Make Nonprofits Profitable™ | For Nonprofit Leaders Who Want to Diversify Revenue, Build Capacity & Scale to Sustain Impact – Details, episodes & analysis
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Make Nonprofits Profitable™ | For Nonprofit Leaders Who Want to Diversify Revenue, Build Capacity & Scale to Sustain Impact
Make Nonprofits Profitable™ challenges the conventional thinking holding nonprofits back from achieving their full impact. Each episode leaves you with a new perspective, an idea or tool you can actually apply to diversify funding, strengthen operations, and advance your mission. Build the organization your impact demands. By being the business you are.
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EP 22 [Summer Spotlight] Ask the Hard Question: Is This Sustainable? Build Earned Revenue to Move Beyond Wish Money, with Shane Woods, Girlstart
Season 1 · Episode 22
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 50:31
What does it take to ask the hard question, "Is this sustainable?" And then put a plan in place?
In this Force Multiplier episode, Shane Woods, Executive Director of Girlstart, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls in STEM, shares her journey leading the organization into its next stage of growth.
Shane began her career as a middle school science teacher in Fort Worth ISD, rising over 17 years to K-12 Science Director for the entire district, and then served as Senior Director of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas STEM Center of Excellence before joining Girlstart in 2022. Her work has earned her the Women Leading Technology Leadership Award and an invitation to the 2024 White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence.
Shane and I first met through Social Venture Partners Austin, when Girlstart was exploring new earned revenue ideas. In this episode, Shane shares perspective on the loneliness of leadership, why change happens incrementally, not overnight, and the discipline of asking not just what to add, but what to sunset.
If you're navigating the loneliness of being an executive director, wrestling with how to diversify away from grant dependency, or asking what your organization needs to sunset in order to grow, this episode offers candid, practical insights.
Build the organization your impact demands. By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
· Leadership loneliness is real. Find people you trust to say the hard things out loud before taking them to your board.
· Change happens incrementally, not overnight. Phase in big shifts.
· Grant dependency is wish money, not guaranteed; earned revenue is a base you control.
· Growth sometimes means sunsetting. Ask not just what to add, but what to prune.
About Shane Woods
Shane Woods doesn't just talk about closing the gender gap in STEM: she's built a career doing it. As Executive Director of Girlstart, she leads a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls in STEM, bringing more than two decades of experience as a nationally recognized leader, author, and speaker in science education and equity.
Shane began her career as a middle school science teacher in Fort Worth, rising over 17 years to K-12 Science Director for the entire district, then served as Senior Director of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas STEM Center of Excellence before joining Girlstart in 2022.
Her work has earned her the Women Leading Technology Leadership Award, Austin Women in Business Finalist honors, and the Rising Star Award from Women Who STEAM, Dallas Links Inc., along with an invitation to present at the 2024 White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence.
Shane holds an MS in Education and a BS in Biology, and stays deeply engaged in the broader education and youth development community through cofunding the North Texas Ecosystem, being a long-time partner of the Texas Girls Collaborative Project, and actively volunteering with the American Camp Association.
About Girlstart
Girlstart's mission is to empower girls through STEM. Girlstart envisions a future where all those who identify as girls believe they have the potential to change their world through STEM. Girlstart is a woman-founded, woman-led organization that has primarily offered year-round out-of-school STEM programming for girls in grades 4-8 in Texas, California, Massachusetts, and other locations nationwide.
Girlstart is headquartered in Austin, Texas, where it was founded in 1997, and is an active part of its community, serving girls not only in its own STEM Center but also by meeting them in their schools and through family-focused events across the region. Since 1997, Girlstart has impacted more than 200,000 girls through after-school programs, summer camps, STEM career conferences, and community STEM education outreach.
Connect with Shane Woods
Website: girlstart.org
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shane-woods-stem
Websites and Social
Company Website: tacosa360.com
Impact Catapult: www.impactcatapult.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@Tacosa360
Connect with Tanja
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tanjahoran
Topics
Nonprofit earned revenue, nonprofit sustainability, executive director leadership, nonprofit change management, nonprofit program sunsetting, women in STEM leadership, nonprofit grant dependency
EP 21 [Summer Spotlight] Pay Now, Not Later: Invest in the ED-Board Chair Relationship and Guided Risk, with Susan Nichols, Connecting Communities Consulting
Episode 21
Monday, August 31, 2026 • Duration 44:35
What does it take to bridge the business side of a nonprofit with its heart and vision?
In this Force Multiplier episode, Susan Nichols shares wisdom gained from 33 years in the nonprofit sector.
As founder of Connecting Communities Consulting, Susan helps nonprofits bridge the gaps between their mission, business, and community needs by refining their systems and structures, including their boards.
When Susan and I first met, I was struck by her balance of being deeply relational and highly business-minded, with a real heart for nonprofit work.
In this episode, she shares how the executive director and board chair relationship serves as a critical organizational health check, how a thrift store she led grew to nearly a million dollars a year, and her perspective on guided risk.
If you're trying to align your board and your business strategy, wrestling with how much risk to take on a new revenue idea, or working through a season of change, this episode offers candid, practical insights.
Build the organization your impact demands. By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
The ED-board chair relationship is the real health check.
Earned revenue builds real stability.
Guided risk beats guessing because you pay for shortcuts either up front or in a costly crisis.
Resistance to change is really fear of loss.
About Susan Nichols
Susan often says she got the best of both worlds from her parents. Her father ran her home like a Fortune 500 company. She even had to get three vendor bids for every part of her wedding. Her mother, on the other hand, had a heart full of compassion and was always willing to step outside her comfort zone to serve others. It was not unusual for Susan to come home and find a new stranger sitting on her couch.
At first glance, those traits may seem like opposites: highly administrative and deeply relational. But over time, they merged and became part of her DNA.
About Connecting Communities Consulting Connect with Susan Nichols Websites and Social Connect with Tanja Topics
EP 20 [Summer Spotlight] Earned Revenue: Adds Credibility, Not Just Funding, with Jacob Blaeser, Ventures ATL
Episode 20
Monday, August 24, 2026 • Duration 43:28
What does it take to provide career opportunities for a talented workforce that's traditionally overlooked?
In this Force Multiplier episode, part of the podcast's Summer Spotlight series, Tanja Horan sits down with Jacob Blaeser, President of Ventures ATL, a nonprofit closing the employment gap for the neurodivergent community. Jacob shares his unexpected path — from a childhood love of sports, through engineering and management consulting — to leading Ventures ATL, a professional services firm designed to accentuate its employees' strengths in data-, process-, and AI-centric services, where the very attributes that define their neurodivergence enable them to be uniquely skilled for the task.
One of Ventures ATL's earliest hires recently celebrated nine years with the company — a milestone worth celebrating for a population that has traditionally been underestimated in the job market.
In their conversation, Jacob shares why he believes earned revenue gives a nonprofit's mission credibility and substance, his "three C's" — clarity, creativity, content — for nonprofits starting an earned-revenue strategy, and his advice to start with just one thing: one channel, one product, one strategy, before trying to do it all.
If you're building an earned-revenue strategy, wrestling with the tension between mission and money, or figuring out how to grow without overcomplicating your model, this episode offers candid, practical insights.
Build the organization your impact demands.
By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
• Neurodiversity: It's not a disability, it's a different ability.
• Earned revenue gives the mission credibility, not just capital.
• Start with one thing when starting an earned revenue stream.
• Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.
EP 19 [Summer Spotlight] Nadia Rahali - From a Five-Dollar Pledge to a Nationally Recognized Earned Revenue Stream"
Episode 19
Monday, August 17, 2026 • Duration 43:52
What happens when a five-dollar pledge becomes the catalyst for a lifelong commitment to connecting resources to people, organizations, and leaders who make a difference?
In this Force Multiplier episode, Tanja Horan sits down with Nadia Rahali, Director of the Loudermilk Center, a nationally recognized convening space that serves as an earned-revenue stream for United Way of Greater Atlanta. Nadia shares her journey from that first small act of giving to two decades of building the Center into a hub for nonprofit, civic, and business leaders. She's also founder of Storywell Collective, a consulting firm helping nonprofit leaders build transformative, not transactional, fundraising.
In their conversation, Nadia shares how reframing scarcity as abundance, and making the donor the hero, changes what's possible for a mission.
If you're building an earned-revenue strategy, leading your team through change, or wrestling with how to ask for support without it feeling transactional, this episode offers a candid, practical perspective.
Build the organization your impact demands.
By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
• Most fundraising conversations start from scarcity. Naming that context is the first step to changing it.
• Make the donor the hero. People give to join a mission, not just fill a gap.
• A "no" is just a no. Not a story or rejection. Ask what's next, or what was missing, and move on.
• Invite your team into change; don't force it. People say yes to a shared vision, not a mandate.
About Nadia
Nadia Rahali is Director of the Loudermilk Center, the nationally recognized convening space in Atlanta's historic Sweet Auburn District that operates as an earned-revenue division of United Way of Greater Atlanta. Nadia's path into nonprofit leadership began with a five-dollar workplace pledge to United Way more than twenty years ago, a small act of giving that came full circle with a call to United Way's 211 Contact Center. She has spent more than two decades growing the Loudermilk Center into a hub that convenes nonprofit leaders, civic organizations, and philanthropic and business leaders from around the world.
About The Loudermilk Center Connect with Nadia Rahali Websites and Social Connect with Tanja Topics
EP 18 [Summer Spotlight] Unlikely Entrepreneur: How Kitti Murray Built a Nationally Recognized Nonprofit with Earned Revenue
Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 48:24
What does it take for a self-described "unlikely entrepreneur", who doesn't love spreadsheets but is great with people, to build a nationally recognized nonprofit?
In this Force Multiplier episode, Tanja Horan sits down with Kitti Murray, founder of Refuge Coffee Co., as she shares her path from freelance writer to nonprofit founder. Thirteen years ago, Kitti and her late husband, Bill, moved to Clarkston, Georgia, referred to as the most diverse square mile in the country. They got to know their neighbors before ever building an organization. Those relationships led to Refuge Coffee, a nonprofit creating competitive-wage jobs, job training, and true community for her refugee neighbors through coffee.
Refuge Coffee has been featured on CNN, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, NPR's The Salt, Food & Wine magazine, and The Kelly Clarkson Show. Kitti has shared Refuge's story at Creative Mornings, Q Commons, Leadercast Women, Google Atlanta, the Chick-fil-A Impact Accelerator Conference, and the Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Through stories from Refuge's first years, including one coffee truck, a parking lot, and a sunflower painted on asphalt, Kitti shares how she built a sustainable earned-revenue model, why she asked her network for wisdom a full year before she ever asked for money, and how the organization embraces excellence.
If you're founding a nonprofit, balancing mission with earned revenue, or building a culture where people can do excellent work, this episode offers candid and practical insights.
Build the organization your impact demands.
By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
Ask for wisdom before asking for money from trusted business leaders.
Passion is necessary but it isn't a revenue model.
Sustainability has to be built deliberately, one stage at a time.
A grant that doesn't fit your team's capacity or genuine interest costs more than the money is worth.
About Kitti Murray
Kitti Murray and her late husband, Bill, moved 13 years ago to a refugee community on the edge of Atlanta that has been called the most diverse square mile in the country. They considered this the most intense and inviting neighborhood in their experience, and it taught them to dream big and love even bigger. One expression of that love has been Refuge Coffee Co., a non-profit Kitti founded as a way to join hands with neighbors near and far to create opportunity and true refuge through coffee and community service. Refuge Coffee's flagship shop is in Clarkston, Georgia, with shops in the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown and in historic downtown Norcross.
About Refuge Coffee Co. Websites and Social Connect with Tanja Topics nonprofit earned revenue, social enterprise coffee shop, nonprofit grant strategy, mission-driven leadership, Make Nonprofits ProfitableTM
EP 17 [Summer Spotlight] From Teacher of the Year to Earned Revenue Leader with Lori Davis at E3 Alliance
Episode 17
Monday, August 3, 2026 • Duration 40:02
EP 17 [BONUS Summer Spotlight] From Teacher of the Year to Earned Revenue Leader with Lori Davis at E3 Alliance
What does it take to go from special education teacher to leading earned revenue strategy at one of the most respected education collaboratives in Texas?
In this Summer Spotlight Force Multiplier episode, Tanja Horan sits down with Lori Davis, Senior Director of the Center for School Transformation at E3 Alliance, to trace her path from the classroom to leading a fee-for-service model that helps Texas schools improve outcomes for students with proven, data-based strategies.
Lori has been named District Teacher of the Year and Special Educator of the Year, and completed the Raise Your Hand Texas Harvard Leadership Program.
Tanja and Lori met years ago, shortly after Lori joined E3.
In their conversation, Lori shares her journey from classroom to leading a nonprofit earned revenue team without prior business background, how the team pivoted when the pandemic and the lessons learned along the way.
If you're building an earned revenue model, leading a nonprofit through disruption, or wondering whether you need to be the expert to lead something new, this episode offers practical, hard-won insight.
Key Takeaways
Don't be afraid to try something new.
Prove it with philanthropy first, then scale what works into fee-for-service.
When circumstances change, adapt your perspective on measuring success.
Identify your unique capabilities where your team's strengths meet real demand.
About Lori Davis
Lori Davis is the Senior Director of the Center for School Transformation at E3 Alliance, where she helps lead the organization's work to strengthen education systems so all students can succeed. She leads work that helps Texas districts strengthen instruction, build leadership capacity and improve outcomes for students. Lori works alongside educators, district leaders and E3 Alliance partners to turn data, research and practical strategies into meaningful change for schools and communities.
EP 16 [Summer Spotlight] Innovating for Sustainability with Emily Ball Cicchini
Monday, July 27, 2026 • Duration 36:53
What does it take to turn a lifelong love of storytelling into a mission that puts free books into the hands of the families who need them most?
In this Force Multiplier episode, Tanja Horan sits down with Emily Ball Cicchini, PhD, Executive Director of BookSpring, to trace her path, from acting and playwriting to a PhD in research, that led her, in 2015, to lead the Austin-based nonprofit working to eliminate book deserts through free books, family reading support, and community partnerships. BookSpring recently marked 50 years of impact.
Emily also founded the National Book Access Association to strengthen book-access work nationwide.
Tanja first connected with BookSpring years ago as a member of Impact Austin, when the organization received an Impact Austin grant.
Through stories and real examples, you'll hear how BookSpring pushed through pandemic disruption by launching a digital library and a newsletter that now reaches nearly 20,000 families, how the organization built BookSpring Originals, a digital bilingual book line born out of a gap in diverse Spanish-language children's books and a perspective on leading with both data and heart .
If you're thinking about book access, early literacy, or how to lead a nonprofit through funding disruption this episode offers practical insight into building something that lasts.
Key Takeaways
Outputs aren't outcomes.
Collaboration needs structure, not just goodwill.
Earned revenue should reinforce your mission, not distract from it.
A crisis can be the excuse to build what you always wanted.
Reframe "cuts" as "leverage" to protect impact through disruption.
About Emily Ball Cicchini
Emily Ball Cicchini is the Executive Director of BookSpring, an Austin-based nonprofit advancing early literacy through book access, family engagement, and community partnerships.
She also founded the National Book Access Association, which connects and strengthens local book access organizations nationwide. Emily holds BFA, MFA, and PhD degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.
EP 15 5 Questions to Connect Nonprofit Strategy and Execution
Saturday, June 13, 2026 • Duration 09:32
You have a new initiative. A new earned revenue stream. A new program. Three weeks in, everyone is busy — but the scope has drifted, the deadline is fuzzy, and status updates sound like "almost done." How did that happen?
Most execution problems don't announce themselves. They creep. Scope expands one conversation at a time. Progress becomes invisible. Problems surface too late to fix without pain.
The questions you ask before you start — and revisit as you execute — determine whether your initiative delivers or drifts.
Through years of leading teams and learning what to ask, I've identified five questions that mitigate risk, keep teams aligned, and set initiatives up for success and drive nonprofit effectiveness.
These are the Top 5 questions for nonprofit leaders who want execution to deliver their strategy
Key Takeaways
• Control starts with clarity. Document what's in scope AND what's out of scope before execution begins.
• The best project management tool is clear and reinforced communication, not software.
• Track progress in percentages, not feelings. "Almost done" is not a status update.
• "No" is your most powerful word. Use it to protect your team's focus and capacity.
• Respond, don't react. Get to the facts about what happened and why before you take corrective action.
Resources Referenced in This Episode
• Project Management Success Essentials — A downloadable resource with essential questions and tips for planning and executing your next initiative. https://bit.ly/Tacosa360-Project-Management-Essentials
Websites and Social
• Company Website: tacosa360.com
• Impact Catapult: www.impactcatapult.com
• youtube.com/@Tacosa360
Connect with Tanja Topics
EP 14 The Art & Science Where Nonprofit Execution Falls Short
Friday, June 5, 2026 • Duration 11:09
You ask three people on your team how long it will take to build a new earned revenue offering. You get three completely different answers.
One pads the estimate to protect himself. One underestimates because she believes she can always do more in less time. One gives you the most realistic, along with what she knows, what she doesn't, and how that affects the timeline.
Which one is right? That depends on whether you know your estimators.
Bridging strategy and execution is both an art and a science. Most organizations have the science — the frameworks, the templates, the process. It's the art where the gap lives: reading your team, calibrating what you hear, and adapting before a plan falls apart.
This episode is about that art. A practical lens for reading your team's estimating styles — and a framework to help you close the gap between strategy and execution.
Build the organization your impact demands. By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
Undocumented assumptions are risks waiting to surface
Know your estimators' styles so you can calibrate your plan.
"Bigger than a breadbasket" scale: use it when you need a directional estimate. Define small, medium, and large for your org and apply it consistently.
Speak to both the business mindset and human drivers when communicating the plan.
Foster an environment that values: Honest estimates over impressive ones. Documented assumptions and "I don't know yet" aa trusted answer.
Resources Referenced in This Episode
· DOWNLOAD: Top 5 Tips: Effective Product Roadmap & Plan Communications — A practical guide for tailoring how you communicate plans, timelines, and direction to every audience in your organization. https://bit.ly/tacosa360-roadmap-communications
Websites and Social
Company Website: tacosa360.com
Impact Catapult: www.impactcatapult.com
Connect with Tanja
EP 13 Closing the Execution Gap: Why Good Initiatives Fail to Deliver
Saturday, May 30, 2026 • Duration 13:19
You asked for a tire swing and ended up with a lazy boy hanging from two ropes.
The goal was simple: build a tire swing. That was the vision. That was the dream.
And yet, by the time that vision traveled from the person who imagined it, to the person who communicated it, to the person who analyzed it, to the person who built it — what came back was something completely different.
The tire swing never got built. The original vision was never fully realized.
The culprit behind failed initiatives and projects for nonprofit and for-profit organizations is not a strategy failure. It is an execution failure.
Specifically the reason for the failure is the bridge connecting strategy to execution was never fully built.
Project management is a leadership discipline — not just an operational one.
Nonprofit organizations that consistently deliver are the ones where leaders ask the right questions, protect team focus, and remove barriers before they become blockers.
The question is never whether you have a strategy. It is whether you and your team can execute it.
In this episode of Make Nonprofits ProfitableTM, Tanja Horan opens the Strategy to Execution series with the leadership framing nonprofit executives need before a single initiative or project begins.
Using data from the Project Management Institute which finds that only about half of all projects succeed and the Hershey's case study as a real-world anchor, this episode breaks down the four root-cause failure categories where good initiatives consistently fall apart: strategy, planning, leadership, and communication. Each one requires the leadership team first.
Build the organization your impact demands. By being the business you are.
Key Takeaways
Strategies fail because the bridge between strategy and execution was never built.
Websites and Social Connect with Tanja
After 33 years in the nonprofit world, Susan has come to realize how rare it is to truly love both the business and visionary sides of nonprofit work. She understands the board members who want to see the strategic plan, financials, project metrics, and measurable outcomes. She also understands the executive director who keeps a journal by the bedside, because inspiration often comes at unexpected moments, and the next big idea needs to be written down before it slips away.
Susan's upbringing, combined with her years of experience in the nonprofit sector, helped her recognize the need to bridge these two worlds. That realization led her to create Connecting Communities Consulting.
She believes there is a tremendous opportunity to help well-intentioned nonprofits adopt strong industry practices while staying deeply connected to their mission and vision. Her goal is to help organizations become more sustainable, strategic, and effective. She is a lifelong learner, and she is grateful to serve as a bridge, helping connect the dots that transform organizations.
Connecting Communities Consulting helps nonprofits bridge the gap between their mission, business, and community needs by focusing on refining their systems and structures. She uses relational insight and 33-plus years of nonprofit experience to align your team for amplified community impact.
Connecting Communities Consulting works with nonprofit executives and their boards who are relational and are equally focused on the business aspects of running a nonprofit. Services include building systems and structures tailored for an organization through: Leadership Development, Organizational Development, and Community Development.
Nonprofit earned revenue, nonprofit strategy, executive director and board chair relationship, nonprofit board governance, nonprofit leadership, nonprofit business sustainability, nonprofit organizational development, change management
About Jacob Blaeser
My first word was ball and I dreamed of being a professional athlete. Faith is integral to who I am and is the lens through which I see the world. My mom was a teacher and thus education has always been an important driver in my family through high school, undergrad, and grad school. I love people, travel, food, movement, learning, and spending time outdoors.
About Ventures ATL
Ventures ATL is solving the unemployment gap within the neurodivergent community. It is a mission-driven organization that believes the autism community is talented but thus far overlooked and underutilized in the working world. Ventures ATL has designed a professional services firm that accentuates its employees' strengths while navigating around things that have traditionally been hurdles. Ventures ATL provides data-, process-, and AI-centric services where the very attributes that define its employees' neurodiversity enable them to be uniquely skilled for the task.
neurodivergent workforce, employment gap, direct employment model, nonprofit earned revenue, data-centric services, AI support services, neurodiversity, nonprofit strategy
Nadia is also founder of Storywell Collective, a consulting firm helping executive directors and development officers move from transactional to transformative fundraising.
The Loudermilk Center is a premier event and conference venue in Atlanta's historic Sweet Auburn District, the birthplace of the American civil rights movement. Owned by United Way of Greater Atlanta as an earned-revenue division, the Center has spent decades hosting local, national, and international leaders and organizations working to make a difference — offering flexible meeting spaces, state-of-the-art technology, and on-site culinary services.
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nadiarahali
• Email: nadia@storywell-collective.com
• Consulting: Storywell Collective
• Loudermilk Center: loudermilkcenter.com
• Company Website: tacosa360.com
• Impact Catapult: www.impactcatapult.com
• YouTube: youtube.com/@Tacosa360
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tanjahoran
nonprofit earned revenue, earned income strategy, nonprofit business model, scarcity to abundance mindset, diversifying nonprofit funding, nonprofit sustainability, United Way of Greater Atlanta, Loudermilk Center, Make Nonprofits Profitable™
Refuge has been featured on CNN, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Senator Bill Bradley's radio show, American Voices, Food & Wine magazine, NPR's The Salt, and The Kelly Clarkson Show. Kitti has spoken about Refuge at Creative Mornings, the Q Commons, Leadercast Women, Google Atlanta, the Chick-fil-A Impact Accelerator Conference, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and at other venues where people come to hear stories about justice and mercy.
Connect with Kitti: www.refugecoffeeco.com
Instagram: @refugecoffeeco
Refuge Coffee Co. is a nonprofit coffee company with a mission to offer competitive-wage, full-time jobs, job training, and mentorship for refugee neighbors; create safe, welcoming, agendaless spaces for the world to gather and enjoy conversation and coffee; and tell a more beautiful, accurate refugee story to Atlanta and beyond.
With more than 25 years of experience in Central Texas education, Lori has served as a classroom teacher, special education teacher, district behavior specialist, assistant principal and principal. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to doing what is best for students while supporting the educators and systems that serve them.
Throughout her career, Lori has been recognized as District Teacher of the Year and Special Educator of the Year. She also participated in the Raise Your Hand Texas Harvard Leadership Program.
Lori earned a master's degree in Special Education from Texas State University and a bachelor's degree in Special Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
E3 Alliance is a place-based partnership that brings together students, educators, families, schools, businesses, nonprofits and community leaders to improve outcomes across Central Texas. Our mission is to transform education systems through data and collaboration, so all students succeed. Guided by our core values of being trustworthy, resolute, collaborative and intentional, we work to create lasting change from cradle to career.
BookSpring is an Austin-based nonprofit that helps children and families build lifelong reading habits through free books, family reading support, and community partnerships. Serving children from birth through age 12, BookSpring works with healthcare providers, schools, early childhood programs, and local organizations to create reading-rich homes and communities.
Topics book access, early literacy nonprofit, nonprofit collaboration, earned revenue for nonprofits, nonprofit data and outcomes, nonprofit leadership, nonprofit funding strategy, book deserts, nonprofit sustainability
Topics: nonprofit execution gap, nonprofit project management, how to estimate projects nonprofit, nonprofit strategy execution, nonprofit planning and budgeting, nonprofit team management, strategy to execution
Connecting strategy and execution is a leadership discipline, not just an operations responsibility.
Leadership engagement and sponsorship is more important than any single executor — without it, the project and the organization are at risk.
Successful initiatives require teams understand the why behind strategy, aligned objectives and incentives, and a consistent prioritization framework to maintain focus.
Execution is a leadership discipline. Organizations deliver when leadership asks the right questions, uses data, protects team focus, and proactively removes barriers.
Company Website: tacosa360.com
Impact Catapult: www.impactcatapult.com
YouTube: youtube.com/@Tacosa360
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tanjahoran
Topics: nonprofit project management, closing the execution gap, why nonprofit projects fail, nonprofit strategy to execution, execution is leadership, nonprofit initiative failure, project management for nonprofit leaders, nonprofit leadership accountability, Make Nonprofits Profitable podcast, nonprofit executive strategy
