Future Nonprofit

“If we're gonna see real change, it has to be done on a local level. My personal mission for the rest of my life is reintegrating localism back into modern society.”—Bob Dalton

Do you ever feel like it’s harder than ever to engage people in your mission?

Nonprofits today compete with influencer culture, political fatigue, and content overload. Bob Dalton has cracked the code on how localism rebuilds trust and why that matters more than ever.

Bob is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and social designer working to reclaim human connection in the digi...

“And the way things are looking in Ukraine, even if the war stops today, it's going to take decades to rebuild and rebuild lives.”—Yuriy Boyechko

In 2016, Yuriy Boyechko founded Hope for Ukraine to serve the underserved—children impacted by HIV/AIDS, families in extreme poverty, and people with disabilities who had little access to care. But when Russia invaded in 2022, Yuriy and his team had to adapt quickly.

This conversation explores how Hope for Ukraine continues to deliver real-time impact in one of the world’s most complex crises, and what the rest of us in the...

How do you honor a 200-year legacy without losing relevance for today?

That’s the question Dr. Jennifer Holloran has been asking since becoming the first female president of American Bible Society in 2024.

In this episode, Jennifer shares how her leadership was shaped by hardship, faith, and an openness to follow where God was leading, even when the path wasn’t clear. From rebuilding an organization in transition to empowering the people around her, Jennifer’s story truly is a masterclass for nonprofit leaders navigating change.

In this conversation, you’ll hear:

“When you understand the humans and the interests, needs, desires, and context within which they function, you can design systems that reflect those needs.” - Amy Anderson

How do you innovate within a system that has been stagnant for years?

This is the question that guides Amy Anderson’s work as Executive Director of RESCHOOL Colorado—a nonprofit committed to creating an equitable education system where students can learn everywhere, ensuring all young people have access to diverse and meaningful learning opportunities.

For any nonprofit leader, innovation can feel incredibly challenging. It's hard enough t...

“If you're a positive adult who can offer support, there's a huge impact. 86% of our kids quadruple their literacy learning rate.” - Michelle Curren

Sometimes the most meaningful journeys in life are unexpected, aren’t they?

When Michelle Curren set out to change the world, she didn’t see herself helping kids learn to read in her hometown of Chico, CA. She thought she’d be actively combatting sex trafficking in other countries.

But through an interesting and unexpected journey, she came to understand that one of the most effective ways to help a child su...

“So many people are not voicing their power.” - Holly Smithson

What if your biggest strength is the thing you’ve been told is your greatest weakness?

In this episode, Ted sits down with Holly Smithson, CEO of Athena, a global leadership platform dedicated to fast-tracking women in STEM (short for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). This is an incredible organization that is partnering with some of the nation’s top corporations by strengthening their executive pipeline, fostering cultures of innovation and impact, and accelerating workforce readiness for the future economy.

Holly shares how a ch...

“There was no real mechanism for measuring what we meant when we said build trust… Who was creating the surveys? What was the methodology? What were the metrics assessing relationships?” - Meme Styles

You use data every day.

In the stories you tell donors.

In the statistics you share on social media.

In the decisions you make about the future of the organization.

But data-informed decision-making goes deeper than just collecting numbers and drawing conclusions from them.

Meme Styles, our guest today, reminds us that we need to be...

Today, your audience is more aware than ever before of injustices impacting our world. They’re eager to help, but unsure of the best way to make a difference. As a nonprofit leader, it’s your job to channel their passion into action. How? By sharing your story—and making it easy for others to amplify it.

On Future Nonprofit, we often explore how to improve the way your organization operates. But without a strong growth strategy that amplifies your story, even the most noble nonprofit is like a sports car without gas in the tank—it’s got amaz...

“Leadership is not just something that is relegated to middle management, upper management, executive leadership. Leadership is a culture that exists inside of your organization. If you truly want to make breakthrough products, experiences, campaigns; if you want your entire team from entry-level individuals up to your C suite to really be pushing the organization forward, every single person needs to be thinking of themselves as a leader, as a stakeholder in the organization.” – James Bloedel

With the world shifting and changing faster than ever, it’s important to stay informed, challenge your thinking, and grow as a leader...

“When you see horrible things happen to innocent people, you can choose one of two paths. You can either go a route of bitterness and hatred and perpetuate a problem, or you can think—does this have to be like this?” - Thomas Keown

Who is best equipped to drive lasting change for people facing challenging circumstances?

Our latest guest on Future Nonprofit, Thomas Keown, has discovered a powerful answer to this question—and it's one you may not be expecting.

Thomas grew up in Northern Ireland during a 30-year conflict known as The Trou...

“For me, that's really where you get the highest ROI. Just to hear from a person: this matters.” - Ryan Sisson

When’s the last time you thought to yourself, “Wow, this is real community”?

That magical, visceral feeling of true human connection? It’s rare—feels like lightning in a bottle. Many nonprofit leaders have tried to capture it within the community they cultivate for their team, their donors, and the people they serve. But the truth is, it can be tricky to nail the secret sauce. 

Luckily, our guest knows the recipe for that...

“[She] asked me, ‘What's one thing we can give you so you never go back on the streets?’ And I told them, ‘If you give me a computer, I would never go back on the streets. And they did. And that gadget captured me from what the streets were offering and I teleported into a new world of possibilities.’” - Emmanuel Trinity

How do you create generational prosperity when the prevailing model of charity is focused on temporary poverty alleviation?

For Emmanuel Trinity (who goes by Trinity), creating prosperity is about untapping the latent potential in communiti...

“I really think that we all have something we want to produce and give to the world, and that should be our ambition. And people are going to love you for what you give to the world. They're going to love you for your ambition.” - Remi Sobomehin

What’s the best way to make progress toward your mission?

It’s a question many nonprofit leaders wrestle with. 

The truth is, sometimes making a real impact requires you to think outside of the box. Sometimes, it means turning your biggest challenges into your greatest...

Running a nonprofit can be hard.

You’re leading a dedicated crew into the heart of challenging crises. But if you’re like most nonprofit leaders, no one trained you on how to set healthy boundaries, offer emotional support, or ensure your team’s time and talents aren’t undervalued.

Juggling all of this while also striving to make a positive impact through your mission can leave even the most fearless leaders feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, and lost. 

So what’s the antidote?

Our guest today says the best place to start is by stayi...

“As an employee of a nonprofit, you're maybe blessed to get paid for the work you do every day, but it doesn't mean you care about it any more or less than the people that are giving you money. And so, by drawing them in, you build an army of committed advocates and activists for your cause. You're having an impact on the hearts of your donors by drawing them in. You're making the world a better place by creating an army of generous people.” – Gabe Cooper

What if your nonprofit could inspire generosity that drives your missio...

"You really have to be committed to your mission because if you are committed to your model and you just do things that serve the model because the model doesn't look broken, but it no longer serves your mission - you lose. And so having the courage to burn the ships and say, even though the ships could probably still sail, in order to really take hold of what I know we need to be doing, we need to let them go and to burn them so that we can fully take hold of the opportunity ahead of us."...

"95% of the world's pastors have no formal ministry training. And the best thing that we had done in all those years was training pastors and communities of poverty. So we said, “If it's not training urban ministers, it goes.” We got down to the nitty-gritty of one focus, which is training urban pastors and church leaders, because we believe that that will lead to healthier churches, which will then lead to the influencing of their neighborhoods to flourish." - Rev. Dr. Alvin Sanders

Courageous leadership isn’t just about making decisions. It’s about making the right ones, ev...

“We want to create an environment where people want to show up with all of their energy and enthusiasm to really do their best work. And at the same time, for that to be aligned with the organization's purpose and goals and values. That ultimately creates better organizational outcomes for customers, for donors, because they get someone on the phone that is engaged, or they look at something that was created by someone that was engaged. It all feeds into each other. ” - Jurriaan Kamer

In today’s fast-paced world, speed is often equated with progress. Acceleration is ess...

“As CEO of Water4, every trip I take, I go out to communities, I spend the night and go house to house and see if the taps are working, talk to customers, see what's going on, see what life's really like. And then my job is to thank them for being a customer, not for them to thank me for being a benefactor.” - Matt Hangen

In a sector filled with beneficiaries and benefactors, one international organization is challenging outdated models and disrupting traditional power structures.

In this bonus episode from the Camp Redwood Sessions, meet...

“At that time, I really thought that money was the biggest issue. What I soon realized was that actually, not having money was not the biggest issue. The biggest issue was that the adults in my life were struggling so deeply, and there were severe mental health issues taking place. And so it was this shift from trying to eliminate adversity, to trying to pull a lever that actually could be pulled, which is just to get mental health resources into these high-need environments." - Rachel Miller

Have you ever set out to tackle one problem, only to...

"Imagine a hospital environment and having a million different pieces of equipment from a million different manufacturers and trying to maintain that or to repair it would be really difficult. And so we standardized our equipment, we're standardizing our services and we're standardizing our practices and our policies and even the way that we manage people. I think now we've gone to a place where actually if we do standardize a lot of the practices, it allows us to deliver our mission better. And we can all get pretty excited about that." - Justin Narducci

Imagine for a...

"We have every intention of being as additive as possible to this space. I think change in general is uncomfortable, and I think in nonprofit work there can be an aversion to change and aversion to risk. And as much as possible, it's our job to show why we are not something to be afraid of." – Ben Collier

Many nonprofits are launched in response to a pressing problem. Yet so many struggle to address those problems effectively. The key to nonprofit success lies in their ability to offer viable solutions rather than simply managing the problem. 

Tha...

"It's always so important to me that there has to be a thing to do, right? It has to be empowering. Folks are more aware, but there's a level of fatigue, and there's also a level of disempowerment in that knowledge. So that’s the challenge: Making sure that folks aren't just aware, but that they feel like there's something they can do." - Nash Sheard

In nonprofit work, raising awareness around your cause is essential. But awareness is only the first step. The ultimate goal is to inspire action that leads to lasting change.

That’s prec...

"As nonprofits, we are often our own worst enemies because we live in these echo chambers. I think so often where we just talk the way we talk to the people that already talk the same way as us. And we miss making the biggest difference and tackling the biggest problems because we only want to talk to the people that want to talk just like us." - Thaddaeus Nichols

When it comes to tackling the biggest global problems, there's a celebrated proverb that's strikingly noteworthy: "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to...

Future Nonprofit is back for Season 2, featuring a new lineup of visionary nonprofit leaders plus nonprofit-adjacent experts navigating the rapidly changing world and scaling social impact with innovation, boldness, and empathy. Check out the trailer for the upcoming season.

The organizations that we work with are structured and operating for where they used to be, not where they are today, much less where we're heading. And in today's pace of change, we as leaders have to be operating and structuring our organizations… for where we're going—not just for where we are today, much less for where we used to be.  – Ted Vaughn

Producer and Historic co-founder Mark Miller is back with host Ted Vaughn to offer their top 10 books every nonprofit leader should read.

Pulling titles written by leaders in nonprofit, business, and brain science, Mark an...

“There's a younger generation of donors who really don't see themselves as much a donor as they do generous and wanting to stand for certain values. And so their contribution… is an expression of the injustice that they want to fight and their perception of themselves of being that: the fighter for justice and equality in the world.” – Mark Miller

Nonprofit leaders share a collective sigh of relief when the clock hits midnight on December 31. The year-end push is over, and you’re ready for a fresh start.

But how can you make sure this year is different—...

Thank you for an amazing Season 1 of Future Nonprofit!

We will be taking a break for the holidays and returning in 2024 with Season 2.

"I think this is when it hit me there must be a lot more ideas, innovation, and startups out there that could actually make a difference and could be transforming the way we're looking at the world, but they never have a chance.” - Bernhard Kowatsch

Great ideas are only the beginning. Without the right conditions and opportunities for success, many innovative and potentially game-changing ideas never may never come to fruition. That’s what Bernhard and his team at the World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator work to avoid.

His time at the World Food Programme began as the...

"Society throws up a lot of hurdles to people really trying to do it the right way, right? We, and the rest of society, should knock down those hurdles, but also give space so that people can thrive.” - Tom Vozzo

Success has everything to do with circumstance. Tom Vozzo believes that with the right support and opportunity, everyone has the ability to do good in them. His commitment to wanting to do good for others is what drove him to the nonprofit space after a nearly three-decade career in the for-profit world. 

As the CEO of Hom...

"There is a decent chance that this works, and then if it works, and that if it can be what the vision and the promise is, then for our mission, which is to pioneer solutions to end global homelessness, it's actually irresponsible for us not to try it.” - Brett Hagler

When age-old problems aren’t being solved by current practices or aren’t keeping up with the rate at which they are growing, new solutions are needed. But new solutions require innovative ideas and a perfect balance between boldness and being calculated to pull them off.

Bret...

“Your leadership might be a burn victim of failed innovation, which is: we want to say that we're for innovation, but we want 99 percent of all of the things that we try to work at 10, 000%. And that's just not how it works.” - Mark Miller

Innovation is a big buzzword in the nonprofit space right now. But it doesn’t have just to be a buzzword. While the word feels new and trendy, the act of innovation has always been what drives the industry forward. And any organization can be at the forefront of that drive into the future if the...

"Still, you saw those moments of person-to-person care and outreach that really do illuminate what it means to be a Southwest Airlines warrior, and that is that we're in this together. We're going to take care of each other and we're going to figure out how to get out of this.” - Linda Rutherford

Tough times fall on all organizations. Whether it be from mistakes made within, unpredictable storms or financial events, and even pandemics… things can happen. And when they do, having a strong foundation of good culture and a committed team is going to make all the diff...

"I looked into it and couldn't believe it, like I felt like a freaking chump because I had been paying medical bills for all of these people that would've been eligible for free or reduced care if I would've known about these programs." - Jared Walker

So many organizations get caught with their heads down, hyper-focused on what they’re doing, that they don’t realize there is often a better way. Sometimes being innovative just means taking a step back and putting yourself in spaces to find the answers that already exist. That’s exactly how Jared Walker...

“There's that culture of innovation versus nonprofit mindset where innovation for so long has been ‘move fast and break things’. When you work in child wellbeing, that's not an option. Moving fast and breaking things when it has to do child with children and families is not an option.” - Kelsey Driscoll

Innovation in the for-profit world can be exciting and fast, leaving nonprofits envious of the advancements in technology and new processes. But that doesn’t mean nonprofits can’t push the boundaries and experience their own breakthroughs, it just looks a bit different. 

Upbring is a Texas-ba...

“You also want to avoid this culture of ‘innovation is this shiny magic bullet’. No. That's also a culture that we want to demystify. Innovation is ways of thinking, ways of doing, and of course ways of achieving concrete, tangible results (and) outcomes –impact at scale.”

Adaptation is essential to innovation. Growing up in Togo, West Africa, Laté Lawson-Lartego worked a summer job as a community volunteer, exposing him early on to the disparities happening in his backyard. As more of the industry opened up to him, he began to realize the systematic problems stifling the field’s progress. Inspired to e...

Liquid Death is more than just a beverage company. As CEO Mike Cessario puts it, their product is entertainment just as much as it is drinks. And while they are a for-profit company, their passionate commitment to the cause of “killing” plastic pollution has been vital to their success. Building a likable brand with an authentic charitable message isn't easy, but Liquid Death has mastered the art of being genuinely impactful while maintaining its cool factor. It's not just about flashy graphics and catchy ads; it starts from within and their work with others. That’s where Lance Blair comes...

"Whenever we're trying a new thing, if we're going into a new product, if we're going into a new marketplace, –whatever it is, we are running it through that grid; How are we being generous in this space? How are we being humble in this space? How are we being unifying?" - Michael McDonald

Truly satisfying work requires self-fulfillment. During a successful career in the hospitality industry, Michael McDonald was confronted with a welcomed opportunity to extend and challenge his work, but after a series of unplanned hurdles in his personal life, he stepped back to reevaluate what he wa...

"Where things fall apart is in the system design. It's in the how. It's not that the people are lazy. It's not that they're stupid, it's not that they're not trained well. It's not that the plan is flawed, –it's that we are working in complexity and there is no attention paid to how we are actually going to work differently." - Rodney Evans

Innovation comes from boldness. Too often, companies and organizations seek out innovative solutions without building the groundwork to make those ideas possible. Building that groundwork starts with workplace structure and culture.

Rodney Evans, co...

" There was a need to be able to humanize the North Korea issue, the North Korean people, and how we define success of redefining North Korea, rebranding North Korea. It's that when we go out and you ask somebody, when you think about North Korea, what's the first thing you think about that? It could be a specific story of a North Korean person. It was a memoir. They read somebody's experience." - Hannah Song

Stories change us. They have an unparalleled ability to move and inspire us, especially when they are personal and authentic. For Hannah Song, the CE...