Nonprofit Leadership Podcast · Dr. Rob Harter

Guided by a Mission Bigger Than You

·44 min·2 clips

Asha Butler says relationships came first, before 'we touched anything tangible,' and culture matters more than the programs you administer.

1. The Nonprofit Leadership Podcast episode 'Guided by a Mission Bigger Than You' covers how one Chicago resident turned a plan to leave Englewood into a neighborhood association founded in 2010. 2. Host Dr. Rob Harder interviews Asha Butler, co-founder and CEO of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (RAGE), whose story appears in an HBO documentary and at the Aspen Ideas Festival. 3. Butler's core thesis is 'community development of the mind': shifting residents' mindset and building relationships comes before any tangible project. 4. She recalls buying her home in 2002, facing robberies and criminal activity, and nearly relocating to Atlanta before seeing a little girl in a dress playing in a glass-filled vacant lot on a Sunday morning. 5. Around 2017 she searched volunteers.org, ended up chairing task forces, and launched 'Docs in Dialogue' documentary screenings to connect young people and elders, which led to founding RAGE. 6. In 2014 residents proposed that Chicago sell vacant lots for a dollar; Butler obtained the lot where she saw the girl and RAGE now uses such lots for drumming circles, gardening, painting and a job fair. 7. RAGE follows a 'connect, build, take action' model, opens meetings by celebrating birthdays and weddings, and runs 'porch life' tours with a tent, music and beverages instead of program pitches. 8. Butler ties economic justice to redlining, predatory lending and contract buying, citing her grandfather 'Cheap Charlie' and the aspirational 'buy the block' idea that owning several properties on a block brings 'a little bit more power.' 9. She says RAGE scaled 'slow and steady' under the theme 'people, passion, power,' is now managing a $6.4 million office project, and advises leaders to document their work and reflect, while offering staff a 'joy grant' and 'Freedom Fridays.' 10. Nonprofit leaders and community organizers seeking practical, relationship-centered approaches will value this conversation.

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