How to Earn Trust in a New Nonprofit Leadership Role

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This week on the Nonprofit Jenni Show, we chat with Taneshia Nash Laird, President and CEO of Newark Symphony Hall, about how she’s built trust with her community and other organizations that support her work.

Advice for Nonprofit Leaders in a New Role

This week’s pod starts with a question: Have you ever felt like a total outsider at your workplace or in your community?

Maybe you’re like me; you moved to a new city in the middle of a pandemic and have really struggled to get connected with your new community. Or maybe you’re like my guest, Taneshia, who became the leader of a longstanding nonprofit with ambitious goals your community wasn’t quite ready to jump on board with.

Taneshia shares her story about how she earned buy-in from her community to promote the arts and local artists in Newark. Some of my biggest takeaways from our interview include:

1. Show, don’t tell. Taneshia built trust with key stakeholders by actively seeking out and securing revenue- and recognition-generating opportunities for Newark Symphony Hall within her first year as their new CEO.

2. Pay your people. Many nonprofit leaders try to find as much free volunteer help as possible for their programs, but Taneshia prioritizes paying local artists for their work. This commitment to equitable pay demonstrates that she truly values artists’ talent and time.

3. Play well with others. Taneshia believes in the power of collaboration instead of viewing other community organizations as competitors. She acknowledges the unique value every player brings to the table to build a stronger arts-centric city together.

Listen to the Full Episode

Listen to my full conversation with Taneshia to hear her story:

Jenni’s Favorite Resources This Week

Every week on my blog, I collect my top favorite resources for nonprofits to check out! Many of these relate to the topics covered on the podcast that week, but they’re great to check out any time:

  • Find Best-Fit Funders for Your Nonprofit — Start a 14-day free trial with Instrumentl to get instantly matched to the grant opportunities your nonprofit is most likely to qualify for. Then use Instrumentl’s awesome systems to research the funders providing these grants; track your progress in managing the grants; and get automatic updates if the funder changes any requirements along the way.

  • Free Fundraising Resources — My favorite donor management platform, Little Green Light, created this free library of ebooks and courses for you to learn fundraising best practices.

  • My once-per-week email newsletter — Get a short summary of every podcast episode plus free marketing and fundraising resources!