Podcast
Life & Leadership with Kim Williams
Hosted by Kim Williams · EN
Kim Williams is a multi-faceted woman. She is an introvert who loves to write and podcast. A happy wife of 28 years to her husband and best friend, Rawleigh, and the proud mom of her three accomplished children, Rawleigh III, Brian, and Alyssa. Professionally, Kim is a nonprofit CEO and executive coach with over 30 years of leadership experience. She's raised nearly $50 million dollars to fight poverty and homelessness in Dallas as CEO of Interfaith Family Services while simultaneously running Kim Williams Consulting, an executive coaching and consulting firm that specializes in change management for nonprofits. She is a two time-finalist for CEO of the year and her organization is the local outcomes leader in its field. Kim is also a woman who has battled insecurity, self-doubt, and high levels of stress for many years. She understands what is like to be a woman whose public persona does not always match her personal struggles. She shares how she overcame insecurity and found the power and peace of authentic leadership in her book, Diary of An Insecure CEO.
Kim created the Life and Leadership with Kim Williams to share her stories and strategies to help you to successfully serve others without sacrificing yourself. While anyone can listen, learn, and be inspired by this podcast, it is specifically designed for leaders who work in the nonprofit and ministry sectors. We spend our days valiantly serving others while secretly struggling not to sacrifice ourselves, our happiness, physical health, and mental health in the process. Kim believes our situation is unique and our voices deserve to be heard in a safe space that is curated especially for us. That space is Life & Leadership with Kim Williams!
11episodes
Episodes
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Episode 104 | 5 Ways to Ensure Your Staff Survives Fall Fundraising
3d ago00:17:02Tap to summarizeNearly seven in ten nonprofit employees say they plan to look for a new job this year, according to the Social Impact Staff Retention Project's most recent survey, and turnover across our sector already sits at nineteen percent, compared to twelve percent almost everywhere else. Here's what most leaders miss. That search does not usually start in the spring. It starts after the hardest quarter of the year has already worn your team down. If you are heading into fall wondering how to keep your best people through your busiest season, today I want to walk you through the strategies that have kept my team steady, quarter after quarter, for fifteen years.
Transcribe →Episode 103 | 4 Ways to Prepare for the Fall Fundraising Push
1w ago00:17:11Tap to summarizeThe Blackbaud Institute found that more than one-third of all charitable giving happens in the final three months of the year, and December alone accounts for nearly one-fifth of annual giving. That's an incredible opportunity, but it's also an incredibly demanding season for development professionals. Fundraise describes today's fundraising environment as one of sustained pressure, where small teams are being asked to do more with fewer resources. That's why preparing now isn't just about raising more money. It's about protecting your team while positioning your organization for a successful year-end campaign. Today, we discuss four ways to do that.
Transcribe →Episode 102 | Your Mid-Year Reset Questions, Answered
2w ago00:18:10Tap to summarizeEpisode 102 — Your Mid-Year Reset Questions, AnsweredMid-Year Reset Series finale. Thirty-nine percent of nonprofits ended last fiscal year with a deficit, up from twenty-two percent just three years earlier, and nearly half of nonprofit leaders now worry about possible closure. Closing out the Mid-Year Reset series, Kim answers the three questions leaders ask her most: how to approach donors about a crisis without losing their confidence, how to know when to draw on resources versus cut expenses, and how to decide who stays when downsizing becomes necessary. She also shares the story behind why she opened her consulting firm in the first place.
Transcribe →Episode 101 | Leading Change Without Losing Your Team
3w ago00:18:08Tap to summarizeEpisode 101 — Leading Change Without Losing Your TeamOne in four nonprofit CEOs now say burnout is significantly impacting their staff, up from just seventeen percent the year before, and thirty percent of nonprofits have reduced staff in the past year alone. Kim shares the one time a deficit forced her into downsizing, and the fear that came with it: would the team that stayed feel like they were next? She breaks down three strategies that turned a painful season into one that brought her team closer together instead of splintering it, and improved both retention and outcomes.
Transcribe →Episode 100 | How to Face the Inevitable Budget Deficit
Jul 1400:20:13Tap to summarizeEpisode 100 — How to Face the Inevitable Budget DeficitA third of nonprofits saw federal funding decline last year, and nearly three in ten saw cuts in state and local support. If your organization is behind goal, you are not the exception. In this milestone hundredth episode, Kim shares three deficits from her own fifteen years leading a nonprofit, one inherited, one funder-driven, one government-driven, and the three-step framework she uses to size up a shortfall before ever touching a strategy. She walks through the exact playbook that carried her through every one of them, and what it took to go from a $500,000 gap to closing an $11.5 million capital campaign.
Transcribe →Episode 99 | Take One Action Today to Win at Year-End
Jul 700:22:32Tap to summarizeEpisode 99: The Mid-Year Reset Every Nonprofit Leader Needs to MakeMid-Year Reset Series, Part 1 — Leadership MentalityHalfway through the year, your January plan meets July's reality, and it rarely matches. Kim opens the Mid-Year Reset series with the mindset shift that has to happen before any strategy work can: the willingness to face where things actually stand. Drawing on fifteen years as CEO of Interfaith Family Services, she shares three strategies for leading through a mid-year reality check: reality-check and acceptance, the mentality shift, and speaking points and self-care.
Transcribe →Episode 98 | The Programs That Changed Everything: The Power of Engaged Giving
Jun 3000:13:25Tap to summarizeThe number of donors giving less than $500 annually dropped by 5 percent in 2024. Large in-person galas and traditional direct mail are declining in effectiveness. But volunteerism is up 7 percent. Monthly giving programs are growing. Corporate social responsibility budgets are increasingly shifting toward employee engagement experiences, not just corporate check-writing. What donors and corporate partners want right now is not just a receipt and a thank-you letter. They want a meaningful connection to the work. Organizations that design giving programs around that desire are seeing dramatically better retention and dramatically stronger relationships.Today, we explore the power of engaged giving.
Transcribe →Episode 97 | From $20,000 to Six Figures: What North Texas Giving Day Taught Me About Community Trust
Jun 2300:15:10Tap to summarizeFor four consecutive years, the number of individual donors to American nonprofits has declined. The steepest drop is at the bottom of the pyramid, donors giving under $500. At the same time, major donor and corporate giving has grown, which means total revenue numbers can look stable even as the base of community support is quietly eroding. That erosion matters more than the dollar amount. A broad, active community of small donors is one of the most important signals of organizational credibility you can send to foundation funders, government partners, and major donors. It says: this organization matters to people, not just to institutions.Today, we talk about how to stop the decline and invest in the future.
Transcribe →Episode 96 | Stop Asking Donors to Fund Growth. Ask Them to Fund Excellence.
Jun 1600:15:50Tap to summarizeWhat if I told you that the most powerful fundraising ask you could make right now has nothing to do with serving more people? What if the ask that would inspire your most loyal, long-term donors is not about expanding your programs at all? Today, I want to challenge one of the most deeply held assumptions in the social sector: that growth is always the story donors want to hear.
Transcribe →Episode 95 | The Funding Cliff Is Real: How Help Your Nonprofit Avoid It
Jun 900:24:23Tap to summarizeThe era of reliable federal and state funding for social service organizations is ending. Not pausing. Ending. The Nonprofit Finance Fund's 2025 survey found that 36 percent of nonprofits ended 2024 with an operating deficit, the highest figure in a decade. More than half have three months or less of cash on hand. At the same time, the number of individual donors has declined for four consecutive years. We are in a sector where costs are rising, demand is up, federal appropriations are shrinking, and the donor base is getting smaller. That is not a temporary storm. It is a structural shift. Today, we are going to talk about how to address it and avoid it. Kim offers three strategies for going from vulnerability to sustainability.
Transcribe →