The Nonprofit Leader's Guide
We want to bring you the thoughts of some of the most impactful leaders in health and human services. Their real-world experience in driving growth and impact and leading in hard times might be just the extra dose of motivation and common sense you need to bring to your organization whether you are an Executive Team member or the Board President. We think that leading the conversation about the nonprofit business sector and what nonprofits should think about now is part of our mission, “Building A World that realizes the boundless potential of all people.”
Our purpose in this podcast is to make your mission, our mission.
The Nonprofit Leader's Guide
Why Strategy Means Choosing Capabilities, Not Projects
Strategy should feel like motion, not maintenance. We sat down with two chief strategy officers—Jennifer Riha of I Am Boundless and Ravi Dahiya of YAI—to explore how nonprofits serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs can make disciplined choices amid shifting regulations, payer demands, workforce shortages, and rapid technology change.
We dig into what separates firefighting from future-shaping and why “strategic hibernation” rarely fits health and human services. Jennifer walks us through Boundless’s Vision 2030 process—9,000-plus stakeholder inputs, market scans, and benchmarking—and explains why the organization chose capabilities over project lists: integrated care, resilient teams, data fluency, and operational reliability. Ravi shares how culture and middle management stabilize YAI through leadership transitions, and how pilots, tele-crisis services, and proactive advocacy can convert unmet needs into reimbursable models that scale across states.
You’ll hear concrete tactics for navigating political volatility with scenario planning, reading early policy signals, and protecting assets that matter no matter who’s in office. We also tackle the toughest questions leaders avoid: Can this program become financially sustainable? Are we uniquely positioned to do it well? What will we stop so we can invest where demand and impact are strongest? Along the way, we highlight workforce design moves—flexibility, supportive supervision, and career pathways—that matter as much as wages in a tight labor market.
If you lead a nonprofit and feel stuck in reaction mode, this conversation offers a clear path to regain focus, align teams, and build services that endure. Follow the show, share this episode with a colleague or your board chair, and leave a review to help more leaders find it.
I think recently sent me a strategy article that's in my head for a few weeks. It asked for this the moment for strategic hibernation preserve their core assets, reduce their exposure. If you work in health and human services, can you really afford the hibernate? Or is it better to move something else entirely? Something like protecting your core strength, probing the market, and when the timing and technology are right. Today we're asking the question every nonprofit leader needs to be asking right now. What's your next move? Welcome everyone to the nonprofit leaders. And yes, even a roadmap in a moment of incredible uncertainty. So that's what we're talking about today. And today I'm talking about two more remarkable strategists and real leaders out there in this space. Jennifer Riha is Chief Strategy Officer at I Am Boundless, serving children, adults, families with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and behavioral health needs across Ohio. Hi, Jenny, good to see you again.
SPEAKER_03:Great. Thanks for having me, Scott.
SPEAKER_02:Ravi Dahia is Chief Strategy Officer at YAI, a nationally recognized nonprofit serving people with IDD since 1957 with all kinds of programs that are grounded in independence, opportunity, and inclusion. Ravi, it's good to have you here. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for having me, Scott. Jen.
SPEAKER_02:Jennifer, I'd like to start with you. And we'll do a kind of a couple of rapid fires. I want to get your brains going here out of the gate. In a sentence, how would you define strategy in today's health and human services environment?
SPEAKER_03:Well, in a sentence, it's a tall order. So I'm going to give it my best shot, but I've been thinking about this. So I would define strategy as the disciplined choice of where to focus and how to mobilize people, resources, and partnership to really create the impact for the people that we serve.
SPEAKER_02:Robbie's already nodding out of the gate here. Ravi, do you want to take a shot at that one?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I couldn't say it any more better, but I think it's one thing I would say is strategy is about shaping the future about participating in it rather than the future shaping you.
SPEAKER_02:Kind of lightning around here out of the gate. Another quick rapid fire. What's one strategic assumption that you think nonprofit leaders need to re-examine and maybe re-examine it pretty immediately? Ravi, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01:The one common mistake which I see, and I've seen it in our organization, is a plan is not a strategy. It is, as Jennifer said, it's a series of choices one makes. So I think that is something which most leaders need to begin thinking about.
SPEAKER_02:That is a great way to just jump into this entire conversation today. I mentioned an article in what we called our cold open of the podcast of this particular episode. And the article I mentioned uses the term strategic hibernation. And they use it this way, quote, quietly preserving internal capacities while reducing external exposure, end quote. It's an approach that some banks and tech firms have used in chaotic moments, but akin to both of you. And health and human services, the market doesn't pause, right? Regulations are shifting, payors, you know, raise expectations. Technology is always accelerating, workforce capacity, that's always an issue. It's changing month to month. So, Jennifer, how do you help your teams distinguish true strategy from kind of the daily firefighting?
SPEAKER_03:You know, I see firefighting as being focused on restoring and stabilizing today. Strategy is about shaping tomorrow. And so in health and human services, we don't have the luxury of strategic hibernation because, as you said, the needs of the people we serve, they don't pause. Regulations evolve, payers raise expectations, technology shifts. And I do know that it's easy to get sucked into firefighting, but I would really encourage, and I do this with my own teams, is encourage them to ask themselves some questions. And it's really does this decision or this thing that we're doing change our trajectory, or is it just maintaining the status quo? Like I said, firefighting stabilizes, but strategy is going to alter the trajectory and really shape where you're going tomorrow. And then are we responding to symptoms or root causes? Because I think a lot of our fires are caused from not really addressing the root causes. And if we take the time or can find the time to be focused on strategy, it should result in fewer fires that have to be put out in any given day. And then does this matter in six months? And if the answer is yes, then that probably is something strategic. But it really is hard to create that discipline to stay or find that time to be focused on strategy because I'm not in any way saying the fires aren't real. And it really is a pit for so many leaders to fall into to get sucked into that firefighting all day, every day.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I I just want to bring it back to our organization. We just lost our CEO to he to an illness, and he was a young man who passed away over the summer. That was a shock to our system. So there was, we had to, if you want to call it hibernation or whatever, we had to stop and take stock and grieve and support each other and really think about ourselves and by, but we can't forget about the people we support. So do you want to call that hibernation? Do you want to call it whatever you want? But that is a natural consequence when somebody or some organization does undergo something like that. But at the same time, I think Jennifer is absolutely right. And the article also, and I remember reading that when it came across my uh my screen, things are changing out there. We still have to keep engaged, we still have to keep an eye out on what's happening with the SNAP benefits, with you know, all of these things which have an impact on what the organization does. You can't ignore or turn a blind eye to those. So yes, it's hibernation, but the hibernation is more about us pausing because there will be a change in leadership. There will be some time before we come to terms with what exactly happened in the organization, what are the long-term strategic goals? Now, our strategic plan was from 2023 to 2026. So we've still got a year to go through. Our acting CEO and I just sat down and did a scorecard of where we are right now. There were some greens, there were a lot of yellows, and there were some reds in there, things we need to get better at. But that was us still taking stock of where we are. Um, but at the same time, we recognize that we have to begin looking, not two to three years down the road from 2026. And I think, you know, I actually lord what Boundless is doing with the Vision 2030 plan five years from now. I think that's really a good horizon to be thinking about where do you want to be five years from now? And that is what probably we'll end up doing as we go through the next year, taking stock of where we are, seeing how the leadership settles, where the teams are, and then think about where we want to be five years from now. So when I think about strategic hibernation, yes, at different times, different organizations, teams, people might need to just stop for a minute and reassess what their goals are, what the fires they're turning burning out right now, but not forget where we need to be.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I had a maybe, maybe it's my own little light bulb here. You guys tell me if this is relevant, but but thinking about this, my mind went to COVID. Didn't we all have to hibernate maybe just a little or maybe a lot for some folks and for some organizations? I that was looking back, maybe that was a form of strategic hibernation for a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:You know, Robbie, listening to you, I'm struck by whether or not a pause, an intentional pause, is the same thing as hibernation, and whether there's maybe even um grades or sort of um a spectrum of sort of fully hibernating versus taking a pause to intentionally reset. And then I also think, Scott, when we you talk about COVID, the reality is there are organizations that came out of COVID stronger, there were organizations that came out of COVID weaker, there were organizations that came out of COVID behind. And so even when the world maybe forces a pause on you or forces some level of hibernation, I hesitate to think we can make the choice to say we're gonna fully hibernate, we're gonna go to sleep.
SPEAKER_01:No, I I agree with Jennifer. I think COVID, Scott, when you talk about it, I I think I don't think I've ever worked harder in my life than during that time. I'll I'll be honest. I used to be exhausted by the end of the day after having uh so many meetings, so many Zoom calls, you know, pretty soon in New York, since we got hit with the first wave pretty early. A lot of us got sick right in the beginning, um, dealing with the emotional grief which people were dealing with, but yet at the same time, we couldn't stop. So all of that was happening in the first three or four months. But in the subsequent years, and I think Jennifer, to your point, is there was more of a need for our services than less. And I think there were some organizations which probably said no, but we leaned in. And that is the time we saw the biggest growth in some of our programs outside of New York, actually, than we ever did before. And we as an organization leaned into that growth and I believe came out stronger, as Jennifer said.
SPEAKER_02:I think about Ravidi, your point amid the devastation and the illnesses and the deaths from COVID. I do think there was a a larger permission structure that was that was put in society and in American society specifically to talk more about mental health, talk more about self-care. To talk more about checking on our neighbors and our family members and and our co-workers, our colleagues. How are you doing? And to both of your points, those are positives. Those are positives and those are impacts that are that are lasting.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's and I don't know about you, Jennifer, at Boundless, uh, but at least at YI, the programs which integrated mental health and IDD services saw a rapid expansion in many parts of New York State, California, and New Jersey, which is the three states we do work. And it was because it had the mental health component in it. People started recognizing that that is something which was ignored before and now people were accepting. And I think COVID did have probably a greater awareness on part of policymakers to understand that.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. If there is a silver lining to be found, it is that definitely that reduction of stigma broadly, but then also the realization and reduction of I'd say maybe blindness to the idea that people with IDD also have emotions and experience mental health conditions and mental health uh concerns. And I agree with you, the programs that we offer that integrated those and braided those together absolutely grew the fastest during the COVID years.
SPEAKER_02:Let me ask a level set question for both of you. Jennifer, here at Boundless, um, what are what are the top pressures right now that that are that are shaping strategy, not just right now, but but in the you know near term and and long-term future?
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna say the top pressures that we are facing are first probably changes and even say rising expectations from payers and regulators. So we see pushes for immeasurable outcomes, integrated care, real-time data, and that's not someday, that's right now. And for a multi-service organization like ours, that really translates into pressure where we need to align our clinical models, be investing in data systems, and demonstrate consistency across programs. I'd say we can't overstate the impact of workforce volatility. So the reality is workforce is changing month to month, not year to year. And so we have to keep constant attention on that. And programs that are fully staffed today may not look that way tomorrow or the following month. So we've been having to put a lot of investment and attention to our recruitment pipelines, how we train, how we retain people. And then the other thing I would say we're paying attention to, and I'm not sure any of us I would say are mastering this, but definitely paying attention to it and investing in is the rapid acceleration of technology in healthcare. So whether we're talking about AI, virtual care, remote monitoring, technology is reshaping the expectations both from families and individuals that we're serving, but also from payers and regulators. And so if we don't build that digital fluency, and I don't just mean tools, but I mean the processes and the culture for our staff to be able to support and use technology, I believe we risk being left behind the providers who can integrate that, who can deliver care that's more coordinated, more transparent, more measurable. And so when I think about the major pressures on us, those are the things that I believe Balmus and quite frankly, all organizations doing this work need to find a way to invest in and need to find the time to focus on.
SPEAKER_01:You know, Scott, I've been doing this work for 30 years, and I don't recall a single time when I haven't heard workforce is a challenge. I don't recall a single single time when they don't say that payments and the rates are not adequate. And it's almost, I want to just take it back to the hibernation. I, you know, these are pressures which have always existed, and we had to, this is what is the foundation in terms of this is the world we are living in and working in. So, how do we adapt? How do we keep working? Although regulations are changing, there's uncertainty, and people use the term VUCA, right? I mean, I'm sure you've heard that in plenty of places volatile, uncertain, complicated, ambiguous times. Was there ever a time which it wasn't? Is the question I ask. If that is the case, and if that has always been a constant, it is up to us as leaders to work with our teams to find a way of knowing that is a constant, how are we going to succeed? What if these are pressures, are these also opportunities at the same time? Because can we then adapt pivot to incorporating those within our service lines so that we still deliver the same outcomes to what we do? Like, for example, we work in some very remote parts of New York and California doing crisis work. Can our staff get there in time? No. So we have to use remote telehealth services and convince the states to pay us for those services, which were not doing it in the past, because if they don't, those folks are not going to get the services and they'll end up in their hospitals and ERs. So what's better for them? Pay us for it. So we have to make the case. But I think those are the places where organizations like Boundless, who've been leading this charge and YI can discuss these policy matters with the state officials and people who are in charge so that the regulations can be shaped rather than us being saddled by regulations, which then we complain about. And I think that's what organizations like ours tend to do all the time, is how we there at the table to help get the best outcomes for the people we support.
SPEAKER_03:So, Ravi, uh, it reminds me of what you said in the beginning, where strategy is making sure that we are shaping the future and we are impacting the tomorrow we want to have, not letting it be happening to us.
SPEAKER_01:Right. No, agreed. I mean, that's where we you have to be listening and seeing. It starts with what the needs are, really, right? And many a time the regulations are slow to catch up. How do we then work with the state to make the regulations do pilots, for example? I know that is something which I know we'll talk about a bit later, doing pilots and showing how effective they are. That is exactly how we got into California. We did a pilot in the in the San Jose area about a mental health crisis program, which now has expanded across the state of California. So, how do we take those, see those opportunities and jump on them rather than waiting for them to come to us and then forcing us to adapt to them?
SPEAKER_02:Boy, you both teed up the next question I had on my list. And again, a few notes from that from that same article that we've been referencing. And that is the political risks out there. Uh Ravi, to your point, there politics is always going to change from at the local level, at the state level, different governors, different presidents. It's always going to change. So how do you both factor in those political and and regulatory volatilities, plural, because it is plural, how do you factor those into your strategic planning?
SPEAKER_03:You know, I would say we can't control the political environment or the political volatility, but we can control our readiness. And so the the things that I would we've put a lot of time into certainly now, but Ravi, to your point, this isn't the first time there's been political volatility. So we do scenario planning. Earlier this year, when there were lots of questions around what was going to happen to Medicaid, we did a number of different models looking at plausible outcomes and what would the impact of boundless be if this happens. What did the impact of boundless be if that happens? The other thing I think is so important is to protect the assets that remain valuable regardless of politics. And that's having really strong clinical models, a resilient workforce, technology infrastructure, trust and relationships with your payers and your communities. It doesn't matter who's in office, it doesn't matter what's happening politically, if you're protecting those assets that you're going to need no matter what. And then the other thing I would say, and you mentioned this a minute ago, Ravi, is paying attention, watching for the signals early. So that includes looking at the smaller indicators, like what are the draft rules, what are the rate notices, what kind of conversations are happening in the committees where they're talking about waivers, what kind of pilots are happening, what kind of federal guidance memos are coming out, and really making sure that you're monitoring, paying attention to those so that you're prepared to move before the change becomes a mandate and you're being forced to be reactive.
SPEAKER_01:You know, Jennifer said it so well. Political uncertainty has been there ever since I recall whether the rates are high, the rates are low. I don't think, you know, just a sidebar, there are people sometimes which come and work in our line of work and they've come from the private sector. And the first thing they ask is, well, your costs are going up, why can't you increase prices? And well, if it was that simple, that's why it is difficult, complicated work out here. We have to work within the constraints what we have. So doing those pilots, listening to the signals, as Jennifer mentioned, the amount of pilots I have sitting on my desk, they're just piling up those pilots. And many of them probably didn't advance past the policy maker we were dealing with, but each of them had nuggets which we could take to really make a successful program somewhere else because we had thought given it some time and thought. And those failures of whether getting those pilots adopted helped us really design the program which the policymakers were thinking of in the next administration. And I think every administration has its priorities, but on the ground, nobody wants people with disabilities to be heard, irrespective of who's in power. And I think that is something which we can always lean into as organizations to really advance uh what we have to do.
SPEAKER_02:Let me ask a couple of follow-ups when it comes to strategy and maybe give our listeners some real practical takeaways here. Balance has just completed a major strategic planning process to define our vision through 2030, why AI is navigating one of the most complex service markets in the entire country. So, again, let's dive into that a little bit. And Jennifer, I'll start with you. How how did you approach this 2030 vision process? Who was involved? How'd you gather insights? And what mattered most?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so this was actually the most extensive and in-depth strategic planning exercise that Boundless has ever engaged in. And the reason is as I look out over 2025 to 2030, 2035, I don't believe that Boundless or any organization can afford to plan in an echo chamber. I don't think that we have the luxury of hearing what we want to hear and seeing what we want to see. So we really went all in on putting together a process that we hoped was going to get us really good objective insight and feedback. So we solicited over 9,000 stakeholders for inputs, people we serve, employees, family members, guardians, payers, community partners. We even had industry experts that we reached out to to say, have you ever heard of us and what do you know about us? And then we commissioned environmental and market scans, we did listening sessions and focus groups all over the state. We did a full slot, we had an outside firm do a full slot analysis on how we run our business. We commissioned benchmarking against our peers across the sector, really trying to make sure that we were getting macro level signals, but then also directly hearing ground level truths. And we can't predict what the future is going to look like, but we can build an organization that's prepared no matter what that ends up looking like.
SPEAKER_02:And Jennifer, what surprised you from all of those insights you gathered?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the first thing I would say is be careful what you ask for. If you ask people for their real opinions, you better be prepared to hear them. It was really, really a great experience. There were so many stories that came out of it of the impact that our employees have had on the um families and the individuals that we serve, and then even impact across the sector, other providers are saying, you know, this is something I heard you speak about, and we started a program like that, and it's having an impact in our community. And so it really was an incredible process. But a couple of things that stood out. One, the appetite for integrated care was stronger than we expected. Um, you might know, Scott or Ravi, I think I've mentioned this to you too, that we have integrated health care. So we have primary care, dentistry, those things in one part of the state. And I'll tell you, the feedback from the rest of the parts of Ohio was not good. They're pretty jealous, Scott, of why do you only offer that one place? And why is it taking you so long to get these services in our communities? We need them too. That was a we thought that that was a long-term plan. We heard it needed to be a much shorter-term plan. Um, the other things we heard is that our workforce really is looking for things like flexibility, supportive supervision, career pathways, and that in some cases that's as important as wages. So it's really forced us to take a step back and look at how are we making sure we're a great employer? Because we all know it. If we don't have the workforce, we can't provide services. It we're a human providing human services sector. Um, the other things we heard families want more digital access, transparency choice. They told us repeatedly we are not great at communicating, so we needed to do a lot better with that, and that's part of the new strategy. Some of the other things we heard was um stakeholders told Boundless that we needed to actually play a bolder role than we anticipated. We've done a lot of work around government relations and advocacy just here in the last 18 months, and the level of feedback we got around that work was very surprising of people saying, We see it and we really appreciate it, but by the way, you're still not doing enough of it, and we want to be even more involved in it. So it was really an incredible experience to hear from people where they see what we're doing working, where they see what we're doing as not fully getting there and where we need to do better. It was a it was a great experience being able to get that feedback and people feeling that they trusted us enough to be honest and to say this is what we really think.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna mirror those same questions, Robbie, to you in just a second. But Jennifer, one more to you regarding Boundless in this 2030 plan. So, from all of those inputs and then the surprises thrown in there as well, what did you decide on? What did you and the team decide on to say, hey, this is where we're going to invest? And maybe in a couple of these other areas, we're going to pull back.
SPEAKER_03:For I think every nonprofit on the planet, that second part is the hard part. Where do we need to pull back? Where do we need to pause? Where do we possibly even need to stop? Um, so ultimately, when we created the plan, and our board actually just approved the new five-year plan a little over a month ago, we focused on capabilities, not projects. So we did not list out 50 initiatives or 50 projects that we're going to get done in the next five years. We really zoomed in on what are the capabilities that this organization needs to be what we need to be in five years. And so that's things like that commitment to integrated care and interdisciplinary teams, building a resilient workforce, having our operations and our business be efficient, be reliable, be consistent, data fluency. And so focusing on the capabilities gives us that flexibility for the tactics to evolve and respond to what's happening in the environment. But those capabilities are what we're going to need no matter what the tactic is. We also built in checkpoints. We've implemented some really strong practices here recently around an annual replan that does have the conversation about the tactics and the specific initiatives. But then we're doing it every quarter. We call it now quarterly business review. And every division, every program, every department is sitting down and saying from a financial perspective, from a mission perspective, from what's happening in the market perspective, here's the update on mine for the quarter, here's the shift we need to make so that we're getting really tight on our processes to say we're constantly evaluating. Do we need to pause? Do we need to stop something so that we can invest somewhere else? And that's really the trade-off that we're having to make. And even though it's hard, I think we have to keep emphasizing with our team, with our leaders, it's so we can have the impact that we all want to have. We've got to have the resources to invest in the things that are working. And that does mean we've got to stop and pause other things.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, Ravi, we'll come to you. And how are you getting your inputs um to mold your strategic plan?
SPEAKER_01:By the way, just to reflect on what Jennifer just said, focus. Focusing on capabilities. That is so insightful. I'm stealing that, Jennifer. I am running with that. That was fantastic, though what you just said. So thank you. I will definitely be uh giving you a call. Um so we I think too what Jennifer said is we are coming to an end to our three-year plan. I do think how Boundless is approaching its future over the five years is I commend them. It is trying to shape the future. The three-year plan sounds more like these are the projects we want to get done and let's do them. I think the five years positions Boundless to be in a place where they want to be focusing on the capabilities. So kudos to them. Uh, we are coming to an end, like I said, for a three-year plan. We just did a scorecard. Um, some of the things we are realizing is obviously the workforce is a challenge, always been a challenge, but I predict based on everything which is going on in the world right now, and given where the demographics are going, the workforce challenge is just gonna get more and more exacerbated. And it is, we have so many people with dis intellectual disabilities living at home with the caregivers, and the caregivers are aging, they're gonna need services. There's the same person who might be helping the person with an intellectual disability, but their parents also need the help. Now, again, I I think I'm just probably just free thinking this right now, but we have a lot of our programs in bricks and mortar right now. Probably 60% of our revenues come from there. Um they are very labor-intensive programs. My suspicion is as we take stock of where we are right now and we think about what happens from 2026 onwards, and hopefully our executive team and the board will say, let's think about five years from now where we want to be, it would make sense for us to think where do we, what are our capabilities, as Jennifer said, what are the where are the needs, where are the dollars for this? And how do we start turning YI, the Titanic VR across three states, focusing on where the needs are, and that will require us to do exactly some of the things and I what Boundless has done, and I'm taking notes right now as to what they did. So uh, but that is a great way of approaching it, a much more in-depth look and involving people because strategy at the end of the day is about people. Yes, we'd like to think it's about an organization, it's about how the organization relates with the people it supports and how people who are employed within the organization work with each other. As somebody said, you know, there are lots of people who said this, and I'm this I'm not the first one to say it. Culture will eat strategy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, any day. So if you don't take this into account as to what the organization will do, it would result in failure, and it'll be a binder sitting on some desk somewhere which nobody even looks at. And I think that is a challenge for us to think about as we move into the next uh strategic planning process.
SPEAKER_02:Ravi, I also wrote down focus on capabilities as well. And I loved your verbiage when you said you're gonna steal that. I'm a firm believer, you know, amateurs borrow ideas, professionals steal them. And I and I don't I I don't hide it. I am a professional idea stealer, and that's okay. That is okay. What were your surprises, Robbie, from again from all those inputs you were getting about your plan?
SPEAKER_01:One of the things I think there's no doubt that a middle management is the strength of YI. It's the core. It the culture which has existed at YI is that band of managers who've been here and speak the YI language. And I always, and I worked at different organizations and I've come here to YI and I realize there is a specific language people use when they're talking to each other. Uh we use the word people we support, PWS, all the time. And that establishes the relationship which our staff have with the people in our programs, that we are there to support them. It establishes the hierarchy there. And those subtle indicators tell me that that culture is so strong across our middle managers that no matter the change we are going through at the top level right now, because of what happened to our previous CEO, we will come out stronger because our middle managers are the backbone of this organization. And that is something which gives me so much hope.
SPEAKER_02:Let's come back to that lightning round. That's kind of where we started. And I've got a few questions here as we start to uh wrap up our conversation. Jennifer, what would be just some simple but really good advice you would have for a fellow nonprofit leader out there?
SPEAKER_03:So, what I would offer is some questions that may not be fun to ask, but I think are really important in today's environment. So the first one that I would suggest is forcing yourself to ask the question is this feasible with the workforce we actually have, not the workforce we wish we had. Even if the answer is no, I am not suggesting you should abandon the impact you hope to have. But you may need to abandon the ship you thought you were gonna use to get there. It doesn't mean you give up the mission, it doesn't mean you say we're not going to have that impact in the world, but you may need to say this isn't the way we're gonna be able to do it, because to Ravi's point, I a hundred percent agree. The workforce we have today is probably the best it's gonna get. We need to get really good at serving even more people with the workforce we already have and maybe even fewer. The second question I would suggest that is tough, but I think we all need to be asking is is there a viable path to financial stability? If a program, if a service, if an initiative cannot achieve financial sustainability and resilience, even if you make some improvements and tweaks, we've got to question whether or not it it can continue to belong in our plan or in our strategy. One of the things we talked about uh here recently is funding programs is never easy. It's always painful to decide we're gonna stop doing this program. But the truth is sometimes the community and the individuals you're serving tell you that a program isn't having the same impact or doesn't culturally align anymore. And they tell you that not verbally, they tell you that with their feet in their wallets. When you don't have the demand for a particular program or service in a part of the state or in a region, uh you have to ask the question of whether or not what you're offering is what people want. And if we can't come up with a path to financial sustainability, then we really do need to be rethinking whether these are programs and services we can keep offering. Then the final one is that we ask is Is balance uniquely positioned to do it well? We talked about this earlier, Ravi. We are really leaning into where our integrated IDD behavioral health healthcare model gives us a distinctive advantage and deprioritizing areas where balance might not be the right fit. We are not everything to everyone, and that is okay. And so we need to be investing. I think all organizations need to be investing where the mission, the market, and their unique strengths intersect. We've got a pause work that might have been good, but it's not strategic because it's not financially sustainable. The workforce we have does not allow that model to really be a model for the future. And we need to be willing to step away from things that distract us or hold us back from building those capabilities that the future demands.
SPEAKER_02:Robbie, best advice that you have for a nonprofit leader that's maybe listening in here.
SPEAKER_01:So I heard the statement the other day, and I thought this was a fantastic statement. Ask the right question or you risk solving the wrong problem. I think that's yeah, I wish I had come up with it, but I don't think I yeah, I actually even if you are asking the right question and you may not have the right solution, at least tells you what you need to do. Maybe it is, and you may have three choices in my mind right now. One is to cut back, contain costs so that you might be financially stable. I think that is probably as an organization, that may be the closest it comes to a hibernation strategy, but that's a short-term strategy. The second way I would say is start looking at your programs where you can contain costs and also where you can get more efficiencies so that they can be money-making programs. And then the last one is, and I think this is where Boundless is probably thinking about this is where do you invest in what lines and what capabilities so that five years from now you are ready to take advantage of what's the landscape will be. And I think that kind of an analysis would be good for us and for any organization to take into account.
SPEAKER_02:That's excellent, Robbie. Um, a couple of quickies here. What give me one word that you want nonprofit leaders to associate with strategy? Robbie, how about one word there?
SPEAKER_01:Strategy in my mind has to be inspiring. Otherwise, who will want to come and work for you? You know, it has to be hopeful, positive. But I think the if you want one word, it's gotta be inspiring. That's what I would suggest. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna go with clarity. It's gotta be clear. People have to be able to understand it. I agree with you, Ravi. They gotta be wanting to buy in and be part of it. But it's gotta be really clear. Everybody understands exactly where we're going.
SPEAKER_02:How about we close it with this? Jennifer, can you share a habit that keeps you strategically sharp?
SPEAKER_03:For me, it's reading. Just even if it's only 30 minutes, trying to find time every week to really be monitoring those signals. What's changing in policy, what's happening in the workforce, what's the newest, strangest uh technology out there, maybe the newest, strangest thing players are doing. But I think it's reading. I think just finding the time to pay attention to what's happening outside of your organization.
SPEAKER_01:I like to listen to history podcasts. They are a great lesson when people think that this was a victory, but in the end you realize it's really what brought down what either that person or that empire wanted to do. It's uh hubris in my mind is probably that's what you learn. Hubris is the one quality which will bring down any good strategy or an organization. So not having hubris, having humility is what you learn from all these history podcasts for me.
SPEAKER_02:Well, speaking of this podcast, I feel like we could this thing could go two hours if we wanted to, and you guys could just keep you know talking right off the cuff, but with again, so much deep knowledge and passion and empathy. Uh, this has just been a fantastic conversation. So, Jennifer, Ravi, thank you both for joining us today.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you, Kat. Pleasure to be here.
SPEAKER_02:If you're listening to this episode and let's say it sparked some ideas, share it with a colleague, or why don't you share it with your board chair? How about that? You can also learn more about Boundless and our mission to support individuals and families at Iamboundless.org. Before we wrap it up, let's bring you November's mission moment.
SPEAKER_00:I'm Jody Bop, and I'm the Vice President for Advancement at I Am Boundless, and this is my mission moment. As Vice President for Advancement, I have the distinct pleasure of working with people who give philanthropically to I Am Boundless. As Ohio's largest nonprofit provider of services to people with special needs, we rely on philanthropic donations in order to make all the magic happen. But usually I work with the donors and I make sure their money gets where it belongs, but I don't experience it firsthand per se. But let me tell you what happened on Halloween. The program staff here at the Worthington campus decided it would be great fun to recruit all the ad administrative staff, including people like me, to stand in offices and give out trick-or-treat candy for the kids in the autism program here in Worthington. The kids would come in costume, they'd say trick-or-treat, we'd give them the candy, you know, the routine. I happen to wear glasses. Now, this isn't really important, most people don't even notice, but as the chaos and wonderfulness and noise and laughter of having uh kids of many ages between five and twenty two come in ensued, a staff member kind of tugged on my shoulder quickly and said, You may need to take off your glasses. But honestly, in the midst of the chaos, I didn't really pay attention and I didn't really uh notice, and then she turned to deal with a child who was getting a little bit overexcited. Maybe 45 seconds later, a young woman comes to the door of the office. I'm getting ready to hand her a piece of candy, and she looked me in the face and said, Can you please take off your glasses? So, of course, I took off my glasses. She said, Thank you. She said trigger treat. I handed her the treat, and she moved on. About five minutes later, when all the kids had moved on to the next building, the staff member in question came back running at me and said, This young lady who asked me to take off my glasses has a bit of a challenge with people who wear glasses because she feels like she can't see your whole face and it intimidates her. And up to that point, her reaction to people wearing glasses was either to not make eye contact, to not speak, or worse, to try to remove someone's glasses for them, which as you can imagine is not what most folks want to have happened. But with me, and I don't know why that day, um, well, I do know why it was because of the staff, uh, she asked me to remove my glasses politely. I removed them, and she said thank you. Apparently, she had never done that to a stranger before, only other staff at Boundless, and the staff were so excited, and we got very emotional about it, and I'm getting emotional telling you because this young woman can now go out in the world. And thanks to the amazing staff at Boundless and the philanthropic support of the donors who I get the privilege of working with, there's a young woman out there who is no longer afraid to ask a stranger to take off their glasses so she can see their whole face. And so that is my mission moment that carries me through the fall. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. And it's um on behalf of all of us at Boundless, I am extremely grateful for those of you who listen to this podcast and for those of you who support our wonderful mission.
SPEAKER_02:Jody, what a great story. What a great Halloween memory and a memory that will last a long, long time. Just terrific. Folks, don't forget you can learn more about Boundless and our mission to support individuals and families at IambBoundless. This is the Nonprofit Leader's Guy podcast brought to you by Boundless.