Proofreading by Lisa Story and Denise Pangia

Text design and composition by PerfecType, Nashville, TN

Cover design by Brigid Pearson

Special discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact bulkorders@benbellabooks.com.

To Sarah, Elza, Zoya, Cicely, and Darcey

CONTENTS

Introduction

PURPOSE

Set the Direction

1.Mission

Be Clear About the Work

2.Impact

Identify and Measure Change

3.Strategy

Make Choices to Maximize Impact

PEOPLE

Build the Organization

4.The CEO

Determine Your Priorities and Style

5.The Team

Prioritize Culture and Recruit and Retain the Right Staff

6.Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Embrace Humility and Learning

7.The Board

Invest in the Relationship

PARTNERS

Mobilize External Stakeholders

8.The People and Communities You Serve

Ensure They Are at the Center

9.Funders

Build Resonant Relationships to Encourage Giving

10.Peer Organizations and Networks

Collaborate to Scale Impact

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

INTRODUCTION

On a bleak midwinter’s day in London a decade ago, I became the CEO of a brand-new nonprofit organization. I had landed in England the day before from my home country of Australia and was struggling to adjust to the subzero temperature after the blazing sun of the southern summer. It wasn’t the only change I was adjusting to.

At this early stage it seemed a little grandiose even to call myself CEO, given I was the sole staff member of my nascent organization, the Freedom Fund. We had no office, no board, no strategic plan, and no programs in place. But what I did bring with me was more than ten years of leadership experience of US and international nonprofits, and another decade before that working in corporate law, government, and banking. I also had a deep belief in the power of well-led nonprofits, with motivated teams, to drive outsized change.

In contrast to its modest circumstances, the Freedom Fund’s ambitions were huge: to mobilize the knowledge, capital, and will needed to end modern slavery. Modern slavery is an umbrella term for horrendous crimes such as sex trafficking, forced labor, bonded labor, and forced marriage. It traps fifty million women, men, and children today into lives of violence and extreme exploitation and generates hundreds of billions of dollars in profit every year for its perpetrators. It’s also a crime that touches all of us, as countless everyday products—from mobile phones to cotton T-shirts to processed seafood—are produced with forced labor.

The Fund had one big advantage from the beginning, and that was the backing of three highly regarded philanthropic foundations. Thankfully, they were willing to take a bet on this vision and my leadership by providing generous start-up capital to test whether the Fund could make real progress against its ambitious goals.

So, on that cold, gray January day, I had two priorities. The first was to get the basic operational pieces in place so that I could start hiring staff and setting up programs. This meant I had to prepare an initial budget, find an office, draft a work plan for the first year, ensure board members were appointed, and hold the first board meeting.

The bigger—and, to my mind, more important—priority was to use the first few months to put in place the fundamentals that would give the Freedom Fund the best chance of success over the longer term. I was acutely conscious that the start-up funding gave us the opportunity to be deliberate about our purpose, impact, and culture from the very beginning. I was determined not to waste that gift. I wanted to use all that I had learned from my previous decade in the nonprofit world, and my time before that in the private and government sectors, to position the Freedom Fund for success. I was also determined to draw on the wisdom of the many outstanding leaders I had worked with over the years, and the lessons I had absorbed from other impactful nonprofits over that time.

Fast-forward to the present. Today the Freedom Fund works in twelve countries, including many of those with the highest burden of modern slavery, such as Brazil, Ethiopia, and Myanmar. We have a global team of eighty-two people. We have partnered with, and helped shift power and resources to, some 150 grassroots organizations. Working with those partners, we have helped bring over 31,000 people out of slavery. Our programs have directly touched the lives of 1.5 million people in slavery or at high risk of it. And they have positively changed the systems affecting more than seven million vulnerable people, reducing their risk of being harmed.

Look beyond those numbers and picture the women and girls who are no longer being exploited in brothels or cotton spinning mills or coerced into marriage; men and boys who are no longer being forced to work in dangerous mines, brick kilns, or fishing boats; women, men, and children who have been helped to escape a myriad of other deeply exploitative situations. To fuel this impact, we have raised over $220 million in funding. Our budget has grown at a rate of about 25 percent year over year, and we have managed this while also recording a very high level of staff satisfaction.

Though we are still a young organization, our work is beginning to garner international attention: Harvard Business School is teaching a case study on the Freedom Fund’s strategy and impact. Thought leaders in philanthropy, such as Bridgespan, the Gates Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, and The Philanthropy Workshop, are highlighting the impact of our work. All of this drives our flywheel, enabling us to mobilize more resources and increase our impact.

So how did we get here? The answer is: by focusing relentlessly and with discipline on our purpose and impact. This focus shapes everything the Freedom Fund does. It sets our direction of travel. It helps us build a highly effective organization, enabling us to recruit and retain an outstanding team that shares an inclusive and impact-focused culture. And it ensures we maintain close partnerships with those who have the greatest stake in our success—particularly local communities and courageous grassroots organizations, but also our funders and peer organizations.

WHAT DO SUCCESSFUL NONPROFITS HAVE IN COMMON?

I’ve spent a lot of time studying successful nonprofits to identify their shared attributes. In addition to my two decades working for nonprofits, I’ve also served on seven nonprofit boards to date, which has given me a firsthand perspective on governance.^* I also have experience working for business and government: In addition to my early years as a corporate lawyer, I worked at the investment bank Goldman Sachs and later was chief of staff to the Australian attorney general. I spent a number of years providing leadership training to young women and men on a sail-training ship. After some twenty years of leadership, I am increasingly asked to advise and coach other nonprofit leaders, and I’ve learned a lot from these rich discussions.