Leadership Lessons for 2020 and Beyond

TAPS; Color of Change; Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo; John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Over the past year, the Chronicle has published articles on a broad range of nonprofit leaders who are making a difference. Here are a few we thought are worth reading again as you prepare to tackle the challenges of the decade ahead, along with key lessons each leader offers:

Rashad Robinson has used boycotts, walkouts, protests, and media savvy to go up against the likes of Amazon and Facebook in the name of racial justice — and he’s won. As founder of Color of Change, the 40-year-old Robinson is a veteran of campaigns designed to expand power for black people. Under his leadership, the organization has become the nation’s largest online racial-justice group.

How Robinson succeeds: His group recognizes, he says, that getting attention is not the same as getting what it wants, that strategy is a game of insights, and that starting small with one response to an injustice is an effective way to build passion for a larger cause that then stokes widespread demand for systemic changes.

Jennifer Mizrahi, who runs a family foundation, is also a co-founder of RespectAbility, an organization that works to reduce barriers to employment for people with disabilities. At the same time, she has been pressing philanthropy to do far more for the disabled. Foundations need to look at the disabled, she argues, in the same way they do people of color, LGBT people, and others who suffer discrimination in getting grants, jobs, board seats, and other opportunities to influence philanthropy’s agenda. Her message persuaded the Ford Foundation’s CEO, Darren Walker, to add disabled people to its push to advance equity, and she is gaining clout elsewhere as well.

How Mizrahi succeeds: She never misses a chance to confront foundation leaders, often jumping to be the first at the microphone at any gathering of key players. She tries to avoid scolding chief executives and others, she says, but instead seeks to help leaders understand that people with disabilities are productive employees and key partners in advancing nonprofit work.

Evan Marwell, a serial business entrepreneur, started a charity to connect every school in America with good Wi-Fi and decided that it had to be done in eight years. The charity is on track to close this year after accomplishing that goal.

How Marwell succeeds: He picked a finite, measurable problem to solve, he hired people from the business world because, he explains, they shared his sense of urgency, and he has avoided mission creep.

Rami Nashashibi, who grew up in one of the first Arab families to settle in Chicago’s South Side, has won praise and awards — including a MacArthur “genius” grant — for his charity’s ability to do community organizing work while also running a health clinic, job training program, and other efforts. The organization, called IMAN, now runs a similar program in Atlanta and is seen nationwide as an exemplar of how faith groups can promote justice.

How Nashashibi succeeds: He seeks advice from experienced activists, reaches out to other organizations, welcomes people from all religions and walks of life, and holds cultural events that celebrate Muslim works and helps diverse groups of people share a common bond through their love of the arts.

David Miliband, who was Britain’s foreign secretary before losing a bruising battle to become Labour Party leader in 2010, says his leadership of the International Rescue Committee, which helps tens of millions of refugees around the world, is deeply personal. His parents fled the Nazis during World War II. But it is the relentless increase in demand for the charity’s services that has led him to focus on what works and what doesn’t. Relatively few humanitarian-aid programs have been rigorously evaluated, so he decided five years ago to promise that by this year, all of the IRC’s programs will be either supported by evidence or used to gather evidence about what works. His goal is also to do better at calculating the cost of its programs per client,

How Miliband succeeds: He is sharing cost-effectiveness data with donors and the public — a commitment to transparency that’s unusual for a global charity. And the group’s first randomized, controlled trials of parenting and social-emotional learning programs in post-conflict and refugee settings helped it join with Sesame Street to win $100 million in the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change program. Miliband isn’t all about hard data, though; he also knows how to tug at the heartstrings — for example, by talking at the 100&Change competition about an orphaned 2-year-old boy he had met in Jordan. “He was silent, still, withdrawn. He wasn’t like any 2-year-old I’ve ever known,” Miliband said, noting that there are millions more like that boy, suffering from stress so prolonged and extreme that it impairs brain development.

Bonnie Carroll, whose military career led her to senior roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, founded an organization for grieving families who, like her, had lost loved ones in wartime military service or as a result of their service. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for her work with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS,

How Carroll succeeds: She conducted extensive research to understand what government was already doing for survivors, so that her charity could focus on doing what it does best. She’s humble, everyone around her says, and is constantly asking what can be done better. She’s also a hands-on leader who seeks to understand even the smallest details involved in the charity’s operations.

Clotilde Dedecker, whose parents fled Cuba when she was a baby, was determined to pursue a public-service career because of the key role of philanthropy in her family’s resettlement in the U.S. For the past 12 years, she has led the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, overseeing the organization’s transformation from a low-key provider of donor-advised funds into a vital community leader on issues like education and racial equity.

How Dedecker succeeds: She recruited a successful education nonprofit to open operations in Buffalo, secures money from grant makers outside the region, like the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Walmart Foundation, and seeks input from a diverse range of community players.

Other Leaders Worth Reading About

Lesley Hoffarth switched from a career in government to become chief executive of Forest Park Forever, a St. Louis conservancy that helps restore and maintain a popular 1,300-acre park in the city. Even though she had no expertise in fundraising, board members of the charity said they felt she had many of the skills required for success: She could read people and develop strong relationships. She could also build consensus and enthusiasm for projects. Hoffarth says she quickly learned that fundraising was similar to work she did at a state-government office. “It is about relationships,” she says, “and creating a shared vision that people can get excited about, and having a good track record.”

Bridge Philanthropic Consulting

Dwayne Ashley has worked for an array of nonprofits, including as chief executive of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and a senior fundraiser at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Now he has founded Bridge Philanthropic Consulting,, which he says is the only black-owned organization of its type. He was prompted to do so after the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, sought fundraising consultants but found no full-service fundraising firms were owned by people of color. Clients call, he says, “because they want a firm that brings a cultural sensitivity. We are unapologetic about the fact that our market is communities of color. That is our mission. Of course, we work with everyone, but we feel that the market has been underserved.” (Hear from Ashley in this Chronicle video.)

Latinos for Education

Amanda Fernandez worked at the Deloitte, a consulting firm, until the terrorist attacks of 2001 prompted her to think hard about what she wanted from her career. She joined the nonprofit consulting firm Bridgespan, then decided to found the nonprofit Latinos for Education. . Her perseverance, plus her ability to tell a persuasive story about her group’s mission, has attracted money from national grant makers like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Walton Family Foundation. Margarita Florez, director of education at Chan Zuckerberg, praises Fernandez’s leadership skills and often contacts her for advice. “If I were to step out of this role,” Florez says, “Amanda is someone I’d seek as a mentor. She embodies the notion of lifting as you climb.”