← Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast
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What do cathedrals built over centuries ago have to do with your nonprofit? Maybe everything. Because the most powerful organizations aren't just running programs, they're building towards a powerful vision. In this episode, I want to talk about why leading like a cathedral builder is a key to unlocking your team, your board, your growth, and your supporters. Welcome to the Nonprofit Mastermind podcast. I'm Brooke Ritchie Babbage. I've been in the social impact game for 25 years as a social justice lawyer turned two time nonprofit founder and leader, turned growth strategist and coach for leaders around the country. I grew my nonprofit from me and an intern in a tiny closet to a high impact seven figure organization. And along the way, I learned so, so much about how to build an organization that has real impact and how to do it without burning out. In this podcast, I share the nuts and bolts of all of it. So you can do that too. We dive into the mindset, strategies and tactics of how to scale a high impact organization and how to do it in a way that's truly sustainable. I learned something a few years ago that I haven't been able to stop thinking about, and that has sort of baked itself into how I think about social impact work, how I think about building and growing nonprofits and social movements, how I talk about it. Did you know that it took generations to build the great medieval cathedrals? Literally hundreds and hundreds of years. Which means that the people laying stone, carving arches, building spires, in one lifetime, they knew they would never see the final product. They were doing something, they were investing in something that was literally bigger than their lifetimes. And they still showed up. They poured their lives, they literally dedicated their lives to something they would never see finished because they believed in what it could become. That's really profound to me because I think that it speaks to a really powerful kind of vision. And more importantly, it speaks more deeply to the power of vision. Imagine laying bricks every day of your life and you know that you will never see the cathedral. Your children will never see the cathedral, their children's children will never see the finished product. But you believe in what you're doing. And I think that that matters for those of us who do social impact work. And so I want to talk about why I think that matters so deeply for nonprofit leaders, especially right now during the crazy year that we're having. And if you are listening to this live during the thick of giving season. So what is cathedral thinking? It turns out it's a term of art. There is a name for this kind of Long term purpose driven mindset, cathedral thinking. At its core, it means that you are designing and building for a future you won't be around to witness, right? It's planning with the understanding that what you're building will outlive you. And that's the point. That's sort of what you are building towards. Now. This mindset shows up in movements for social rights and climate justice, in long term equity work, in systems change. My history, my heart professionally has always been in systems change work. But all social impact work is long term vision work, right? This type of thinking lives at the heart of every nonprofit workers, nonprofit leaders, approach to the work that we do. And it should live at the heart of every, every nonprofit leader's approach to vision. Because let's be honest, the deep structural change we're working for, the tectonic shifts in our society that we are dedicating our lives to, it doesn't happen in a year, or even five years, or even 10 years, right? So your job as a leader is to figure out how to hold that vision. Anyway, here's what I mean. Your programs, your campaigns, your annual budgets, all the things that you're working on and building out and planning for right now. Think of those like walls, bricks, scaffolding, right? They're very, very important. They are vital to the health of your organization. But that's not what your supporters and your team members and your board, that's not what they're investing in, the thing that inspires them, that pulls them in. It's the cathedral you are all building together. It's the long term vision of change, of justice, of making our world better. The specific theory of change about how to bring about those good things. That's what people invest in. And part of your job as a leader is to keep that vision crystal clear for your staff so that the day to day doesn't feel like laying bricks, right? Like meaningless grind for your board so that they understand that their work isn't just technical or tactical, that they're not just approving budgets, they're approving a strategic vision, right? A roadmap to build the cathedral blueprints. And really importantly also for your donors and your funders, so that they understand the long term vision they're investing in so that their support isn't transactional, it's transformational. This is the difference between we're running a tutoring program and we're building a future where kids of color see themselves in every level of learning and leadership. Same work, entirely different energy. There's a Story I was told before that I want to bring back here. It's a parable, and I actually shared it in one of my newsletters. So there are three workers, okay? Same tool, same job, same pay. Someone asks each one what they're doing and the first says, I'm cutting stone and it's judging. You hate every second. The second says, I'm earning a paycheck and it's really honest work. The third says, I'm building a cathedral. My grand children or my great grandchildren are going to see the spires that I'm helping build today. Same job, wildly different energy. That energy, that third person's energy, is what comes from believing in a vision. Seeing a vision in your mind's eye, right? And not the poster on the wall kind of vision. I mean, the visceral, emotional. I believe in this. I want this vision to come to fruition. That kind of. That's the kind that makes someone stay late, not because they have to, but because it matters. And that's the kind that fights burnout. That's the kind that lights a fire in the eyes of your donors and funders so that they say to you, how can we help? Right? What can I do to help? Now in the leadership space, we talk about things like work plans and performance reviews. I talk a lot about things like okrs and KPI's. Those things matter. They really do, right? So I am not saying that the measurement of success and the metrics and the tactical work that we do on a day to day and week to week basis doesn't matter. It's absolutely critical. The bricks have to be laid, right? And they're very important bricks. I personally love the unsexy stuff. I like laying bricks, right? But it's because they unlock a vision that I care very deeply about. Even in the work that I do now, which is supporting leaders in building their cathedrals. Every single time I see that unlock happen for one of the leaders in one of my programs, that shift in how they manage, that shift in how they talk to their boards every time they show up at a call and they say, wait a minute, my director of development did this thing all by herself. That unlock brings us closer to the vision, brings me closer to the vision. And that's. That's why I do this, right? Because that vision is what activates the single most powerful and untapped resource in your entire organization. And this is the thing I want you to take away from my parable and my rant about the power of cathedrals. The most powerful resource in your organization is discretionary effort. It's that extra gear that your team and your board and your donors and your funders that all of the people, your advisors, your mentors, your volunteers. It's that extra gear that people tap into only when they believe in the why. It's that flow that your team slips into when things are clicking because they have a shared why. And especially now, during giving season, when you and your team are stretched, when your funders are distracted, your board might be quiet, your donors are scattered. This is when cathedral thinking matters the most. Because when people can see what they're helping you build, when they understand their role in something bigger than themselves, they give more. They stay longer, they lead better. So here is my challenge to you this week, this month, this time of year, and moving into the new year. When you meet with your team, when you write your appeal, when you're prepping for your board retreat, are you talking about cutting stone? Or are you helping to remind people that they are building something sacred and enduring? Because that shift, it will unlock everything. That's it for this week. I hope this inspired you. I'll see you back here next week for more Mastermind. Thanks so much for joining me this week. If you enjoy this podcast, I would love for you to leave a rating and a review. I read every single one and they really do matter. I also share extra tidbits and resources building on what we talk about here in my newsletter, Leadership for 321. You can sign up by texting the word impact to 66866. And finally, definitely check out the links and resources that I mentioned this Episode@brooke richiebabbage.com backslash podcast see you next week.