Inspired Nonprofit Leadership

When your calendar is full, a walk through the building or an afternoon with a book can feel like something you'll get to someday. Executive Directors who keep their organizations headed in the right direction treat that time as part of the job.

Sarah goes solo to work through why unstructured time to observe, read, and think is some of the most important work an Executive Director or CEO does, drawing on the chart of core organizational functions she uses with clients in the Impact Method®.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

What a CEO walkabout looks like, from coffee in hand to sitting in on programs

•

Why setting direction is the function an Executive Director typically owns

•

How direction and pace pull against each other, and why larger organizations split them

•

What a sample week looks like with walkabouts, thinking time, team meetings, and donor time

•

How Sarah thinks about noticing the opportunities that are already around you

Who This Episode Is For

• Executive Directors who want real time to think about where the organization is going • Leaders who laugh at the idea of an unscheduled hour because the week is already too full • CEOs of growing organizations who want to focus on vision while someone else keeps operations on pace

Links from this episode

• Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly nonprofit leadership tips • Talk with Sarah about operations and strategy support so you can focus on direction • Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox, for supporting Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your work removing friction from donation forms.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Show Notes When you delegate work and it doesn't get done, a lot of nonprofit leaders either let it slide or take it back and do it themselves. The leaders who get real follow-through hand over full ownership, let people set their own deadlines, and check in with curiosity instead of blame.

Sarah invited Gina Cotner, founder and CEO of Athena Executive Services, whose team of executive assistants takes ownership of key processes and projects for busy leaders, to unpack how nonprofit leaders can get staff and volunteers to follow through on what they promised without hovering over them or doing the work themselves.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

How Gina now runs her firm working 10 to 15 hours a week.

•

What Gina says right after handing off a project so the other person owns it.

•

How letting people set their own deadline leads to better follow-through.

•

What to do first when a deadline passes and the work isn't there.

•

How Gina holds volunteers to the same standards as paid staff.

Who This Episode Is For

• Executive directors who end up doing the work themselves. • Leaders who want follow-through without constant reminders. • Anyone who skips follow-up to avoid a confrontation. • Executive directors who want their time back.

Links from this episode

• Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips for leading your nonprofit. • Athena Executive Services • Gina Cotner on LinkedIn • Athena Executive Services on Instagram • Athena Executive Services on Facebook • Schedule a free call with Athena's client advisor • Book Gina to speak or lead a workshop • Listener offer: five additional hours of service in your second month when you hire Athena and mention Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. • Sarah Olivieri's website • Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your support for the show and the nonprofit leaders who listen.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Show Notes

You hand off a task. It comes back half done, or not at all, and now you're redoing the work and wondering why you bothered. Delegating well does give you time back, though sometimes not the first time. It also builds your team's skills, trust, and confidence along the way.

In this bonus episode, Sarah Olivieri shares the DAD method, a simple way to remember the three things to communicate every time you delegate: Desired Result, Available Resources, and Delegated Decisions. She walks through a grant application example, explains why she sometimes names herself as the known obstacle, and closes with the difference between delegating a task and distributing leadership decisions across your organization.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why the first round of delegating may not save you time, and why it still pays off.

•

How to describe what done looks like, including critical elements and known obstacles.

•

Which resources to name, from a budget limit to an old spreadsheet in the shared drive, and when to say you are not available.

•

How to decide which decisions to hand off and which to keep, using a grant application as the example.

•

How delegating a task differs from distributing leadership decisions.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Executive Directors who want to hand off work without having to redo it.

•

Leaders who want their team to become more skilled and independent.

•

Anyone who has delegated a task and gotten back something different from what they pictured.

Links from this episode

•

Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly nonprofit leadership tips.

•

How to Get Follow-Through Without Micromanaging with Gina Cotner.

•

Schedule a call with Sarah about distributing leadership decisions.

•

Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox, for supporting Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your work removing friction from donation forms.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Founders who build a nonprofit from the ground up often find that their identity and the organization have become the same thing. The founders who handle growth well learn to name what they are feeling when they hand off roles, and they choose a new role on purpose.

Sarah invited Luke John Mickelson, who built one bunk bed in his garage in 2012 and grew it into Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit with more than 400 chapters across 47 states and four countries, to unpack what founder syndrome feels like from the inside and how founders and the people around them can move through it.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

How one bunk bed for a six-year-old named Haley became a national movement.

•

Why each role a founder hands off can feel like losing part of themselves.

•

What Luke means by a relevance wound, and the comment that nearly made him quit.

•

How Luke's five steps help founders pause, name a new role, and plan their legacy.

•

What boards and executive directors can do to give a founder grace during a transition.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Nonprofit founders who want to hand off roles without feeling pushed out.

•

Executive directors who took over from a founder and want to keep that relationship strong.

•

Board members who want to support a founder through a leadership transition.

•

Founders of any organization who are stepping back and want to stay connected to what they started.

Links from this episode

•

Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips for leading your nonprofit.

•

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

•

Luke Mickelson's website

•

Luke Mickelson on LinkedIn

•

Luke Mickelson on Instagram

•

Free founder syndrome assessment at http://lukemickelson.com/

•

Founder's Syndrome Survival coaching and courses

•

Book a free discovery call with Luke

•

The Leadership Evolution Podcast

•

Sarah Olivieri's website

•

Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your support for the show and the nonprofit leaders who listen.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Founder syndrome usually gets talked about as a problem, and the founder often gets the blame. Sarah sees it differently: if your organization is outgrowing the person who started it, you probably did something right, and that transition deserves a real plan.

Sarah goes solo to share how founders, boards, and the leaders who follow a founder can plan a healthier transition, drawing on her conversation with Luke John Mickelson, her years as a nonprofit executive director, and a sailing saying about easing the sails.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why Sarah thinks every successful nonprofit will eventually outgrow its founder

•

What empty nest feelings can teach us about a founder's transition

•

How a founder can honor the loss and name what they gained

•

Why the founder transition belongs as a goal in your strategic plan

•

How boards and successors can keep founders involved as ambassadors and storytellers

Who This Episode Is For

• Founders who feel a sense of loss as their organization needs them less

• Executive directors who followed a founder and want a strong working relationship

• Board members planning for a founder who is still involved

• Teams who want the founder transition to feel like a celebration

Links from this episode

• Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips for leading your nonprofit. • Founders Syndrome with Luke John Mickelson • Luke Mickelson on LinkedIn • Sarah Olivieri's website • Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your support for the show and the nonprofit leaders who listen.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

When you expect yourself to get every word right, a small mistake can shake your confidence. Learning to stay comfortable when something goes wrong gives you room to keep communicating and connecting with the people in front of you.

Sarah talks with Crispin Thompson, a leadership coach with more than 25 years of experience leading teams and helping people grow. They explore how to build confidence through practice, recover from mistakes, and use AI while taking responsibility for what you say.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why Crispin sees perfectionism as a barrier to confidence and presence.

•

How he slowed his nervous speaking by deliberately lowering his voice.

•

What Sarah means by staying comfortable when she doesn't know the answer.

•

How to use AI for feedback while taking responsibility for the final message.

•

Why Crispin chose calm problem-solving when encouraged to show more anger.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Nonprofit leaders who want to feel more comfortable speaking to staff, boards, or donors.

•

Leaders who want to recover from mistakes without losing their confidence.

•

Anyone looking to use AI while keeping their communication accurate and personal.

Links from this episode

•

Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips for leading your nonprofit.

•

The Leadership Studio

•

Crispin Thompson on LinkedIn

•

Crispin Thompson's media profile

•

The Human Advantage: Emotional Intelligence in the Age of AI

•

Sarah Olivieri's website

•

Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your support for the show and the nonprofit leaders who listen. Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

When something hard happens in your life, the instinct is to keep working at full speed so nobody else has to carry your load. Leaders who handle these stretches well tell their team what's going on, lighten their workload for a while, and ask for help when they genuinely need it.

Sarah goes solo to work through what to do when a long day, a loved one's illness, or a family crisis lowers what you can take on, drawing on three recent stories, including a day of early school drop-offs, a late doctor's appointment, and a promised trip to the store with her son.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why a long day or a loved one's illness really does lower what you can take on

•

What happens to your decisions and your health when you push past your limits

•

How your team ends up fixing work you did while overstretched

•

Why asking for help can be a gift to the people around you

•

How to adjust your schedule and expectations to match what you can handle right now

Who This Episode Is For

• Nonprofit leaders going through a hard stretch at home who still want to lead well.

• Executive directors who would rather carry everything than ask their team for help.

• Leaders who want to support a team member through a difficult season.

Links from this episode

Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly tips and inspiration for leading your nonprofit.

Connect with Sarah:

• Sarah Olivieri's website

• Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to our sponsor Donorbox. More than a suite of helpful fundraising tools, Donorbox is a partner that helps you raise more money and supports you in retaining your donors. Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Mental health support needs a place in the everyday work of a nonprofit. Regular check-ins and clear ways to get help give staff support they can turn to while doing demanding work.

Sarah talks with Weanne Estrada, a mental health specialist at ADRA who supports people working in humanitarian settings. Together, they explore what nonprofit leaders can learn from supporting staff before, during, and after emergency deployments, including the everyday moments of connection that staff said mattered to them.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why Weanne sees mental health support as essential to effective humanitarian aid.

•

How psychological first aid uses three steps: look, listen, and link.

•

What deployed staff said about shared meals, walks, and manager check-ins.

•

Why staff valued knowing counseling was available, even when they didn't use it.

•

How stories of recovery and resilience can support the people doing the work.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Nonprofit leaders who want to make mental health support a regular part of work.

•

Teams looking for practical ways to respond when a colleague is struggling.

•

Leaders who want to support staff carrying the emotional weight of helping others.

Links from this episode

•

Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips for leading your nonprofit.

•

ADRA International

•

ADRA International on LinkedIn

•

ADRA on Facebook

•

ADRA International on Instagram

•

Sarah Olivieri's website

•

Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your support for the show and the nonprofit leaders who listen.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Show Notes

When you explain an idea to your team, the big picture may be clear in your head, but it's probably not as clear in your team's head as you think it is. Specific examples help other people understand what you mean and what the work actually involves.

Sarah Olivieri walks through how to add useful detail to everyday communication so you can get what's in your head into the minds of your team. She shares practical examples from leadership meetings, planning, and the experiences of people your nonprofit serves. She shows how describing what happens step by step can make an idea easier to understand and reveal something a plan has missed.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

How a specific example makes a big-picture idea easier to understand.

•

Why walking through a Monday morning can reveal gaps in your plan.

•

How describing a client's experience helps others understand their perspective.

•

What details can add to onboarding, job descriptions, and team communication.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Leaders who want their team to understand what they are asking.

•

Teams that want to find gaps in a plan before putting it into action.

•

Anyone who wants to explain the experiences of the people their nonprofit serves.

Links from this episode

•

Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips, resources, and updates on training opportunities.

•

Inspired Philanthropy Circle

•

Sarah Olivieri's website

•

Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox, for supporting Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your work removing friction from donation forms.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Show Notes

Reaching out to potential major donors can feel premature when you haven't figured out how you will follow up. A written contact list and a plan for the next interaction give you a simple place to start, without mapping out a year of conversations.

Sarah shares this approach using questions from nonprofit leaders starting major gifts programs in the Inspired Philanthropy Circle. She shares her own struggle with following up, the scheduling habit that helps her stay connected, and ways to give people something to look forward to together.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

What to record in a contact list so relationships don't depend on memory.

•

How to arrange the next interaction before the current conversation ends.

•

What to say when scheduling ahead feels uncomfortable or too pushy.

•

How recurring tours, dinners, or informal gatherings give you something to invite people to.

•

Why building a community of supporters can bring an emotional return alongside funding.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Nonprofit leaders who want to start donor conversations without waiting for a complete annual plan.

•

Fundraisers looking for a simple way to keep track of relationships.

•

Leaders who want to stay in touch with supporters without feeling pushy.

Links from this episode

•

Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips, resources, and updates on training opportunities.

•

Inspired Philanthropy Circle

•

Sarah Olivieri's website

•

Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership and supporting these conversations. In this episode, Maria and Sarah discuss giving donors control over their recurring gifts.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Episode Description

Reaching out to potential major donors can feel premature when you haven't figured out how you will follow up. A written contact list and a plan for the next interaction give you a simple place to start, without mapping out a year of conversations.

Sarah walks through this approach using questions from nonprofit leaders starting major gifts programs in the Inspired Philanthropy Circle. She shares her own struggle with following up, the scheduling habit that helps her stay connected, and ways to give people something to look forward to together.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

What to record in a contact list so relationships don't depend on memory.

•

How to arrange the next interaction before the current conversation ends.

•

What to say when scheduling ahead feels uncomfortable or too pushy.

•

How recurring tours, dinners, or informal gatherings give you something to invite people to.

•

Why building a community of supporters can bring an emotional return alongside funding.

Who This Episode Is For

•

Nonprofit leaders who want to start donor conversations without waiting for a complete annual plan.

•

Fundraisers looking for a simple way to keep track of relationships.

•

Leaders who want to stay in touch with supporters without feeling pushy.

Links from this episode

Links

Website: http://saraholivieri.com/

Substack: Sarah Olivieri's Substack publication

Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips, resources, and updates on training opportunities.

Inspired Philanthropy Circle

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox, for supporting Inspired Nonprofit Leadership. We appreciate your support for the show and the nonprofit leaders who listen.

A fundraising story asks people to care and act. How you gather and share that story matters to the person who lived it, the audience hearing it, and the donor relationships you hope to build.

Sarah invited Maria A Bryan, a trauma-informed storytelling trainer who helps nonprofits tell difficult stories while protecting the people involved, to unpack how consent, safety, and choice belong in fundraising. They discuss asking for stories without pressure, preparing audiences for difficult content, and building donor relationships around shared impact rather than guilt.

Who it's for

• You want to share compelling stories while protecting the people in them.
• You want donors to feel connected to your mission without using guilt or pressure.
• You want a clearer process for consent and responding when a story causes harm.

What you will hear

• Why someone receiving help may feel unable to say no to sharing their story.
• How content warnings give audiences a choice about hearing difficult stories.
• Why Sarah argues that relationships built on shared impact can support long-term giving.
• What Maria's experience of trying to pause a monthly gift reveals about donor choice.
• Why your storytelling process needs a plan for repairing harm.

Links from this episode

• Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter: weekly tips for leading your nonprofit
• Maria A Bryan's website
• Connect with Maria A Bryan on LinkedIn
• When Bearing Witness: trauma-informed storytelling certification
• Emotional Intelligence Is Nonprofit Retention Infrastructure with Brittan Stockert

More of Maria's expert insight

• Ethical Persuasion in Fundraising: Inspire Without Pressure, The Nonprofit Podcast
• A Guide to Ethical Storytelling, What the Fundraising Podcast
• The Problem with Nonprofit Storytelling, Nonprofit Nation
• An Inclusionary Wakeup Call for Public Interest Copywriters, Journal of Public Interest Communications
• Trauma-Informed Storytelling with Maria Bryan, A Trauma-Informed Future Podcast

Connect with Sarah

• Sarah Olivieri's website
• Sarah Olivieri on Substack

Thank you to Donorbox

Thank you to Donorbox for sponsoring Inspired Nonprofit Leadership and supporting these conversations. In this episode, Maria and Sarah discuss giving donors control over their recurring gifts.

Follow Donorbox on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Show Notes

Arriving at a team meeting with a solution already worked out can feel like you're helping everyone get ahead. When the work needs several people's perspectives, leaving the solution open gives the team a chance to develop something together that none of them could have created alone.

Sarah discusses when preparing a solution before a meeting can get in the way of collaboration, drawing on her experience helping teams create something new together.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

What to consider before working out a solution ahead of a meeting

•

Why doing extra work can feel like the right thing to do

•

What your approach to meeting preparation might be teaching your team

•

How to make more room for leadership across your organization

•

What Sarah's one-sentence definition of leadership asks us to reconsider

Who This Episode Is For

• Nonprofit leaders who want more people on their team taking initiative.

• Teams who want meetings that draw on everyone's ideas and experience.

• Executive directors who want to share the responsibility for moving their organization forward.

• Leadership teams who want to develop solutions they couldn't create on their own.

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Links

Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly tips and inspiration for leading your nonprofit.

Resources mentioned:

• Apply to talk with Sarah about working together

• Explore ways to work with Sarah

• Email Sarah about your experience

Connect with Sarah:

• Sarah Olivieri's website

• Sarah Olivieri on LinkedIn

Thank you to our sponsor Donorbox. More than a suite of helpful fundraising tools, Donorbox is a partner that helps you raise more money and supports you in retaining your donors.

Episode Description

Trust can be measured. It grows through honest communication and fair treatment, and it can break when leaders mishandle change.

Sarah invited Kim Bohr, President and CEO of SparkEffect, whose annual research tracks organizational trust across the US, to discuss what builds trust, what breaks it, and how leaders can protect it through disruption.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why 85 percent of people faced major disruption in two years

•

What Kim's research says builds trust

•

Why hard conversations should get to the point

•

How job loss creates shame and blocks support

•

How Sarah uses AI to reshape only her own words

Who This Episode Is For

• Executive directors leading teams exhausted by constant change

• Leaders bringing in AI while staff fear for their jobs

• Anyone avoiding a hard conversation with a wrong-fit staff or board member

• CEOs hearing "we have a communication problem" without finding the cause

About the Guest

Kim Bohr is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SparkEffect, where she helps executive teams navigate change while building trust and strong organizational performance. With more than 25 years of leadership experience, she's a board advisor, speaker, podcast host, and author who specializes in helping leaders build resilient organizations during times of disruption. Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly tips and inspiration for leading your nonprofit: https://www.inspirednonprofitleadership.com/signup

Connect with Kim: Website: https://sparkeffect.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimbohr/Email: kim.bohr@sparkeffect.com Text: (206) 552-4452 Blog: https://sparkeffect.com/bloghttps://sparkeffect.com/blogPodcast: Courage to Advance with Kim Bohr Instagram: @SparkEffect Threads: @SparkEffect Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SparkEffectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SparkEffect-US

Resources mentioned: The 2026 State of Organizational Trust research and the guide on stigma after job loss: https://sparkeffect.com/inspired

Sarah Olivieri: Website: http://saraholivieri.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox. More than a suite of helpful fundraising tools, Donorbox is a partner that helps you raise more money and supports you in retaining your donors.

Show Notes

Planned giving often lands on the someday list right beside the wealth screen a nonprofit can't yet afford. Tony Martignetti says you can launch it this week with one honest conversation about a gift in a will. No campaign, no brochure, no page.

Sarah sat withTony Martignetti, a front-line planned giving fundraiser since 1997 and author of the new book Planned Giving Accelerated, to discuss how a small or mid-size nonprofit launches planned giving in a single week, without a wealth screen or a legal background.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

How Tony's three steps get planned giving, and launched inside a single week

•

Why your best prospects are your most loyal donors, not your wealthiest ones

•

What to say when you ask a donor to consider a gift in their will

•

How to respond when a donor says no, yes, or let me think about it

•

Why lifetime giving tells you almost nothing about the size of a planned gift

Who This Episode Is For

• Executive directors who have been told that planned giving belongs to hospitals and universities • Fundraisers who want major gifts but have no budget to build a whole program first • Anyone who keeps putting off the will conversation because it feels awkward to raise

About the Guest

Tony Martignetti is the evangelist for Planned Giving. In September, he publishes his book, Planned Giving Accelerated, to help small- and mid-size nonprofits launch by making Planned Giving fundraising easy, accessible and affordable.

Pre-orders are at http://plannedgivingaccelerated.com/.

He started as a front-line Planned Giving fundraiser in 1997 and kicked off his consulting in 2003.

He's active on LinkedIn and would be honored to connect.

Tony is a lawyer, but he doesn't talk like one. Instead, he weaves in his stand-up comedy and improv past to bring Planned Giving within reach for small- and mid-size nonprofits. About the book Tony's new book, Planned Giving Accelerated, is a practical guide for small- and mid-sized nonprofits that want to start a planned giving program without making it complicated.

Drawing on nearly 30 years of experience, Tony shows how organizations can launch in just one week, starting with bequests. The book covers how to identify your best prospects, build donor relationships, overcome common planned giving myths, and create a sustainable program without a huge budget or specialized legal expertise.

Connect with Tony:

•

LinkedIn: LinkedIn

•

Website: http://tonymartignetti.com/

•

Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio: Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

•

Email: tony@tonymartignetti.com

Resources mentioned

•

Get Tony's book, Planned Giving Accelerated, here: http://plannedgivingaccelerated.com/

The LinkedIn episode Sarah mentioned is "Show Up Stand Out with Bafda M. Imam," and you can find it at http://inspirednonprofitleadership.com/.

Sarah Olivieri:

•

Website: http://saraholivieri.com/

•

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri/

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox. More than a suite of helpful fundraising tools, Donorbox is a partner that helps you raise more money and supports you in retaining your donors.

Episode Description

Many nonprofit leaders treat strategy, operations, and team as three separate pillars in their organization, but in fact, they are part of one integrated system. In this episode, Sarah goes into strategy, operations, and team as the who, what, where, when, and how of running a great nonprofit. She shares how these are built into her Impact Method®, which she developed back in 2017.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why strategy, operations, and the team have to work as one system

•

How the who, what, where, when, and how fit together

•

Why a team problem may actually start with strategy or operations

•

How the Impact Method® keeps strategy current every two months

•

Why distributed leadership removes decision bottlenecks

Who This Episode Is For

• Executive directors whose weeks feel like one long game of Whack-A-Mole • Leadership teams working on strategy, operations, and people separately • Leaders who fix one problem only to watch another one pop up • Anyone whose strategy looks good on paper but stalls in practice

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly tips and inspiration for leading your nonprofit: https://www.inspirednonprofitleadership.com/

Resources mentioned:

Work with Sarah (short application, for teams of three or more leaders): saraholivieri.com/application

Sarah Olivieri:

Links

Website: http://saraholivieri.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri/

Thank you to our sponsor, Donorbox. More than a suite of helpful fundraising tools, Donorbox is a partner that helps you raise more money and supports you in retaining your donors.

Episode Description

Many nonprofit leaders treat turnover as a problem to solve after someone resigns. The organizations that handle it well plan for it before the hire, in how the job itself is designed.

Sarah invited Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn's first Chief Human Resources Officer and the person who grew the company from 400 people to 4,000 while the median tenure on his own staff was nine months, to talk about how to build an organization that works when people come and go, and how to stay connected to the good ones after they leave.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why Steve says no job should take more than six months to learn

•

How to design a role around a hire who will stay three years

•

What to do with a good employee after they leave, and why it pays off

•

Why Steve hires for how fast someone learns, not what they already know

•

How to make a major donor relationship belong to the organization, not one person

Who This Episode Is For

• Executive directors who just lost someone they were counting on • Leaders whose roles take eighteen months to ramp when staff stay three years • Anyone about to have a hard conversation with an employee who has outgrown the job • CEOs who have decided the sector cannot attract talent, and built accordingly

About the Guest

Steve Cadigan is a globally recognized talent strategist, culture architect, and author with over 30 years of experience helping organizations navigate growth and transformation. As LinkedIn's first Chief Human Resources Officer, Steve helped scale the company from 400 to 4,000 employees, building a culture that set the standard for tech companies worldwide.

Today, through his firm Cadigan Talent Ventures, he advises high-growth companies, venture firms, and global leaders on how to win the talent war, design future-ready workplaces, and use culture as a competitive edge. He's a sought-after keynote speaker and the author of Workquake, a #1 Amazon bestseller that reimagines how we work in a post-pandemic world.

Steve's insights have been featured in outlets like Forbes, CNBC, and Bloomberg, and his work has been the focus of business school case studies

Connect with Steve:

•

Official website: https://stevecadigan.com/

•

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cadigan

•

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevecad/

•

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestevecadigan/

Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated!

Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Episode Description

Many nonprofit leaders pick a marketing tactic first- a gala, a Facebook fundraiser, a social media takeover, and then hope it works. The organizations that get a real return pick the goal first and let the goal decide the tactic.

Sarah goes solo to work through how to build a marketing strategy simple enough to fit on one page, drawing on the years she spent running a marketing agency for nonprofits.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Executive directors about to spend money on a tactic a board member suggested

•

Leaders whose fundraising activity is busy but whose donor numbers are flat

•

Small organizations wondering whether a website is the right first investment

•

Anyone who has run a fundraising event that cost more than it brought in

Who This Episode Is For

• Why picking a tactic before a goal is where the money goes • What the three marketing goals are and how to spot yours • Why a website converts people who already found you, and does not create them • How Sarah defines a real donor, and why the second gift is the line • What to do about lifetime value when you have almost no donors yet

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Links

Website: http://saraholivieri.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri/

Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated!

Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Show Notes:

Most nonprofit leaders treat retention as a problem to fix after the hire. The organizations that keep people for decades treat it as something they build into the hire itself.

Sarah invited Crystal FitzSimons, the president of the Food Research and Action Center and someone who has been at FRAC for twenty-four years leading a team where staff routinely stay ten, twenty, and even forty years, to unpack what actually holds people in a nonprofit for the long term.

This episode is for:

• Executive directors and nonprofit CEOs who are watching good people leave and unsure why
• Founders and EDs about to make a key hire and wondering how much process is actually worth it
• CEOs who have stopped sitting on interviews because if feels like too much time

What you'll hear:

• Why hiring is the single most important thing Crystal's forty-person team does, and how that belief changes the calendar
• The reason the CEO belongs in every final interview, even at forty people, even at five hundred
• What Crystal has kept, and what she has added, to sustain a culture where people stay through leadership transitions
• Why mission alignment is only the price of admission, and what actually keeps someone in the seat
• How Crystal is holding the team steady through a marathon-and-a-sprint policy season, and what that requires of a president
• How to think about a hiring process as a cultural transmission instead of a selection task

Crystal has been at FRAC for twenty-four years and just stepped into the president role. Her chief government affairs officer recently celebrated forty years with the organization. This is what genuine longevity looks like, and it is not luck.

Related Links:

Sign up for the The Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter

Connect with Crystal on LinkedIn

Check out the good work FARC is doing

❤️ And a big thank you to our caring sponsor Donorbox

Let Them Go Well with Sarah Olivieri

The thought shows up quietly and then keeps coming back. Maybe this person is not right for us. Then it sits there for months while you look for more evidence and rehearse a conversation you never have. Meanwhile the person you are worried about is stuck in a job that is grinding on them too.

In this solo episode, Sarah walks through how to know when it is time to let someone go, and how to do it in a way that leaves everyone intact.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

•

Why Sarah has never seen the instinct "I think I need to let this person go" turn out to be wrong, and what to do with that

•

The two categories to check before you act, fit with the team and fit with the role, and why only one of them is fixable

•

Why a bad hiring process is usually the thing that produced the conversation you are dreading

•

How to turn a firing conversation into a quitting conversation, and when that serves both of you

•

What nonprofit staff in particular need to hear before they can let themselves leave

Who This Episode Is For

• Leaders who have been carrying the same thought about the same person since spring

• CEOs who keep reshuffling a role hoping it will fix a fit problem

• Anyone who has avoided a hard conversation because they were afraid of how the person would react

Practical takeaways

• Run the two-category check. Is this about the team and your guiding principles, or is this about the role

• Check your state's employment laws before you plan anything else

• Have the clear conversation first. To be clear is to be kind, and simple, explicit, unjudgmental language is the whole skill

• Decide your boundaries before you walk in. Last day, terms, severance, what is flexible and what is not

• Do not surprise people with money. Be as generous as the timeline allows

• Leave room to ask them what would make this transition feel best

About Your Host, Sarah Olivieri

Bold, strategic, and refreshingly human…

Sarah Olivieri is the go-to expert for conversations on aligned leadership, outcome delegation, and sustainable growth.She brings wit, warmth, and real-world wisdom to mission-driven founders, visionary CEOs, and change-makers who want more clarity, more joy, and more results.

Most leaders hit a wall when success depends on them holding it all together. Sarah helps them change that by redefining leadership around outcomes instead of activity, empowering teams to own results that scale and freeing leaders to focus on the vision that drives them.

A former director of three nonprofits and founder of five businesses, she has a rare ability to spot opportunity where others see chaos, shift stuck patterns, and build organizations that support both legacy and life.

Sarah leads with the same mindset that made her an award-winning sailor: iterate on what works, stay focused in the storm, and never forget the joy of the journey.

Links

Website: http://saraholivieri.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-olivieri/

Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated!

Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.