The Influential Nonprofit

What if the “seven-touch rule” isn’t a proven formula, but a way to feel more in control of an uncertain process? This episode explores how fundraisers can move from counting contacts to building genuine donor relationships—and honor each donor’s agency along the way.

Key Takeaways:

• Repeated exposure can build familiarity, but it doesn’t establish a universal number of contacts needed to prompt action.
• A follow-up should serve the donor or the relationship—not just relieve the fundraiser’s discomfort with uncertainty.
• Fundraisers are responsible for clear communication and meaningful invitations; donors are responsible for their own decisions.
• A donor’s silence or “no” is information, not proof that the fundraiser has failed.
•

Measure relationship progress through engagement and meaningful connection, not simply the number of outreach attempts.

“Just because familiarity can increase through repetition doesn't mean seven contacts will produce a decision or action, or that seven contacts are necessary to create some kind of action.”

“Influence is about creating the conditions in which someone can make a meaningful choice. Control is about trying to produce the choice I want.”

“A meaningful yes requires the freedom to say no.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

When a donor goes quiet, should you follow up—or let go? This episode explores how to tell the difference between trust, control, and avoidance, and how to act without trying to control someone else’s choice.

Key Takeaways:

• The same action or inaction can come from trust, control, or avoidance; examine what’s driving it.
• Follow up to offer useful information or an invitation, not just to relieve your own uncertainty.
• Acceptance means recognizing reality and responding; avoidance means trying not to experience something uncomfortable.
• Do your part, then respect where your agency ends and another person’s begins.
• Fundraising is about making a genuine “yes” possible, not pressuring someone into giving.

“Control tries to escape uncertainty by doing more. Avoidance tries to escape uncertainty by doing less.”

“Trust is the ability to stay present without certainty.”

“You can want something deeply without needing to control it, and you can care about a relationship without chasing it.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Burnout isn’t a badge of effective leadership—and rest doesn’t have to mean stepping away for weeks. This conversation explores practical ways to delegate, challenge assumptions, and help teams navigate change with greater care.

Key Takeaways:

• Burnout can grow when leaders assume they must do everything themselves or always be available.
• Rest can be built into everyday routines through small, restorative actions.
• Delegation works better when people receive clear instruction, a demonstration, practice, and feedback.
• Teams can reach the same goal in different ways; allow room for varied approaches.
• Notice burnout signs early and seek support from someone you trust.

“Burnout is happening because we aren't putting the proper stopgaps in place, and it's usually because of mindset.”

“Acknowledge where you are, and acknowledge you're not alone, and find someone that you trust that you can talk to, because every strategy or approach to navigating it could differ, so find someone you trust.”

“If I can help you create an environment where growth feels grounded, and leadership feels human, I think we've accomplished the great goal.”

- Sharri McIntyre

Sharri McIntyre is the Founder and Principal of The McIntyre Collective, where she serves as an executive coach, leadership consultant, and strategic advisor to high-growth founders, executives, and organizations. Drawing on extensive experience in talent development, organizational culture, and business strategy, she specializes in guiding leaders through complex scaling challenges, team alignment, and performance optimization. Through tailored coaching and interactive advisory programs, Sharri empowers executives to refine their leadership vision, foster high-performing workplace cultures, and drive sustainable organizational impact.

Reach out to Sharri McIntyre at:

Website: https://themcintyrecollective.com/home

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharri-mcintyre/

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Why do people say yes or pull away even when the choice seems logical? Explore how trust, safety, autonomy, and the freedom to say no shape meaningful decisions.

Key Takeaways:

• Decisions are shaped by trust, safety, desire, fear, and past experience—not logic alone.
• Uncertainty can feel like danger, but discomfort does not always mean something is unsafe.
• Clear agreements make expectations mutual; boundaries clarify what you are and are not available for.
• A meaningful yes requires the genuine freedom to say no.
• Your responsibility is to create the conditions for a choice—not to control someone else’s decision.

“Trust, safety, desire, belonging, fear, uncertainty, our past experiences, our nervous system-all of these things contribute to saying a yes or saying a no.”

“A meaningful yes requires the ability to say no.”

“Your job, remember, isn't to force the yes. Your job is to create the conditions where the right people can genuinely choose it.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Running a nonprofit can be lonely, and your board of directors may never think about your growth as a leader. In this episode, Allison Wyatt explains how to build a personal "circle of champions," so you always have someone to call when things get hard.

Key Takeaways:

• Your board of directors supports the organization, not you. Your growth as a leader is up to you.
• Each seat on a personal board fills a different gap. A sponsor opens doors, a coach keeps you accountable, a mentor saves you from trial and error, and a feedback giver tells you the truth.
• Good leaders go first. When you model growth and talk openly about your mistakes, it's safer for your team to try new things.
• Feedback should work like a pitching coach: small corrections as you go, not a surprise at the end of the season.
• Fill the seats before you need them. Being clear about who you call for what means no one friend gets asked for everything.

“You need somebody you can trust who's willing to be really honest with you and not just affirm you.”

“That's the thing we see in a lot of organizations is that people are really scared to try new things because failure is not safe.”

“We are going to make some mistakes. We are going to learn things. We are going to use that data to do better the next time.”

- Allison Wyatt

Allison Wyatt is the Founder and CEO of Edgility Talent Partners, where she leads the delivery of equity-focused talent management, executive coaching, and compensation strategy for nonprofit and social sector organizations. A former Vice President of Human Capital Consulting Services at Koya Leadership Partners and Vice President of Human Assets at Education Pioneers, she brings deep expertise in building scalable HR practices, performance management, and pay equity frameworks. Allison holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA in East Asian Studies from Wesleyan University.

Reach out to Allison Wyatt at:

Website: https://www.edgilitytalent.com/team/allison-wyatt

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

Toolkits: https://www.edgilitytalent.com/building-your-personal-board

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

At 60, Maryanne discovered her hair had been naturally wavy all along — she'd just never created the conditions for it to show. In this solo episode, she turns that surprise into a fundraising lesson: your next donor, partner, and big idea are probably already in your orbit, waiting to be activated.

Key Takeaways:

• Capacity is usually present; conditions are what's missing.
• "I need more" often means you haven't fully seen or used what you already have.
• Most people give because they were asked — the connection-to-action gap is usually a missing invitation, not a missing audience.
• Your email list and existing relationships outperform purchased lists and cold social media.
• One simple question activates a network: Who do you know that needs this?
• Certainty and control are myths; chasing them manufactures frustration, while experimentation makes room for something new.

“Sometimes we are asked to look outside of ourselves for tools and solutions that may already be in us.”

“There are people who want to act; they just haven't been asked.”

“Influence isn't about forcing movement; it's about creating the conditions in which movement becomes possible.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

By gathering the right people around a bold vision instead of trying to carry everything alone, nonprofit leaders can completely transform their strategy. In this episode, you’ll hear how shifting paradigms, redesigning meetings, and embracing generative conflict unlock new levels of impact, funding, and sustainability.

Key Takeaways:

• The way leaders see their role and their ecosystem determines which strategies they even recognize as possible.
• Vision doesn’t have to mean more weight for one person; it can become lighter when leaders intentionally gather others around the work.
• Treating meetings as spaces for inquiry—not just report-outs—creates more engagement, better problem-solving, and stronger culture.
• Generative conflict requires both attentiveness to others’ needs and the courage to name your own, so solutions can move beyond win/lose thinking.
• Sustainable impact on the outside depends on modeling sustainability, participation, and alignment inside the organization.

“We need to be generative, not just kind.”

“Board members are there because they want to serve, they want to contribute, they don't just want the information dump.”

“Am I here to carry this whole thing on my back, or am I here to actually gather the team needed internally and externally?”

- Jeanine Becker

Jeanine Becker works where personal growth meets strategy. She partners with founders, funders, and executives responsible for moving millions — in grants, revenue, policy, and people — in the shift from carrying to gathering. She taught negotiation and collaboration at Stanford for a decade and founded On Purpose Together.

Reach out to Jeanine Becker at:

Website: https://www.onpurposetogether.com/

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

More Information: https://www.onpurposetogether.com/jeanine-becker-lib

Book your Discovery Call here: https://www.onpurposetogether.com/call

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Tired of chasing donors and over-following up? Learn how stepping back, releasing control, and trusting the “edge of your agency” can transform your donor relationships.

Key Takeaways:

• Obsessing over the perfect number of follow-ups misses the real issue: you cannot control another person’s timing, readiness, or decisions.
• Your responsibility is to communicate clearly, create safety, and make the next step obvious, not to force movement or manufacture urgency.
• The moment you cross from honoring someone’s agency into trying to control their response, you’ve shifted from influence into pressure and risk pushing them away.
• Acceptance means recognizing there is nothing more for you to do, not that there is nothing you can do; that distinction turns helplessness into freedom.
• Leaving space, doing nothing after you’ve fulfilled your role is part of true influence, because it allows the other person to exercise their own sovereignty.

"When you cross that boundary, when you start to try to affect their agency, that's called pressure, and that's where your influence ends, and pressure begins."

"The more you try to make it happen, the less it's going to happen."

"Sometimes action isn't strategy; sometimes the action is self-soothing, and it may relieve your discomfort in the moment, because you don't have to sit in uncertainty, you don't have to feel rejected, and you don't have to acknowledge that you might not get the outcome that you want."

- Maryanne Dersch

Ask for and receive all you want, need, and deserve without feeling rejected, ineffective, or pushy. Learn to manage your mindset, lead yourself and others more effectively, and have the meaningful conversations that drive your most important work.

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Scarcity-driven fundraising tactics-chasing, over-following up, pushing too soon-might be quietly sabotaging your donor relationships. In this episode, Maryanne Dersch shows you how to shift from pressure to flow.

Key Takeaways:

• Scarcity in fundraising often begins as a nervous system response to uncertainty—like being behind goal or a donor going quiet—and can drive behaviors such as chasing, over-following up, and pitching too soon, which donors experience as pressure.
• Maryanne’s Donor Flow Framework (Awareness → Interest → Connection → Action) emphasizes moving people at their natural pace; scarcity wants to “skip ahead” to the ask, while flow means meeting donors exactly where they are and offering the next natural invitation.
• Shifting from pushing to curiosity, pitching to connecting, and chasing to inviting creates conditions where donors lean in rather than pull back, because they feel understood, sovereign, and not treated like ATMs.
• Sustainable fundraising grows from confidence, connection, and influence—trusting the value of your work, understanding what matters to donors, and creating conditions for movement—supported by intentional mindset practices like mantras about time and money that keep you out of scarcity loops.

"Not responding is a response."

"Scarcity tries to manufacture movement. Influence creates the conditions for movement, and that is my whole life's work in that sentence: creating conditions for movement."

"Sustainable fundraising doesn't come from pushing harder. It comes from creating the conditions in which donors naturally want to move closer."

- Maryanne Dersch

Reference:

Scarcity Donor Flow - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F1Q-Lbp1BQ5bklAsNqAf92zScepjBBOF/view?usp=sharing

Ask for and receive all you want, need, and deserve without feeling rejected, ineffective, or pushy. Learn to manage your mindset, lead yourself and others more effectively, and have the meaningful conversations that drive your most important work.

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Scared of planned giving because it feels too technical, expensive, or “only for big institutions”? In this episode, you’ll learn how even the smallest nonprofit can launch a simple, effective planned giving program in just one week—without a big budget, complex gift vehicles, or a team of experts.

Key Takeaways:

• Small and mid-sized nonprofits can be highly successful with planned giving by focusing on simple, practical actions instead of waiting for perfect materials or large teams.
• Launching planned giving is less about a formal campaign and more about starting real conversations with your most loyal donors.
• Framing legacy giving around the long-term life and impact of the mission, rather than death, makes the conversation more natural and values-driven.
• Starting with gifts in wills keeps things simple for both organizations and donors, avoiding technical complexity while still generating meaningful future support.
• Consistent stewardship—personal thanks, insider treatment, and recognition—reinforces a donor’s decision to include an organization in their will and deepens the relationship over time.

“[Planned giving] is a conversation that’s the opposite of death. It's a conversation about life: the life, longevity, and sustainability of your nonprofit in your community.”

“MEAL is an acronym for Meals Expertly Allow Learning.”

“The most powerful idea in planned giving is also the simplest: start.”

- Tony Martignetti

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.

All the book info is at http://plannedgivingaccelerated.com.

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

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.

Reach out to Tony Martignetti at:

Website: https://www.plannedgivingaccelerated.com/

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

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

What if you didn’t have to choose between trusting an expert and trusting yourself? In this solo episode, Maryanne unpacks how to find the right guide to navigate uncertainty—without ever giving up your agency, autonomy, or judgment.

Key Takeaways:

• You can lean on someone else’s expertise without giving up your own authority; a good guide supports your decisions rather than replacing them.
• Endless research often becomes an attempt to eliminate uncertainty, but uncertainty can only be navigated, not removed.
• Many obstacles come not from reality but from the “stories” and assumptions we’ve absorbed, which can be challenged and rewritten.
• True independence is knowing when to ask for help so you can focus your time and energy on your highest-value work.
• The best coaches and experts are not trying to create copies of themselves; they help you make decisions that align with your own values and way of working.

“A poor guide says, Here's what you should do. I want you to do this. A great guide says, Here's what I know.”

“We don't remove the uncertainty; we work to navigate it together.”

“Sometimes the obstacle isn't the situation; it's the story we've attached to the situation.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Episode Reference:

Grisel Castaneda

• dentaltourismalgodones@gmail.com
• https://www.facebook.com/perlagrisel.castanedavargas
• (602) 399-7769

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

What if your leadership wasn’t defined by urgency and chaos, but by calm, clarity, and presence? In this episode, you’ll learn how to become a regulating presence whose nervous system quietly shapes the entire culture of your organization.

Key Takeaways:

• You cannot regulate another person’s nervous system, but you can become a regulating presence that others naturally attune to.
• Your energetic state is contagious; how you walk into a room can either escalate panic or invite everyone to breathe and settle.
• Calm becomes accessible when leaders design predictable, consistent, and psychologically safe environments with clear roles and next steps.
• Coaching through curiosity—rather than correcting through criticism—helps dysregulated team members explore what feels urgent and where they need support.
• Many people, especially in nonprofits, unconsciously build their identity around chaos and busyness, and only self-awareness and willingness to do the inner work can shift that pattern.

“You don't make somebody calm; you make calm accessible through productivity, through predictability, through curiosity, consistency, psychological safety, clarity, and simple next steps.”

“Clarity creates leadership that reassures.”

“If urgency becomes contagious, so can steadiness.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

When do you ignore the red flags your body, brain, and intuition are screaming at you—and what does that cost your leadership? In this episode, learn how to stop outsourcing trust and start making calm, confident decisions rooted in your own inner knowing.

Key Takeaways:

• Self-betrayal rarely comes from a lack of information; it comes from overriding what your body, observations, and intuition are already telling you.
• Instinct, intellect, and intuition are three distinct but complementary information systems, and wise leadership means giving each a “seat at the table.”
• External pressures—from family, boards, donors, or cultural conditioning—often masquerade as wisdom but are usually fear dressed up as good advice.
• Many leadership mistakes happen when trust is outsourced to boards, consultants, or “important” stakeholders instead of starting with the question, “What do I know?”
• True freedom is not about avoiding hurt; it’s about becoming someone who no longer abandons themselves in order to avoid discomfort or disappointment.

"You can have every signal, every red flag, every fact, every intuitive knowing, and still betray yourself."

"Our goal is to become people who never have to abandon themselves in order to avoid getting hurt."

"Because when you trust yourself, you don't have to know how the story ends. You simply have to know that you'll stay with yourself through every chapter."

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Learn why your nervous system keeps mistaking uncertainty for danger—and how shifting from hypervigilance to trust can transform your leadership, fundraising, and everyday decisions. This episode shows you how regulated leaders create calm, confidence, and influence, even in the middle of crisis.

Key Takeaways:

• The nervous system’s primary job is safety, not truth, so it often creates stories that feel real but aren’t actually based in facts.
• When uncertainty arises, the brain rushes to “fill in the blanks,” which can trigger anxiety, catastrophizing, and unnecessary conflict in leadership and fundraising.
• Hypervigilance can look like being extra prepared, caring, or productive, but if it is driven by fear and the need for control, it never truly calms the nervous system.
• Trust doesn’t eliminate uncertainty; it increases your capacity to tolerate it and move forward, believing you will handle whatever happens.
• The most influential leaders are the most regulated ones—they set the emotional temperature, create psychological safety, and stop making decisions from a dysregulated state.

“People think trust removes uncertainty. It doesn't. It increases our ability to tolerate uncertainty.”

“As leaders, we communicate more than information. We communicate emotional safety, and your nervous system becomes a part of your leadership.”

“You don't need more confidence. You need a nervous system that no longer mistakes uncertainty for danger.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Discover how to close the gap between who you are on the inside and how you show up on the outside. In this solo episode, you’ll learn a practical, seven-step framework to live fully self-expressed—through your choices, boundaries, presence, and the courage to speak (or stay silent) with intention.

Key Takeaways:

• Self-expression is much more than “speaking up”; it’s about living in alignment so your daily choices, boundaries, and presence reflect who you truly are.
• Continually suppressing your truth widens the gap between who you are and how you show up, leading to resentment, burnout, and feeling like a victim of circumstance.
• Agreements and boundaries are powerful tools of expression that define what you are and are not available for, and they communicate your values more clearly than repeated complaints.
• Curiosity-driven questions like “Help me understand what you mean by that” can defuse conflict, create safety, and often make problems “go away” without an argument.
• Living fully expressed is a daily practice of sovereignty and discernment—choosing what to say, what to ask, when to stay silent, and how to act so your life becomes a more effortless “super highway.”

“Sometimes the most powerful self-expression isn't speaking a truth, it’s refusing to continue betraying one.”

“Full self-expression isn't measured by the number of words you speak. It's measured by how intentionally your life reflects who you truly are.”

“One of the greatest gifts and one of the best skills you can have is we can give the other person the experience of feeling fully heard, and sometimes the most authentic response isn't an answer; it's curiosity.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Discover how a longtime educator-turned-nonprofit leader uses governance, compassion, and community empowerment to build organizations that truly last. In this episode, you’ll hear stories from hospices, classrooms, and European projects that reveal what sustainable leadership looks like in the real world.

Key Takeaways:

• Strong governance and clear structures are critical for nonprofits to compete with larger institutions and remain sustainable over time.
• When leaders actively identify and nurture the potential in others, they can create learning pathways that help people “leap forward” despite limited opportunities.
• Third-sector organizations are still businesses at their core; they require sound leadership, financial sustainability, and strategic planning just like for-profit entities.
• Compassion, kindness, and genuine giving are not “soft extras” but essential qualities of modern leadership, especially for women balancing multiple responsibilities.
• Networking and mentorship—both in person and online—provide vital emotional support and perspective for leaders who often feel they are carrying the weight of an organization alone.

“How do you make it easier for people to leap forward when they haven't had the opportunities?”

“To me, businesses in the third sector are no different to businesses in the first or the second. They still have to be sustainable; they still have to have good governance; they still have to have good leadership.”

“I think all along the line we're giving, we're giving our knowledge, aren't we? We're passing on something that we've learned from somebody else, and if they didn't share their knowledge with us, then we wouldn't have anything to share…”

- Christine Lester

Christine Miller Lester is an international leadership, Learning & Development, and organizational transformation specialist with more than 40 years of experience helping mission-driven organizations develop leaders, build learning cultures, and create sustainable impact through people-centered leadership and organizational excellence.

Reach out to Christine Lester at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinelester1/

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Key Takeaways:

• Identify and acknowledge your resistance, such as being overly attached to outcomes or trying to fix others. Understand that fear has a role but should not drive your actions.
• Reframe negative mindsets and stories into more positive, empowering narratives. Make the unconscious conscious to change unhelpful thought patterns.
• Practice surrender, trust, and gratitude to cultivate a receptive state. Engage in joyful, playful activities that activate your whole being.
• Take inspired action aligned with excitement and purpose, rather than obligation. Maintain a sense of sovereignty and commitment to the process over the outcome.

“Fear has a place. It has a role. We're not going to kick it off the bus. It just doesn't get to drive it.”

“The more you focus on what's already good in your life, the more you attract positivity. ”

“Joy puts you in a receptive state, and it makes it easier to attract good things. You get to be joyful. You deserve joy.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

What happens when you stop people-pleasing, raise your standards, and actually live in alignment with your truth? In this episode, you’ll learn what it really means to be fully self-expressed—and how to practice it every day in your work, relationships, and leadership.

Key Takeaways:

• Self-expression is less about speaking louder and more about aligning your outer life with your inner truth.
• The pain of constantly holding back comes from the gap between who you are and how you show up in the world.
• Boundaries and agreements are powerful tools for honoring what you value, need, and are no longer available for.
• Sovereignty means deciding your own worth and standards first; others will either rise to meet them or naturally fall away.
• Fully expressed living is a daily practice—notice where you withhold, ground yourself, choose your timing, seek to understand, and then speak what’s true with courage and wisdom.

“The most authentic person in the room is the most powerful.”

“Every time we consistently suppress our truth, we create distance between who we are and how we show up, and that is the greatest source of pain, the dissonance between who we are and who we're supposed to be.”

“Creativity is expression made visible. It's taking something that's inside you and giving it form.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Most nonprofits push harder when donors go quiet. In this episode, you’ll learn how to trade pressure for emotional momentum, so stalled donors start moving again—without more follow-up fatigue.

Key Takeaways:

• Donor silence is usually a signal of an unmet emotional need, not a verdict on your worth or your mission.
• Interest and readiness are different stages; rushing from enthusiasm to “the ask” often triggers a stall instead of commitment.
• Emotional connection must be nurtured intentionally over time. Information and activity alone cannot sustain donor momentum.
• Clear, simple next steps build confidence and keep donors moving; confusion and ambiguity almost always cause them to pause.
• The most sustainable fundraising comes from authentic, curiosity-driven relationships where trust sets the pace and the money follows.

“Interest and readiness are not the same thing. This is where you get stuck emotionally, because you interpret donor interest as donor readiness... A stalled donor is not a disinterested donor.”

“Sometimes the relationship moved faster than trust, and relationships only move at the speed of trust.”

“Momentum and fundraising is emotional before it's financial.”

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker

Discover how karaoke becomes a surprising laboratory for courage, authenticity, and leadership. In this episode, you’ll learn eight powerful lessons from the karaoke stage that can radically shift how you show up as a fundraiser, leader, and human being.

Key Takeaways:

• Courage comes before confidence; action is what generates the confidence you’re waiting for.
• Releasing attachment to specific outcomes creates space for authenticity, deeper relationships, and “magical” results.
• Most people are not judging you nearly as harshly as you judge yourself; they are usually rooting for you to succeed.
• Discomfort is often evidence of growth, and expanding your capacity to be uncomfortable is essential for meaningful leadership and fundraising.
• Authenticity, passion, and alignment are far more compelling than perfection; connection will always beat flawless performance.

“The more tied to a result you are, the less likely you will have that result.”

“Connection beats perfection every time.”

“The magic isn't in hitting every note. The magic is just being willing to sing."

- Maryanne Dersch

Let’s Work Together to Amplify Your Leadership + Influence

1. Group Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders

Want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and influence? My group coaching program is designed for nonprofit leaders who are ready to communicate more powerfully, navigate challenges with ease, and move their organizations forward.

2. Team Coaching + Training

I work hands-on with nonprofit teams to strengthen leadership, improve communication, and align around a shared vision. Whether you’re growing fast or feeling stuck, we’ll create more clarity, collaboration, and momentum—together.

3. Board Retreats + Trainings

Your board has big potential. I’ll help you unlock it. My engaging, no-fluff retreats and trainings are built to energize your board, refocus on what matters, and generate real results.

Get your free starter kit today at http://www.theinfluentialnonprofit.com

Connect with Maryanne about her coaching programs:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/connect

Book Maryanne to speak at your conference:

https://www.courageouscommunication.com/nonprofit-keynote-speaker