Ranked #1 on FeedSpot's Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy podcast lists, Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership is the go-to resource for current and aspiring nonprofit leaders. Hosted by Dr. Patton McDowell and powered by Armstrong McGuire, the show delivers practical wisdom from the sector's most experienced executives, fundraisers, board leaders, and consultants — every Thursday. Patton brings 30+ years of nonprofit leadership, coaching, and consulting experience, and shares proven best…
Subscribe:.rss.atom.json.md.m3u.pls
Live Last read · last published · next check
Saves to your Listen queue, to pick up on another day or another device.
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…
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…
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…
#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…
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…
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…
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:…
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…
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…
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…
#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…