Episode Summary

Most nonprofit leaders don’t fail because of mission. They get stuck running one part of the operation well while neglecting the rest, often because they rose through programming and never learned the business of running an organization. In this episode, Lauren Deiorio, President & CEO of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, shares the Roadmap to Success, a practical tool she helped build that breaks nonprofit excellence into nine “destinations”: governance, HR, financial management, fundraising, communications, technology, strategic collaborations, community empowerment and grant strategy. Drawing on a finance and public accounting background and nine years leading her foundation, Lauren explains why treating your nonprofit like a business, with engaged boards, strong internal controls, diversified revenue and clear communications, is what earns donor confidence. She offers a concrete way to put the roadmap to work as a self-assessment, pairing a staff member with a board member on each destination throughout the year. Listeners will walk away with a mental checklist for diagnosing where their organization is strong, where it’s vulnerable and exactly where to start.

About Lauren

Lauren Deiorio is President & CEO of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, where she leads a nonprofit resource center dedicated to helping local organizations grow stronger and run more like a business. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Lauren earned a degree in finance and spent years in public accounting before moving into the philanthropic sector, first as the fund development director for her local school district and then, for the past nine years, at the helm of the Community Foundation. A self-described numbers person who joined her local public relations association to sharpen her communications skills, she co-created the foundation’s Roadmap to Success, now in its second edition with an accompanying workbook nonprofits across the region use as a self-study guide. Based near Orlando, she’s a fan of common-sense customer service, and has led her own staff through a book study on the subject.

Resources

• Connect with Lauren: LinkedIn | lauren@ocalafoundation.org

• Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County: ocalafoundation.org

• Roadmap to Success: the nine-destination nonprofit handbook and workbook (order at ocalafoundation.org)

• Book recommendation: The Customer Rules by Lee Cockrell

• Also mentioned: Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

• Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!

• Learn more about our leadership development resources

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