Some of you have been seeing my name associated with at group called “The Concord Leadership Group LLC.” You’ve seen it mentioned in the emails you get from The Fundraising Coach. And over the last few weeks, since the release of the nonprofit sector leadership report, you’ve probably seen more and more posts from The Concord Leadership Group.
Hey Fundraising Coach, what’s is The Concord Leadership Group LLC
I’m increasingly being asked “The Concord Leadership Group? What is that?” After replying privately to dozens of people, I thought I’d explain more fully here too.
The short version
The Concord Leadership Group LLC now runs both The Fundraising Coach and The Nonprofit Academy.
The back story
Over the last five years, a growing number of you have been hiring me to help with your leadership. You’ve told me: “I don’t want the ‘fundraising’ help. I want help with:
- orienting my board to be effective trustees in all ways
- improving my employee satisfaction
- working with a unionized labor force
- figuring out how “corporators” fit in our nonprofit structure
- handling bullying by my board of directors.
And, frankly, in hiring me for these projects, you’ve told me that while you love the Fundraising Coach style, you wish you had a website that wouldn’t cause your board to say, “But we don’t need ‘fundraising’ help.”
I have been thrilled. I have always been a leadership coach. My Masters is in Organizational Leadership. My coach certification is through FranklinCovey. And, twelve years ago when I started The Fundraising Coach, it was because fundraising is all about leadership: mission, vision, values, performance evaluation, etc.
Why “Concord”?
So we needed to think of what we’d call this new entity. We’ve been in a long season of dreaming and strategizing. We brainstormed our values and passions. I have lists and lists of words to describe what we do – even researching them in Swedish, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Sanskrit for possibly company names.
“FINCHLEY”
I originally wanted to call this The Finchley Leadership Group because I love the line in the Narnia movie: “You must have the wrong people. We’re not heros. We’re from Finchley.”
I love working with leaders like this: leaders, true royalty, who are willing to grow into their greatness but aren’t enamored with themselves. But since I could only find that line in the Disney movie, I opted to go a different route. I wanted something a bit more universal and less open to a lawsuit.
But I did retain the Narnia-esque connection by having the lamppost be my firm’s symbol!
“CONCORD”
While seeking an appropriate name for the firm, one that described us without sounding cute or corny or flakey, I came across the word “concord” in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. No, not the town, but the actual word.
Something about “concord” resonated with all the other terms we’d brainstormed. In studying the etymology, I discovered that concord in part comes from the Latin “of one mind” or “together with heart.”
Wow.
This describes the transformation I see in the leaders I coach. Many come to me with split minds and conflicting emotions. I get to help them back into harmony and integrity. So The Concord Leadership Group LLC was created. The group includes:
- the low-cost training of The Nonprofit Academy and
- specific coaching and training of The Fundraising Coach.
I will still run The Fundraising Coach as you are used to it: blogging, writing the Ask Without Fear! email newsletters, sending the Fundraising Kick coaching emails, and doing the speaking an training you expect. And The Nonprofit Academy members will still receive instant access to over 80 trainings, tools, and templates and new live trainings and new live coaching calls each month.
But if you are a leader, The Concord Leadership Group could be a bright light. Over the last few years, our leadership work has already helped leaders grow employee satisfaction by double digits in a year, strategize working with bullying boards (even though the same boards hired them!), and helped CEOs create goals that bring harmony to their team and unify it around their common mission.
Rather than just “put up a website,” we spearheaded a several months long research project with seven other organizations examining leadership in the nonprofit sector. You can download a free copy of that report at: http://concordleadershipgroup.com/report/.
