist-driven roots. Resources Jeffrey R. Wilcox on LinkedIn Third Sector Company — thirdsectorcompany.com Interim Executives Academy — interimexecutivesacademy.com Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, and Spike Jones (Wiley, 2010) — Jeffrey’s book recommendation Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire — ArmstrongMcGuire.com

Episode 372: The Culture Work No One Warns You About in a Nonprofit Merger ( Marcia Beckner) Episode Summary Too many nonprofit leaders treat a merger as a last resort, proof that something failed, when it can be the boldest strategic move they make. In this episode, Marcia Beckner, Founder and CEO of Culture CARES® Global, reframes merger as a path to greater impact, drawing on her own experience founding MyLifeLine Cancer Foundation and merging it into the Cancer Support Community. She covers how to know when a merger is right, why ego is so often the real obstacle, and why culture, not finances or strategy, is where mergers quietly succeed or fail. Marcia shares her CARES® framework (Commitment, Appreciation, Respect, Engagement, Safety) as both a diagnostic and a roadmap for integrating two teams into one healthy, psychologically safe organization. Listeners will walk away seeing partnership not as surrender, but as a way to better fulfill their mission alongside others. About Marcia Marcia Beckner is the Founder and CEO of Culture CARES® Global, where she coaches nonprofit CEOs and executive directors to build healthy, inclusive workplaces and reduce sector burnout. She is the architect of the Culture CARES® Framework, a proven process for measuring and co-creating organizational culture. In 2007 she founded MyLifeLine Cancer Foundation, a digital community born from her own stage 3 ovarian cancer diagnosis in her twenties, which she led for nearly a decade before merging it into the global Cancer Support Community in 2018, where she went on to serve as VP of Digital Strategy and Chief Culture Officer. She holds a degree in Organizational Psychology, is a certified Dream Manager® and Talent Insights Analyst, and is the author of You Are Meant for Great Things. Based in Denver with her husband and four nearly-launched kids, she’s an avid reader and traveler. Resources Marcia Beckner on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marciabeckner Culture CARES® Global: CultureCares.com The Culture CARES® Framework & Assessment: a culture diagnostic and roadmap built on five pillars (Commitment, Appreciation, Respect, Engagement, Safety), with psychological safety as the foundation DISC + Driving Forces (Talent Insights): assessments Marcia uses to surface leadership styles and inner motivators in team-building Book: You Are Meant for Great Things by Marcia (Donziger) Beckner, her memoir of turning setbacks into stepping stones ( culturecares.com/book ) Book: The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook by David La Piana, a step-by-step guide through the merger process

371: Stop Scaling, Start Listening: Building Nonprofits That Actually Work (jacob adams) Episode Summary Too many nonprofits have become experts at performing impact - hitting metrics, writing polished reports, scaling programs - without ever stopping to ask whether they’re actually changing the lives of the people they serve. In this episode, Patton sits down with jacob adams, Founder and Executive Director of Inner Spark Learning Lab in Los Angeles, to explore what it looks like when a nonprofit is genuinely built around the community it exists to serve. jacob traces his journey from Teach For America to founding STEM to the Future in 2017 to rebranding as Inner Spark Learning Lab, a shift that happened when he realized STEM was never really the point. He introduces the Human Learning Systems framework and walks through Inner Spark’s Listen→Try→Reflect→Adapt→Share cycle: a living approach to program design that treats service work as ongoing experiment rather than fixed delivery. He talks candidly about what real community listening looks like in practice, what it costs to stop a program that isn’t working, and why he shares the messy middle publicly - even when funders want a more polished story. Leaders who feel the tension between accountability and authenticity will find both challenge and permission in this conversation. About jacob jacob adams is the Founder and Executive Director of Inner Spark Learning Lab, a community-centered education nonprofit based in Los Angeles, California. jacob launched the organization in 2017 as STEM to the Future before rebranding to reflect a deeper commitment to what actually drives young people’s growth: curiosity, relationships, and genuine responsiveness to what communities say they need. His work is grounded in the Human Learning Systems framework, and he is known in the sector for practicing — and publicly modeling — the kind of reflective, adaptive leadership he believes the nonprofit sector urgently needs more of. Before founding Inner Spark, jacob served with Teach For America, an experience that shaped his conviction that proximity to community is not a program feature but a leadership discipline. Resources Connect with jacob on LinkedIn Learn more about Inner Spark Learning Lab Human Learning Systems (created by Toby Lowe) humanlearning.systems How We See Us: Young People Imagining a Path to Their Futures by Michaela Leslie-Rule Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire — ArmstrongMcGuire.com

370: How to Stop Losing Half of Your Recurring Donors (Dave Raley) Episode Summary If your organization celebrates a 42% recurring donor retention rate (the national average), you may be focusing on the wrong number - because the real story is the 58% you’re losing every year . In this follow-up to Episode #301, Patton welcomes back Dave Raley, Founder and CEO of The Center for Sustainable Giving in Poulsbo, Washington, for a deeper dive into sustainable giving. Dave unpacks the two distinct faces of donor churn - involuntary (failed credit cards) and voluntary (donors who choose to leave) - and explains why treating them the same way is one of the most expensive mistakes a nonprofit can make. He introduces a practical three-part retention model - Affirm, Engage, Appeal - and makes the case that the middle step is where most organizations quietly lose the relationship. He also shares the data behind upgrade campaigns, including what a 25% average gift lift looks like in practice and when in the donor lifecycle to run one. Whether your organization is flying blind on churn or ready to move from knowing to doing, this episode delivers clear, immediate steps you can take this quarter. About Dave Dave Raley is the Founder and CEO of The Center for Sustainable Giving, based in Poulsbo, Washington, where he helps nonprofit leaders build recurring giving programs that retain donors and grow long-term revenue. With a background spanning nonprofit fundraising strategy, technology, and the subscription economy, Dave has become one of the sector’s leading voices on donor retention, passive churn, and the structural shifts required to move organizations from transactional to relational fundraising. He is also the author of The Wave Report, a research publication tracking trends in sustainable giving, and was previously the founder of Imago Consulting. Dave joined Patton first on Episode #301 and returns here with deeper frameworks and sharper tools for leaders ready to act. Resources Connect with Dave on LinkedIn Learn more about The Center for Sustainable Giving Subscribe to The Wave Report - Dave’s research publication on trends in sustainable giving Listen to Dave’s first appearance: Episode #301: The Why Behind Sustainable Giving The Rise of Sustainable Giving by Dave Raley Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership - and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

369: No Money, No Mission: Rethinking How Nonprofits Are Built to Survive (Ryan Dewey Smith) Episode Summary Most nonprofits don’t fail because their mission stops mattering - they fail because the structure holding that mission together was never built to last. In this episode, Patton sits down with Ryan Dewey Smith, Founding Executive Chairman & CEO of Inperium, Inc., based in Reading, Pennsylvania, to explore the structural fault lines quietly threatening even well-intentioned organizations. Ryan draws on more than a decade of building Inperium’s constellation model - a networked alternative to traditional mergers that preserves local autonomy while delivering shared back-office infrastructure, access to capital, and best-in-class talent - to explain why so many nonprofits wait too long to raise their hand, and what it costs the people they serve when they do. From navigating board resistance and staff fear during affiliation to the discipline of leading from strength rather than desperation, Ryan brings a practitioner’s candor to the structural questions most leaders quietly avoid. Listeners will walk away with a sharper understanding of the early warning signs of organizational vulnerability, and a concrete alternative to going it alone. About Ryan Ryan Dewey Smith is the Founding Executive Chairman & CEO of Inperium, Inc., a national nonprofit parent company headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania, that provides shared back-office infrastructure, access to capital, and operational support to a constellation of 34 behavioral health and human services organizations operating across 20 states. Ryan founded Inperium after spending more than two decades as CEO of his own nonprofit serving individuals with intellectual disabilities - an experience that exposed firsthand the structural fragility most mission-driven organizations quietly carry. His forthcoming book, Sustaining the Mission, to be published by Forbes in September 2026, chronicles Inperium’s journey and offers a roadmap for nonprofits seeking lasting resilience without sacrificing the autonomy that makes their work meaningful. Resources Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn Learn more about Inperium, Inc.: inperium.org Visit Ryan’s website: ryandeweysmith.com Sustaining the Mission by Ryan Dewey Smith — forthcoming from Forbes, September 22, 2026 Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire — ArmstrongMcGuire.com

368: Before You Merge: Five Factors Every Nonprofit Leader Must Weigh (Staci Barfield) Episode Summary For too many nonprofit leaders, the word “merger” lands like a verdict, a sign something has gone wrong. Staci Barfield, Senior Director of Consulting Excellence at Armstrong McGuire in Cary, NC, argues the opposite: a merger belongs early on a leader’s strategic menu, not at the end. Drawing on her work facilitating the Arise Collective and MATCH (Mothers and Their Children) merger, Staci walks Patton through the full continuum of collaboration and unpacks the five factors every leader should weigh: mission alignment and strategic rationale, organizational and cultural fit, governance and leadership readiness, financial health and due diligence, and capacity to manage change while continuing to serve. She makes the case that funders are increasingly convening these conversations and that the strategic exercise itself has value even when it doesn’t end in a merger. Listeners walk away with a practical framework for assessing any form of collaboration, and a sharper read on when a merger isn’t a retreat but a way to magnify mission. About Staci Staci Barfield is Senior Director of Consulting Excellence at Armstrong McGuire, where she leads the methodologies, tools, and resources that equip the firm’s advisor team to deliver consistent, high-impact client work. She came to the philanthropic sector after a long corporate career in information technology and business process improvement at Gap, Inc., Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Sprint, AT&T, and Springs Industries. The pivot was catalyzed when a Hurricane Katrina deployment with the American Red Cross showed her that her business skill set translated directly to mission-driven work. From there she went on to serve as Vice President of Development for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Eastern NC Chapter, Executive Director of National Students of AMF, and CEO of Children’s Flight of Hope, before joining Armstrong McGuire. Across all of it, Staci has been driven by the same instinct: maximizing an organization’s opportunities for success through both strategic and operational initiatives. Resources Connect with Staci on LinkedIn Case study referenced in the episode: Arise Collective + MATCH (Mothers and Their Children) Shared services model referenced in the episode: Ascend Nonprofit Solutions (Charlotte, NC) Companion episode: #350 with Andre Anthony: What Every Nonprofit Leader Needs to Know About Mergers Staci’s book recommendation: I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership and please leave a review! Learn more about Staci’s work and leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire (ArmstrongMcGuire.com)

367: Activate Good - Leading with Fearlessness and Purpose (Marjorie Maas) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders carry the weight of the next grant, the next major gift, the next board meeting - and that constant worry doesn’t make the work more productive, it just makes it heavier. In Episode #367, Patton talks with Marjorie Maas, CEO of Share Good, based in Omaha, NE, about what it actually looks like to lead with fearlessness when stakes are high and resources are tight. Marjorie leads a national technology and community-building nonprofit that helps cities position generosity in one place - now active in nine markets from Charlotte to Detroit to Omaha and beyond - and she shares the mindset shifts that have shaped both her organization’s growth and her own “patchwork quilt” career path. She unpacks the difference between scarcity thinking and an abundance mindset rooted in logical thinking rather than blind faith, why emerging leaders shouldn’t talk themselves out of their passion, and why governance fluency is something professionals should be building early — not waiting for an executive seat to learn. Listeners will walk away with a practical framework for leading through uncertainty, language for coaching the next generation of nonprofit professionals, and a clearer sense of how to keep moving forward when fear shows up. About Marjorie Marjorie Maas is the CEO of Share Good, a national technology and community-building nonprofit that connects passion to action in hyperlocal communities by giving nonprofits a shared megaphone to tell donors and volunteers what they need. She leads the growth and expansion of Share Good’s national footprint and supports the SHARE Family of community partners across the country. Before joining Share Good in December 2022, Marjorie launched and directed SHARE Omaha, building a platform that promotes more than 700 nonprofits across the Greater Omaha and Council Bluffs metro, and earlier created and implemented the corporate social responsibility strategy for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, redesigning their corporate giving and volunteerism programs. Her 20-plus-year career spans arts marketing, statewide grantmaking, and CSR — a winding path she calls a “patchwork quilt” and credits as the very thing that prepared her for the work she does now. Resources Connect with Marjorie on LinkedIn Learn more about Share Good at ShareGoodUSA.org — visit the About Us page for community case studies and video testimonials Concept referenced: Ikigai — the Japanese framework for the overlap of mission, vocation, profession, and passion Book recommendation: The Dip by Seth Godin — a quick, essential read on knowing when to push through a setback and when to walk away Also mentioned: Mindset by Carol Dweck (Patton’s reference on growth vs. fixed mindset) Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire — ArmstrongMcGuire.com

366: Stop Writing for Your Organization. Write for Your Donor. (Tom Ahern) Episode Summary Most nonprofit communications are, in Tom Ahern’s blunt assessment, built to fail. Not because the work isn’t worthy, but because organizations keep writing about themselves when they should be writing for the donor. In episode #366, Patton sits down with Tom Ahern, founder of Ahern Communications, Inc. and one of the most influential voices in fundraising copywriting, to unpack why so many appeals, newsletters, and annual reports fall flat. Drawing on decades of commercial copywriting experience before he “wandered into” the nonprofit sector, Tom walks listeners through the three questions every case for support must answer (Why us? Why now? Why you, the donor?) and explains why urgency without desperation, emotion over information, and a relentless focus on the reader are the difference between a gift and a pass. He shares a remarkable story of a Boys & Girls Club that owned a million-dollar crisis and came back stronger, makes the case that donors are already 99% of the way there, and offers a clear-eyed take on what AI can and cannot do for fundraising writers. Listeners will leave with a practical framework they can apply to their next appeal this week, a sharper understanding of donor psychology, and permission to stop trying to inform their way to a gift. About Tom Tom Ahern is the founder of Ahern Communications, Inc. and one of the leading voices in donor communications and fundraising copywriting. His clients have ranged from Save the Children US and Catholic Relief Services to the Animal Rescue League of Boston, Boston Children’s Hospital, the Anchorage Museum, and universities including Princeton, Carleton, and the University of Saskatchewan. He came to the nonprofit sector after fifteen years as a commercial copywriter, led, as he puts it, by an angel: his wife Simone, a longtime development professional and consultant. Since then he has coached fundraisers on best practices in appeals, newsletters, and cases for support, led communications audits (he prefers to call them “autopsies”), and trained nonprofit teams on four continents. Tom is the author of eight how-to books on donor communications, each rated 4.5 stars or higher on Amazon, and a sought-after faculty member for masterclasses and webinars. These days he volunteers most of his coaching hours for small and mid-sized charities, and still keeps Jerry Weissman’s book on his desk, the spine sun-bleached from daily use. Resources Connect with Tom on LinkedIn Learn more at Ahern Communications Tom’s case-for-support framework: Why us? Why now? Why you, the donor? Book recommendation: Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story by Jerry Weissman Tom’s books on donor communications, including Keep Your Donors (co-authored with Simone Joyaux), available on Amazon Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership , and please leave a review! Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com