564. Disrupt. Grow. Adapt. Repeat: Future-Proofing Strategies for Modern Orgs - Brooke Richie-Babbage, Erin Davison, Nelvin Johnson, and Amy Freitag
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Overview
Meet Amy, Nelvin, Erin + Brooke. Are you looking for insights on future-proofing your organization against the ever-evolving landscape of challenges and opportunities in the sector? They’ve got you covered in this Responsive Nonprofit Summit Replay. From embracing failure to building resilient teams and fostering innovation, discover actionable approaches to ensure your nonprofit remains agile, sustainable, and impactful in the face of uncertainty.
💡Learn
Ways to Create a Culture that Embraces Failure + Innovation
How to Focus on Sustainability - Organizationally + as Individuals
The Importance of Leveraging the Power of Community
Today’s Guests
Amy Freitag, President, The New York Community Trust
Nelvin Johnson, Director of Advancement, Feed the Children
Erin Davison, President & CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana
Brooke Richie Babbage, Founder + CEO, Bending Arc Consulting
“If we don’t prioritize sustainability, we’re going to burn out. I don’t think it’s an accident that we are seeing incredible leaders across our sector tap out.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode Highlights
Hallmarks of a future-proof organization (2:30)
Personal and organizational sustainability (7:40)
Limiting factors in the nonprofit sector (12:10)
Fostering urgency to adapt and evolve (16:30)
Embracing failure (20:40)
How community foundations work together to tackle major issues (25:05)
Building resilience and adaptability (29:00)
Cultivating growth and impact through community engagement (36:15)
One Good Things from Amy, Brooke, Erin + Nelvin (38:35)
Powerful Quotes
"If you love your community, you want to leave a permanent fund at the New York Community Trust, or whatever your Community Foundation is, because that makes your nonprofit vision for your city future proof." -Amy
"We need living donors, donor advised funds, working with those permanent funds to come together to solve the issues we're trying to combat today, and that has real power." -Amy
"Failure is part of the process. It's a detour on the way to something greater. I think the question we need to ask is, how can we foster a culture where failing is okay if we're all learning from it? " -Nelvin
"What if we dedicated like 30 minutes a week to just start thinking about and dreaming about what innovation and dreaming boldly actually looks like for you and for your organization?" -Nelvin
"We have to consistently evolve in real time and always understand we don't know everything. We're making decisions as we receive the information." -Erin
"If we don't prioritize sustainability, we're going to burn out. I don't think it's an accident that we are seeing incredible leaders across our sector tap out." -Brooke
“ I think when we have strong nonprofits and social impact organizations that are on the front line of fixing what's broken in our society, our society gets better, and when those leaders can't sustain themselves, our society loses.” -Brooke
“Innovation doesn't come from sitting in an office and thinking our own thoughts. It comes from interacting with our donors and constituents, from getting messy and saying, we know we got some things right and we believe we got some things wrong and missed some things. So how do we learn?” -Brooke
"I'm my worst critic as a leader, and I'm always thinking about everybody else but myself and of course, that's what leadership is but I also need to understand when I give my staff grace or my board members grace, I need to always give myself the same grace." -Erin
“Just know you're okay. If you don't know what you're doing every day, it's okay.” -Erin
"I think that if we care deeply about growing your mission and your impact, you've likely thought about how to make things better. So I think we just need to ask ourselves, what is it? What is that holding us back from taking those steps forward?" -Nelvin
“We are a people business and philanthropy is this joyful thing. We should be engaged in that in a really human way with one another.” -Amy
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