The Hive Collective Podcast: Shifting Power in Nonprofits – Details, episodes & analysis

Embracing the Menstrual Cycle for a Healthier Life

In this episode, we dive into the transformative insights behind Period Reality with our founder Marlou Cornelison, Silindile Khuzwayo, and Denzil Doyle . We explore how the 24-hour societal cycle doesn't align with the reality for people with menstrual cycles, whose hormones fluctuate over an average 28-day period. This difference means a daily change in mood, energy, and productivity levels, and we discuss how tracking these shifts can empower individuals to better understand their bodies and optimize their lives.

Key highlights include:
- The **four phases** of the menstrual cycle and how they impact everything from creativity to confidence.
- The importance of **cycle tracking** as a tool to reconnect with our bodies and advocate for our health.
- How understanding our personal cycle can help in planning tasks, scheduling social events, and managing energy levels.
- Real stories from our guests about how cycle tracking revealed underlying health conditions and improved overall well-being.
- How societal change and workplace adjustments can support people who operate on a 28-day hormonal cycle instead of a 24-hour one.

Join us as we shed light on this under-researched area of women's health and discuss the Period Reality movement's goal of educating and advocating for policy reform by 2030 to support this hormonal cycle difference.

Listen now for an empowering conversation on syncing with your natural cycle, giving yourself grace, and embracing your full potential!

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

Welcome to The Hive Collective Podcast with your host, Beth Ellen Holimon. In this episode, we explore how nonprofits can shift power dynamics by centering those directly impacted by systemic injustices. Today’s guests are:

Cameron Smith – Writer, anti-racism activist, and co-founder of Communities in Partnership (CIP) in Durham, NC. She shares her powerful story of how a tragic event led to the creation of a "community-rooted" organization.
Jen Zuckerman -Advisory board member at CIP, consultant on power reorganization, and former philanthropy executive. She discusses her journey from traditional power structures to understanding and supporting community-rooted movements.
Join us for a deep dive into how these leaders are reshaping narratives, building relationships, and rethinking the role of nonprofits.


Full Bios:
Camryn Smith is a proud resident of Old East Durham and a community activist & organizer. She has been serving in place-based development work for over 23 years both stateside and abroad. Camryn is one of the founding members of Communities In Partnership (CIP), a community-rooted organizing and education group based in Old East Durham and serves as the Founding Executive Director. CIP focuses on addressing policy and systemic inequity for BIPOC and materially poor people within Durham focusing on social determinants of health, economic development, gentrification, and housing. Camryn is a RWJF Culture of Health Leader (Cohort 3), and an Aspen Institute Healthy Communities Fellow (cohort/2022). She also serves locally as co-chair of Organizing Against Racism-Durham as well as serving as a member of the Racial Equity Taskforce for the City of Durham and the Built2Last/Durham Compact Board of Advisors. She also serves on the Executive and Steering Committees for the Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD) which is a national collaborative of food systems organizations run by black and brown communities to reshape the narrative surrounding food, community and economic development centered in black and brown liberation.  To see more, go to the CIP website.  

 Jen Zuckerman is owner of Zuckerman Consulting, working with philanthropic, academic, and community organizations on issues of power, connection, and authentic relationship building. As part of her work with Zuckerman Consulting, Jen contracts with the DEI Works Collective.  Her work focuses on institutional organizing, concentrating specifically on recognizing power and operationalizing power shift strategies.

 She previously served as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Duke University’s World Food Policy Center, focusing on people-first policy development for equitable food policy in the US.  There, she supported research to demonstrate the racialized history of policies that have created the inequities in the food system of today, identifying strategies that shift power and decision making to community leadership.  

 Jen’s background is in philanthropy, spending twelve years at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation as the Senior Program Officer for Healthy Living and the Director of Strategic Partnerships and as a Board member/Board Chair of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders Network. 

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

The Global Fund for Women is enabling Black feminist organizations to get a greater foothold in the philanthropy space by providing fiscal sponsorship. In this episode, Beth Ellen interviews Shonda Brooks from Global Fund for Women and Lori Robinson from VidaAfrolatina. VidaAfrolatina is sponsored by the Global Fund for Women and is bringing light to people who are Afro-descendent in Latin America, the invisibilization that has been occurring for centuries, and the sexual abuse that is associated happens when a population is unseen. 

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

Women's Earth Alliance has a unique triple co-director leadership model that reflects their organizational culture as an ecosystem that adapts, responds, supports, and cares. They don't just shift power. They redistribute it, mold it and turn it into something that draws people in. Get to know Kahea Pacheco, Melinda Ruth Kramer, and Amira Diamond who have been leading WEA for over a decade.

Women's Earth Alliance  empowers women and girls to become leaders and change makers in their communities. They work to achieve environmental sustainability social justice and human rights.

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

 Beth Ellen Holimon interviews Topher Wilkins who has been bringing people together in community for many years through Opportunity Collaboration. This global community of changemakers comes together once a year, and now more often, to support each other in building sustainable solutions for ending poverty and injustice. Topher is a true visionary and will share with us the power shifting transition Opportunity Collaboration has been undertaking. He'll also share with us a personal project he is participating in called Lunar University.

Find the visual Topher mentions here.

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

Episode 3 features Jill Lalonde, executive director of OneVillage Partners working in Sierra Leone, and Harriet Spears, leading partnerships for Women's Global Education Project.  With podcast host Beth Ellen Holimon, they discuss community-centric fundraising and its role in fundraising for international organizations, how to engage your board in shifting power, and the hard questions we have to ask ourselves as leaders when shifting power. 

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

Beth Ellen interviews Alison Carlman about how her Global Giving team recently stopped one of their seemingly successful programs cold because it was not achieving their equity goals fast enough. They used human-centered design to co-create a new model that is more equitable and so much more. You are gonna want to hear this!

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

Travis Ning is the former ED of  MAIA Impact. MAIA Impact is redefining the word school and rural Guatemala through a holistic educational model with an equal focus on academics, culture, and identity creating a generation of empowered girl pioneers. 

We always say that in mission-driven organizations we want to work ourselves out of a job.  Travis Ning, former ED of MAIA Impact, has achieved that .  MAIA Impact’s work is still needed and relevant, but their goal has always been to develop Mayan leaders to take the program on.  Having Mayan leadership direct the program means the leaders are now proximate to the problems they are trying to solve. They have successfully transitioned leadership to two extraordinary Mayan women and we are going to talk to Travis about he got there. 

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

In this episode of The Hive Collective Podcast, we sit down with Sumona Majumdar, the CEO of Earth Island Institute, to explore her journey and the significant changes she has introduced since taking on the role in March of last year. Sumona shares the thoughtful approach she took in her initial months, starting with a two-day retreat designed to foster shared values and build strong relationships within her team.

Sumona discusses how these retreats, held every four to five months, were instrumental in creating an environment of trust and open communication. The process involved engaging activities that allowed team members to connect on a personal level, which paved the way for honest discussions about values and future goals.

A particularly memorable activity was envisioning the impact of their work seven generations into the future, as well as reflecting on their ancestral histories. This exercise helped team members connect on a deeper level, acknowledging their diverse backgrounds while uniting around a common vision for the future.

Central to their transformation was the implementation of collective governance. Earth Island Institute adopted values such as community, adaptability, justice, equity, and power sharing, which have become the guiding principles for their decision-making processes. They established decision-making circles for critical areas like compensation, hiring, and DEI, involving a broader range of staff in these decisions to distribute the leadership load more equitably.

Sumona also reflects on the challenges of this transition, including the initial excitement and the practical concerns of managing increased workloads. Despite some ongoing adjustments, the shift to collective governance has been a positive step towards a more inclusive and collaborative work environment.

Tune in to hear more about how Earth Island Institute is navigating these changes and the impact of shared values on its organizational culture.

Connect with us:

• Visit Earth Island Institute: https://www.earthisland.org/
• Visit our website: Hive Collective
• Follow Beth Ellen Holimon on LinkedIn for more insights and updates.https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-ellen-holimon-cfre/

@Beth Ellen Holimon

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!

In this episode, we dive into the world of improv with Harrison Brookie, the Executive Director of Alchemy Comedy Theater. Harrison shares his journey into improv, starting from a theater requirement in college to leading a successful comedy theater in Greenville, South Carolina. He explains the essence of Alchemy Comedy, highlighting their weekly shows, classes, and corporate training programs.

Harrison's journey began with a simple requirement: participate in a theater production during his time as an education major at Clemson University. Seeking the least demanding option, he stumbled upon improv. What started as a convenient choice turned into a passion that has now spanned two decades.

Alchemy Comedy Theater, named after the concept of transforming the mundane into something precious, offers a range of classes from beginner to advanced levels. These classes teach students how to create something out of nothing, turning audience suggestions into comedy gold. The theater also engages in corporate training, demonstrating the practical applications of improv in the workplace.

Harrison delves into how improv skills are relevant to management and working with people. He emphasizes the importance of the "Yes, and" principle, where accepting and building on ideas fosters creativity and collaboration. This mindset encourages teams to explore the potential in every idea, leading to innovative solutions that no one person could have conceived alone.

One notable concept Harrison shares is the idea of adding "1% weird" to interactions. This principle encourages participants to spot and highlight unique, interesting aspects of a situation, making interactions more engaging and memorable. This approach not only makes business processes more enjoyable but also helps in identifying patterns and generating creative solutions.

Harrison also discusses the importance of ensemble thinking in improv, which parallels effective teamwork in any organization. He draws from his experience as a high school U.S. history teacher, illustrating how improv techniques enhance storytelling and engage students. He highlights the value of collaboration, where multiple perspectives and contributions lead to a richer and more dynamic outcome.

In a nonprofit context, Harrison explains how improv principles can be applied to team meetings and problem-solving. By fostering a culture of openness and humor, nonprofits can tackle serious issues like hunger with a fresh perspective. He encourages leaders to take themselves less seriously, allowing for a more relaxed environment where creativity can flourish.

Finally, Harrison underscores the role of leadership in creating a trusting and collaborative environment. He shares an anecdote about a CEO learning to accept feedback, illustrating the impact of genuine openness and the willingness to let others take the reins.

Tune in to this insightful episode to learn how the art of improv can transform your approach to leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving in the nonprofit sector.

---
**Credits:**
Guest: Harrison Brookie, Executive Director of Alchemy Comedy Theater

Host: Beth Ellen Holimon

Podcast: The Hive Collective Podcast

Find us on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-ellen-holimon-cfre/

For more information about Alchemy Comedy Theater, visit: http://alchemycomedy.com/

@Beth Ellen Holimon

https://hivecollective.net

The Hive Collective is a strategic partner to nonprofits and NGOs all over the world. Reach out to us at info@hivecollective.net

Hivecollective.net

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hive Collective Podcast!