The Charity Charge Show - Nonprofit Podcast · Charity Charge

Running a Nonprofit Like a Business | Laura Hope Whitaker, Extra Special People

·39 min·1 clip
I found myself at the helm of the organization as a sophomore in college—six months after my founder was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Laura Hope Whitaker, Executive Director of Extra Special People (ESP), discusses her unexpected journey to nonprofit leadership when the organization's founder died of cancer while she was still a college sophomore. The episode explores ESP's mission of creating inclusive communities for people with disabilities across 5 locations in Georgia and North Carolina, serving 900+ members in Athens alone. Laura articulates her philosophy of inclusion as building 'communities of belonging' rather than just serving people—emphasizing relationships, cross-sector engagement, and systemic change.

As heard by us

A practical nonprofit-growth conversation that keeps the mission intact while treating the work like a business.

Laura Hope Whitaker makes a steady case for nonprofit discipline without flattening the mission. The arc from zero dollars in revenue to Extra Special People running on an around $8 million budget and 50 full-time employees gives the conversation its clearest point: growth…

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Why you'd press play

You want a grounded take on scaling a nonprofit like a real operation.

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