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John
Hey, I'm John.
Becky
And I'm Becky.
John
And this is the We Are for Good podcast.
Becky
Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more, and be more for the causes that improve our world.
John
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an Impact uprising.
Becky
So welcome to the good community. We're non profit professionals, philanthropists, world changers, and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
John
So let's get started. Hey, Becky, what's happening?
Becky
One of our favorite humans on the entire planet is back in the podcast chair. So I'm pretty dang happy.
John
And we're starting a new series. I mean, we just are coming out of Impact Up Hold Fast. And, you know, we didn't want the party to stop. You know, we talk a lot about what starts here ripples, but one of our beliefs in that is the conversations that brought us together as a community that we went deep into in local meetups around the world. We want that conversation to not just. Just go away. We want to, like, lean in and really walk through this together. And that's what this new series called Hold Fast is all about. We're going to go, you know, circle back with some of the people that really set the tone and led the way at the Impact up gathering. But we're going to answer questions that didn't get answered. We're going to kind of have a little bit of behind the scenes conversation. And so we got to kick it off with our friend brb, who not only headlined Impact up, but she gave us all this exhale, this moment to say maybe we can lean into resilience in this moment when everything is changing. We can really hold fast to the things that drew us into this work in the first place. And so to have Brooke back in the house means the world to kick off this series.
Becky
I mean, this is, I think, Brooke's fourth time to come back on the podcast.
Brooke Richie Babbage
I mean, I would come every week if I could. You guys know how much I love.
Becky
Spending one day every time, because I just think that they're. John, you're so diplomatic in this work and you never try to pick favorites. And I'm not sure what it says about me that I do pick favorites. And I'm like, yes, bring Brooke back. She is such a phone of friends. Friend. But if you. This is your first time to meet Brooke Richie Babbage. She is the founder of Bending Art Consulting. And she is the goat of helping nonprofit founders and leaders launch, scale and lead their organizations with more clarity and confidence and without the overwhelm. Man, Brooke, I could have had you. If I would have had you 10 years ago, I would have been a new woman. I tell you, she is also both of us, we needed each other. But she's also host of the nonprofit Mastermind podcast and if you have not listened to that podcast, it is such an elevation of leadership, of strategy, of calm, of understanding. And I really encourage you to go over there because she's helping experts move from overwhelm to that clarity. And for the past 20 plus years she has had so many journeys. She's been an organizer, an attorney, a nonprofit founder and leader. She's been a professor of law, of social entrepreneurship and nonprofit leadership. She's been on boards and been a board officer many times over. And I will put in here also. She has also been such an incredible into mom and wife and friend and she's built the successful non profit from the ground up. She has managed a thriving team and raised millions of dollars to support a mission she believed in. She is so one of us. And through it all, what ties Brooks many journeys together is this deep passion she has for creating social change. So brb, welcome back to the We Are For Good house. Thank you for keynoting giving us that exhale and we're about to take that conversation that you inspired everyone who came to impact up and we're about to take it to this airwaves because we want more people to feel that clarity, that less overwhelm. Thank you for coming back and hanging with us again today.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Thank you so much for having me. I always really love talking to you guys both on air and off air. And I am buzzing from the day and from the community that you guys help to bring together and I'm really excited to keep it going.
Becky
Yeah, I mean there is. The world is so bizarre. It is so chaotic. We are hearing every day from people in our community who are really trying to find that grounding and that hold fast. And I don't think you can go far in your email inbox or maybe a LinkedIn feed without seeing the word resilience. And when we talk about organizational resilience, I just would love your interpretation because this is really your bailiwick. Like what does that really mean, especially in this moment?
Brooke Richie Babbage
I'm really glad we're starting there. I I think that so many people, when they think of the word resilience, they think of grit, right? Determination, pushing through, making it work, sticking it out. All of these phrases that we use. And especially now, with so much going on in the world and in our sector and in the communities that our nonprofits are in and working with and on behalf, that feeling of sticking it out, of pushing it through, feels really present for folks. And I think that that's not actually either all that resilience is, or really, at its root, what resilience is all about. I think resilience is about holding fast. I think that resilience, the way that I talk about and teach resilience with the folks that I coach is that resilience is about thinking about the things at our core that keep us strong and steady and holding fast to those things that the world around us feels chaotic, at least to me right now. It feels really chaotic. Right? And that if you think about the image of, you know, a little tree, like a baby tree, it's bending and it's moving and the winds are around it and there's a storm, but it's holding fast to its roots, to the things that help it feel steady, and those things don't change. What is happening in the world won't change the things that will, that will keep us resilient. Right? Because it is about being intentional, about looking inward, whether you're looking inward to yourself or to your organization or to your team and asking yourselves, what are those truths? What are those practices? What are those habits or rituals that I can hold fast to that won't change, that will be here when the chaos is over that will keep me steady? And then designing our institutions, our lives, our relationships so that we can center those things. That's where resilience comes from.
John
Gosh, I love that so much. And the word practice just, like, jumps out at me because I think it is a practice in a very active sense, you know, and as we build our life around those things, we do feel more rooted and grounded and we feel less shaken when the unexpected happens. You know, it's easy to think about how do we navigate individually as humans and, like, building these bedrocks of these things that we can come back to, these practices that keep us grounded, that keep our morning started in a positive light and keep us connected to the purpose of our work in the same way. It's like thinking about that as an organization. How do you actually build a resilient organization? It's got to be the same. Same, but different, right, Brooke? I mean, I would love to kick it to you. Like, how do we build a resilient organization in practice. Like what are the kind of hallmarks for doing that?
Brooke Richie Babbage
Absolutely. So one word I want to go back to that I said sort of in passing is design. I think that resilience is about designing resilience. Right. Designing the rituals and the practices and the habits. And so I love that you're asking what does this resilient organization look like? Because it means that we are empowered, those of us who are working in, on behalf of organizations, we're empowered to design a resilient organization. And it has at its core three elements. Right. You want to look at these three elements in your organization. And John is smiling as he knows I'm a. I'm a stranger kind of gal. Three things. Absolutely. And so the first is clarity. Strategic clarity. Resilient organizations are really clear in their core about not just their mission, but their theory of change. Right. What they believe is true about how their work works. Right. Why they've chosen the strategies that they've chosen. They have a compelling theory of change. Resilient organizations have strategic plans. And I don't mean Those wonky, boring, 20 page, shiny documents that when I was coming up, people paid, you know, $50,000 to create and. Right.
Becky
And have on the desk, plastic laminate, three, that thousand and nobody.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Exactly. That is not what I mean. What I mean is whether it's a three year plan or if you're a small organization, a new organization, even a one year plan, what's the North Star that we're aiming for together, collectively, do we all understand it? Is it clear? And how are we going to get there? Right. What's our plan of strategies? And really resilient organizations have a way of talking about what they do with the people in their community. Their messaging is clear.
Becky
Yes.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Right. Their messaging is clear. They know who they're talking to. They know who their people are. So that strategic clarity is, is really, it's not more core than the other two, but everything I think, you know, the Virgo in me thinks everything starts with putting things in the right boxes. Right. The clarity. The second piece that you want to look at in your organization is capacity. And when I say capacity again, I don't mean the wonky, jargony, capacity building kind of capacity. I'm talking about people power. Do you have the people to drive the work? This is your team. Do you have the right people in the right roles? Doesn't mean a big team. It means the right team. Right. I have always had a small but mighty team at every stage. Of my organization's growth, we were probably smaller than people would have thought as a team. And we did amazing work together. Right. Do you have boards, advisors, a network, a community of people that are in it with you, that are under the tent, that are moving you in the direction of your, of your North Star. So your capacity is really your fuel, right. To get you to your North Star. And then the third piece of a resilient organization, the third element is capital, Money, resources. And not just money, money and resources. Do you have the time and the energy? Do you have the in kind resources? Do you have an understanding of your finances? Right. I was a nonprofit founder multiple times. And one of the things I love to say when I graduated from law school, I loved to say until I learned I couldn't say it anymore was I didn't get into this to do numbers. Right. The reason I went to law school so I didn't have to do numbers. That was one of my favorite things to say.
Becky
And then, oh my gosh, I said the same thing as a public relations person, I was like, I'm a writer, I'm not here to do the math.
Brooke Richie Babbage
I'm not here to do the numbers.
Becky
Have to own the numbers.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Exactly right. And so the capital piece is how are we bringing the resources in? How are we being stewards of those resources? Do we know what a budget means? Do we know what a budget to actual means and why it matters? Right. Do we understand our finances? So those three elements, the clarity, the capacity and the capital, you need them to be in alignment. And whether you are a big organization or a tiny organization, if you have a clear North Star, a good team, right? And the resources that you need, if you keep your eye on those balls, then you are holding fast to the elements that will keep you steady, irrespective of what is happening externally.
Becky
I just think that you have a way of taking something that feels so chaotic and larger than life and distilling it down into a way that feels like, yes, I can handle this, I can do this and I'm gonna. And I want to bring this full circle because our very first impact up, the topic that we took on was power. And how do we understand power, how do we recognize it, how do we share it? And something that I am recognizing deeply and what you're saying, and it's really reframing the moment for me is that you are giving each of us listening all of our power back. It is what we know. We have agency and understanding over our identity, over our narrative, over that theory of change that you've talked about over the people that we want working in this. And I love how foundational it is that, that I. And I just want to say it out loud. You have so much power in this moment to direct your mission, your community, your narrative and your needs. And people are leaning in to listen to see who is doing something, who is stand holding fast, who is standing strong. And I. You mentioned that you did this with little, with little teams and small but mighty. I felt like you were talking about the we are for good team over here. But. But I have such a heart. And we do. For the tiny nonprofit.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Yes.
Becky
Who is really trying to weather the storm. And I, I think about it through the lens. I mean, I want to say the last stat I saw was like, 85% of nonprofits are earning and raising less than a million dollars a year. So most of us are the small teams. So. So talk to this group. And what kind of advice would you have for organizations that have these small but mighty team. They may lack or they feel like they lack the capacity to build resilience. What would you say to that?
Brooke Richie Babbage
So the first thing I would say is no one lacks the capacity or ability to be resilient. And what you were saying, Becky, about taking our. I won't say taking our power back because I am not going to concede that anyone has taken it from us, but recognizing our power, I think that if you are listening and you are a nonprofit leader, you are on a nonprofit team, you are on a nonprofit, nonprofit board, understanding the power you have to design the institution that will have the impact you wanted to have is almost more important than how much money you have in the bank. Because when I was building my second organization, maybe nine months in, I had left my law job, I had borrowed money from my parents, I had given up my health insurance, and I was sitting in a tiny office as the market was crashing. I left my job in 2007. And then 2008. Yep, 2008 happened. And every source of funding that I had counted on, that I had been cultivating, I didn't even really understand fundraising, but I just been talking to people. I mean, like, this is the money I need. And the people I had two law interns who were going to come work for me, everything went away. And we had one of the most incredibly impactful years, 2008 and 2009, in terms of actually transforming the lives of young people that I worked with. And I'm not saying this to, like, pat myself on the back about the work that we did. But what I always believed was that the impact comes from my belief that we can have impact. Right? So your resilience comes from your belief that. And I'm a bit. Woo. I will admit your belief.
John
It's okay, right?
Brooke Richie Babbage
I know we've talked about it.
Becky
Let's do it.
Brooke Richie Babbage
That you can design the institution you need and if you are designing it with $50,000, it's going to look different than if you're designing it with $5 million. But the design is the same, right? So if you are a small team and you look at these three elements, right? The clarity, the capacity and the capital for clarity. It's as simple as can we explain our mission and our theory of change to a 10 year old? Pull out a Google Doc on that Google Doc, write, this is what we do, this is who we do it for and this is why we do it this way. And when you can write that, hand it to a 10 year old and have that 10 year old, I'll volunteer. My son, he loves doing stuff like this. He's 10, right? Have that person say back to you, oh, I get it. That's your clarity, right? And then you take that and you sit down. If it's just you, okay. If it's you and your friends and family board, bring them along and you craft a plan for the year. This is what we want to accomplish by the end of this year. That's your clarity, right? You can do that with one person for capacity. We always think of staff. I remember one of the most powerful conversations I had when I was building my team. And you guys know I was part of my sustainable sisterhood. Executive Executive Director, Sustainable. Me too. Me too. There's still amazing, wonderful women in my lives. But as we were all growing our organizations and this was, you know, the maybe early 2010s, I met them. A lot of folks in the nonprofit sector still thought about staffing in terms of how many full time employees FTEs do you have on your team as a sign of like success. And so every time you thought about capacity or your team, you thought, how am I going to afford another full time person? And so it meant that you grew a lot more slowly than perhaps you needed to. And I remember having a conversation where and something just shifted for me and it's still what I coach on. We were talking about everyone in our communities that cared about our mission that could help us achieve what was in that one page annual work plan. Some of those people were paid as team members and some of those people were advisory board members. They were board of directors, right? For those of you who run organizations, you're like, what the heck is my board supposed to do this? Right? So your team, your capacity, your people power may not be, if you are a small organization, just the people that you can afford to pay. Think creatively about advisors, mentors, volunteers, partner organizations that have capacity you don't have, where you can bring the content. So thinking about all of the people that care about your mission. And when you're small, it will often be unpaid connections, right? Your leveraged network is what I call it. And then third, your capital when you're small. Think relationships, right? You want to be building relationships, building a community. I have a lot, I get a lot of pushback from folks about building individual donor bases because it feels smarmy to some folks. What I will say, especially now, I have just been like touting this horn since January. Now is the time to be talking to your people, to the people in your community who have an affinity for your mission. And especially if you're small, now is the time to say, we have to do this together. Will you support what we're doing? Right. This is a time to get on the phone and talk to funders and say, you have pots of discretionary money. How can we talk about leveraging those pots of discretionary money for X, Y and Z end goals? How can we work together? So that's. It's the same. They're the same questions for a small organization. But understanding the sort of scope and scale of that clarity and capacity and thinking creatively about capital is really how it might look different for small versus larger organizations.
John
I just gotta lift this because we kind of geeked out for a second about this idea of belief, right? And how it, like, is so central. And I think once you have the strategic clarity and people can rally around something, that's what you need to be able to build believers in a mission. And we, we've been talking about this because it's one of our core values, is that it's not always about the donors. It's about the belief and get that, that that's a way that you can leverage and pump, you know, way, way above your weight class or lift way above your weight class because you can leverage people that believe in something or want to see the change that you want to see. And I think that's beautiful lens to that, like, what. What could your board bring to offer? What could your partners bring to the table? How can we do this creatively? It's not always about the resources in the traditional sense of that. So I love the way.
Becky
And I will also say you're. When you think of capital.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Yeah.
Becky
Like get only money out of your head. Because it's not just money. Like especially in this moment right now. Here I go back on my soapbox where it's like people have so much that they could give.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Yes.
Becky
Without it being monetary. Yes. We want you to ask for that monetary gift. We need to have capital in the bank, but we also need the capital of connections and network and story and opening doors and canvassing in whatever way. I just, I think that there is so much that you're helping reframe in what someone can give in terms of capital, specifically for small shops, but big shops. You got this too. I mean, I just think we reframe it. So I think this is so good.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Yeah, absolutely. Capital, think resources. Right. When you look at your North Star plan and you rally the team that you've built, the people, power, you want to ask yourselves what resources capital are do we need? And some of that's money and some of its connections and some of it's in kind and some of its space and some of it's food, right? Yeah, absolutely.
Becky
So good.
John
Okay, this is the point of the podcast that if you're driving, you need to pull over because we want to get you active. We want to get out our pen and paper. And Brooke, you're such so great at like getting us moving and taking action. And so I know you had thought about an exercise of maybe a few prompts that could lead us into deeper reflection of how do we actually get started in some of this stuff? Where would you take us in implementing some of these ideas?
Brooke Richie Babbage
So I have a methodology that I have just recently started teaching. I've been honing this over. I said the number out loud the other day and it was crazy. 27 years I've been doing this work.
Becky
I know skincare routine doesn't.
Brooke Richie Babbage
But it's one that I'm really excited about. So we talked a little bit about what a resilient organization looks like. And I think that some folks, their brains can explode a little bit when they think, but wait, how do I get there? Right? Where do I start? So this methodology, I call it the core methodology, it's really a four part sort of four step process for moving from wherever you are starting to the design of a resilient organization. So core stands for the C stands for chart the system. So the first thing you always want to do Is baseline. Where are you starting from? So the question you want to ask is, and if you are small organization, you know, like when I first started, it was just me. I would set a timer for an hour and just go deep into my head. Maybe I'd pull in my sister or my best friend. If you have a team, do this with them. The first question is, do we have a clear picture of what's really working, what's missing, and where there are points of friction and bottlenecks. So what's working, what's missing? Friction and bottlenecks. And you want to look across your whole organization. One of the resources that I use for charting the system is something called an organizational design map. And it breaks your organization down into nine building blocks. And each of these are. It's not just for nonprofits. It's an organizational design, which I am a student of organizational design. These are across any institution. They're made up of the same nine building blocks. Structure, purpose, workflows, information authority, et cetera. And if you sit down with this chart, I can make it available to you guys for folks to download. If you sit down with the chart and you ask what's working, what's missing, Friction and bottlenecks in each of these nine blocks, a picture starts to emerge of where you need to lean in, where there's clarity missing, where there's capacity missing in each of these buckets. Right. So you'll understand what you actually need to focus on. That's step one, chart. This chart. Your system second step is organize. Right. So once you've seen where you actually have to lean in, and actually, I'll say one last thing about charting, it can feel like everything's on fire in your organization.
John
Thank you for that.
Becky
Right.
Brooke Richie Babbage
We know that as folks growing our own institutions. Right? Exactly. And one of the things that comes up most frequently with the executive directors that I coach is they don't know what to look at next. Right. Which of the things that feel like they are going wrong should I actually be focusing on now? And which. What can I afford to let go? So this is a focusing. This next phase, this next step, organizing is about focusing. So where there are problems, where you have realized there are bottlenecks, friction, things missing, you want to ask yourself, what systems and workflows and roles within those areas do we have documented and which do we not have documented? So how can we look at where there are gaps in points of friction and bottlenecks and actually write down, document how we close those gaps? And it is always about Roles and workflows and systems. Who needs to own this piece? How do they need to work together? And what systems and infrastructures do we need? I am not talking about building them now. I'm just talking about naming what needs to be in place. Right. To close these gaps. The third is where you redesign for scale. So now that you've illuminated the gaps and the points of friction, the bottlenecks and also the resources, you have what's working, and you've organized your system, your institution, right? So that you can. You are clear about the roles and the workflows and the systems you need. Now you can intentionally redesign those areas using the roles, workflows, and systems that you've identified. This is where you say, okay, team, we had to restructure. Our role map is what I call an org chart, our role map. Let's figure out who we need to hire, right? Let's figure out who needs. Whose role needs to change. Let's move those roles around. Okay, team, we've realized that there's some bottlenecks here. What needs to be automated. Let's get those workflows that we've designed, built. So this redesign is where the meat and potatoes are, or. My son is a vegetarian. He's asked me not to say meat and potatoes. The nuts and bolts, right?
Becky
Yeah. Perfect.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Tofu. Exactly. Tofu, potatoes, right. He loves lentils. We'll say the lentils. The lentils, too. But that's where the work really happens, right? And this is. You've set yourself up for intentional redesign because you've slowed down, you've sharpened your ax to cut down your tree. You've actually said, where do we need to focus? What do we need to build? Okay, now we're going to build. And then the last part is equipping your team for success, equipping your backbone. Once you have designed or redesigned your system, what habits, rhythms, and culture do you need to put in place to sustain them? Right? How, as a team, as a community, do we need to protect this institution we've now designed? So that is not a quick process, right? It's not something you're going to do in one day. But starting with charting, going to organizing, going to redesigning, and then looking at sort of the backbone. Equipping the backbone. Over six to nine months will walk your organization through the building, the design and building of a resilient institution.
Becky
When Brooke says it, it just feels like someone has taken your hand. They're, like, gently leading you through it. It feels so just like, what's Possible. And I, and I hope for you, that's listening out there. That was so helpful. You just got that for free. You got the BRB playbook for free. We will definitely drop that resource into the show notes because I do think a framework is so helpful in grounding in purpose in North Star as you're talking about. And so I, I love that so much. Again, I just, just wish that I would have had Brooke 10 years ago. John, when we were in healthcare, philanthropy. Can you even imagine, like, I'm, like, in my head, I'm thinking of friction.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Yeah.
Becky
About where's our roadblocks? And friction. And they were so obvious. So I really love naming them and putting in a path. So. Okay, Brooke, as we're winding down, you know, we gotta end with a one good thing. And we're hoping you're gonna tie it maybe a little bit to this topic. And so tell us what's kind of lifting for you in the spirit of resil and getting organized and owning who we are in our narrative. What's lifting to the top for your one good thing?
Brooke Richie Babbage
So I'm going to go in a different direction on the topic. I'm going to go back fully into woo for this one because. Because I've spent a lot of time and it is in my nature to spend a lot of time on the how. Right. The okay, let's do it. I often am told that I will go right from the beginning of a meeting to the work plan without saying, how are folks? You know, just, hi, hi, let's breathe for a second. And you know, it's my superpower. And if I'm honest, what animates me isn't the how, it's the why. And so my one good thing is resilience is about design. It's about holding fast to the things that keep you steady. And my advice is, as we continue to navigate this hopefully not long period of chaos in our society, building a practice, ideally daily, but even just weekly, of setting a timer for 15 minutes and reconnecting through silence to your why. And it can be as simple as a mantra. Reconnect to my why. What should I be doing? Please connect me to my purpose. Whatever the mantra is, I find that being able to tap into that silent space is where the energy comes from for the how. So that would be my advice.
Becky
It is wild you just said that. Because I just finished reading Untamed, Glennon Doyle's book.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Yeah.
Becky
And she has a practice of going into her closet, which is also my. My sanctuary is the the floor of my closet and doing this as well. 10 to 15 minutes. She calls it like, find your knowing.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Like I call it be still and listen self.
Becky
Yes, find self. I. Okay, I am. I am receiving the universe, telling me I need to do this in my life. I hope you, when you hear it twice, three times.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Synchronicities are very important.
John
Yeah. I mean, Brooke, you're just the right person that's leaning into their gifts in this moment to walk with us through. I'll say your words back to you. Complete chaos. You know, I feel such a calm being in your presence. So I want to connect our listeners to your work. I know you've been developing a lot of resources. You've been spending a lot of time on this. You're always sharing it on your podcast too. What are all the ways to connect with you? Like point us to how people can join your mailing list and all the things.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Absolutely. So definitely follow me on LinkedIn. I post and share a lot there. My newsletter is, I'm going to say, pretty awesome. I'm a big fan.
Becky
It is so awesome.
Brooke Richie Babbage
It's called leadership for 321. It's always a mini lesson on a strategic theme. Three lessons, two resources, and something that I hope is inspirational and folks can get there@brookrichybabbage.com leadershipforward and then the last resource that I'm also really excited about is what I call my game plan. And it's the, you know, it's the action part of me. But it is a six question assessment for busy nonprofit leaders who are trying to figure out, sort of going to this core methodology that are trying to figure out why are we stuck. They've been growing, but they're not seeing the impact. It's feeling too chaotic. They want to get unstuck. Six questions and they will get a game plan report from me that says, at your stage of development, this is probably why you're stuck. This is what you should focus on. You can ignore these other things and here are some resources so folks can get that@brookwitchybabbage.com backslash gameplan amazing.
Becky
What a hell of a resource. I mean, truly, there's got to be somebody out there who's saying, that is me. That is me. I feel stuck. And I think that's why I appreciate you so much, Brooke. It's why I appreciate our listeners. People who come into this space, they don't want to just talk. They don't want to just listen. They want to be a part of activating the change that we want to see in the world. So thank you for these incredible resources. We'll also drop some into the show notes if you want to grab them in one place. Please check out Brook's podcast. It is unbelievable. It is such good fuel and growth for the week and just adore you friend. Thank you for being in my sustainable sisterhood. Thank you for keynoting impact up. Thank you for bringing us back to calm and to send her.
Brooke Richie Babbage
Thank you for having me. I just love being in this space with you. And thank you both for for the work that you do and the community that you build. I think that's what's going to get us through. Right?
Becky
That's we're in it together. Yeah.
Brooke Richie Babbage
So great seeing you.
Becky
Every week. We're for Good Podcast listeners, friends and community members reach out to us for both recommendations and introductions to people, products and services to help them take their nonprofit mission further. And you know what? We love it totally.
John
This community is fueled by the support of Value Line partners who've invested in making this community and content accessible for all. And they just happen to be powered by really good humans too.
Becky
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John
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Podcast Information:
In Episode 614, Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott launch a new series titled "Hold Fast," aimed at deepening the conversations initiated at their Impact Up gatherings. They emphasize the importance of resilience in nonprofit organizations amidst increasing challenges and pressures to achieve more impactful outcomes.
The episode features a special guest, Brooke Richie-Babbage—founder of Bending Art Consulting and host of the Nonprofit Mastermind podcast. Becky enthusiastically introduces Brooke, highlighting her extensive experience and contributions to the nonprofit sector:
Becky [01:46]: "Brooke ... is the goat of helping nonprofit founders and leaders launch, scale and lead their organizations with more clarity and confidence and without the overwhelm."
Brooke Richie-Babbage delves into the concept of resilience, distinguishing it from mere grit or determination. She emphasizes that true resilience is about holding fast to core values and practices that provide stability amidst chaos.
Brooke [04:42]: "Resilience is about holding fast to the things that keep you steady."
Brooke uses the metaphor of a tree bending in a storm but remaining anchored by its roots to illustrate organizational resilience. She advocates for intentional practices that reinforce an organization's foundational strengths.
Brooke outlines three essential elements for building a resilient nonprofit:
Clarity (Strategic Clarity)
Brooke [09:07]: "Resilient organizations ... have a clear North Star ... and their messaging is clear."
Capacity (People Power)
Brooke [10:17]: "Capacity is really your fuel, to get you to your North Star."
Capital (Money and Resources)
Brooke [11:38]: "Capital is how we bring the resources in and being stewards of those resources."
Addressing the unique challenges faced by smaller organizations, Brooke provides actionable strategies:
Clarity: Simplify the mission statement so it can be explained to a child, ensuring everyone grasps the organization's purpose.
Brooke [14:03]: "Explain your mission and theory of change to a 10-year-old."
Capacity: Utilize a "leveraged network" by engaging unpaid advisors, mentors, and partners to expand capacity without significant financial strain.
Brooke [14:28]: "Think creatively about advisors, mentors, volunteers, partner organizations."
Capital: Focus on building relationships and community support rather than solely on monetary donations. Engage donors through personal connections and shared goals.
Brooke [16:20]: "Now is the time to talk to your people and build relationships."
Brooke introduces her CORE Methodology, a four-step process designed to help organizations transition into resilient institutions:
Chart the System (C)
Brooke [23:10]: "Chart the system to understand what you actually need to focus on."
Organize (O)
Brooke [25:43]: "Organize by documenting how to close gaps in roles, workflows, and systems."
Redesign for Scale (R)
Brooke [27:57]: "Redesign is where the work really happens."
Equip Your Team for Success (E)
Brooke [27:58]: "Equip your backbone by putting in place the necessary habits and culture."
Brooke [23:00]: "The CORE Methodology will walk your organization through building a resilient institution over six to nine months."
Brooke emphasizes the importance of community and continuous support in building resilience. She offers several resources to aid nonprofit leaders:
Brooke [33:11]: "Visit brookrichybabbage.com/leadershipforward for the Leadership for 321 newsletter."
As the episode wraps up, Brooke shares her "one good thing," reinforcing the importance of reconnecting with the organization's why to sustain resilience:
Brooke [30:23]: "Reconnecting through silence to your why ... is where the energy comes from for the how."
Becky and John express their gratitude for Brooke's insights and resources, encouraging listeners to engage with her work to foster resilience within their own organizations.
Join the Community: We Are For Good invites nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, and innovators to connect and share resources. For more information and to access discussed resources, visit www.weareforgood.com.