One of the great things about the Southern Partners Fund 2010 Regional Grantee Gathering is that one of the main breakout sessions is called Passing the Torch: Trusting the Next Generation to Sustain the Social Justice Movement. As the session gets underway, participants acknowledge the importance of preparing new leaders for nonprofit work. They affirm the [...]
Today is a Good Day to Love Out Loud
Today is the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Today there are people grieving for loved ones that perished in the attack. Today an entire country remembers something that we can never forget. Today we honor the victims of September 11 with a moment of [...]
If Not Us, Then Who?
One of my highlights of last week was being in Wisconsin and trying fried pickles for the first time. Man, were they delicious! I’m still thinking about the fun time I had exploring downtown Milwaukee with my friend Ian Bautista, President of United Neighborhood Centers of America and his beautiful family. There’s so much amazing green [...]
How’d You Get That Job? The Story of a Thirtysomething Executive Director
This is a guest post by Laura Zabel, executive director of Springboard for the Arts, an organization out of St.Paul, Minnesota which connects artists with resources. Laura previously appeared on my radio show for the special episode, A Day in the Life of a Young Nonprofit Executive Director. When I present at conferences or meet [...]
Weekend Reading: Rethinking Leadership, No More Master’s Degrees and Reverse Mentoring
A few awesome posts popped up in my reader this week, and I thought of you. Do they spark any new ideas for your life and work? Sue Ashford and Scott DeRue offer some clarifying thoughts on the Harvard Business Review blog regarding how we define leadership. Hint: it’s not about the position. When we relax [...]
Are You a Leader? (Hint: It Depends on How You Define Leadership)
Are you a leader? I asked this question to a group of Atlas Corps Fellows last month and almost all of them raised their hands. I was impressed. Right before that, I had asked them to share their own definitions of leadership. While everyone had a slightly different take on what it meant to be a [...]
Who Teaches Us to Question?
I was reading Marian Wright Edelman’s elegant piece, Remembering Howard Zinn and I was struck by this part: Howie taught me to question and ponder what I read and heard and to examine and apply the lessons of history in the context of the daily political, social, and moral challenges all around us in the [...]
