We are talking about a structure where groups of volunteers who barely know one another, see one percent of the work, often don’t reflect the communities we serve, and who may have little to no experience running nonprofits, being given vast power to supervise leadership and determine values, policies, and practices. Why did we think this weird structure would work?

Most nonprofits are familiar with the ripple effect that executive transitions have throughout their organizations. While “Nonprofit Founders’ Syndrome” often stands out, high turnover in the executive seat is more often the norm: according to a 2015 survey done by The Nonprofit Quarterly, the average term for an ED is six years.

How does your relationship with money, wealth, and power influence the way you lead in the social sector? Join us to explore these questions and more with a panel of BIPOC Women leaders in philanthropy.

Join us for a day-long, in-person gathering of LeadStrong Alumni and Fellows to facilitate continued relationship and skill building among powerful Women of Color (WOC) leaders in the social sector. Through this gathering, we continue to support WOC doing heart-centered work and help strengthen their leadership so that they can nourish a visionary and interconnected community of peers.

Join us to hear from HMD’s leadership team about their journey, lessons they learned along the way, and the ways that their organizational structure currently embodies equity. Moderated by Safi Jiroh, Principal Consultant at LeaderSpring Center.

The relationships between money, power, and inequity are visible in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. LSC has expanded our analysis of these dynamics from the macro level to the micro level as we implement curricular elements that incorporate reflection of how an individual’s relationship to money and power can impact their leadership.

There is much emphasis, if not urgency, on centering equity in the work of nonprofit organizations, whether or not they have a social justice or social service mission. Join us in a participatory learning experience with four organizational leaders whose efforts to center equity in their organizations elevate the values of humility and trust, and prioritize the collective.

In 2016 The East Contra Costa STRONG Nonprofits Fund Initiative was created by a committed group of funders with the long-term goal of strengthening the ecosystem of organizations addressing poverty in the East Contra Costa County (ECCC) region through the provision of direct services, community organizing, and advocacy for systems change.

Coaching is often embraced as a vital tool in leadership development, but the coach's voice is seldom heard outside of the coaching session. Join members of LeaderSpring's talented coaching pool as they share valuable insights and tools for those who provide, receive, and fund coaching services.

In this interactive session, we will workshop strategies to identify how self-reflective intentionality can be a driver for equity in the design thinking process. This workshop will provide an overview of design thinking and its most common applications and uses, while introducing areas of blind spots that may not be considered within the process. We will learn how, if unaddressed, these blind spots and biases risk perpetuating the very inequities we are trying to remedy.

LeaderSpring Center Executive Director Sonia Mañjon and Deputy Director Safi Jiroh discuss the Women of Color LeadStrong Fellowship and the impetus for diversifying social sector leadership.

What is distributed leadership? Find out in a new series of thematic case studies looking at how forward-thinking nonprofit organizations—including LeaderSpring Center—are vesting real decision-making authority among more of their staff members. Click here to view the five-part series.

LeaderSpring is proud to share A Bolder Form of Leadership, a case study of how Jennifer Lyle of Building Blocks for Kids accelerated change in Richmond's Iron Triangle community with the help of her LeaderSpring Fellowship.

NCRP released a report titled "Cultivating Nonprofit Leadership: A (Missed?) Philanthropic Opportunity," featuring LeaderSpring and three other leadership development programs across the country.