Nonprofits Now: Leading Today

As leaders at every nonprofit — no matter the size or cause — grapple with challenges to their missions and finances, it’s especially important to tap into the wisdom of executives who have helped their organizations weather previous threats.

Barron Segar is one of those leaders. He took over as head of World Food Program USA just a few months before Covid ripped across the globe.

Before that, he worked as executive vice president an...

Valerie Jarrett is no stranger to the tough challenges nonprofit leaders face today. She is now head of the Obama Foundation, which is working to build an extensive library and community center in Chicago. From that perch she collaborates closely with leaders who pursue a wide range of social-change and economic development efforts. 

Jarrett built many of her leadership muscles decades ago, when she served as a key senior adviser to...

Like all workplaces, nonprofits are now filled with up to four generations of workers as boomers work along with millennials and people in Generations X and Z.

Each generation approaches work and careers differently, which leads to struggles at some organizations. But at the best-run nonprofits, leaders are ensuring that differences in work styles and life experience enhance an organization’s ability to meet its mission.

In this epis...

Nonprofits are facing a series of financial hits — or bracing for them. Federal spending cuts have already forced many organizations to trim programs and lay off workers — and with policymakers considering more far-reaching reductions, additional austerity is likely. Meanwhile, the growing possibility of a recession could spell trouble for nonprofits that depend on foundations, corporations, and individuals for support.

To help orga...

With the prospect of an economic downturn looming ― and the number of nonprofit layoffs on the rise ― many leaders are coping with a jittery workforce and new pressures to keep staff members motivated.

These new developments come on top of one of the most challenging staff recruitment landscapes in recent memory, after the Covid pandemic changed how and where work gets done.

In search of solutions, Chronicle CEO Stacy Palmer talked t...

As nonprofit leaders grapple with increasingly dire threats to their funding and missions, it’s more important than ever to understand what it takes to lead resilient organizations.

For a look at what skills are most important, we hear from Vanessa Priya Daniel, who interviewed 45 social-justice leaders for her new book, Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning.

Daniel combines her extensive research for t...

Two leaders, Kathleen St. Louis Caliento and Nick Grono, join Chronicle CEO Stacy Palmer to explain how they have engaged their board in financial efforts.

St. Louis Caliento runs Cara Collective, a Chicago nonprofit that helps low-income people find jobs. 

Grono heads the Freedom Fund, an organization that pools funds from donors who want to fight modern-day slavery. He’s the author of How to Lead Nonprofits: Turning Purpose into Im...

Tim Dixon, co-founder of More in Common, joins Chronicle CEO Stacy Palmer to offer research-based strategies leaders can use to bridge divides in the workplace and in their communities. More in Common helps political leaders and social-change movements strengthen their coalitions by including unlikely allies.

Bridging divides is top-of-mind for nonprofit leaders today. Nearly two-thirds of nonprofit executives say the nation’s divis...

Nonprofit leaders are overworked, struggling to retain top talent, and facing budgetary shortfalls. In Nonprofits Now: Leading Today, host Stacy Palmer interviews innovative leaders who have developed smart solutions to common, tough challenges. The podcast series springs from an exclusive Chronicle of Philanthropy survey that uncovered troubling pain points in nonprofit leadership and a looming threat of leadership turnover. Nonpr...