Nonprofit Leadership
Leading with Purpose. Innovating with Equity.
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** America Will Be
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September 2, 2025
Greetings, readers!
I write you as I prepare for some parental leave. It is a strange time to have the great privilege and grave responsibility of returning my attention once more to my newborn child. But there’s no true shelter from the storm, is there? Certainly not for the organizations and causes you, readers, belong to and to which you dedicate your labor, your careers, and your hearts.
This “back to school” season brings massive challenges to the nonprofit sector and civil society. Both are under continual deliberate and systematic attack.
But as we move deeper into the storm, we do so with the shared knowledge of those who’ve come before us—and with those on the frontlines, applying that shared knowledge in support of the equity-centered change that strengthens nonprofits and, in turn, civil society at large.
Consider feminist leaders, for example, who often navigate multiple intersecting crisis as they push for structural changes that uplift the many rather than the few. How can funders better support this work ([link removed]) ? Or the potential of organizational partnerships if they’re treated as the strategic, equity-rooted tools for advancing mission and community impact ([link removed]) that they are.
Of course, many of our problems require societal, structural solutions that come from policy changes ([link removed]) . Yet, even here, nonprofits are showing up and showing out with solutions that aim to strengthen civil society. Because if the United States is to ever build a truly multiracial democracy, Black institutions must play a more central role.
It’s this kind of coverage that we at NPQ hope to provide so that you can better navigate the moment our sector faces. So, in the spirit of shared knowledge and “back to school” learnings, I’d like to leave you with a stanza from Langston Hughes’ poem, “Let America Be America Again ([link removed]) ”:
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Yours truly,
Isaiah Thompson
Leadership Editor
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** Must-Read Articles
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Dear Feminist Funders: It’s Time to Build a Bigger Bench
by Kavita Mehra
Feminist Leadership is often navigating multiple intersecting crisis. How can funders better recognize and support this work?
Read Article ([link removed])
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Rethinking Nonprofit Survival: Why Partnership Is the New Leadership
by Rumbidzai Mufuka, Michael Anderson, and Adelaide Rohrssen
Nonprofit leaders and boards need to treat partnerships not as crisis responses but as strategic, equity-rooted tools for advancing mission and community impact.
Read Article ([link removed])
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From Precarity to Promise: How Public Policy Can Reverse the Wealth Gap
by Hope Wollensack
US wealth inequality is getting worse. Reversing this requires two things: identifying policies that help people without wealth build wealth and making those policies law.
Read Article ([link removed])
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We the People: Why a US Multiracial Democracy Depends on Black Institutions
by Marcus Littles
The message is not new, but it remains vital to keep in our sights: if the United States is to ever build a truly multiracial democracy, Black institutions must play a central role.
Read Article ([link removed])
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Nonprofit Leadership offers timely civic news, equity-centered insights, and innovative frameworks for leaders building a just and thriving civil society. This newsletter delivers field wisdom, leadership strategies, and practical tools to help you lead with intention and create sustainable impact in your organization and community.
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