Features
Give Me a Break
The nuts and bolts of taking a sabbatical (yes, you can)
01 September 2025
Seven years after founding a startup, DJ DiDonna (MBA 2010) was burned out. He needed a break but recognized what he was experiencing couldn’t be addressed with a one- or even two-week vacation.
Instead, he followed a ten-day silent retreat with a six-week Buddhist pilgrimage of Shikoku, Japan; the result was so transformative that he began to wonder about available research on the effect of sabbaticals.
Reimagining Leadership Transitions
May 2024
Leadership transitions are a pivotal moment for any organization, and without proper planning, they can leave both the organization and the communities it serves vulnerable. Too often, transitions are rushed, under-resourced, and fail to provide incoming leaders with the support they need to success, especially in today’s shifting landscape. Reimagining Leadership Transitions by ProInspire offers a fresh perspective on how nonprofits can approach leadership shifts with intention, equity, and long-term sustainability.
Advancing Racial Equity Inside Foundations — Lessons from the Field
01 February 2024
The James Irvine Foundation, like many funders, was jolted to act in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing national racial reckoning. Although Irvine had long supported organizations focused on racial equity and had some internal efforts focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Foundation recognized that rising to the moment required more intentional internal work to advance racial equity in the organization’s programs, operations, and investments.
Operationalizing Co-Leadership Structures: Lessons from the Nonprofit Intermediary Field
01 August 2023
While co-executive models are not new in the social sector—arts organizations, medical clinics, and publishing platforms often split the executive role—the recent surge in shared leadership experimentation among justice organizations specifically is part of their larger reckoning with alignment between organizational forms and organizational values. Incoming BIPOC leaders, in particular, are questioning how we reconcile commitments to dismantle oppressive systems externally while practicing a highly individualistic and heroic notion of organizational leadership internally.
When Sunsetting Your Nonprofit is the Hardest (and Best) Option
1 June 2022
If there is a lesson from the last several years, it is that we have to look inward before we do anything else. Between the pandemic, the “Great Resignation,” political division, and heightened awareness of the ways racism and oppression has shaped everything we do in the nonprofit sector, we have been called to be more self-aware and reflective as leaders. We hope this story about how we sunset a nonprofit organization offers some learnings for nonprofit board members about reflection at organizational transition points.
SEI25 Series: Monisha Kapila (MBA 2005), Founder & CEO, ProInspire
06 June 2019
This post is part of our Social Enterprise Initiative 25th anniversary blog series, which highlights some of the faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have been a part of SEI throughout the years. In this post, Monisha Kapila (MBA 2005) shares her insights on pursuing social impact and founding a social enterprise. Monisha is the Founder and CEO of ProInspire, a social sector leadership development nonprofit.
Monisha Kapila: a For-Profit to Nonprofit Pipeline
5 January 2016
Monisha Kapila, the daughter of immigrants from India who instilled in her an ethos of service, had long planned a nonprofit career. But after burnishing her business skills as a consultant at Arthur Andersen following her graduation, she found the transition into the charity world difficult.
How Fellowships Can Inform Talent Management
11 May 2015
A new study traces the evolution of social impact fellowships and highlights what organizations can learn from the industry.