

These are challenging times for all kinds of reasons, given the isolation of the pandemic, the obvious disparities of race and privilege we’re seeing up close, and the economic uncertainties that affect our personal and professional livelihoods. These existential questions don’t have easy answers, but nonprofit leaders are looking for guidance as they get their heads around them and evaluate what it means for their career journey. This episode of the Path Podcast includes a framework used in Patton’s coaching on Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, including six specific questions that will help sharpen your goals and design a Vision Framework. We’ve all had more time to reflect these days, and these questions will give you things to consider and perhaps prompt a writing or journaling exercise. As a result, you’ll better articulate your long-term goals on the Nonprofit Path.
Patton has spent his entire 30-year career helping talented individuals raise more funds and effectively lead their nonprofit organizations. After starting his consulting practice in 2009, he and his colleagues have worked with the leaders of more than 230 nonprofit organizations. Before starting PMA Consulting, he spent a decade in higher education as Vice President for Advancement at Queens University after serving in the same role at UNC Wilmington, where he was the youngest vice chancellor in the UNC system. Prior to his tenure in higher education, he worked with volunteers from 85 different counties as the state Program Director for Special Olympics North Carolina and as an Assistant for Education & Training for Special Olympics International in Washington DC, where he helped design coach and volunteer training curriculum used worldwide. Patton grew up in Elizabeth City, NC, and went to UNC Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar where he received a BA in English Education. He received his MBA from the McColl School of Business while working at Queens, and his Doctorate in Education (Organizational Change & Leadership) from the Rossier School at the University of Southern California. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), and a Master Trainer for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) International. He also serves as the Lead Faculty Member for the Institute for Philanthropic Leadership in Charlotte, where he works with aspiring nonprofit leaders through the Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy program and coaches an annual cohort of Executive Directors and Chief Development Officers through Leadership Gift School.
Listen: New to Nonprofit? Five Ways to Hit the Ground Running (Mike Blackwelder)
Read: New to the Nonprofit World? 5 Ways to Hit the Ground Running
Listen: Fortune 500 to Nonprofit Founder & CEO (Tina Admans)
Listen: Making the Jump: Corporate America to Nonprofit Executive (Kristin Beck)
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