Cause Leaders is a site for people who have found fulfilment and purpose in working for a cause or building a movement and want to get better at it through personal growth, healthier interpersonal relationships, increased organizational effectiveness, and staying current on the context and trends of their profession.  It is for change agents, thought leaders, those who make a difference from whatever role they play in their homes, organizations, and communities.  It’s for those who have experienced the disappointment of well-intentioned but failed projects or frustrating organizational systems and want to understand how to overcome the common challenges of working with other people to have more impact than you could have done alone.

This site will inspire and empower you to leave your thumbprint on the world.  A thumbprint is how I describe the life-long process to do your work through bettering self, building healthy interpersonal relationships, creating and leading healthy organizations, and realizing societal change.  It is a nested model because we are all people within relationships within organizations within society and we must work through every level to have fulfilling careers as Cause Leaders.

In 2004 I volunteered in Ethiopia and a woman asked me if I’d take care of her children when she died of AIDS.  I didn’t know what to say.  I still don’t know what to say but that moment has stuck with me and became the starting point of my journey to answer that question.  In this journey I’ve found I need to work on my thumbprint (at all levels) as a nonprofit professional and volunteer to make a positive impact in the world.