You’ve still got Thursday and Friday.

Two days. That’s enough to win the week — if you fight the resistance that’s already telling you not to pick up the phone.

The resistance is loud right now. It sounds like your inbox. It sounds like the meeting you have at two. It sounds like every reasonable excuse to stay at your desk and stay comfortable.

Don’t listen to it. Pull out your 10-3-1 notepad.

Download 10-3-1

If you’ve lost it, grab any piece of paper — the back of a budget report is fine. Write ten names at the top. These are ten people you could call right now. Donors, prospects, board members, major gift officers you’ve been meaning to get back to.

Ten names. Go.

Now look at that list. Circle three names.

These are your thank-you calls. Not a fundraising call.

Not a “just checking in” call with an agenda hiding behind it. A straight-up, no-ask, no-strings thank-you. You’re calling to say: the last thing you did mattered, and I wanted you to hear it from me directly.

Then look again. One name gets a meeting.

Not a phone call — a meeting.

In person, if you can swing it. Off-site if you need a different kind of conversation. Move whatever’s in the way. Block three hours. Three hours is not too much. Most leaders waste three hours before lunch on things that don’t move the needle.

The 10-3-1 Framework

10 — Names to call. Your shortlist of people worth your voice and your time. Don’t overthink the list. Write fast and trust your gut.

3 — Thank-you calls. No ask. Pick someone you know well, someone you barely know, and someone you talked to last week—all three. Do not skip the one you barely know.

1 — Meeting to book. The person is worth a face-to-face: one relationship, three hours, zero agenda except connection. Ask them to introduce you to a friend.

Resistance Is Coming. Here’s What It Sounds Like.

Donors don’t remember the ask — they remember the leader who showed up.

The person you just talked to last week? They want to hear from you again. You made an impression. Follow it up while the conversation is still warm. Ask them to connect you to a friend — one person in their world who might care about the mission you carry.

That’s not pushy. That’s persistence and urgency.

The donor you barely know? Call and thank them for their last gift. You don’t need to know their whole story. You don’t need four talking points. You need thirty seconds of genuine gratitude and the willingness to listen when they respond. That’s it. That’s the whole call.

The meeting? Go off-site if the office will eat your focus. A coffee shop, a park bench, their office — doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re present, unhurried, and actually there.

No phone face down on the table. No “I’ve got to be back by noon” energy. Give your donors the rarest thing a nonprofit leader has: your undivided attention.

These are the days when most of your competition checks out. While they’re clearing their inbox and rescheduling things, you are fighting the resistance.

You are moving. You are calling. You are sitting across from someone who matters and telling them why the work is worth it.

The resistance will tell you to wait until next week. Don’t.

The notepad doesn’t lie. Ten names. Three calls. One meeting.

Two days. One win.

Get after it.

Dave Sena writes about nonprofit leadership at BoldLeading.com. The Bold Bulletin is published weekly for mission-driven leaders who want to lead with more clarity, courage, and staying power.

If you are in your first few years of nonprofit leadership, this is for you.

You are doing harder work than most people around you will ever understand. The funding is uncertain. The problems are complex. The wins are slow and the losses are loud. You are learning to lead in real time, with real people, and real stakes.

Before you are tempted to believe it’s not worth it — stay.

There’s a corner booth at a coffee shop I’ve been going to for nearly twenty years.

I’ve designed websites there and written grant proposals. Asked donors to partner with nonprofits I believed in. Met old friends. Made a few new ones.

It is a familiar friend — a place to retreat and connect with my community.

Saturday, I was back in that booth with my friend John. A few hours later, I sat with Nancy. Two separate conversations. Two people who chose to stay.

John has had a long career leading city parks and recreation services, then years shaping the next generation of nonprofit leaders in the classroom. Nancy is a board member of a nonprofit whose mission she knows not from a strategic plan — but from her own life.

By the time I drove home, I realized both conversations had landed in the same place.

Relationships.

Both of them taught me something I already knew but needed to hear again.

John and the creative conversation

When John was teaching, he devoted a section of his course to one of the hardest things in this work — asking people to give or partner financially. He called it “creative conversations,” and what he described stuck with me.

His students didn’t just love this part of the curriculum because it was interesting. They loved it because it was real. They felt like they were learning a skill, not reciting a fact.

And then they had to use it.

They took the methodology out of the classroom and into their week. The stories that came back were remarkable. One student went to his auto mechanic — just a real conversation, curious, unhurried, no agenda.

He walked out with $250 off his repair bill.

Two hundred and fifty dollars. From a conversation. Think about that.

It started with a conversation. It ended with a relationship.

That’s the difference, isn’t it? A creative conversation is solution-based. It starts with listening, not pitching. It treats the other person as a collaborator, not a target. The best asks I’ve ever made didn’t feel like asks at all. They felt like an invitation to do something meaningful together.

John has seen enough of this work to know: the fundraisers who endure are the ones who connect — not the ones who close.

Conversations lead to connections. Connections have magic.

When you start really listening, you can find yourself helping to create change that is more than a number or a dollar sign. It creates joy through grit with a bit of grace.

John saw it in a classroom. Nancy learned it in a waiting room.

Same lesson. Different place.

Nancy and the service that didn’t exist yet

Nancy told me about a season in her life when her husband was going through serious health challenges. There was a local nonprofit whose services, had they existed at the time, would have made an enormous difference for her family.

They didn’t exist yet.

Today, Nancy sits on the board of that very organization. She didn’t just advocate for what she once needed — she gets to help guide and fund it. That’s the kind of leadership that only comes from living in a community long enough to know its gaps, and seeing your efforts help people — not just a program — because you lived it yourself.

The most powerful advocates are often the ones who have lived the need.

Nancy understands something deeply true about nonprofit work: the relationship with your community isn’t a marketing strategy. It’s how you learn what actually matters and meet the people who are building the future.

Neither John nor Nancy set out to become the person their community needed. They just stayed. And staying has its own beauty. As a nonprofit leader, you will develop plans, hire staff, and raise funds. You do it long enough, and you will see the beauty of not just lives changed — but communities built.

What thirty years gives you

When you’re new to this work, you can only see the next hill.

The next payroll. The next funding cliff. The next board conflict. That’s not a criticism — it’s just where you are. You’re learning to survive.

But something shifts when you’ve been at it long enough. You start to see the future — not because you’re smarter, but because you’ve lived through enough present moments to recognize the patterns.

A few weeks ago, I texted a former donor out of the blue. He had been instrumental in giving to a nonprofit I led years ago, and I just wanted him to know I was still grateful. Ten years later. No ask. No agenda. Just a thank you.

His response stopped me.

He thanked me for the opportunity to make a difference.

That is the joy I have seen for decades. People love to show up with generosity, and many do so with quiet humility. They want to see lives transformed but find themselves with limited time, money, or skills. As a nonprofit leader and instigator, you get to see people come together to form a community.

Joy, grit, and grace

People like John and Nancy didn’t get here because they had better strategies.

They got here because they showed up — for years, sometimes thanklessly — with joy in the mission, grit through the hard seasons, and grace toward themselves and everyone around them.

That’s the currency of a long career in this field. Not a bigger budget. Not a better CRM. Three things that don’t show up on any grant report:

Joy. Grit. Grace.

Joy that they have seen lives transformed. Grit because so many people stood with them. And grace, because God has caused growth when people stay, when they help, and when they pray.

Who are the John and Nancy figures in your life?

If you’re early in your career, find them. Buy the coffee. Ask the questions.

If you’ve been around for a while — be them.

The corner booth is waiting.

And so is God.

He sees the conversations you are having. The relationships you are building. The days you showed up when no one noticed. He is not done with the work he started in you — and he is not done with the work he started through you.

Your grit is not wasted. Your grace is not invisible. The joy is coming.

Stay.

Dave Sena writes about nonprofit leadership at BoldLeading.com. The Bold Bulletin is published weekly for mission-driven leaders who want to lead with more clarity, courage, and staying power.

I was thirty years old.

Five-story building. Dozens of staff. A mission I believed in with everything I had. And I sat at my desk at a homeless shelter in North Dakota feeling completely, utterly alone.

Nobody warned me that the executive director’s desk — no matter how full the building is — is the loneliest seat in the house.

I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing. I just didn’t know what it was.

I didn’t know to build a donor call list. I didn’t know to do structured vision work with my staff. I hadn’t found the right mentors yet. I hadn’t found the coaches who would eventually help me see what I couldn’t see from where I was sitting.

I just sat there. Carrying it. Alone.

If you’re a new executive director, this post is for you.

Nobody Says This Out Loud

Recently I had a conversation with a new ED who came to the role from a career in accounting. He saw a need. He got pulled in. He described it the way a lot of EDs describe it — the quicksand happened — and suddenly he was running an organization.

He shared three things that stopped me in my tracks. Not because they were surprising. Because they were so honest.

One. There are so many things only the executive director can do.

Board relationships. Finances. Fundraising. The things that can’t be handed off, delegated, or outsourced. They live on your desk. They wait for you. And when you’re new, you don’t always know what they are until you’re already underwater.

Two. Fundraising never stops.

Not when you’re tired. Not when the program is struggling. Not at Christmas. Not in summer. Not ever. The ask is always out there waiting to be made, the donor relationship always needing to be tended, the gap between budget and reality always needing to be closed.

Three. Sometimes being the leader is just exhausting.

He said it plainly. And I appreciated him for it. The fight against burnout is real — I’ve been in that fight personally — and most leaders won’t say it out loud because they’re afraid it makes them look weak. It doesn’t. It makes them human.

Here’s the Fourth Thing Nobody Says

I’d add one more to his list.

Telling the story never stops either.

You tell it to staff. To your board. To volunteers. To donors. To the community. You tell it on good days when momentum is high and the wins are visible. You tell it on hard days when the numbers are soft and the mission feels heavy.

And when you tell it well — when you genuinely invite people into the work, when you help them see what God is doing and get excited about partnering with it — the dollars follow. That part is real.

But here’s what nobody tells you: sometimes the hardest person to tell the story to is yourself.

Keeping your own faith that the resources will come. That the mission is worth it. That the exhaustion has a purpose. That the loneliness at that desk is not the whole story. That can be the heaviest lift of all.

The Weight Nobody Prepared You For

Here’s the tension every ED lives in.

You’re doing all of the above — board, fundraising, story, finances, relationships — while simultaneously developing your systems, developing your staff, being the chief cheerleader, and being the chief problem solver.

That is a heavy load.

And without systems underneath it, everything stays on you. The fundraising. The vision. The operations. All of it. Which makes sustainable growth nearly impossible and accelerates the burnout that’s already knocking at the door.

I know because I lived it. Thirty years old. Five floors of people counting on me. No roadmap. No system. No one who had sat in that chair and could tell me what the chair actually required.

It took time to find the right mentors. The right coaches. The people who had been where I was and could help me see a way through.

Not every new ED has that.

You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone

The Bold Bulletin is a free resource for nonprofit leaders who want the frameworks, insights, and honest conversation that nobody handed them when they sat down at that desk. Practical leadership. Faith-grounded perspective. No fluff.

If you’re a new ED — or if you lead one, love one, or are trying to become one — this is for you.

👉 Subscribe to The Bold Bulletin at blog.boldleading.com

You don’t have to figure this out from a lonely desk.

Dave Sena is an ordained minister and the founder of Bold Leading. After 25+ years leading and consulting with nonprofit organizations, his mission is simple: help Gospel-centered leaders build the teams and systems they need to serve with excellence — without burning out.

Learn more at BoldLeading.com — or reach out directly at dave@boldleading.com.

Don’t Skip This

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” — 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” — Ephesians 4:16

Here’s the Thing

There’s a version of productivity that looks like leadership but isn’t. You’re moving. You’re executing. The calendar is full and the to-do list is getting done. But somewhere underneath all that motion, something is quietly draining out.

The connection. To God. To your people.

To the thing that actually makes growth possible.

Paul knew this. He’d planted churches, logged miles, taken beatings, written letters. Nobody outworked Paul. But he never confused his output with God’s work. He planted. Apollos watered. And then — only then — God gave the growth. The increase was never Paul’s to manufacture. It was God’s to give.

Fast is not the same as fruitful.

You can move at full speed and still be losing ground — if what you’re losing is the connectedness that God designed to carry the growth.

Ephesians 4 is precise about this. The body grows when it is joined and held together — every supporting ligament doing its part. The Greek word is synarmologeo. Fitted. Framed. Locked in at the joints.

Growth happens at the connection points. Not at the top. Not through one gifted leader running hard and alone. At the joints. Where the team is truly knit together.

The Hidden Cost

Speed has a cost nobody puts on the budget. When you move too fast, the first thing that erodes isn’t performance — it’s relationship. The check-ins get shorter. The real conversations get pushed. The team starts running in parallel instead of together.

And the resistance knows this. Busyness isn’t just exhausting — it’s strategic. Keep the leader moving fast enough and alone long enough, and the joints start to loosen. The ligaments strain. Growth stalls — not because the mission changed, but because the connectedness that carries it quietly gave way.

This is the hidden cost of running fast. Not burnout — though that comes too. It’s disconnection. From God, who is the source. From your team, who are the joints. From the rich, living connectedness that Paul says is where the growth actually lives.

Your job isn’t to produce the growth. Your job is to preserve and safeguard the connection that makes growth possible. Stay tethered to God. Stay knit to your people. Protect the joints. Everything else — the fruit, the increase, the breakthrough — that belongs to him.

This Week’s Practice

Before you open your task list today, ask one question:

What connection have I been too busy to tend?

God. A team member. A relationship that holds something important together. Name it. Then protect it like it matters — because according to Paul, it’s exactly where the growth happens.

You are not the source of growth. You are a ligament. Stay connected. God will do the rest.

Three Questions to Sit With

1. Where has your pace been working against your connectedness — to God, to your team, or to both? What has speed quietly cost you in the last 30 days?

2. Which ligament in your team feels strained right now? Which relationship has been running on fumes because there hasn’t been time to tend it?

3. If God — not you — is the one who gives the growth, what would it look like to lead from connection this week instead of from output?

Share

Dave Sena is an ordained minister and the founder of Bold Leading. After 25+ years leading and consulting with nonprofit organizations, his mission is simple: help Gospel-centered leaders build the teams and systems they need to serve with excellence — without burning out.

Learn more at BoldLeading.com — or reach out directly at dave@boldleading.com.

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-17

I spent years treating Monday like a gift I owed everyone around me.

Packed calendar. Back-to-back check-ins. A hero to my team by 10am — and hollow by noon.

Paul didn’t mince words: “Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” — Ephesians 5:15-16

The days are evil. That’s not dramatic — that’s the reality of leading in a broken world. The needs never end and are ever present.

The urgency is real.

And if you’re not intentional, the urgent will swallow the important every single Monday for the rest of your career.

Making the most of your time isn’t a productivity hack.

Here’s what changed for me — I protect a three-hour block every Monday to finish one project.

One win before the week gets loud.

On Friday or Sunday evening I pick two or three projects that actually move the mission forward. Those become my Monday focus.

Email and quick responses get slotted into the 15 or 30-minute gaps between meetings.

The meetings didn’t go away. But the drift did.

Understand what the will of the Lord is — and then protect the time to actually do it. Treat your Monday like the gift it is.

Monday is necessary. Monday is a gift. Seize it.

This week, sit with these:

• Where is your best energy going on Monday — and did you choose that?

• What is one project only you can move forward this week?

• If your time is a gift from God, are you spending it — or wasting it?

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
— 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV)

A Question for a Question

Someone walks into my office with a question.

Maybe it’s a tough call about a vendor.
A personnel situation.
A strategic fork in the road.

They’re looking at me, waiting for an answer. Instead of answering, I ask them:
“What do you recommend?”

I’ve been doing this for years. And almost every time, something interesting happens: they already have the answer.

They’ve been thinking about it.
Turning it over.
Weighing options.

They just needed a sounding board, and the confidence to trust their own thinking.

But I want to know more than just their recommendation. I want to understand how they got there. So then I’ll ask:

What is the problem, exactly?
What is your proposed solution?
Where are you uncertain?
What is the domino effect if this goes forward?

I’m not looking for certainty. I want to hear: “I believe this is the best course of action, and here’s what I’ll be watching for.” That’s someone owning a decision — not just executing an order.

Often my response is simply: “That’s a great idea. Go do it.”

Sometimes I’ll probe further — not to redirect, but because the thinking needs one more pass. Either way, I’m not handing them my answer; I’m helping them sharpen theirs.

When I can watch someone think, act, and then learn from what happened — that’s when I know I can trust them with more. That cycle is how leaders are built.

Which brings me to what I believe leadership is actually about:

Leadership is intentionally engaging the people around you to become learners, thinkers, and doers.

That’s the whole job.

Protect Your People First

Before your team can grow, they need space to do it. That means protecting them from organizational noise, shifting priorities, and distractions that quietly erode focus.

Your job is to secure the resources they need, paint a clear picture of where you’re headed, and guard their ability to get there. When you do that well, your team stops reacting and starts creating.

Lead with Freedom, Not a Script

Delegating tasks is not the same as delegating trust. Real leadership means handing people the keys to innovation — not just the to-do list.

When you give someone freedom with purpose, something shifts. They stop asking “what do you want me to do?” and start asking “what’s the best way to do this?” That’s when the real thinking begins.

Be Inquisitive — Not an Inquisitor

A lot of well-meaning leaders make accountability feel like a courtroom. Questions become interrogations. Check-ins become indictments.

Curiosity is the better path.

Learn how your people think. Ask questions that open their reasoning, not ones that back them into a corner. Accountability can feel like a conversation between two people who both want to get better — if you let it.

Teach Them to Lead

The most impactful thing you can do isn’t to solve the hardest problem in the room. It’s to build the systems, model the attitude, and hold the kind of rigorous accountability that teaches the people around you to lead themselves.

People grow through feedback — not just from their own results, but from watching colleagues, having honest conversations, and being trusted enough to try things and report back on what they learned. Your feedback — including a series of questions that end with, “Great idea. Go for it!” — also contributes to their growth.

That’s the culture you’re building every single day: one where learning isn’t an occasional event, but the default setting.

The next time someone walks into your office with a question:

Pause.
Don’t answer.
Wait.

Then ask, “What do you recommend?” You might be surprised how ready they already are to answer.

That shift — from knowing it all to being curious — is where real leadership lives.

Here's my question for you: when someone walks into your office, is your first instinct to answer or to ask? Be honest. It took me a long time to make the switch. What gets in the way for you?

Dave Sena is an ordained minister and the co-founder of Bold Leading. After 25+ years leading and consulting with nonprofit organizations, his mission is simple: help Gospel-centered leaders build the teams and systems they need to serve with excellence — without burning out.

Learn more at BoldLeading.com — or reach out directly at dave@boldleading.com.

The Napkin That Changed My Meetings

I was preparing to meet with one of our largest donor. And this visit mattered.

He owned a regional grocery store chain and his company had given the largest gift they had ever made to our organization. This meeting was my first follow-up with him after receiving that stunning donation.

I remember walking into his office, seeing the large desk in front of me, and noticing his stoic expression across the room.

My nerves immediately kicked in.

I could feel my knees and even my toes trembling. My legs felt like they were shaking so obviously under the desk that I thought he might notice. My heart raced and seemed to skip beats.

What helped was the simple item I held in my hand: A napkin with four squares drawn on it.

That little grid settled me.

Instead of trying to remember all the information the marketing team and development staff had prepared for me, I focused on the four things written on that napkin.

Following the Foursquare

Using the napkin, I began by sharing with our distinguished donor what I loved about our work: our unwavering commitment to help people facing homelessness escape its grip on their lives.

Then I told him a recent story about a man whose life had begun to change from the inside out because of the help he received.

The gentleman listened carefully.

When the time came, I made an invitation for another gift.

Remarkably, he said yes.

As I stood up and reached for the doorknob to leave, I remembered the fourth square on the napkin—the “by the way” ask.

So I turned back and said,

“By the way, would your company consider sponsoring and attending our banquet in a few months?”

He smiled.

“Yep,” he said. “Count us in.”

That simple moment taught me something I’ve never forgotten:

Clarity and conviction can move mountains.

That company went on to become one of our most faithful partners, helping raise tens of thousands of dollars annually to support our work.

And it all started with four boxes on a napkin.

Why I Created the One Grid System

I didn’t create my simple grid system because I was organized. I created it because I was overwhelmed.

Early in my work meeting with donors, I would walk into conversations carrying stacks of prepared materials and messages. The marketing team gave me talking points. The development team provided background compelling documents. The program staff contributed donor profiles, statistics, and briefing notes.

In theory, I was prepared.
In reality, I was overwhelmed.

I remember sitting before meetings trying to review everything. There was so much information that I found myself getting nervous. I was flipping through papers, trying to remember key details, and at times I felt like I could barely remember my own name.

That’s when I realized something important. I didn’t need more information. I needed clarity. So I made it simple.

I drew a square on a piece of paper and divided it into four boxes.
That simple grid changed everything.

Instead of trying to remember dozens of details, I focused on four things that mattered most:

1. What I love about the organization.

2. A story that shows the mission in action.

3. A clear invitation for someone to engage.

4. A second “by the way” opportunity if the first invitation didn’t fit.

Suddenly my conversations felt natural again.

I was less nervous.
I wasn’t trying to perform or recite information.
I was sharing what mattered.

Sometimes leadership tools don’t need to be complicated.
Sometimes four boxes on a napkin can help you focus on what matters most.

The One Grid System

Before a meeting with a donor, board member, or staff leader, I draw a square and divide it into four sections.

1. Top Left — What do I love about this organization?

   This reconnects me to the mission.
   

   Before asking anyone to invest their time, attention, or resources, I remind myself why the work matters to me. Passion and clarity start here.

2. Top Right — What is a recent story that has impacted me?

   Every organization has stories:
   

   A person rebuilding their life.

   A moment of hope in someone’s journey.

   A quiet victory that reminds us why the work matters.

   These stories helps people see the mission in action.

3. Bottom Left — What is the call to action?

   What is one clear thing I might invite this person to do?

   
   Support the mission financially.

   Volunteer.

   Pray.

   Make an introduction.

   
   Clarity creates honest conversations.

4. Bottom Right — What is the “by the way” ask?

   Sometimes the first request isn’t the right fit. So I prepare a second opportunity.

   If they say yes or no to the first invitation, what is another meaningful way they could engage?

   
   An introduction.

   Attending an event.

   Learning more about the work.

   
   This keeps the conversation focused on relationship rather than pressure.

Why This Simple Grid Matters

The four “One Grid” questions I bring to donor meetings help me step away from the noise of running an organization, calm my mind, and bring me back to what matters most:

• The mission.

• The story.

• The invitation.

They remind me that leadership is not about reciting information. It’s about helping people see the beautiful story God is writing through the work.

And inviting them to become part of it.

Final Word

Great nonprofit leaders don’t just manage programs.

As Jesus modeled on earth so long ago: Leaders help people see the story God is writing—and invite them to become part of it.

Download the 10-3-1 Notepad

About Bold Leading

For more than 10 years, Bold Leading has helped nonprofit leaders develop strong teams, establish healthy principles and processes, and grow their capacity in marketing, fundraising, and strategy—so they don’t merely survive but thrive in their mission to serve and share Jesus.

If you’re ready to move forward with confidence—or could simply use a fellow leader to pray and think with—we’d love to talk with you.

Dave Sena

Dave is a Christian nonprofit leader and consultant who equips faith-based, Gospel-centered organizations to serve with excellence. As an ordained minister, former non-profit CEO, and Air Force Academy graduate with a BS in Computer Science, Dave’s passion is to help ministry leaders share the message of Jesus with clarity and confidence.

Contact: dave@boldleading.com
Visit: BoldLeading.com

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As Christmas approaches, many nonprofit and ministry leaders feel the familiar pressure rise. Calendars are full. Energy is thin. Year-end goals are still open. And there’s an unshakable sense t…

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If God has given you a vision that feels bigger than your budget, your team, or your comfort zone, the first step often begins in a friend-filled room.

Long before brochures are printed or banquets are planned, God begins His work in p…

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I still remember sitting in a small conference room at Northland Rescue Mission with three other staff memb…

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