Mission Forward with Carrie Fox

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Mission Forward with Carrie Fox Hosted by social impact expert and B Corp leader Carrie Fox, the Mission Forward podcast explores what it really takes to move a mission forward in today’s society. With her signature blend of heart and head, Carrie sits down with some of the world’s most-admired purpose driven leaders to dig into issues you’re experiencing right now: from how to navigate difficult issues, how to lead through uncertainty and how to tackle tough conversations with courage and care. With guests ranging from Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, purpose-driven CEOs, storytelling and fundraising experts, and people in the driver’s seat of social change, this show will inspire and activate you as a mission-moving leader, too. * About the Host (https://www.missionforward.us/about-carrie) * Listen to Past Episodes (https://www.missionforward.us/episodes)

  1. How to Respond in Times of Uncertainty with Amanda Kwong

    2D AGO

    How to Respond in Times of Uncertainty with Amanda Kwong

    There's a version of this conversation that could feel heavy — a public health communications director navigating a moment when national guidance has gone quiet, trust in federal institutions is eroding, and the very words her organization was built around have become politically radioactive. That version exists. But it's not the one Amanda Kwong, from the Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC), shows up to tell this week. In this conversation, Amanda shares the philosophy that powers PHCC, the initiative Amanda directs, which has grown to a community of 40,000 health communicators across the country. Together, Carrie and Amanda examine why the communicators doing the most important work right now aren't the ones broadcasting the loudest. In fact, they are the ones listening the most carefully. This episode provides a framework to evaluate whether the language you're using is still doing what you think it's doing. Words shift. Culture moves. A phrase that once built credibility can quietly become a barrier, and the communicators who don't notice are the ones who lose their audience without ever knowing why. As Amanda reminds us, the organizations that will come out of this moment with their credibility intact are the ones that kept asking the harder questions. They didn’t continue asking “what do we say?” but instead asked, “What does this actually mean to the person we're trying to reach?” (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward (02:21) - Introducing PHCC (13:33) - Making the Complex Approachable (18:08) - Resources found at PublicHealthCollaborative.org (22:13) - Dancing Apolitically (31:19) - Finding the Good, Celebrating the Hope

    35 min
  2. Leading Beyond Resilience with Tonia Wellons + Part 2: Key Takeaways

    MAR 19

    Leading Beyond Resilience with Tonia Wellons + Part 2: Key Takeaways

    Tonia Wellons became president and CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation thirty days before COVID-19 shut down the world — and her first major move was to build a ten-year strategic framework. Not because the future was predictable. Because it wasn't. A plan, she understood, is not a forecast. It is a fixed point, and fixed points are most valuable when everything else is in motion. Six years later, 100% of her staff report clarity on the organization's mission; six years earlier, that number was 39%. The lesson Carrie draws from Tonia's leadership runs deeper than planning: resilience is not a reserve you stockpile — it lives in the relationships you build, in the honest conversations between funders and partners that no grant agreement can manufacture. And holding steady, Tonia proves, is not the same as standing still. In this week's reflection, Carrie revisits three lessons from her conversation with Tonia that every leader navigating sustained uncertainty needs to hear. Learn more about the Greater Washington Community Foundation. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward

    4 min
  3. Leading Beyond Resilience with Tonia Wellons

    MAR 5

    Leading Beyond Resilience with Tonia Wellons

    In a recent staff survey at the Greater Washington Community Foundation, 100 percent of employees said they were clear on the organization's mission and vision. Six years ago, that number was 39 percent. That gap is what happens when an organization decides, at the height of a pandemic, to stop thinking in three-year cycles and commit to a ten-year framework instead. Tonia Wellons was thirty days into her role as president and CEO when COVID hit — canceling a 600-person gala, sending staff home, building a crisis response from scratch. And then, as the uncertainty stretched on, she and her board planned further out, not less. Because the plan isn't a prediction. It's a fixed point. And fixed points are most valuable when everything else is moving. What's moving right now is almost everything. In 2020, the crisis had a shape — federal resources flowing outward, community energy concentrating around visible needs. Now the disruption comes from a different direction. What Wellons calls "dispersed energy" has replaced collective momentum: people still care, but without a center of gravity, that care is very hard to organize — and very hard to sustain. Nonprofit leaders are resilient by training. But resilience and endurance are different capacities. Over ten consecutive years of crisis, the sector has been asked to sustain both, and the cumulative cost is real. Boards that aren't actively asking how to lighten that load are going to lose people — not in a single wave, but in quiet rolling exits. Some of those, Wellons is careful to note, are the right response. A thoughtful departure or sabbatical isn't failure. It's a sector populated by human beings. The same honesty shapes how she talks about the foundation-nonprofit relationship. The power dynamic is real, she says. But the way through it is relational, not structural — funders explaining why they stopped doing something, nonprofits naming the blind spots that foundations can't see from where they sit. The alignment the sector keeps reaching for will arrive person to person, or not at all. Last fiscal year, the Greater Washington Community Foundation granted approximately $70 million — a record — while donor giving and national philanthropic support both reached new highs. None of it happened because the environment got easier. It happened because the foundation had a fixed point, and a leader who understood that holding steady and standing still are not the same thing. Links & Notes Read the Insights on Purpose™ ReportThe Greater Washington Community Foundation (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward (01:22) - Introducing Tonia Wellons and the Greater Washington Community Foundation (08:12) - Making Room for Planning (13:52) - On Resilience (28:04) - A Spotlight on the Good

    34 min
  4. Insights on Purpose + Part 2: Key Takeaways

    FEB 19

    Insights on Purpose + Part 2: Key Takeaways

    Something we've learned about good conversations is that they don't end when the recording stops. The best ones keep working on you — in the car, in the shower, in the middle of a meeting about something else entirely. That's the idea behind this episode, and behind a new format we're trying this season. After each full-length interview, Carrie is coming back with a shorter solo reflection — a chance to sit with the conversation, pull out what matters most, and share what's still turning in her mind. Think of it as a companion piece. The interview gives you the full picture. This gives you the underlines. And there's a lot worth underlining from the season 12 premiere. In that episode, Carrie sat down with Stacy Palmer of the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Brian Fox of Mission Partners to dig into the 2026 Insights on Purpose™ report, a national study drawing on more than 400 nonprofit and foundation leaders. The findings are striking, and Carrie walks through the ones she can't stop thinking about. What comes through most clearly in this reflection is something Stacy and Brian both named in the original conversation: that reports like this only matter if they spark real dialogue. Carrie closes by offering two questions for leaders to carry into their week.  Where do you need fresh creativity? And...Who do you need to invite into the conversation? They sound simple. They're not. And that's the point. If you haven't listened to the full interview with Stacy Palmer and Brian Fox, start there. Then come back to this one. The two episodes are designed to work together — the conversation and the reflection, side by side. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward

    10 min
  5. Insights on Purpose with Stacy Palmer and Brian Fox

    FEB 5

    Insights on Purpose with Stacy Palmer and Brian Fox

    What if the defining feature of nonprofit leadership right now isn’t burnout or bravery, but a kind of double vision—an ability to stare straight at worsening conditions and still believe, perhaps stubbornly, that impact can grow? As we launch season twelve of Mission Forward, Carrie Fox sits down with Stacy Palmer (CEO of the Chronicle of Philanthropy) and Brian Fox (Chief Strategy Officer of Mission Partners) to unpack the 2026 Insights on Purpose™ Report, built from interviews and a national survey of nonprofit and foundation leaders.  The numbers land with a thud: nearly everyone says the environment is harder than it was a year ago, and yet large majorities still think their organizations can increase impact over the next five years. This is not optimism in the syrupy greeting-card sense. It’s optimism as a job requirement—paired with a private ledger of worries about cash on hand, staff departures, restructuring, and the creeping sense that “resilience” is something we describe more easily than we actually feel. So this week, we look at what nonprofit and foundation leaders are really carrying right now—what they’ll say out loud, what they’ll admit in private, and why the gap between those two versions matters. This is the story of confidence and strain living in the same institutional body. About “resilience” as something everyone invokes, but fewer people can define in a way that survives contact with payroll, boards, and the calendar. About why planning feels harder when the ground won’t stop shifting—and why the answer probably isn’t a bigger plan, but a different relationship to planning altogether. If you’re leading an organization, funding one, serving on a board, or simply trying to understand why so many leaders sound calm while feeling anything but, this episode gives you a lens—and a few powerful questions worth keeping close. The report, in their telling, isn’t a stack of charts. It’s a set of voices—unfiltered—trying to say what’s happening before the sector pays for it in closures, mergers, and communities left without the organizations they rely on. Our great thanks to the Chronicle of Philanthropy for their partnership in bringing this report to life. We hope you’ll take the time to read and share it broadly.  (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward (02:30) - The Importance of the Report (03:41) - Doing the Research (13:51) - Risks Ahead in the Demand Experience (18:39) - Foundation Optimism (21:04) - Strategic Planning (23:54) - The AI Divide (27:42) - Looking Ahead

    34 min
  6. Season 12: A Season of Change

    SEASON 12 TRAILER

    Season 12: A Season of Change

    Nonprofits and foundations have always done the quiet, essential work of holding communities together. Season 12 starts with the premise that the work hasn’t changed—but the conditions have. The pace is faster, the decisions are knottier, and “resilience” is being redefined in real time. This season, Mission Forward goes behind Mission Partners’ new research report to surface what leaders are seeing on the ground and how they’re responding: navigating financial strain while demand rises, filling emerging gaps, and leaning harder on collaboration, community, and responsible uses of AI to scale impact without losing the plot. It’s less a tour of what’s shifting than a close listen to the choices leaders are making inside the shift—so you can carry what’s useful back to your own mission. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward

    2 min
  7. Super Human • Finding the Words

    12/18/2025

    Super Human • Finding the Words

    Leaders want to bring more compassion into the culture of work, yet many wrestle with how to do it in a way that feels both authentic and respectful. The answer lies in the simple act of looking out for one another. This short-form episode is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights directly to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward (02:23) - Super Human _____This episode is supported by The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread. At their Frank Lloyd Wright–designed campus, Wingspread brings leaders and communities together to turn dialogue into action. Learn more at johnsonfdn.org or wingspread.com. This episode is also brought to you by Positively Partners. When HR starts to slow down your mission, it’s time for a better solution. Positively HR is the fully outsourced HR partner that understands nonprofits—and acts like part of your team. Learn more at PositivelyPartners.org.

    9 min
  8. A Good Hard Listen • Finding The Words

    12/04/2025

    A Good Hard Listen • Finding The Words

    The volume of one-way communication is ramping up everywhere we turn—our feeds, inboxes, meetings, and media. All that noise leads to an increased feeling of distraction but rarely an increased sense of connection or understanding. All that noise affects our ability to listen to one another, too. This short-form episode is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights directly to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward _____This episode is supported by The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread. At their Frank Lloyd Wright–designed campus, Wingspread brings leaders and communities together to turn dialogue into action. Learn more at johnsonfdn.org or wingspread.com. This episode is also brought to you by Positively Partners. When HR starts to slow down your mission, it’s time for a better solution. Positively HR is the fully outsourced HR partner that understands nonprofits—and acts like part of your team. Learn more at PositivelyPartners.org.

    8 min
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About

Mission Forward with Carrie Fox Hosted by social impact expert and B Corp leader Carrie Fox, the Mission Forward podcast explores what it really takes to move a mission forward in today’s society. With her signature blend of heart and head, Carrie sits down with some of the world’s most-admired purpose driven leaders to dig into issues you’re experiencing right now: from how to navigate difficult issues, how to lead through uncertainty and how to tackle tough conversations with courage and care. With guests ranging from Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, purpose-driven CEOs, storytelling and fundraising experts, and people in the driver’s seat of social change, this show will inspire and activate you as a mission-moving leader, too. * About the Host (https://www.missionforward.us/about-carrie) * Listen to Past Episodes (https://www.missionforward.us/episodes)

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