Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

Patton McDowell
  • 5.0 (118)
  • Non-Profit
  • Updated Weekly

Ranked #1 on FeedSpot's Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy podcast lists, Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership is the go-to resource for current and aspiring nonprofit leaders. Hosted by Dr. Patton McDowell and powered by Armstrong McGuire, the show delivers practical wisdom from the sector's most experienced executives, fundraisers, board leaders, and consultants — every Thursday.Patton brings 30+ years of nonprofit leadership, coaching, and consulting experience, and shares proven best practices for individual and organizational success drawn from his work with hundreds of nonprofit organizations. With 366+ episodes, a 5/5 rating on Apple Podcasts, and listeners in 130+ countries, Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership is where serious nonprofit professionals come to grow. Hit subscribe and accelerate your path to nonprofit leadership. Learn more and access all episodes at www.armstrongmcguire.com/podcasts

  1. 2d ago

    391: Deeper, Not Bigger: How to Make the Case for Capacity (Jimmy McQuilkin)

    Episode 391: Deeper, Not Bigger: How to Make the Case for Capacity (Jimmy McQuilkin) Episode Summary Most capital campaigns fund something new, a building, a wing, more seats. Jimmy McQuilkin, Founder and Executive Director of UrbanPromise Charlotte, built a six-million-dollar campaign to fund something nonprofit leaders rarely ask for: getting better. McQuilkin traces his path from a Teach For America classroom to a summer running UrbanPromise Honduras, and the 2013 leap that became UrbanPromise Charlotte’s twenty-year model of reaching, raising, and restoring through its Street Leader program. He walks through the strategic planning process that surfaced three tensions, pandemic-strained families, an overloaded team, and infrastructure that hadn’t kept pace, and how that became the Rooted for Restoration campaign, now past six million dollars, with Armstrong McGuire’s feasibility study and an early gift that funded staff salary increases before public fundraising even began. Listeners will walk away with a model for asking donors to invest in quality and people, not just capacity for more. About Jimmy Jimmy McQuilkin is Founder and Executive Director of UrbanPromise Charlotte, which has grown from one site to four across the city, serving nearly 700 children, youth, and young adults through a twenty-year model built around its Street Leader program, where high schoolers are employed and mentored to lead the younger students coming up behind them. A Spanish and economics double major at Wake Forest University, he came to Charlotte through Teach For America, teaching Spanish and coaching basketball for four years at Philip O. Berry High School, before a summer running UrbanPromise Honduras convinced him to found UrbanPromise Charlotte in 2013. Thirteen years in, he now leads the organization’s six-million-dollar-plus Rooted for Restoration campaign. He also walked on to Wake Forest’s basketball team as a student manager, something he describes, self-deprecatingly, as his own version of Rudy. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, InperiumJimmy’s LinkedIn | UrbanPromise CharlotteBook recommendation: Tattoos on the Heart by Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy IndustriesJoin the Spring 2027 Mastermind!Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.comYour Path to Nonprofit Leadership | ArmstrongMcGuire.com

  2. Oct 15

    390: How People Work: 4 Things Every Nonprofit Leader Should Know (Nancy Bacon)

    Episode 390: How People Work: 4 Things Every Nonprofit Leader Should Know (Nancy Bacon) Episode Summary Most nonprofit leaders assume that passion is enough, that a motivated team is simply a team that cares, and that a performance problem is a training problem. Nancy Bacon, Founder of Nancy Bacon Consulting and co-founder of the Nonprofit Learning Center in Seattle, spent this conversation taking that apart, one piece of research at a time. She walks through self-determination theory’s three levers for real motivation (autonomy, competence and relatedness), the difference between busy and engaged (illustrated by a parent who dropped crumbs around the house just to get his kids vacuuming instead of picking up Legos), and why she rebranded a dreaded finance training as “Finance Unlocked for Nonprofits,” using Jonathan Haidt’s rider-and-elephant metaphor to show why emotion, not information, drives most decisions. She closes on the knowing-doing gap, why telling someone something once rarely changes what they do next. Listeners will walk away with a sharper diagnostic for the vague complaint “my board isn’t engaged,” and a reminder that curiosity, not another training, is usually the fix. About Nancy Nancy Bacon is Founder of Nancy Bacon Consulting and co-founder of the Nonprofit Learning Center in Seattle, where she designs performance-based learning for nonprofit leaders and teaches other trainers how to teach well. She also leads the Whitworth University Nonprofit Certificate Program. Her path to the sector was not a straight line. She started college as a double major in economics and German literature, intent on a career in international business in Germany, before running an ESL school, teaching in the Philippines, and eventually founding an international education program at Seattle’s World Affairs Council, building it from nothing to a staff of six. She later spent eight years with Washington state’s nonprofit association. Along the way she received the Golden Apple Award, and her recent work includes a Nonprofit Management Certificate for rural leaders with the Innovia Foundation and Whitworth University. Twenty-five years in, she still calls herself a student of how people actually learn. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, InperiumNancy’s LinkedIn | Nancy Bacon ConsultingBook recommendation: Julie Dirksen’s Design for How People Learn and her newer Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior ChangeJoin the Spring 2027 Mastermind!Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.comYour Path to Nonprofit Leadership | ArmstrongMcGuire.com

  3. Oct 8

    389: How to Stop Being the Invisible Sector (Dr. Mariane Asad Doyle)

    Episode 389: How to Stop Being the Invisible Sector (Dr. Mariane Asad Doyle) Episode Summary Ask a nonprofit leader about advocacy and you will usually hear one of two things: there is no time for it, or it is lobbying and therefore off limits. Dr. Mariane Asad Doyle, Executive Director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Charlottesville, Virginia, takes both apart. Advocacy, she argues, is simply legislative education, and the line that actually matters is a bill. If you are pushing a specific piece of legislation you are lobbying, which you are still permitted to do so long as you track it, report it and keep it proportionate to your mission. Everything short of that is relationship building, and her argument is that the sector's real problem is not legal exposure but invisibility. Doyle also talks about following a fifteen-year executive director, chairing her regional chamber of commerce, and why she treats collaboration as a competency rather than a personality trait. Listeners will walk away knowing what they are actually allowed to do, and where to start on Monday. About Mariane Dr. Mariane Asad Doyle is Executive Director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, the Virginia association that serves as a learning partner, advisor and legislative voice for nonprofits across the Commonwealth, and which marks its twentieth anniversary this year. She stepped into the role in 2024, following a predecessor who had led the organization for fifteen years. Her background is education. She has taught in higher education for roughly twenty-five years, and her doctoral research examined the career pathways of women in K-12 administration, where she found that women tend to take a meandering road to end up exactly where they need to be. She has been nonprofit adjacent her whole career, starting as a volunteer at the Braille Institute in Southern California. She also chairs the Charlottesville Regional Chamber, a habit she traces to a childhood spent tagging along to Chamber after-hours events with her father. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, InperiumMariane's LinkedIn | Center for Nonprofit ExcellenceMariane's appearance #358, What Nonprofit Leaders Need Now: Guidance from Four Sector ExpertsNational Council of Nonprofits, to find the state association where you areCNE's 20th Anniversary Philanthropy Day Luncheon, Wednesday, October 28 in Keswick, VACo-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick, and his new Co-Existence: The Next Phase of AI, out October 20Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire

  4. Oct 1

    388: Why Half of Your Week Isn't in Your Job Description (Cyril Jefferson)

    Episode 388: Why Half of Your Week Isn't in Your Job Description (Cyril Jefferson) Episode Summary Most nonprofit leaders can feel that the week has gotten away from them, but very few can prove it, which makes the conversation with a board sound like complaining rather than evidence. Cyril Jefferson, Mayor of High Point, North Carolina, spent years on the other side of that problem as a consultant, and his fix is a four-week time audit: log every task in a spreadsheet as you do it, add a row each time something new appears, and at the end of 160 hours read what the sheet says. One leader discovered she was spending 40 percent of her time on her actual job description. He pairs it with an accountability chart that routinely shows a CEO carrying 70 functions while the program director carries 20. Jefferson also traces his own path from a Communities In Schools student to a site coordinator to City Hall, and makes the case for why the nonprofit sector sits where neither business nor government can operate. Listeners will walk away with a way to turn the feeling of overload into data somebody can act on. About Cyril Cyril Jefferson is Mayor of High Point, North Carolina, elected in November 2023 and sworn in at 31, and he serves as Industry Practice Director at Stratagon, where he leads the agency's higher education practice. He came to that role when Stratagon acquired Change Often, the social innovation firm he founded to work on social and economic challenges. His path ran through Communities In Schools, first as a High Point student the local affiliate served and later as a site coordinator splitting his employment between the nonprofit and the school district, where a student who fell through the cracks became the reason he ran for office. He was elected to City Council in 2019, and he is currently the Democratic nominee for North Carolina's Sixth Congressional District. His wife is a nonprofit executive director, he is a self-described spreadsheet guy who loves a good SUMIF, and he once officiated the wedding of a former student. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, InperiumCyril's LinkedIn | City of High PointCommunities In Schools, the national dropout prevention network that served him as a studentStratagonBook recommendation: The Audacity of Hope by Barack ObamaConference for NC Nonprofits, October 20-21, 2026 in Concord. Use code PATH26 for discount, or PATHMEM for $100 off through October 19 if you're already a member!Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire

  5. Sep 24

    387: How to Build Something That Keeps Giving (William McNeely)

    Episode 387: How to Build Something That Keeps Giving Episode Summary Most leaders build as though time is unlimited, and the idea that would matter most sits in a notebook waiting on money that never arrives. William McNeely, Founder and CEO of Do Greater Charlotte, stopped thinking that way in 2017, and six weeks after a double lung transplant, with no money and no staff, he was on a stage pitching an organization built around one sentence he had written himself: commit to doing something greater that will keep giving when you are no longer able to give. He tells the story of driving around Charlotte until he found a trashed step van, buying it for $1,500, and turning it into a mobile technology lab that taught kids in cul-de-sacs. That truck proved the concept behind an 8,000 square foot creative lab on the west side, then Sparkhouse Uptown, a $5 million renovation of Harvey Gantt's old architecture office. Listeners will walk away with a way to move an idea into action before the resources show up, and a filter for which ideas deserve to survive. About William William McNeely is Founder and CEO of Do Greater Charlotte, which moves youth and young adults from idea to income through programs in entrepreneurship, AI and innovation, and the creative trades. He spent more than twenty years in corporate technology, most of it with Apple in educational technology, and also taught school and coached youth football before a health crisis ended that career and turned him back toward the west Charlotte neighborhoods he grew up in. He launched Do Greater during COVID with a renovated step van, grew it into an 8,000 square foot creative lab inside an underused church, and in 2026 opened Sparkhouse Uptown, a 20,000 square foot hub at 500 North Tryon with a coffee shop, co-working space, screen printing press and full digital studio. Charlotte Magazine named him one of its 2025 Charlotteans of the Year. His wife of 35 years is part of the team and is, by his own account, the original pushback on every idea he brings home. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, InperiumWilliam's LinkedIn | Do Greater CharlotteRaj Chetty's economic mobility researchBook recommendations: Originals and Hidden Potential, both by Adam GrantConference for NC Nonprofits, October 20-21, 2026 in Concord, where William is a featured speaker. Use code PATH26 for discount, or PATHMEM for $100 off through October 19 if you're already a member!Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire

  6. Sep 17

    386: How to Build on Your Community Capital as a Nonprofit Leader (Dan Bevels)

    Episode 386: How to Build on Your Community Capital as a Nonprofit Leader (Dan Bevels) Episode Summary Plenty of nonprofit professionals talk themselves out of executive roles because their resume does not show years of philanthropic experience. Dan Bevels, President of the Atrium Health Floyd-Polk Foundation in Rome, Georgia, nearly did exactly that, and applied only after his wife and a mentor pushed him. He walks through the case he made in place of the credentials he lacked: that what he did not know could be taught, and that fifteen years of relationships across northwest Georgia would take anyone else years to build. He describes meeting one-on-one with all seventeen of his board members in his first year, mostly to listen; why the foundation asks grant applicants who they are collaborating with, and makes introductions when the answer is no one; and how a young foundation is shifting from funding programs to attacking the causes underneath them. Listeners will walk away with a way to make the case for a role their resume does not obviously fit, and a clearer sense of what a funder is actually listening for. About Dan Dan Bevels is President of the Atrium Health Floyd-Polk Foundation, an independent supporting foundation of Atrium Health Floyd in Rome, Georgia, that works on the social drivers of health across northwest Georgia, from food insecurity and housing to access to care. He studied broadcast journalism and expected a life in radio and television, then moved into corporate communications once the hours and relocation ruled out the family life he wanted. He joined what was then Floyd Medical Center in 2009, having suggested half as a joke that they hire him rather than keep calling with freelance projects, and later served as Director of Community Health. The foundation was created when Floyd joined Atrium Health in 2021, and Bevels stepped into the top job on January 11, walking straight into grant application season. He grew up in a blue-collar family in the county he now serves, started working at fourteen, and still opens conversations in nearby towns with memories of swimming at Peaks Park. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, InperiumDan's LinkedIn | Atrium Health Floyd-Polk FoundationDogwood Health TrustBook recommendations: Upstream by Dan Heath, and The AI-Driven Leader by Geoff WoodsConference for NC Nonprofits, October 20-21, 2026 in Concord. Use code PATH26 for discount, or PATHMEM for $100 off through October 19 if you're already a member!Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire

  7. Sep 10

    385: No Margin, No Mission: Building Nonprofits That Last (Cecilia Haag)

    385: No Margin, No Mission: Building Nonprofits That Last (Cecilia Haag) Episode Summary Nonprofit leaders are told that the urgency of the mission will carry the organization, and that financial and operational discipline is something the corporate world worries about. Cecilia Haag, President of Thompson Impact Consulting, came out of that corporate world, joining the 140-year-old human services organization Thompson as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer after watching it decide to take its model across six to seven southern states. She walks through what that growth actually required: a Tennessee expansion that added roughly a hundred staff at once, a Network Integration Mapping process so nothing is missed when a new program opens, a ninety-day minimum before anyone expects footing, and a weekly, monthly and quarterly operating rhythm that starts with how the team won the week. She also names the red flag that ends a partnership conversation, an unwillingness to talk about what the work actually costs. Listeners will walk away with a working definition of discipline, a short list of the numbers worth watching, and a case for building leaders before the opening exists. About Cecilia Cecilia Haag is President of Thompson Impact Consulting, the practice that grew out of Thompson, a 140-year-old human services organization founded in Charlotte and now operating across the South. She spent most of her career in the for-profit sector helping growing organizations build the infrastructure to scale, and was at Insperity when Thompson became one of her clients during the COVID and social justice period, watching the organization work through the strategic planning that set its growth path. She joined as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, spent her first years examining where Thompson could absorb more growth, and helped carry the mission into new markets including Tennessee and Seminole County, Florida. When peer organizations started asking how Thompson had done it, Thompson Impact Consulting was the answer. A mother of a high schooler and a middle schooler, she runs her own year on a Full Focus Planner and sits down with her husband every couple of years to decide where the family is headed. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, Inperium: inperium.orgConference for NC Nonprofits, October 20-21, 2026 in Concord. Use code PATH26 for discount: ncnonprofits.org. Already a member? Use code PATHMEM for $100 off through October 19!Cecilia's LinkedIn; Thompson Impact Consulting: thompsonimpact.comChop Wood, Carry Water by Joshua MedcalfThe Advantage by Patrick LencioniFollow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.com

  8. Sep 3

    384: How to Launch a Planned Giving Program in One Week (Tony Martignetti)

    Episode 384: How to Launch a Planned Giving Program in One Week (Tony Martignetti) Episode Summary Small and mid-sized nonprofits routinely tell themselves that planned giving belongs to hospitals and universities, that it takes a lawyer and a brochure to begin, and that raising it with a donor means starting a conversation about death. Tony Martignetti, founder of Planned Giving Accelerator and host of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio, has worked in planned giving since 1997 and spent more than twenty years consulting almost exclusively with small and mid-sized shops, and he takes apart every one of those assumptions here. He walks through the three-step, one-week launch at the center of his new book: query your database for loyalty rather than capacity, including the donor whose average gift is five dollars sustained across twenty-five years; start with gifts in wills and nothing else; then ask three to five of those donors, face to face, whether they would consider including you in their will, and stop talking. Listeners will walk away with a program they can launch next week, with no wealth screening and no legal expertise required. About Tony Tony Martignetti is the founder of Planned Giving Accelerator, through which he has devoted his practice to launching planned giving programs at small and mid-sized nonprofits, and the author of Planned Giving Accelerated, publishing September 15. He went to law school, practiced for two years, disliked it enough to re-engineer his career entirely, and entered planned giving in 1997 as a frontline fundraiser and director of planned giving, first at a college and then at a university, before beginning his consulting work in 2003. He has hosted Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for more than sixteen years, covering the full range of what small and mid-sized shops wrestle with, and his stated goal is to help at least a thousand organizations start a planned giving program. He is also, by his own description, an Italian and a big hugger, the kind of fundraiser who will get up and embrace a donor who has just said yes. Resources Thanks to our podcast partner, Inperium: inperium.orgTony’s new book, Planned Giving Accelerated, publishing September 15 wherever books are sold. Join the waitlist at plannedgivingaccelerated.comTony’s website, home to his Planned Giving Accelerator work and his podcast, Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio: tonymartignetti.comTony's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tonymartignettiBook recommendation: Planned Giving Simplified by Robert F. Sharpe Sr. (Wiley)Follow Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership, and please leave a review!Learn more about the leadership resources at Armstrong McGuire: ArmstrongMcGuire.comYour Path to Nonprofit Leadership | ArmstrongMcGuire.com

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About

Ranked #1 on FeedSpot's Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy podcast lists, Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership is the go-to resource for current and aspiring nonprofit leaders. Hosted by Dr. Patton McDowell and powered by Armstrong McGuire, the show delivers practical wisdom from the sector's most experienced executives, fundraisers, board leaders, and consultants — every Thursday.Patton brings 30+ years of nonprofit leadership, coaching, and consulting experience, and shares proven best practices for individual and organizational success drawn from his work with hundreds of nonprofit organizations. With 366+ episodes, a 5/5 rating on Apple Podcasts, and listeners in 130+ countries, Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership is where serious nonprofit professionals come to grow. Hit subscribe and accelerate your path to nonprofit leadership. Learn more and access all episodes at www.armstrongmcguire.com/podcasts

Information

  • Creator
    Patton McDowell
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    391
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership
  • Show Website
    Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

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