Q&A with our 2024 Leadership Summit Keynote Speaker

New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits’ CEO, Kathleen Reardon sat down with this year’s Nonprofit Leadership Summit keynote speaker, Donna Murray-Brown, Vice President for Development and Strategy at the National Council for Nonprofits, to talk about her professional journey to nonprofit leadership, her hopes for the nonprofit sector, and why building power through collaboration is so vital in a time of virtual meetings.

You can hear more from Donna on Friday, September 27 at the Nonprofit Leadership Summit. 

Kathleen Reardon: For the people who are not familiar with the National Council for Nonprofits and its relationship with the Center and other state associations, can you tell us what the National Council for Nonprofits is?

Donna Murray-Brown: The National Council for Nonprofits is the largest network of nonprofits in North America. We have 35,000 individual members as a part of a 55 member-network. The 55-member network is made up of state associations and regional associations that serve at the core of their work, nonprofits. 

We champion the work of nonprofits, ensuring there's a robust operating environment for nonprofits to do their work. The Council advocates on behalf of them through strong public policy and legislative strategies that help nonprofits to be able to do their work. We really take that seriously. 

Kathleen: Tell Us about your role at the National Council for Nonprofits.

Donna: I currently serve as Vice President for Development and Strategy for the National Council of Nonprofits. For me, it was imperative when I accepted the role that it included strategy. It’s hard to raise money when you’re not part of the strategy of the why or how you’re going to get there. So, marrying those two things together (fundraising and strategy), I get the chance to work with every aspect of the organization’s work, develop strategies, and then I take those ideas and strategies to people who would likely be investors and foundations, and sometimes individual donors, and talk about our work. 

I think I probably have the best job because I get to work with everybody and get a chance to do a lot of research and get an understanding of what nonprofits need, the innovative ideas that they are coming up with, and how we can support them.

Kathleen: So going backwards a little bit, Donna, you and I share a little bit of a career trajectory having had experience in banking and both actually working together for some time at Citizens Financial Group, both in the community reinvestment area, tell me a little bit more about why you made the leap into nonprofits from banking? 

Donna: Yeah, it wasn't necessarily a conscious decision, I'll say that. Working in community reinvestment was one of the best jobs I've ever had; it really was gratifying. But what it also did was put me in the community in a very deep way and help me realize that I had a heart for nonprofit service.

This is such a rewarding opportunity to work in the [nonprofit] sector and to bring those skills from banking, to bring the work that we did together in our respective communities,  and bring that to bear. And I think I'm better as a nonprofit practitioner because of that. 

Kathleen: You're joining us for the Nonprofit Leadership Summit, later this month, and you're going to be talking about building our power through collaboration.  Why is that theme important to you?

Donna: In 2020, everything changed for everybody, not just the nonprofit sector, but it created this sense of isolation. 

Building power through collaboration is really an acknowledgement that being in community, is not only good for our souls as individuals, but good for the diversity of thinking, innovation and gaining power in learning and advancing work. And that happens not in isolation, that happens really in togetherness. 

I really look forward to speaking at the Summit about the power of community and what we can do together. And recognize that collaboration and community is not an easy thing. It really stretches you beyond your comfort zone to get into that space. 

Kathleen: I'm excited to hear more when we're there. One other thing that you and I have talked about before is that a big part of being a leader is mentoring others and creating space for the next generation of leaders. What advice do you give emerging leaders in our sector? 

Donna: I have a particular fondness for emerging leaders for a few reasons. One, I'm raising adult children right now. They're almost 30 at this point, and I can see firsthand the struggles that they have in finding their way and navigating their careers.

But also, I kind of fell into the nonprofit sector. There wasn't someone guiding me and helping me through that process. 

And for people already in the sector, it's almost just as mysterious to figure out how to advance? Also, for me as a woman of color, there are not many of me that are leading nonprofit organizations, and I have a sensitivity to that in terms of trying to support them and helping them navigate how to advance in the nonprofit sector.

And then even outside of that, women make up around  74-75% of people in the nonprofit sector, but not all of them are leading. And so why is that? How do we help that? 

I am a believer of inter-generational environments where we all can learn from each other, learning from the wisdom of those who've been in the sector for some time and being open to the new ideas about how to do things differently. 

Kathleen: What are your hopes for the nonprofit sector at this moment in time?

Donna: My biggest dream is that we are understood for the impact that we make, that we're essential. But I know that that can only happen if we're working in community and all together to create and push that narrative 

I think if we get there, we'll see changes in other areas. We'll see legislators be able to say, I've got to make this change for nonprofits to be able to do their work. We'll see foundations think differently about how they fund, and we'll see individual donors think differently about how they actually keep this sector strong. So that's my biggest dream.