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** Ask a Nonprofit Expert: Balancing Power in Decision-Making
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October 9, 2025

Welcome back to Ask a Nonprofit Expert, the nonprofit sector’s go-to advice column where seasoned nonprofit leaders offer advice and answers about how to build thriving, equitable organizations.

In today’s issue, organizational leadership consultant Nick Takamine answers a reader’s question about balancing power dynamics in strategic planning and decision-making.

Got a question of your own? Submit it here ([link removed]) .

Balancing Power in Decision-Making

By Nick Takamine

Dear Ask a Nonprofit Expert,

I’d like to learn more about how to design for stakeholder collaboration in strategic planning. How can we avoid bias toward the voices of those with positional authority, instead of the voices of beneficiaries and staff? How can we build a strategy that is not skewed by power dynamics?

—Conscientious About Power

Dear Conscientious About Power,

You’re naming such an active tension in our sector right now. We know the stakeholders impacted by a strategy should have appropriate power to shape it, but it’s far from clear how to do that when privilege and positional authority aren’t evenly distributed.

The thing is, power dynamics themselves aren’t the problem. It’s that Western society teaches us that power belongs only to dominant groups, when in fact there are many layers and forms of power. There is also power that resides within each individual, and power we wield when we move together even amidst difference. The key is to activate these other forms of power in strategic planning.

Power Within: Holding Space for True Agency

Every person possesses an inner flame of agency and internal sovereignty—a power within. It represents our ability to perceive, think, and act from a place of reflection, internal coherence, and grounding in self. It grows when we find internal harmony and a sense of self-worth. It falters when we default to unexamined societal conditioning or become dysregulated.

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Ask a Nonprofit Expert is the sector’s go-to advice column by civic leaders, for nonprofit readers. In this new series, NPQ Leading Edge members can submit pressing questions about navigating nonprofit challenges. Our cohort of seasoned nonprofit leaders will publish thoughtful, actionable answers to pressing organizational challenges and leadership dilemmas. Ready to get unstuck? Submit your question anonymously here ([link removed]) !

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