111. Training Leaders on Building Safe, Inclusive Spaces - Rashaunda Williams

Rashaunda Williams, Collective Impact, We Are For Good Podcast

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Overview

Meet Rashuanda. She's passionate about equipping this generation's nonprofit leaders with the soft skills needed to build high-performing team. And it starts with creating a space where people feel they can thrive, share their experiences and be their authentic selves. Her team at Collective Impact is breaking through diversity and inequity gaps to train leaders to build healthy cultures which inevitably lead to healthier teams.

Today’s Guest

Rashaunda Williams, President and Community Liason for Collective Impact

“Be aware of why you’re feeling what you’re feeling and meet people where they are.”

— Rashaunda Williams, President and Community Liason for Collective Impact

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

The beginning of Collective Impact - 2:25
Philanthropic P.O.V. - 5:57
Amplifying voices - 11:02
Where do we start? - 13:37
The future of Collective Impact - 17:38
Rashaunda’s One Philanthropic Moment - 22:18
Rashaunda’s One Good Thing - 23:28

Powerful Quotes:

“I've seen the internal barriers, and then the external barriers I witnessed firsthand as running a nonprofit organization. So our mission was to help empower African American men and women, right. And so that wasn't very sought after or funded when I would go out for grant proposals. And so that was kind of heartbreaking as well.” - Rashaunda

“When you improve communities, it affects our nation, and it affects the world. You have to start where you are.” - Rashaunda

“helping bring grant writers to the table and our finance people to the table to help them to write more effective grant proposals so they can get funding.” - Rashaunda

“78.6% of board of directors are Caucasian, 7.5% are black. 4.2% are Latino, and 2.6% are Asian. So there's a huge disconnect there. The people who are making the decisions are not connected to the communities that they're serving, and again, it's all about impact. How can you meet me where I am and you don't understand me?” - Rashaunda

“That's part of why Collective Impact was definitely needed. It's not a new concept by any means, right? It's not a new concept, just tailored to be African Americans and communities of color.” - Rashaunda

“We need to do a better job of the missions of who we're serving, we need to have leaders that are reflective of the people that we're serving, obviously, because, at the very tail end of impact, you want them to be able to see what's possible and the opportunities ahead of them.” - Jon

“We collaborate with purpose. Our mission is, we love God, we love people. And we love business. So whoever we work with nonprofits or the consultants, they have to share those same values.” - Rashaunda

“If this is making you uncomfortable, then to me, that's an opportunity and a trigger for you that we need to be listening more, we need to be seeking out more information.” - Becky

“So meeting people where they are and looking to understand is not just check a box, because that organization obviously didn't care about the diversity inclusion training, they wanted to just check the box.” - Rashaunda

“Something that I am reading and really thinking a lot about right now is just how do leaders create that safe space? How do they create a place for people to be authentic and share their experiences? How are you opening that door so you can understand the different perspectives on your team, so you can make a more safe place because people are going to thrive if they feel safe if they feel like they can do themselves.” - Jon

“I'm constantly worried about how I'm presenting myself. I don't want to lose myself. And then that's going to hinder my creativity. That's going to hinder my confidence.” - Rashaunda

“When you improve the community, you improve the world. And this is about hearing stories to your point. Because if we create the time we create the space to gently just sit down from another human, hear their story.” - Becky

“Just be aware of why you're feeling what you're feeling and meet people where they are.” - Rashaunda’s One Good Thing