We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits · We Are For Good

684. The Courage to Disappoint: Trust-Based Leadership for Nonprofits - Glennda Testone

·38 min·2 clips

The Keith Haring Foundation sold art and gave New York's LGBT Center $3.5 million.

1. We Are For Good Podcast episode 684 centers on Glenda Testone and trust-based leadership for nonprofits. 2. John and Becky host Glenda Testone, CEO of the Nonprofit Leadership Lab and co-host of Nonprofits Are Messy, because her work at the center and lab shapes nonprofit leadership practice. 3. The episode asks how nonprofit leaders can use trust, accountability, and courage to lead through growth, complexity, and pressure. 4. Glenda traces her path from upstate New York to a career in service, with a mother who worked at an African American community center and a father who became a school superintendent. 5. She names her degrees in broadcast journalism, philosophy, women’s studies, and a master’s in women’s studies from Ohio State as part of her route into justice work. 6. She says Joan Gary at GLAAD became her mentor after she first met her at the organization. 7. Glenda describes later roles at the Women’s Media Center, founded by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan, before leading the LGBT Center in New York. 8. She says her leadership philosophy changed from trying to have all the answers to working deeply and consistently with other people. 9. She gives an early-career example from GLAAD, when she missed a New York Post item that later surfaced on Fox News. 10. She says that mistake taught her to own errors, explain them clearly, and do things differently when she knows better. 11. Becky and John connect her style to the words “warrior” and “mama bear,” which Glenda says fit who she wants to be. 12. Glenda says her organization grew because she built lateral relationships with staff, donors, community members, and people above and below her. 13. She quotes an equity consultant who told her that “relationships move at the speed of trust.” 14. She says staff trust had to be earned in the executive director seat, even though she had once been in staff roles herself. 15. She frames accountability as a way to strengthen mission delivery, not as a fear-based attempt to avoid mistakes or backlash. 16. She says her values are connection and justice, and she uses them to test whether decisions support those values or sit neutrally beside them. 17. The interview style is conversational and reflective, with John and Becky pushing for specific stories while Glenda answers in long, practical explanations. 18. The energy stays warm and personal, with repeated jokes about newspapers, AI, and the old-school way she used notebooks to prioritize work. 19. People leading nonprofits through complexity, fundraising, and accountability will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a quick, surface-level leadership chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A candid case for trust that treats nonprofit leadership as messy, human work.

The conversation treats trust as a leadership habit, not a slogan. It stays close to the hard part of nonprofit work: telling the truth, bringing people in, and choosing integrity even when the curtain would be easier to keep up.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a nonprofit conversation about trust, accountability, and making the messy middle visible instead of hiding it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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