230 | What practices are fundraising leaders relying on to bring about sustainable change?

230 | What practices are fundraising leaders relying on to bring about sustainable change?

The Fundraising Talent Podcast, a production of Responsive Fundraising

Laura is the author of Our Next Evolution in which she presents a leadership model that puts relationships at the center of systems-level change. Laura calls for leaders to master four interlinked practices: Cultivating Presence, Creating Space, Leveraging Diversity, and Sustaining Dialogue. For example, about creating space Laura writes: “the most powerful collaborations emerge when people with vastly different lived experiences come together to create change.”

I have heard a lot lately about how donors should trust nonprofits and be more transparent about their priorities, decision making processes, etc. While all true in theory, my experience has shown that telling donors how they should behave doesn’t work all that well. If we were to take a page from Laura’s new book, we would have to reckon with whether we have done our part to create space where meaningful relationships can form and where greater levels of trust emerge. We have to ask ourselves if we are doing the hard work of genuinely trusting the intentions of our donors as much as we’d hope they are trusting ours.

If you’d like to order a copy of Laura’s new book, click here.

As always, we are grateful to CueBack for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast.

As always, we are grateful to CueBack for sponsoring The Fundraising Talent Podcast.