Planting Seeds of Hope: The Vital Role of Nonprofits

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has.”  

—Margaret Mead

I love being part of the Nonprofit Hive community. Here I get to meet passionate change makers and leaders who are carrying out the great work of social change. We care. We are nurturers, healers, and leaders. We simply can’t turn a blind eye to the many problems in the world. Each of us brings unique gifts, talents, and joy to serving our nonprofit’s mission, and to the people and circumstances in our lives. 

Here in the Hive community, I’ve met social change powerhouses such as a retiree who founded a food bank during the pandemic, a champion of democracy, and an advocate for women’s rights.  I’ve heard Hivers share their passion for solving social problems, how they came to dedicate their time, energy, or financial support to a particular nonprofit’s mission because of their discomfort with “the way things are.”  I love hearing your stories.

How did I catch the nonprofit bug?

I didn’t start out in the nonprofit sector. The first seven years of my career were in the for-profit business world, it was…comfortable, I suppose, but I sensed something was missing. After many late-night conversations, my husband and I made a mutual decision to shake things up. We surprised our friends and family, and even surprised ourselves—by signing up for a two-year tour of duty in the U.S. Peace Corps.

Eight months later, we found ourselves on the steamy tropical island of Jamaica. My husband was working with Habitat for Humanity, and I was teaching computer literacy to Jamaica’s future teachers. We were living and working in Kingston, the capital city. My campus was in a poverty-ridden and tough urban neighborhood. We lived on campus. Our tiny apartment had iron bars on its door and windows. We heard gunfire at night. My students instructed us to be careful whenever we left the walled campus compound.

We soon found ourselves falling in love with our work and our community. I saw my students growing and learning, they were a joy.

My college was administered by a small, determined band of Franciscan nuns who also ran several other schools in the area. The sisters were strong and hardworking and ran a tight ship, but they were kind and generous and often had a twinkle in the eye. I noticed right away the respect the students had for the sisters. They were savvy, too, and made the most of their limited funds and resources. They made sure the grounds were always kept looking beautiful. They raised money for scholarships. They successfully applied for a peace corps volunteer (me) as a computer literacy instructor, and they landed a grant to fund the sparkling new computer lab where I would be teaching. They did a lot of good, not just for their school but for and in their community. 

Trouble in paradise

One day one of the elderly sisters brought me along on an errand she needed to run. I don’t recall the errand, but I will always remember the day. We drove into Trenchtown, a dangerous Kingston neighborhood, where Bob Marley had lived as a young man and wrote lyrics about. Trenchtown was run by drug lords. Their gunmen were posted every few blocks to keep rival gangs out. It was so dangerous that U.S. marines posted at the embassy nearby received hazard pay.  

As our van rounded a street corner, a gang member with a gun walked into the middle of the road and stopped us. I tried to stay calm. He was a large man with a fierce expression. The sister seemed to know him, and she gave him a lecture about how illegal drugs were destroying the community and urged him to get out of the business. Not making me feel any calmer, the petite sister shook her finger in his face as she scolded him. Yet he listened attentively, looked at his shoes and nodded, then waved us through.  I realized he respected her. 

The power of social change heroes 

Over the course of those two years, I came to realize that not only did this little band of nuns manage to help the college survive; they helped it thrive—in the midst of a dangerous, poverty-ridden community. They did not accept the status quo of poorly run educational institutions. They were restless, constantly innovating, always striving to make life better for their students.

Thanks to their spirit of generosity, generations of students have gained a quality education. Those trained by the teachers’ college have graduated to teach classrooms of their own across Jamaica. The seeds planted by the sisters were growing and being replanted all over the island. How many lives, I wonder, have they impacted? 

Later, as I wrapped up my two-year tour of duty to head back to the U.S., I realized I had been changed too. I had discovered my path – I wanted to be part of the work of social change. 

Passion and good intentions aren’t enough. 

But as we know, solving social problems is really hard work. We struggle with burnout. Many nonprofit professionals describe feeling overworked, underfunded, and spread too thin. Some share that despite their hard work, they feel dissatisfied with lukewarm results. It is healthy that we share our struggles with each other in hive chats, so that we can do something about it.

The hard work of social change is easier said than done.  How do we build well-run nonprofit organizations and an infrastructure that equips us to meet these challenges? How do we discover what works? How can we be strategic and confidently say no to things so that we aren’t stretched too thin? 

Helping nonprofit teams who are wrestling with those questions has been the focus of my career. I am a consultant to nonprofit leaders, boards and teams. I help them build innovative organizations. I love what I do.  I help nonprofit leaders and teams stress-test their strategies and approaches, identifying ways to assess whether their programs and experiments are working so that they can be more accountable to stakeholders and donors. Together we build workplace cultures where teams can be their creative and innovative best. This is joyful and creative work.

How do wildly successful nonprofits inspire and deliver results?  

Innovation isn’t only happening in the business world – it happens all the time in our sector too. To me, innovation is simply about finding new and better ways of doing things, of finding breakthroughs for the people we lovingly serve. Over these last twenty years I have been gathering stories of nonprofits making breakthroughs, which are featured in my book, Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results (Wiley, 2022).

Likewise, the Nonprofit Hive community gives us an opportunity to learn from each other and share our remarkable stories. Thank you for all that you do. You are generously giving your time and resources to help and heal the world. Each and every one of you is playing an important role in the unfolding story of social change, planting seeds of hope.

Haven’t joined The Nonprofit Hive yet? You are missing out! Join today 🐝

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Leah Kral is an active member of the Hive, expert facilitator and author who helps nonprofits innovate and further social change. Her recent book, Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results (Wiley, 2022) is available at all major retailers. As owner and principal of Two Larks Consulting, Leah Kral provides tailored workshops and consulting to nonprofit teams, executives, and boards across the country. Visit her website: https://leahkral.com/