Episodes

Movement Talent was launched in 2020 to introduce a new way of finding, supporting, and maximizing talent for social justice organizations in the U.S. In this episode, Rusty speaks with its founder, Linda Nguyen, about the ways they have been working towards a more collaborative, equitable, holistic, and efficient approach to talent in progressive social movements. The conversation covers Movement Talent’s role as a support system at the organizational level, and at the individual level as well...

Government contracts are a crucial revenue stream for large swaths of the nonprofit sector. In many organizations, employee wages and other compensation factors are based on the terms of government contracts. So there’s a close connection between government contracting practices and nonprofit workforce issues. In this episode, Rusty talks with Jennifer Geiling from the NYC Mayor’s Office about the City's efforts to create a more equitable, accessible, transparent, and standard process for nonpro...

In this episode, we speak with Roger Nozaki, Vice President at the Barr Foundation. You’ll get the rare opportunity to hear a foundation executive thinking through their work supporting nonprofit sector effectiveness. Roger shares his evolving ideas along the continuum from investing at the level of individuals - in particular executive directors - toward investing in “people-systems”, and a regional talent ecosystem for nonprofits. We discuss how racial equity can be bolstered through such eff...

This is the third and final episode of Talent Matters Remix, our special summer series in partnership with ProInspire, co-hosted by Monisha Kapila and Rusty Stahl. In this episode, Monisha and Rusty talk with Michele Booth Cole, Executive Director of Safe Shores - The DC Children’s Advocacy Center, about why and how to build a nonprofit organizational culture that supports and develops employees. Michele reflects on her article, “A Culture of Care, Without Compromise,” in the Stanford Social In...

This is the second episode of Talent Matters Remix, our three-episode series in partnership with ProInspire, co-hosted by Monisha Kapila and Rusty Stahl. In this episode, Monisha and Rusty talk with Stephen Bauer about supporting a diverse and inclusive next generation for the nonprofit workforce. Steve reflects on the article he wrote about developing leaders who are both value-based and results-driven, which was part of the Talent Matters series on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog. ...

This is the first episode of Talent Matters Remix, our three-episode series in partnership with ProInspire, co-hosted by Monisha Kapila and Rusty Stahl. In this episode, Monisha and Rusty talk with Trish Tchume about the tensions between developing individual leaders, and developing networks or communities of leaders. Trish reflects on the article she wrote about network-weaving for the Talent Matters blog series in Stanford Social Innovation Review. She discusses how her experience and thinkin...

In this episode, Rusty shares exciting news about a podcasting partnership series with ProInspire and their Co-CEO Monisha Kapila (our guest on Season 1 Episode 9 of this show), which will be rolled-out during July. In addition, in this episode your host… Reflects on and summarizes the themes of the first six episodes of Season 2, which is focused on the principles and practices of talent investing; Shares more about the work of Fund the People beyond the podcast; and Invites you to utilize ...

In part as a result of the pandemic, more funders are paying attention to the needs and well-being of the people who work in grantee organizations. In this episode, we talk with Caroline Altman Smith, a grantmaker at The Kresge Foundation. The team at Kresge, a large international philanthropy, and their consultants at Community Wealth Partners, have developed a straightforward model for delivering professional development to mid-career grantee staff, with a focus on fueling skills and knowledge...

Now more than ever, society needs nonprofit leaders to break out of restrictions and claim our place in this world. We talk with consultant Nell Edgington about her new book, “Reinventing Social Change: Embrace Abundance to Create a Healthier and More Equitable World.” Nell challenges us to embrace abundance and power as nonprofit leaders. We discuss getting into our “zones of excellence”, kissing scarcity goodbye, and other helpful concepts to transform nonprofit work.

Could it be that nonprofit leaders collectively have the knowledge and skills we need to not only survive but thrive -- and we just need to invest in sharing what we know with each other? The Pierce Family Foundation nurtures organizational capacity and individual leadership by investing in peer-to-peer skills-sharing among nonprofit workers. In this episode, we go deep with Heather Parish, the Foundation’s Co-Executive Director. Heather is joined by Lisa May Simpson, Vice President of Learning ...

In this episode, we go deep into nonprofit talent nerdom with Libbie Landles-Cobb, a Partner at The Bridgespan Group and Fund the People Advisory Council member. We discuss Libbie’s research, which helps us to shift the narrative in the field from a “leadership deficit” to a “leadership development deficit”. And we hear about the programs and consulting she offers, which are providing funders and nonprofits with practical ways to address the leadership development deficit. Libbie also shares ...

New progressive social movements are driving a huge boom of new talent. But leadership development efforts don’t have the funding or scale to keep up. Our guests today are trying to working to change that. In episode 2 of our second season, we’re thrilled to talk with two powerful leaders, Deepak Bhargava and Gara LaMarche, who seek to build a new leadership center for young are building a new leadership center, housed within the City University of New York (CUNY), to support young activists — ...

To set the context for Season 2, your host Rusty Stahl briefly recaps Season 1 and establishes the theme for this new season. Season 1 focused on The Problem Facing the Nonprofit Workforce, and Rusty defines the problem succinctly as a cyclical deficit of investment in nonprofit leaders and workers. The theme for Season 2 is A Proposal for Change. Rusty shares Fund the People’s concepts of talent-investing and talent justice. He defines the talent-investing cycle as a healthier alternative to t...

Rusty Stahl, President and CEO of Fund the People and host of the podcast, offers an urgent call and a vision for a federal government that works well with the nonprofit workforce. Then Rusty sits down with Dan Cardinali, President and CEO of Independent Sector, one of the influential groups that represent the nonprofit sector in Washington. Independent Sector has been in conversation interests with the Biden-Harris Transition about what the nonprofit sector needs from the White House, and Dan s...

Burnout is often cited by nonprofit workers as one of their greatest challenges. So in this episode, we speak with the “guru of burnout,” Dr. Christina Maslach, Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Maslach is known as one of the pioneering researchers on job burnout, which she has studied since the 1970s. She created the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the most widely used research measure in the burnout field. Prof. Maslach is author or co-author of ...

In Episode 9, we explore the scarcity mind-set inside organized philanthropy itself as a major source of the deficit of investment in the nonprofit workforce. We sit down with Kris Putnam-Walkerly, a long-standing consultant to the funding community (and a past consultant to Fund the People), Kris’s new book, Delusional Altruism, forcefully articulates a litany of self-defeating funder behaviors and attitudes. Our conversation with Kris focuses on a major premise of the book: that funders try to...

In this episode, we speak with Monisha Kapila, the founder and CEO of ProInspire. ProInspire helps individuals and organizations achieve their potential for social impact. Monisha brings 15 years of experience in the business and nonprofit sectors. Prior to launching ProInspire, she was a Senior Business Manager for Capital One Financial Corporation. Previously, she was a Harvard Business School Leadership Fellow with ACCION International, a pioneer in the commercial approach to microfinance. Mo...

This episode focuses on why investing in nonprofit staff is part of effective giving and grantmaking, and why funders too often remain blind to this important dimension of philanthropic practice. Rusty sits down with the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s Phil Buchanan and Grace Nicolette to talk about the challenge of giving feedback and discussing staffing issues between grantmakers and grantees. The discussion also explores the tools offered by the Center for Effective Philanthropy for creat...

In this episode, we explore the need for investment in healthy executive transitions in the nonprofit workforce. Rusty talks with Tom Adams, a retired (but active) consultant who worked with funders to help establish the practice of “executive transition management” consulting in the nonprofit sector. We discuss issues of racial equity, generational change, building leaderful organizations, and what it means to retire from nonprofit careers. Show Notes: Tom’s personal journey in the sector and...

Every American president and White House Administration has a relationship of some sort to philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. It may be policy-related, and it may be personal, and sometimes it’s both. It may be during their tenure in the White House, and it may be in their post-presidential life, and sometimes it’s both. Let’s take a quick tour of the modern presidency as it relates to philanthropy and nonprofits in our new mini-episode series called Rusty's Rants & Reflections!

Too often in our sector, nonprofit leaders are discussed as if we are walking, talking deficits -- empty vessels needing to be filled with competencies, skills, and knowledge. The truth is that the nonprofit workforce is one of the greatest assets available to our organizations, our funders, and our society! Despite all the challenges we face, nonprofit people are powerful, skilled, visionary, determined, and enduring. Our workforce is a significant part of our economy and our society. During Se...

This season, our podcast is exploring the state of the nonprofit workforce, and the chronic and current challenges it faces. In Episode 3, Rusty sits down with Frances Kunreuther and Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, two of the most brilliant thinkers in the field, to discuss their research on the racial and inter-generational barriers facing nonprofit leaders. Listen in to hear more about: Frances Kunreuther and Sean Thomas-Breitfeld Building Movement Project messages and findings of Race to Lead Revi...

In this episode, Rusty talks with Kathy Reich, who works at the Ford Foundation, and previously worked at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. They discuss how, in each foundation, Kathy discovered the need to provide support to the staff of grantee organizations. Listen in to hear more about: Kathy’s journey in philanthropy and the non-profit workforce What changed Kathy’s practices as a funder Lessons learned with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and impact on talent investing i...

Vu Le is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the former Executive Director of RVC, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by developing leaders of color, strengthening organizations led by communities of color, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities. Vu’s passion to make the world better, combined with a low score on the Law School Admission Test, drove him into the field of nonprofit work, where he learned that we should take the work seriously, but not ourselve...