Photo Credit: Brian Hawkins

How are nonprofit leaders across the United States “holding it together” during the COVID-19 pandemic? Authors and producers of Nonprofit Quarterly’s TinySpark Podcast, Amy Costello, and Frederica Boswell, recently took on the topic engaging senior-leaders across the country to better understand how the public health crisis is impacting non-profits today.

Dr. Akilah Watkins-Butler, CEO and President of the Center for Community Progress, shared these highlights along with Nick Tilsen, CEO of NDN Collective and Darrel Cummings, Chief of Staff for the Los Angeles LGBT Center:

“It’s important for all of us to recognize that there is no normal on the horizon anytime soon. We have to think about our response and the work that we do as being different for a long time.”

– Darrel Cummings, Los Angeles LGBT Center

“In Lakota, we have a saying: Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — It means that we’re all connected. We cannot continue down the same destructive consumption path that separates the rich from the poor, that destroys the environment, because we understand now that all things are connected.”

– Nick Tilsen, CEO of NDN Collective

“The silver lining is that I am seeing more human connections between funders and grantees. [P]eople are having more authentic connection because the time has called for that. Now, we can really talk about what the challenges are in achieving the big ideas we all want. And, I hope we don’t lose that…and lean into conversations that are not always so tactical.”

– Dr. Akilah Watkins-Butler, Community Progress

View the full podcast today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, OvercastFM, or Podbean today.