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Seven Not-So-Radical Reminders for Black Nonprofit Leaders in Celebration of Juneteenth
Juneteenth is a celebration. It is also a complicated truth, a reminder that freedom announced is not always freedom delivered, and that the work of liberation has never been finished in a single moment.
Jun 84 min read
What a High-Functioning Board Looks Like for Community-Rooted Organizations
For community-rooted organizations, a high-functioning board is not just one that meets its legal obligations and shows up to quarterly meetings. It is one that understands the community the organization exists to serve, uses its influence to resource the work, and protects the mission when the pressure to compromise it is highest.
Jun 53 min read
Your Board of Directors Should Be One of Your Greatest Assets
Your board should be one of your organization's most powerful assets. If it is not, that is worth examining and changing.
Jun 42 min read
How to Build a Case for General Operating Support
Most foundations do not offer general operating support as a standard option, and the problem is not that nonprofit leaders are not asking. It is that the ask often has nowhere to land. Here is how to make the case anyway.
May 104 min read
Five Ways a Theory of Change Strengthens Your Case for Funding
Most organizations can describe what they do. Far fewer can explain how what they do creates the change they are working toward, and that gap is costing them vital funding.
May 104 min read
Systemic Care: Sustaining Yourself as an Intersectionally Marginalized Leader
Leading radical change while personally living inside the conditions you are fighting to change is a particular kind of weight, and it does not take a month off. This one is about what it takes to sustain yourself when the world feels like it has reached its boiling point.
May 104 min read
From Doing It All To Doing What Matters
When Reverend Dr. LaKeisha Cook fully stepped into the Executive Director role at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP) in 2024, she inherited a proud legacy of faith-based advocacy and a team committed to justice in Virginia. She also inherited a quieter, harder truth.
May 43 min read
Good Intentions Don't Scale. Systems Do.
Potential without systems is just chaos with good intentions. Here's what organizational maturity actually looks like and how to build the structure your mission deserves.
Apr 113 min read
Your Fundraising Toolbox: Six Strategies to Diversify Your Nonprofit Revenue
We hear “diversify your nonprofit revenue” all the time. But nobody really breaks down what that looks like when you’re the one holding the work together day to day.
So let’s make it plain. If you’re building a fundraising strategy right now, these are some of the pieces worth putting in place.
Apr 113 min read
Community Needs Are the Strategy: How Black-Led Nonprofits Can Reclaim the Grant Narrative
If you are a nonprofit leader, you already know what it costs to translate your community's truth into language a funder can process comfortably. This post names the structural problem and offers a framework for writing grants that starts with your community rather than with what philanthropy has historically been willing to fund.
Apr 114 min read
Building Across Generations: Why Intergenerational Leadership is Essential for Movement-Building
Learn why intergenerational collaboration is essential for nonprofit and movement-building organizations and how to embed it into your operational structure.
Mar 154 min read
Strengthening Your Fundraising Strategy Through Intergenerational Collaboration
When nonprofit organizations bring together the lived experience of seasoned leaders and the insights of emerging staff, they create development strategies that are more grounded, honest, and compelling to funders.
Mar 144 min read
Do Strategic Plans Still Matter?
The 3-5 year plan is a liability in today's landscape. But abandoning strategic thinking is a recipe for mission drift. What you need is strategic agility: a roadmap built for uncertainty, with stable core values, short-term pivots, and scenario planning. Stop defending old plans and start reading the room.
Mar 133 min read
Leadership Development as Risk Management for NonProfit Leaders
Many nonprofit leaders pour everything into their work, only to find themselves carrying the weight alone as growth demands more of them, and the leadership development they need simply isn’t there.
Feb 133 min read
Why Shared Leadership Helps Funders (And You) Breathe Easier
Shared leadership aligns naturally with community-centered ways of working, the same values many nonprofits lift up externally. Power is shared, voices are valued, and leadership is something we do together.
Feb 133 min read
The 3 Grant Mistakes Costing Nonprofits Millions
Recent grant applications to the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium’s Black Girls Dream Fund reveal how Black-led nonprofits navigate underfunding, burnout, and pressure to “perform” for funders. AI-generated language and vague, “do-everything” missions are common, but the strongest proposals show clear focus, cultural specificity, and deep, community-rooted expertise.
Jan 163 min read
The Cities We Dream In: A Global Retreat Series for Black Rest, Memory, and Liberation.
Exploring The Cities We Dream In: a global retreat series for Black American changemakers focusing on rest, memory, and liberation, which uses travel to explore cities that have served as portals of possibility for the African diaspora.
Nov 18, 20252 min read
Who’s Taking Care of the Caretakers?
Every day, nonprofit leaders show up for our communities. They mentor youth, design programs, raise funds, and hold space for others—often while carrying the invisible weight of exhaustion, anxiety, and responsibility. Their work changes lives, but it also takes a toll. At Strategic Disruption, we believe that caring for others begins with caring for ourselves. That’s why we launched Who’s Taking Care of the Caretakers? , a community wellness series designed to nourish the pe
Nov 17, 20251 min read
Reflections from the 1st International Meeting on Afro-Tourism in Portugal
Afro-tourism is here, global, and led by Black travelers — especially Black women. From Portugal to Brazil, leaders are reimagining tourism so Black culture, safety, and economic power are non-negotiable. Strategic Disruption joins this movement through retreats and exchanges that center Black joy, memory, and justice across the African diaspora.
Nov 13, 20253 min read
We Create Anyway: Lessons from Black Creatives at Tribeca Festival Lisboa
Tribeca Film Festival in Lisbon was a gathering of artistry, culture, and creative lineage. It reminded us that storytelling is how we record memory, name truth, and shape the worlds we live in. Craft and Candor from Industry Veterans There were recognizable names on stage, including Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and Edie Falco (The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie). Giancarlo Esposito emphasized discipline and intentional presence—treating acting as a practice of
Nov 10, 20252 min read
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