How to Lead Nonprofits: Turning Purpose into Impact to Change the World

by Nick Grono

“A clear and compelling road map for social sector leadership, enlivened with vivid examples and strong writing. This work can help any nonprofit CEO who seeks to transform inspired purpose into a powerful flywheel of tangible impact.”
—Jim Collins, author, Good to Great and Good to Great and the Social Sectors

For nonprofit leaders who want to strengthen their leadership and increase the effectiveness of their organizations, this guide sets out a path to achieving greater impact—featuring success stories from real nonprofit leaders.

Nonprofit leadership is hard. Most new nonprofit leaders are ill-prepared for the challenges they will face. And many experienced ones struggle to ensure their organizations deliver the change they are committed to. 

Looking for guidance, many turn to books on business leadership, but nonprofits are not meant to be run just like businesses—different incentives drive different priorities. In particular, nonprofit leaders have a key advantage over business leaders in that purpose is fundamental to their organization’s work. 

From Nick Grono, Freedom Fund CEO and a nonprofit leader with decades of experience, How to Lead Nonprofits offers a leadership framework centered on what matters most for success:

• Achieving outsize impact by pursuing your organization's purpose
• Building an inclusive culture that motivates and empowers your team
• Partnering with the community you serve, funders, and peer organizations to scale impact

With examples and testimony from non-profit and charity leaders around the world, framed by Grono’s expertise, this is a highly useable guide to harnessing the power of purpose to shape everything your organization does—internally and externally—as you seek to change the world.

Genres: Business, Audiobook

256 pages, Hardcover

Published July 16, 2024

About the author

Nick Grono is an Australian human rights campaigner. He has been the CEO of the Freedom Fund since its founding in 2014. The Freedom Fund is a collaborative fund dedicated to ending modern slavery and human trafficking around the world.

He has twenty years of leadership experience of US and international nonprofits, and another decade before that working in corporate law, government, and investment banking.

Nick’s past roles include CEO of the Walk Free Foundation, Deputy President of the International Crisis Group, and Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser to the Australian Attorney-General. He has served on many nonprofit boards and currently is a member of the advisory council of Global Witness. He writes and speaks regularly on nonprofit leadership.

Nick has briefed the United Nations Security Council and testified before parliamentary committees in the UK, Australia and the Netherlands. He has appeared on national and international tv and radio shows, and written for various international publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Nick spent a number of years in his early life sailing around the world in a 100-year-old square-rigged sailing ship with his family and other crew members. He is Australian by birth, picked up Belgian and UK nationalities along the way, and is now lives between London and Brussels. His book “How to Lead Nonprofits”, was published in July 2024.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best book I’ve read on leading a nonprofit.

I’m currently founding a nonprofit, so I’ve been reading every book and article I can get my hands on. I haven’t written reviews on most of them. Grono’s book is an outlier, though, in that its stories are actually illustrative and not fluff; the advice is actionable; and each section provides well written explanations that are clear and supports the suggestions. The tone is humble unlike many books in this genre. And he tackles some critical topics such as culture and white savior complex. I’m grateful to have found this book, especially since the nonprofit I’m founding is in its start up days, meaning I can incorporate the advice of this book into our early foundation.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a useful book - I work in non-profit leadership and have struggled with a number of the issues Nick raises in this book - his guidance is accessible, enjoyable to read, and spot on. I particularly like the inclusion of examples from so many different types of NGOs, the identification of trends that run across all of these and pragmatic recommendations on how to anticipate and address these. There are so many books on leading companies but very few on leading NGOs and this really fills the gap for me - I will be referring back to this book frequently, and recommending it to friends and colleagues in the sector.

[Mathieu Lefevre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lead a non profit and this is the book I wished I read years ago! Strategy, vision. mission, board, team culture funding - this book has it all. A precious and complete crash course in leadership in the social space, full fo case studies and examples.

[Dan Viederman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great and useful book. It's clear and coherent enough to be read through, and practical if you consult it a chapter at a time to help with a specific problem (mission, human resources, boards, etc.). Nick shares examples from his own impressive current organization (the Freedom Fund), and features others' voices too -- the result is easy to grasp but not overly simplified. I've run NGOs for 25 years and I highly recommend this book - it belongs among the others on my 'non-profit essentials' shelf.

[Pradeep Narayanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is significant of this book is that Nick has kept organisation at the centre and tried to expand the centre and brought CEO, team, the board, then the partners; people and communities and them funders and peer networks into the centre! The book weaves paradigms into practices with own examples, and through interviews and some good anecdotes and quotes. The first set of chapters on purpose, mission, impact, strategy and people in that order provide readers a complete picture of the Organisation’s existential purpose and practice. Otherwise, such a boring topic, the book makes these topics alive by good anecdotes and examples and simple language.
The second part expands on People- and covers every Stakeholders with utmost dignity and providing importance to helping them see that each one is at the centre of the organisations mandate! I enjoyed reading it- primarily because in each chapter it appears that Nick is having conversation with a new story-teller who is grounded in that domain.

I think there is a need for Chapter 11. Certain domains have no story-tellers because their stories are not of survivorship, but of oppression; their stories are of survivorship within oppression not challenging oppression; their stories are conditioned stories- successes through agencies of others. The Power matters.

This book can lead you and your organisation to be a catalyst- a fighter would need chapter 11! Nick, looking forward for How to Lead Organisation 2.0- for non-profit is not a real differentiator between Non-Profit World and the mainstream. In fact, the term, Non-Profit, camouflages the entire struggle between Margins and Mainstream. Any organisation that tends and strives to represent powerless and their voices would need all these ten chapters and a 11th one!

A must read.

[AnnieM · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for those who work in not-for-profit organizations or serve on the Board or other volunteer capacity. The author has extensive experience leading not-for-profit organizations and covers all the bases. The contents are around purpose, people and partners. concepts are explained really clearly with great examples drawing on his own and other experiences (there are case studies and interviews). Particularly helpful was the section on measuring impact -- many not-for-profits don't do this well and instead focus on inputs and other measures vs. what will really move the needle and differentiate the organization's work from others. There are action points at the end of each section summarizing the key ideas. Some of the other important points he raises is about being the CEO or Executive Director (how to lead the organization and team), the role of the board, and ensuring to center the community and impacted people into the work. As a member of two non-profit board of directors, I found this book to be extremely helpful.

Thank you to Netgalley and BenBella Books for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a non profit leader myself, I have truly enjoyed reading the book. The core components of a nonprofit are mission, vision and strategy. They are tightly aligned with each other and support the goal that a nonprofit has. There are some good examples in the book and encouraging stories. The work at a nonprofit is difficult but very rewarding when you feel teaching your mission and supporting the cause. I liked the cooperation aspect and finding skies among competition. This can be beneficial for all involved as well as can support in successful mission.

[Amy Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great primer for those new to the non-profit sector and looking for a jump start on key priorities and challenges for the work ahead. Also useful for more experienced non-profit leaders to provide structured thinking and insight to common issues they have likely faced! Definitely worth the read for the stories about pitfalls and lessons learned alone!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful book based on experience of key aspects of best practice leadership for not for profits. Some great examples of what can go well and not so well. Useful. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

[Kerri Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would sincerely buy this book for any nonprofit manager I know. Nick is wonderful and his expertise [he currently helms the Freedom Fund] is both vast and sound.

[Titia Sjenitzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite basic stuff. Wasn't very inspired by it.