We’ll Just BELIEVE... Yeah, OK.

I have a new favorite Ted Lasso scene. My first favorite was from season three, and it was from the episode where they were playing in Amsterdam and Jamie is teaching Coach Kent how to ride a bike "for Grand-dad." I can watch that scene on repeat and I laugh out loud every time.

My new favorite is the one where all of the women are sitting together talking about believing. In the beginning, they're just being sarcastic about it.

Like, Oh yeah, we'll just believe. We'll just believe our rent is going to get covered. We'll just believe this is going to work out. We'll just believe my ex is somehow going to grow up one day and actually start helping me.

We'll just believe. Right...

I couldn't help but think how it was so relatable to what we do.

I think that's kind of where a lot of us are right now.

It is really hard to believe that everything is going to work out when there is so much change, unknown, and doubt happening around us. Fraud. Corruption. You name it! It is affecting all of us, directly and indirectly. I feel it affecting how I have been showing up lately. The worry and over explaining. I feel it daily.

Our North Dakota nonprofits are especially feeling it right now.

Somehow, we're supposed to believe that we're going to keep existing. That we'll find new ways to fund the work. That we'll figure out how to respond to whatever new challenge is coming next.

We will just keep taking the crumbs of investment that we are given. We will just continue to bite our tongues while our communities express the importance of giving first and being grateful for what we are given. As if we aren't the ones on the front line because others do not have the capacity... As if we are not solving hunger, homelessness and issues that affect immediate human lives...

As if we are not forced to work with less than we need because we ARE so capable.

We'll just continue to believe... Yeah, ok...

But how?! That is the million dollar question.

I know so many of our nonprofits could create better outcomes than some of the regulators that hand them funding and tell them how to use it and report on it.

None of it seems fair.

With all that said, I need to ask you all for a favor.

I am actually going to turn around and ask you all to reconsider.

To... dare I say... BELIEVE.

(GULP.)

Not blindly or irresponsibly.

And please don't feel like you need to pretend everything is fine.

Everything is not fine.

We have to keep being practical about what we're facing and proactive at mitigating risk and issues. We have to look at the numbers and be more diligent than ever. We have to make difficult decisions. As leaders, I think we also have to give our staff enough transparency to understand what we're dealing with so they can choose to either trust that it will work out or create their own contingency plans (or both). And we need to let them and their families be their FIRST priority without guilt.

But really, the biggest part of our job is providing a sense of hope for the future. It is really the only way to get people to buy into the idea that things may actually work out. (They usually do!)

Belief = HOPE

Hope is the thing that inspires the future leaders of tomorrow to make GREAT change. Drives them to do really HARD things. Motivates them in inspiring ways at times when the inspiration has dried up.

We're teaching the future leaders of tomorrow how to lead and our teams how to take ownership in their roles in society. That we can create a better world from the bottom up. That it might take awhile, but it likely will be more effective than top-down leadership.

We want future generations to believe that not only can we continue to exist, but that we can figure out ways to thrive. That the future is brighter. Because if they do not hope for it, they will not create it.

Maybe one day it won't just be about being able to pay the rent.

Maybe it'll be about having enough money to fund the new initiative we've been dreaming about. Maybe it'll be about abundance. Maybe it'll be about finally having the resources to do the work the way we know it could be done.

I work in my in-home office most days, a staff of one, and when I close my eyes, I see a future where I am sitting with a brood of hopeful NDANO admins.

Present day, I am traveling in my Honda CRV hybrid all over North Dakota because the hope and belief are so loud inside of me right now, I feel it is my calling to sprinkle it around the fields and pastures in hope the wind will carry it to all 800,000+ people of North Dakota. To the bison, and the birds. To all the corners of our great state.

I believe that kind of proactive, positive thinking -even when there is a lot happening below the surface -ultimately leads to more opportunity than operating from a constant state of fear.

The hard part is finding a way to get there when we're in our hardest moments.

Watch this Ted Lasso clip and then read on. Warning: There is foul language in this video. Enter at your own risk.

There has to be a balance.

I don't think believing means ignoring reality. And I certainly don't think it means carrying the weight of an entire organization on our own.

So, here are five things I think we need to remember as nonprofit leaders:

1. Be transparent, but don't transfer the burden.

Our employees want to be let in.

They want to understand the realities of what's happening inside their organizations. Not in a way that makes them feel bad or like they're a burden. We can be honest about the challenges while still giving people confidence in our ability to work through them.

2. Trust your people enough to let them help.

I think we can let people in differently.

We can say: I trust you enough to tell you that this is hard.

You then need to trust and believe that they can help make it better.

It can't just be us. We can't do it on our own.

And I think when people understand the challenge -and know that we trust them enough to be part of solving it -they feel empowered to help.

3. Be realistic about today, but don't stop dreaming about tomorrow.

We have to pay the bills. We have to make the difficult decisions. But if all we ever talk about is surviving, how will anyone believe we can thrive?

We have to give ourselves and our teams permission to imagine something better and speak it into truth.

4. Remember that our ROI is in the story.

Toward the end of that Ted Lasso scene, a little boy reads a sign. And suddenly, everyone's perspective changes. They're watching this little miracle of a four-year-old learning how to read, right in front of them.

And THAT is what got me.

Because that's nonprofit work.

Our ROI is rarely monetary in nonprofit work. It's the person who found housing. The kid who learned how to read. The family who ate dinner tonight. The human being who is doing better because somebody decided their life was worth investing in.

Sometimes those moments are few and far between, but when we see them, we remember why we do this work.

When we tell these stories, others remember why we are important and why we need their support.

Share them often and ask your biggest supporters to share them as well. Hand them story content to share and tell them exactly how to do it to create the best outcome. Make it so easy anyone could do it.

Let them know that you cannot do it without them.

5. Don't underestimate the power of BELIEF.

I think hope is contagious. So is fear. As leaders, we have an opportunity to influence which one spreads throughout our organizations. We don't have to have all the answers. We just have to keep believing that better is possible, and keep working toward it.

If our leaders don't paint a picture of a better future, then how can anyone create it?

We spend so much time fundraising and reporting and planning and worrying and trying to keep all the balls in the air that we don't always get to see the actual outcome of the work.

But every once in a while, we do.

We get to see the output.

We get to see the ROI.

We get to see the human healing.

And our minds shift back.

We remember why we're doing this.

We remember why it's so important to stay rooted in the purpose of the work.

And for me, this scene was just the embodiment of that.

So if you aren't watching Ted Lasso , first of all-you should probably watch Ted Lasso .

But more importantly, I needed other nonprofit leaders to see this moment.

Because this is it.

Right here.

This is why we BELIEVE.

This is why we do the work.

Until next time,

Kayla