Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode three seventy two. Today's topic might make some
Speaker 2: people uncomfortable. It might challenge some deeply held beliefs, especially
Speaker 2: in the nonprofit and public service sectors, but it's time
Speaker 2: someone set it out loud. There is no mission without money.
Speaker 2: You can have the most noble, honorable, purpose driven mission
Speaker 2: in the world. You can be saving lives, changing communities,
Speaker 2: helping children, protecting the environment, or inspiring the next generation
Speaker 2: of leaders. But if the money dries up, so does
Speaker 2: your mission. So let's stop pretending that passion alone pays
Speaker 2: the bills, because it doesn't. Your payroll doesn't run on passion,
Speaker 2: your vehicles don't get filled with inspiration. Your electric bill
Speaker 2: doesn't care how many people you helped last month. I've
Speaker 2: worked in the nonprofit in public service world long enough
Speaker 2: to see how often leaders fall into a dangerous trap.
Speaker 2: They elevate the mission so high that they treat money
Speaker 2: like a distraction or worse like it's dirty. But here's
Speaker 2: the truth. Money isn't the enemy. Money is the fuel.
Speaker 2: When you embrace that mindset, everything changes. You start making
Speaker 2: better business decisions, you start protecting your people from burnout,
Speaker 2: you stop apologizing for needing resources to operate. You get strategic.
Speaker 2: So let me say it plainly. If you're running a
Speaker 2: mission driven organization and you're not thinking like a business,
Speaker 2: you're not leading. You're hoping. And hope while powerful, is
Speaker 2: not a strategy. Think about this. Churches need donations, charities
Speaker 2: need donors, ems needs billing, schools need funding. Even volunteer
Speaker 2: organizations need grants and equipment. Without money, you have a
Speaker 2: nice idea. With money, you have impact. And let's take
Speaker 2: this further because money also equals sustainability. The most successful
Speaker 2: mission focused leaders I know are ruthless about building strong
Speaker 2: financial systems. They budget smart, they invest wisely, they diversify
Speaker 2: their revenue streams, and most importantly, they never lose sight
Speaker 2: of the fact that people are counting on them to
Speaker 2: show up tomorrow just like they did today. But let's
Speaker 2: pause here. Some of you might be thinking, yeah, but
Speaker 2: I didn't sign up to be a fundraiser. I'm not
Speaker 2: in it for the money. I'm in it for the cause.
Speaker 2: I hear you, But leadership isn't always about doing what's comfortable.
Speaker 2: It's about doing what's necessary, and sometimes that means stepping
Speaker 2: into the uncomfortable world of financial conversations, negotiations, fundraising, and
Speaker 2: operational oversight. Here's what I've learned. When you respect the mission,
Speaker 2: you protect the money, you budget with intention, you plan
Speaker 2: for the lean times, you hold every dollar accountable, You
Speaker 2: build reserves, and you never ever make your team feel
Speaker 2: guilty for needing the tools, training, and support to do
Speaker 2: their jobs well. You want to grow your mission, then
Speaker 2: grow your business brain. Learn how to read a profit
Speaker 2: and loss statement, Learn the language of grants, donors, and investors.
Speaker 2: Sit with your accountant until the numbers make sense. These
Speaker 2: things matter because impact follows investment. I once heard a
Speaker 2: mentor say, if you don't ask for the money, someone
Speaker 2: else will and they'll get it. That stuck with me,
Speaker 2: not because I want to be greedy, but because I
Speaker 2: want to make sure the work I believe in gets funded,
Speaker 2: gets traction, and gets result. So let's flip the script.
Speaker 2: Let's stop treating money like it's the opposite of mission.
Speaker 2: Let's start treating it like the mission's best friend. A
Speaker 2: well funded mission changes lives at scale. A broke mission
Speaker 2: it burns people out, collapses under pressure, and fades into irrelevance.
Speaker 2: So what do you do next? Here's your leadership challenge.
Speaker 2: Audit your mindset. Are you resisting financial strategy because it
Speaker 2: feels impersonal, because it's hard, because it's not in your
Speaker 2: comfort zone. You have to get over that. Leadership is
Speaker 2: always about stepping into discomfort and protect the revenue stream.
Speaker 2: Know where your money comes from, Know how it's spent.
Speaker 2: Make sure your team understands how they're work. Ties into
Speaker 2: financial sustainability, and learn to tell your impact story in
Speaker 2: dollars and data. People fund outcomes, not effort. Can you
Speaker 2: prove the return on investment for your mission and build
Speaker 2: a reserve? Start small if you have to, but plan
Speaker 2: for the future. Financial emergencies should never kill good missions,
Speaker 2: and lead with transparency. Let your team know how tight
Speaker 2: or healthy the budget is. People respect leaders who are
Speaker 2: real about the numbers and who show a plan to
Speaker 2: keep the mission alive. You can't help people if your
Speaker 2: doors are closed. You can't change the world if you
Speaker 2: can't afford to turn on the lights. That's the hard
Speaker 2: truth and one we all must accept and understand. Mission
Speaker 2: without money is just a dream, and dreams don't pay
Speaker 2: the electric bill. But there's no shame in that. In fact,
Speaker 2: there's power in owning it because when you embrace the
Speaker 2: business side of your mission, you don't just survive, you
Speaker 2: build strength, strategy, and sustainability. So keep doing good, but
Speaker 2: do it smart because your impact and mission depends on it.
Speaker 2: This has been the seven Minute Leadership podcast, and I
Speaker 2: thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.