With more than half a million downloads, the Successful Nonprofits Podcast helps nonprofit chief executives lead effectively and build stronger organizations. Hosted by Dolph Goldenburg, a consultant, coach, and confidant to nonprofit leaders across the country, the podcast helps nonprofit executive directors navigate board relationships, staff leadership, financial stewardship, fundraising pressure, strategic planning, leadership transitions, and the hard decisions only the CEO can make. Each…
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What recurring tasks does each person on your team actually own? It's almost impossible to remember everything a team member is responsible for, and a job description usually won't tell you. When that information lives only in someone's head, onboarding gets harder, performance conversations get murkier, and an employee departure can create unnecessary chaos. In this episode, I share my simple,…
Whether to spend staff time and resources on a special event is an important decision that rests with you as the chief executive. Fundraising events can consume hundreds of staff hours, sap your board's enthusiasm, and produce far less revenue than everyone expected. That is why many nonprofit leaders conclude events are simply not worth the effort. Mary Thompson offers a different answer. Mary is…
Never miss an episode: Sign up for our newsletter Your calendar is full, your inbox is under control, and the copier is finally working. You were productive today, right? Maybe not. Every week, nonprofit chief executives routinely spend hours scheduling meetings, answering routine emails, preparing documents, and handling administrative work that someone else—or the right technology—could manage.…
One person's loud and persistent certainty can become the board's decision. Not because everyone agrees, but because everyone else has grown tired of resisting and just want the meeting to move forward. Over time, that dynamic does more than produce a few bad decisions. It weakens the board's collective governance muscle and gives one member far more power than any individual board member should…
Nonprofit chief executives are expected to protect the mission, lead the team, and keep the organization financially healthy, often without a CFO sitting beside them. In this episode, Dolph talks with Marvin Webb about five finance mistakes executive directors make, including confusing cash with revenue, ignoring reserves, over-relying on one revenue stream, disconnecting budgets from strategy,…
We may say that our organization values equity, inclusion, and our mission. But many of us still pay wages that leave employees struggling to cover basic necessities. That contradiction is not just an HR issue, it's a problem with our strategy. In this episode, I examine why nonprofits are losing the competition for talent, why the nonprofit down the street is not your primary competitor for…
Your employment agreement is not just paperwork. It shapes how you and your board handle compensation, performance reviews, incentives, leave, renewal, and the end of the relationship. I share six newer clauses that I've started seeing in ED contracts now, and how to negotiate your agreement in a way that protects both you as the executive and your organization. You will hear why cost of living…
Many nonprofit chief executives dream about taking a sabbatical, but few believe their organization is too small to offer sabbaticals . In this episode, SOJOURN Executive Director Rebecca Stapel-Wax shares how she prepared her board, staff, systems, and interim leader for a successful three-month sabbatical that ultimately strengthened the organization. Dolph and Rebecca discuss succession…
When everything feels urgent, it becomes almost impossible for a nonprofit chief executive to focus on the work that actually moves the organization forward. I share a simple fire triage framework that I first developed during an interim executive director engagement with an organization facing serious financial, staffing, and compliance challenges. The framework helps leaders sort problems into…
Many executive directors spend their days in meetings, emails, staff questions, funder requests, budget tweaks, and personnel issues. At the end of the day, they have been busy. They may even feel productive. But they still have the nagging sense that the most important CEO level was untouched. I share the three roles on you as the CEO can fulfill: futurist, steward, and optimizer. These three…
