I recently presented a midpoint Impact Report on the Nonprofit Leaders Forum to the Township of Schaumburg Mental Health Board.
Then I asked the Board: What keeps you up at night?
Waitlists. Agencies with backlogs in an overburdened system. Access barriers—residents don’t know where to start. Network isolation—agencies that need to work together more effectively.
When agencies operate in isolation, referral pathways break down. The network can’t function at full capacity when the leaders who guide the direct services within it have never met.
The Forum Effect:
When a Nonprofit Leaders Forum (https://goodworksresults.com/home/nonprofitsocialsector/nonprofitforum/) cohort starts, leaders from different agencies walk into a room of other agency leaders they’ve typically never met.
Then something shifts.
They begin to know each other. They call each other when stuck. They have honest conversations about transitions, staff retention, and managing capacity when demand outpaces resources.
What partners love most about the Forum: “Hearing that others are having a hard time too.” That validation changes the question from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What are we all navigating together?”
Forums don’t solve waitlists or workforce shortages. Those need systemic solutions. But when people serving the same community know each other, chances increase that problems can be solved.
Good people want to work together. Sometimes they just need a place to convene.