529. Reimagining Nonprofit Missions for Today's World - Dorri McWhorter, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago

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Overview

Meet Dorri. When it comes to reimagining the nonprofit sector, she not only talks the talk but also walks the walk. She’s the President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, previously serving as CEO of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. Under her leadership, the YWCA operating budget grew from $10.5 million to $38 million🤯👏She also led the effort in developing NYSE: WOMN, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that supports women's empowerment, teaming up with Impact Shares - the first nonprofit investment advisor to create an ETF product. You might also recognize her from the UnCharitable film 🤩 Don’t miss this conversation. We're sure you'll leave this episode as inspired and motivated as we did!

💡Learn

Using business principles to drive social impact
Case Study: Transforming a 140-year-old social service agency to a 21st-century social enterprise
Activation around increasing impact and organizational sustainability

Today’s Guest

President and CEO, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago

“The quality of the question gets you the right solution.”

— President and CEO, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Using business principles to drive social impact (4:15)

Mindset and approach to impactful work in the nonprofit sector (9:45)
We love talking about mindsets on this podcast, especially with incredibly innovative
Transforming a 140-year-old social service agency into a 21st-century social enterprise (13:15)
Create capacity + sustainability + leaning into innovation (20:45)
Innovative projects at the YMCA of Metro Chicago that are in the works (30:45)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Dorri’s life (34:10)
Dorri’s One Good Thing: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality to change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." -Buckminster Fuller (34:50)

Impactful Quotes

“Every single opportunity we have to create impact and advance society, everything is a lever for that. It’s a matter of how we put them together.” -Dorri

“We can have so many levers for change if only we choose to do so.” -Dorri

“We have every tool available to us to create greater societal impact. Everyone and everything has value. How do we make sure that is expressed?”- Dorri

“Impact and value are two sides of the same coin.” -Dorri

“We can’t lose that fire and hope.” -Jon

“The quality of the question gets you the right solution. You need to ask bigger and better questions.” -Dorri

“We need the mindsets and the resources to be on the level of the challenges.” -Dorri

“We haven’t claimed the value that we have been creating.” -Dorri