From Vision to Action: Essential Resources for Nonprofit Leaders

In this episode of the Nonprofit Exchange, I, Hugh Ballou, founder and president of the SynerVision Leadership

Foundation, am joined by my long-time colleague and friend, David Dunworth. David is not only a board member but also the co-publisher of our magazine, Lead Forward. Together, we delve into the exciting developments surrounding our publication, which has evolved from a simple newsletter into a substantial quarterly magazine filled with valuable resources for nonprofit leaders.

We kick off the conversation by highlighting the unique nature of Lead Forward. Unlike many commercial magazines that are filled with advertisements, our publication is rich in content, offering articles that provide practical tools, strategies, and insights for leaders in the nonprofit sector. David shares the history of the magazine, explaining how it transitioned from a “non-newsletter newsletter” to a more structured and comprehensive resource, complete with various categories such as transformational leadership, grant funding, compliance, and board relations.

As we discuss the magazine’s content, David emphasizes the importance of having a well-organized structure that allows readers to easily find articles relevant to their interests. We also touch on the significance of community within the SynerVision network, where leaders can connect, share resources, and support one another in their leadership journeys.

A key highlight of our discussion is the collaboration with the C-Suite Network, which has enabled us to create the Nonprofit Prosperity Council. This initiative connects business and nonprofit leaders, providing access to a wealth of resources, events, and technology that can help organizations thrive. We also mention the free resources available to members, including pre-published versions of essential governance and compliance materials.

Throughout the episode, we stress the importance of continuous learning and reading for leaders. I share my personal experiences and the lessons I’ve learned over my 35 years in the nonprofit sector, emphasizing that our magazine is designed to help others avoid the pitfalls I’ve encountered.

In addition to the wealth of articles and resources, we also discuss the inclusion of recipes in the magazine, which reflect my passion for cooking and community. David and I share our excitement about the upcoming cookbook that will feature some of these recipes, further enriching the content we provide to our readers.

As we wrap up the episode, I encourage listeners to subscribe to Lead Forward Magazine, which is available for free in digital format. We believe that the insights and resources within our publication can significantly benefit nonprofit leaders and help them navigate the complexities of their work.

Join us as we explore the intersection of leadership, community, and the resources available to help you succeed in your nonprofit endeavors. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance your leadership journey with Lead Forward Magazine!

Get the magazine HERE

 

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou:
Welcome to this episode of the Nonprofit Exchange. This is Hugh Ballou, founder and president of SynerVision Leadership Foundation, where leaders create synergy around the vision that they’ve been given for this organization. I’m joined by a board member and friend and colleague and editor and publisher of the co-publisher of the Lead Forward magazine, which SynerVision publishes. David Dunworth, welcome to the show today.

David Dunworth:
Hey, thank you, Hugh. I’m glad to be here, old buddy.

Hugh Ballou:
Okay, good. David and I have been colleagues for a number of years. So David does the hard work of putting together this magazine, and we wanted to tell you about it. It’s kind of a secret, but it’s not a secret. It is chock full. I mean, it’s a substantial magazine. And unlike a lot of magazines you buy at the store that are mostly ads with a few articles in there, this is articles. The ads are for the content stuff that’s important to you. They’re not paid ads. So this is a publication that we put out together. David does the hard lifting of it. And it’s to provide resources. We’re doing work that’s very difficult. And we make it harder than it really is. So we give you resources, and tools, and strategies, and systems, and templates. We have an abundance of available resources in videos, and there’s just all kind of resources. The Nonprofit Exchange is one of those, and we interview, like this is 459 episode, we’ve interviewed 458 really impactful leaders who have wisdom to share from across all sectors of leadership. So today we’re going to talk about what’s in the magazine. So, David, we’re on number two so far, and we’ve already expanded the category. So why don’t you give us an idea of what the categories are inside the magazine?

David Dunworth:
Well, sure, sure. And, you know, I’d like to tell them a little bit of the history. This is not a new venture. It’s just a new beginning. We started out with what we called the non-newsletter newsletter. And it kind of morphed into a little mini magazine of 30 to 50 pages. And we called it updates. Well, you know, we were pretty much tired of updating the updates. And so Hugh and I said, how about we come up with a just a better magazine and do it quarterly so it’s got substantive stuff. And that’s what we did. We came up with it and it’s broken down by categories. There’s transformational leadership articles. We always have three or four of those. We’ve got a whole bunch of different categories from grant making or grant funding to fundraising, to well-being, compliance, board relations, culture, strategy, marketing, There’s 12 or 14 different categories, and we’ve got it structured in a way so that if you’re focused, you want to really dig deep into leadership. They’re all in one area. You don’t have to scour the whole magazine for this article or that article. They follow one after the other until you get into the next section. And they rotate depending on how deep we are in it, but it could be in culture. I know this upcoming magazine, we’ve got three or four articles just on culture. How to build the right culture, how to enhance it, how to do what’s right, do what’s logical. Board relations. We’ve got a great article in there about compliance. And that’s ever so important. And I know that everybody, whether it’s nonprofits, foundations, clergy, or business, business, they all need compliance. And there’s a beautiful article in there about that. If you’re a member of the SynerVision community and the Nonprofit Prosperity Council with C-Suite Network, You even got a free pre-published version of Essential Governance and Compliance book that was just published by us just recently.

Hugh Ballou:
Let me just interrupt there. That’s a key point, David. I’d like to highlight what you just said, if that’s OK.

David Dunworth:
Oh, absolutely. Let’s talk about it because I think that is probably the feather in our cap that makes us different than everybody else.

Hugh Ballou:
People talk about things, we actually make it happen. So we have solutions wherever you are on the spectrum of your personal leadership development, your organization’s development. There’s a place to start and there’s a place where you want to go and there’s people along the journey that are there with you But people have different expertise. So we meet weekly and we share resources with one another people have a problem need a solution They need a connection. So it’s that the community together. So that’s the SynerVision community It’s been going for five or six years David. I can’t remember. Oh easily. Yeah, I But we now have a collaboration. It’s like I have a Hilton Honors membership, so I can stay at any of the member hotels and use my points. Well, C-Suite Network is where your entry point is. So C-Suite Network is a wonderful organization of leaders, executive leaders. And so I host the Nonprofit Prosperity Council. David and I started this journey and envisioned what this should be. How do we Connect business leaders and non-profit leaders. How do we fill the gaps that there are so c-suite network has? launched a non-profit prosperity council and we meet once a month and have great resources, but If you’re a member of that council, you have all this technology, all the meetings, and all the connections. With C-suite, they have like 600 events a year. So if you can’t find something that suits you, too bad, because there’s plenty to choose from. And they have technology resources and a place for you to post articles. And it’s a rocket ship for attracting the search engines. And in SynerVision, there’s hundreds of dollars of resources. Workshops, how-tos, lessons, you choose.

David Dunworth:
And there’s… You know what, Hugh, and I think that’s a conservative number. I want to stop you right there and boast a little bit, because your library is more than a toolbox. It is a vault of treasures. and the amazing stuff that I’ve seen, and I haven’t even gone through it all. I’ve been with you for a number of years, and the information and resources that are there, if you’re in C-suite, Prosperity Council, and CenterVision, there is nothing you would lack. So yeah, I have to brag about that. I think you’ve built a library of insurmountable expertise that’s available. So that’s great.

Hugh Ballou:
We’ll have a link. And when you get this podcast, either on the podcast platform or on the page, you can find us at thethe.profitexchange.org. And this is a special edition called Resources. And so the resources that we have Because I’ve done this for 35 years David and I’ve seen the good bad and the ugly and I’ve seen where the gaps are So it’s so I’ve created systems that people can plug into so if you’re not Getting the progress. You’re not getting the funding. You’re not getting the board members You’re not getting what you think you ought to be getting consider this It’s a month-to-month membership and if doesn’t work for you, that’s fine. You get to keep all the free stuff and You know, it’s our gift to you. So David, talk a little bit more about, we’ve got mention of the Council inside the magazine. Yes, yes. You give some free stuff in the magazine, don’t you?

David Dunworth:
Well, I always try to, you know, the Prosperity Council, the part that I play is gathering content and gathering resources that are outside of what’s already there. And so this is always new and there’s always free downloads. of one thing or another and free opportunities to learn more or this or that. So is it a resource? You bet it is. And is it packed? You bet it is. And it’s only four times a year, but there’s so much there. that’ll take you, you know, more than just a Saturday afternoon to sit through with a glass of wine, you might have to buy a case of wine to get through an entire issue because there’s a lot of great, great content with a lot of great writers that are in there. And these are people that have come from the Nonprofit Exchange podcast and interview show. So loaded, loaded with information.

Hugh Ballou:
These are people we’ve met in life that we value and they give us articles. These are not people that are selling something. These are not advertorials. These are people sharing resources. So David, you give away and I give away some books and some reports and stuff that we have links. You have QR codes in the magazine so people can have that for free.

David Dunworth:
That’s right. If it’s a digital version, they want to look at the links are there. And if they’re excited enough to go out and get a copy, it’s it’s going to be what’s the curve print on demand, if you will. Their QR codes are there for you to snap with your phone and get connected with those resources that are available.

Hugh Ballou:
So I just am updating my books. I’ll have 10 books in print pretty soon, maybe next week. And by the end of the year, I’ll have 15. But I’m doing one on the, you know, David, I find that people hate meetings. Have you found that?

David Dunworth:
You know, the only time that a meeting is any good is when you know you’re not going to have to make it.

Hugh Ballou:
That’s right. Meetings are a huge burden. Nobody’s sad when you cancel me, but we turn them into power sessions and the team, I call them attitude adjustment. That’s what I called rehearsals when I was a choir conductor. You know, if people don’t leave feeling better when they came in, I was a failure. So this is, you know, it’s an attitude adjustment. How can you improve and how can we gel our culture? And you know, we’re modeling what our culture is like. And if you’re boring and you got a boring culture, it’s time to change that. And if your think meetings are really bad, it’s time to change that. So we’ve got, and I’ve got a lot of resources. Let me start with, if you want the magazine, these links will be on the podcast page on our website at thenonprofitexchange.org. When you go there, you’ll see where to subscribe to this podcast. There’s 459 really good episodes. That you’ll learn and you can choose and pick you can see a picture in the topic and you can choose which episode that you want to listen to so You can find the magazine so you go to the nonprofit exchange org is how you get there But in there, we’ll have the link for the magazine, but it’s you can write this down. It’s lead the magazine called lead forward David’s done this really nice logo leadforwardmagazine.org. It’s a .org because we’re a non-profit. leadforwardmagazine.org. It’s a treasure trove for $12.95. Comes out four times a year and it’s in a part of part of your library. And we’ve made it intentional that we do not date the magazine. There’s not a Halloween edition or a Christmas edition. These are timeless articles. So you keep it. And if you have a library that you can refer to now, I read an article about that, so you’ve got it at your disposal. So, David, there’s people that really like print magazines.

David Dunworth:
Oh, yeah. In fact, we were talking about that a little while ago. My sister is one who has a Kindle. I mean, she got one for Christmas or birthday or something, and she just doesn’t use it. She likes the tactile feeling of the book in her hand and the pages and the flipping of the sheets in the book. And yeah, so magazines, that’s the real way to read, in my opinion. I just love it. I’ve got stacks of stuff that I’m always reading and it’s gotta be in my hand. So yeah, you’re right.

Hugh Ballou:
So if you go to leadforwardmagazine.org, we ask you to subscribe. It’s a free subscription. You get the digital edition of this. You get it in a PDF. You can download and you get it in a flip file. You can flip like a real magazine. If you don’t want to be on our list, you just unsubscribe. But we’re going to give you special bonuses and special articles, special opportunities along the way. And these are mostly free things. So if you’re growing as a leader, This is this is important. I just did an add-on to one of my books David Call leaders or readers in the importance and the people I know that are top of their game Read and they read and they read I don’t care if you read it on the Kindle or you have a print book or you have a PDF that you look on your computer Have you found that to be true?

David Dunworth:
Leaders are readers and readers generally make better leaders all the way around. And I’m a, you know, as like you, Hugh, you know, I’m a writer too, and I’ve written a bunch of books, and I’ve written a bunch of articles. And yeah, you got to read in order to stay ahead. This is the world we live in now is at lightning pace. And you think back to just when we were kids, Now, I know that electricity was already invented, but we’re not that old. It was around already. But the pace then is nothing like the pace of today. And if you want to stay current in business, you’ve got to read. You’ve got to know what’s out there and what’s going on. And that’s the only way just to keep pace, let alone get ahead. So yeah, reading is critical.

Hugh Ballou:
Well, I find there’s lots of distractions, but the essential things like marketing, where you got a lot of tools, but marketing has not changed. The basic concepts of marketing have not changed. The basic concepts of leadership have not changed. The basic concepts of fundraising have not changed. But we I started a nonprofit. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have the tools to run it. It’s a business. I didn’t have the tool to run the business. And so it was a learning curve for me. So part of my mission is to help people save time. Surely you can figure it out for yourself. But maybe if you learn from my mistakes, and I gotta tell you, I’m an expert in these things, because I made a lot of mistakes. And we call those learning opportunities. So David, do you relate to that?

David Dunworth:
Yeah, and please just don’t call me Sherlyn. OK. That’s an old joke, isn’t it? We’re old people, so what the hell. Get my old joke back.

Hugh Ballou:
It’s pitiful.

David Dunworth:
Ah, but you know what? You’re right. There’s so much going on in the world and so much information out there that we’re bombarded with it. But when you’ve got quality information in front of you, take the time to absorb it. And that’s what we found is our readers love what we’re putting out. and it’s factual. It’s not swash. It’s not watered down yesterday’s news. These are current topics with current assets with current solutions that are in there and every leader can use them.

Hugh Ballou:
Every leader can use them. Our big mistake is thinking, oh, it’s nonprofit. We don’t have to do much work. Actually, David, I have found that as an entrepreneur, being an entrepreneur is very difficult. We do things that’s not the corporate job that we punch time clock. We’re paid if we’re productive. If we’re not productive, we don’t get paid. So it’s very difficult being an entrepreneur. So you take all of that difficulty and running a small business, and you magnify it in the nonprofit world because you got all these rules. And IRS has rules, the states have rules, so there’s a lot of rules for compliance that we must follow. And on top of that, we’re dealing with this unknown quantity we call volunteers. That’s not like having a requirement for a paycheck. People show up because they have a passion, and it’s a leadership growth curve just to learn about that.

David Dunworth:
Yep, yep. You know, and funny you bring that up is that in this month, in this, excuse me, current, upcoming issue, it’ll be out pretty soon, there is an article in there about volunteers and the need for background checks. Because children, if you’re involved with children, if children are involved in your nonprofit, you’ve got to know who’s working with the public. And so that’s a really important article that covers that in depth and triggers some thoughts about also the culture, you know, and who are you bringing into your organization and how are they going to fit into the culture? Are they going to be a glove? that’s a kid glove or if it’s going to be a boxing glove. And, you know, so looking deeper into who you’re bringing into your organization is a pretty important factor. So, you know, it’s funny you brought that up because that’s a topic that is going to be covered in depth in this upcoming issue.

Hugh Ballou:
And people listen to this anytime in history, it might be a year from now, you’re going to find some similar articles by different people. And so we’ve been fortunate to not have to hunt people down. People have come to us and we get to screen people and we get to say who gets in the magazine and who is not in the magazine. So I’m going to give you the links again. Is there something we haven’t told people, David? We’re going to end this podcast pretty shortly, but yeah.

David Dunworth:
I got to brag on my bud here for just a little bit. You know, I spent my entire business career in hospitality. I ran private clubs, you know, and I served presidents and I’ve served foreign dignitaries and that kind of stuff. So, you know, I know my way around a kitchen. Well, so do you. I’ve been to your house. I’ve drank your special coffee. I’ve eaten some really nice stuff at your house. And that’s a feature that we haven’t touched on yet, is that there’s always something going on at Hugh’s Kitchen. We always have a recipe from Hugh that he’s personally put together, conducted, did trials and tribulations with it, and is proud enough to put it out. And word has it you’re coming out with a cookbook sometime soon.

Hugh Ballou:
It’s really forced me to put this into context where, hey, people like it. People come to my house, like you said, and enjoy it. So it’s going to be a form of how we influence. Leaders are influencers. So we can influence people with our cooking. There you go. I’m a coffee roaster. Friends don’t let friends drink bad coffee. So if you come to my house, you get freshly roasted coffee from one of the countries that has some of the best coffee. So one of my favorite Recipes? You know, onion soup, French onion soup’s a popular soup. You go in a restaurant, it’s too salty, and they use one onion. Well, I’ve developed a way that you use four different onions to get the complexity, the flavor, and then how you prepare that, and then how you serve it. It’s really different. You don’t have that big old crouton to cut up. So it’s in the magazine, but it’s also in my upcoming cookbook. So the nuances of the combinations, it’s sort of like the coffee you’ve had is a blend in my house. One of them is an espresso blend. People think espresso is a particular bean. No, it’s a blend of various beans, and all the coffee roasters have their own blend. So it’s the complexity of the flavor, and so the complexity of the flavor of the French onion soup that’s not too salty. then there’s just enough salt to bring out the flavor. So that’s one of them. And the last edition I did, the non-grain granola. And oh, it is so good. It’s so good. And it’s so good for you. And so people like me that try to stay away from grains because of the lectins, the poisons in them, this is an alternative. And if you like redwood granola, fine. But if you want an alternative, It’s in the current magazine. So go to leadforwardmagazine.org and you’ll see this magazine. So thank you for raising that up. It’s a passion of mine to fellowship around the table and to share the best when you get together.

David Dunworth:
Well, I don’t want to give away the farm here, but in the next in the issue that’s in production right now and will be published soon is a delicacy that you’ve come up with that is pretty darn tasty. So yeah, I’m looking forward to actually trying it out. I always, and you know, you’ve been pushing out recipes since we started this three or four years ago and there’s, we were doing a recipe every month and now four times a year, they’re getting better and more selective. So that’s great. And I’m looking forward to that cookbook for sure.

Hugh Ballou:
You’ve added two pages, so I’m putting in the whole philosophy and why it’s important. So there’s a pastry here. So the history of that is we went to a restaurant, I forgot where it was, and we had this delightful little fruit pastry. So I went home and reinvented it with my own. And so it’s using common things you find at any grocery store. And it’s so yummy, so yummy. All right, David, I think we have covered the territory. The links to remember if you want to find this episode and others, it’s the nonprofitexchange.org If you want to get the magazine, it’s leadforwardmagazine.org And if you want a list of all of my resources, it’s huehughresources.com That’s a com so out those will be on the page for this episode and on and the your episode description in the podcast platform. So, please subscribe to the podcast, check out the magazine, and we’d love to hear from you. This is Hugh Beloo and David Dunworth. So, what’s your last word, David?

David Dunworth:
My last word is don’t call me Shirley. Don’t call me Shirley. Hey, folks, I’m looking forward to seeing new subscribers on our magazine. So it’s free, it’s worthwhile, and you won’t regret it. So leadforwardmagazine.org. See you soon.

Hugh Ballou:
No looking backwards. Thank you, David.