Episodes

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...

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...

Do you love nonprofit work, but find yourself frustrated by the starvation cycle, the overhead myth, the racial and economic inequity, and the toxic burnout culture that dampens our effectiveness? Do you want to see change, but you’re now sure how to address these harmful outdated mental models and practices? Or what to replace them with? Then this is the podcast for you. Every episode, I sit down with fascinating thought-leaders from across our sector to gather stories, research, and practical...