An announcement. Thanks to the generous support and encouragement of an anonymous donor, I have the privilege of launching a for-impact organization, Impact Now: When Women Lead. Our mission: Provide high quality, affordable coaching and support to women who lead in for-impact settings.
Now, for a few definitions.
For-Impact
Simon Sinek challenges all of us who are involved with 501 (c) (3) organizations—organizations with a tax designation, “non -profit”—to quit calling ourselves “non-profit.” Since I first saw Sinek’s short video, STOP Calling Yourself a Non-Profit, I’ve been re-training myself (and yes, it’s re-training!) to call such organizations “for-impact.” Sinek points out the following:
- “Non-profit is a tax designation.”
- Non-profit fails to describe what organizations with that tax designation actually do.
- Organizations with the non-profit tax designation must make a profit to accomplish their mission.
- Without profit, such organizations cannot do their work, whatever that might be: providing free health care to rural communities; building wells for clean water; maintaining a food bank; bringing music performances to schools that have no music programs.
- For-impact focuses on what those organizations do, not what they are not.
So, Impact Now clients are women who lead in for-impact organizations. Those can be mission or faith-based organizations, schools, associations, or health and social service enterprises. We serve women who lead in organizations that strive to make a positive impact in the lives of others for the ultimate purpose of ushering in a more just, equitable, and compassionate world.
High Quality
Our coaches are accredited coaches who have experience coaching women across leadership roles. Currently, coaches that work with us are accredited through the International Coach Federation.
Affordable
The cost for individual leadership coaching generally starts at $125/session. Impact Now provides coaching at the top rate of $50/session. Additional scholarships are available in cases where even that fee is out of reach.
Coaching and Support
Coaching is a personal and professional development method. It is based on the assumption that the client is a generative and creative individual who possesses knowledge and wisdom to answer her own questions and create her own solutions. Coaching is strengths-based. Coaching focuses forward. The client works toward realizing a vision and goals she sets for herself.
Coaching is experiential. The client learns in the moment and in her context. What she figures out in Tuesday’s coaching session she applies Wednesday morning.
The coach walks alongside the client as a partner. A coach who has engaged in her own professional formation (what some might call training) is skilled in facilitating powerful conversations with the client. The purpose of the conversations is to open doors for the client to recognize her own knowledge and wisdom. The powerful questions, reflection, deep listening, and other skills the coach employs are like flashlights that shine on truths that the client had been waiting to discover.
And that’s why Impact Now: When Women Lead exists: to support female leaders of for-impact organizations so they can, in turn, more effectively lead their organizations to make an impact.
Women
When women lead, “we all do better.”
Consider the following:
- Organizations with women in leadership roles do better financially and have less turnover. That results in stronger economic health for the organization and its employees.
- The more women in leadership roles in a business, the greater alignment between vision and strategy, which translates into higher employee engagement.
- Peace negotiations that involve women last longer than those where they are excluded.
- Peace negotiations where women have a say are more holistic and include demands for services to benefit the larger community (e.g., clean water, improved education, access to healthcare).
- When women participate in legislative and governing bodies, legislatures are more likely to pass comprehensive laws against domestic violence, rape, divorce, and sexual harrassment. Those governing bodies also pass more legislature to improve health care and education.
- Countries with higher numbers of women in decision-making roles have lower levels of economic disparity than countries where women are underrepresented in decision-making roles.
- And countries led by women during the COVID pandemic have suffered fewer consequences than countries led by men.
Who lead
A leader, as I define it, is anyone who intentionally influences others toward a goal or mission. Leadership does not depend on a title, a business card, or office location. Sure, leaders may have leadership-like titles: President, Vice-president, CEO, CFO, Director, Team Leader, Manager.
People without titles also lead. There’s the gracious woman who volunteers at the food pantry. She sets an example of genuine hospitality that other volunteers strive to emulate. She brings flowers from her garden to decorate the tables and mentors new volunteers. She demonstrates genuine concern for the wellbeing of the clients who come through the line.
There’s the office manager who witnesses the diminishing staff morale as the program director jumps from one project to the next without considering ramifications on staff. The office manager “leads up,” by preparing meeting agendas that address important issues the director neglects. She is courageous enough to confront the director with compassion and integrity and help the director improve for the benefit of the organization.
For-impact organizations
Organizations with a non-profit tax identification (i.e., for-impact organizations), especially small organizations, operate on tight budgets. They direct income to the services they provide while still meeting basic operational costs. When funding is available for staff development, it is often directed towards skill development directly associated with job responsibilities such (e.g., CRM systems, SEO optimization, and improving accounting processes).
Yet leadership requires more than practical knowledge and task-related skills. It requires—
- The ability to listen and engage others effectively for the benefit of the organization.
- Courage to take a stand, make the hard decisions, step back, and let go.
- Wisdom to know when to hold on and when to let go, when to step forward and when to step back, when to speak up and when to remain silent.
- The ability to set boundaries to maintain integrity.
- The willingness and ability to set a vision, chart the course, and move forward—both for the organization and for oneself.
join us
If you know a woman who—
- Leads in a small-to-mid-sized for-impact organization.
- Is eager to grow and develop her leadership confidence and skills.
—send her our way.
If you have a desire to support women who lead in for-impact organizations, please consider making a donation, so we can fulfill our mission!
* We use the term for-impact instead of non-profit. Why? Because, as Simon Sinek points out, non-profit is a tax identification. Organizations with the non-profit label are organizations that exist to make an impact, and that’s where we choose to put our emphasis: on impact.