Learning for Good | L&D Solutions and Leadership Development for Nonprofits

How do you decide which trainings in your library still deserve a spot, and which ones are just taking up space?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I walk through five strategic questions nonprofit leaders can use to decide when to retire a training program. 

Many nonprofits build a training toolbox one request at a time, until the toolbox is packed with tools nobody stops to evaluate. That toolbox turns into an endless menu instead of a strategy, and it gets harder to tell which trainings are still earning their place.

Keeping a...

Does your learning and development team spend more time responding to requests than shaping where your organization is headed?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with L&D leaders Kamaria Scott, Rachel Platt, and  Yogi Mueller for a conversation on why nonprofit learning and development teams stay reactive and what it takes to build stronger learning and development strategies.

Too many L&D functions have been reduced to a training factory instead of shaping where the organization is headed. We talk about why this happens even to skilled, well-intentioned professionals and th...

In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with nonprofit leader Melody Lam to explore how she built a coaching culture by training first-time managers to coach.

Coaching sounds like the obvious solution when new managers struggle to have hard conversations with their teams, but it often gets treated as a perk reserved for executives, and the cost of outside coaches can make the whole idea feel out of reach. 

Melody's experience shows that coaching does not have to start big or expensive, it can start with a simple model, a willing pilot g...

Why does your team go right back to their old habits the week after training ends?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down how nonprofit leaders can design training that leads to lasting workplace behavior change instead of a short-lived bump in knowledge. Most training ends the same way. People show up, they learn something new, and within a few weeks it is like the training never happened. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone, and it is not because your training was bad. 

What matters is designing for what happens a...

Does your L&D team spend most of its time responding to urgent training requests instead of shaping strategy?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with Mark Nilles and Scot Vessell, two experienced learning and development leaders, to discuss what it actually takes for nonprofit L&D to operate as a strategic lever.

We argue that becoming a strategic partner starts with an internal shift, from seeing yourself as a learning designer who produces training to seeing yourself as a change agent who helps solve organizational problems.

Do you have employee engagement data sitting in a survey report with no plan for turning it into action?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with Wilson Kirkpatrick, Director of People Operations at Waterford.org, to talk about how they used employee engagement data to design a coaching program that strengthened leadership trust and psychological safety.

Many nonprofit leaders collect engagement survey data every year, but once the report comes back, it often sits untouched. That data only becomes valuable when you pair it with a deliberate cycle of listening, understanding...

Your staff already know what to do and how to do it. So why are they still not doing it?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down why explaining the why is one of the simplest and most overlooked workplace behavior change strategies nonprofit leaders have available.

Nonprofit leaders pour energy into teaching their teams what to do and how to do it, then feel baffled when the new behavior never sticks. It is easy to assume the problem is the training itself, when the real gap might be something far simpler...

In this episode of Learning for Good, I share 10 questions strategic learning leaders can ask to move beyond content creation and into real organizational impact, using learning and development strategies rooted in behavior change and performance.

Most nonprofit L&D professionals know that training alone does not create change. But without the right questions, it is easy to build solutions that miss the mark, overlook the real barriers, or fail to connect to organizational strategy. The gap between a training that checks a box and one that actually shifts behavior often comes down to what you asked...

Many nonprofit learning and development professionals know their work matters, but still find themselves executing requests rather than shaping solutions.

In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with global learning and development leader Mark Nilles to explore what it really means to shift from order taker to strategic partner, and how nonprofit L&D professionals can build the capability, opportunity, and motivation to lead with influence.

Strategic partnership is not a personality type or a seniority level. It is a set of skills any L&D professional can develop, one small step...

You invested time and resources into staff training and development, but your team still isn't applying what they learned. Why? Many nonprofit leaders focus heavily on what employees need to learn and how they should learn it. While those elements are essential, they're only part of the equation.

In this episode of Learning for Good, I’m exploring why even well-designed training programs often fail to create lasting behavior change. True success happens when training translates into consistent action on the job. 

I’m sharing five overlooked factors that determine whether learning becomes performance improvement or si...

What does it really take to grow as a learning leader? 

In this episode of Learning for Good, I sit down with instructional design expert Dr. Luke Hobson to explore how learning professionals can build confidence, strengthen influence, and develop a clear leadership voice. We reflect on our own career journeys into learning and development and discuss how intentional growth, networking, and relationship-building shape effective leaders.

From instructional design for nonprofits to relationship-building and professional growth, this conversation is packed with practical insights for nonprofit learning and development professionals who want to create meaningful organizational i...

What does proof of impact really look like in nonprofit learning and development? 

In this episode of Learning for Good, I break down how nonprofit leaders can measure staff training and development in a way that actually connects learning to organizational performance and mission impact.

Many nonprofit organizations focus only on participation numbers or satisfaction surveys when evaluating training. Others jump straight to behavior change and impact without worrying about knowledge transfer. I explain why effective learning and development strategies require a complete measurement chain, one where every “domino” matters.

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