Welcome back to the show. This is Marcia Beckner, and in the last episode I walked you through what is actually like to work with me 1:1 in the Culture CARES VIP Accelerator.
You’re listening to Episode 3 of 3 from the START HERE series. If you haven’t yet listened to the first 2 episodes, go back to:
We talked about what nonprofit leaders are facing when they reach out, situations that might begin with an HR concern or a team dynamic that fills off.
Or simply the growing sense that the culture inside the organization is no longer supporting the mission the way it should.
And we talked about how the work begins by stabilizing the leader first and then creating this confidential space where CEOs and executive directors are free to think clearly again.
And then we move into the culture cares design process so the entire team can begin rebuilding trust, clarity, morale, and alignment together.
And today, I wanna take that conversation one step further because hearing about a framework is one thing, but seeing how it actually plays out inside a real organization with real people, real challenges and results is something entirely different.
So in this episode, I’m joined by someone I’ve had the privilege of working alongside through this process. Her name is Kimberly.
She’s a nonprofit leader who stepped into a culture leadership role in a moment that many of you will recognize immediately.
Her advancement team in the college was really doing meaningful work and the mission mattered deeply.
But they were in a space after the pandemic where their team had shrunk a little bit, internally, the culture had reached a point where people were feeling burnt out because of the smaller staff, some leadership transitions, and it just, all of us after COVID felt very unstable with how to rebuild and going from remote back to in-person.
So they were going through a very common situation and what their leader, their senior VP of their department said is, “I wanna proactively focus on our culture now, rebuilding trust and morale.“
What I appreciate so much about Kimberly’s leadership is that she is willing to take an honest look about what happens inside the organization and say, “we need to address this issue at the root and not put a bandaid on things that keep popping up into internal fires, but really understand what is the root causes of what’s happening.“
Identify what people are really thinking honestly and get their suggestions for how we can change. And that willingness is where real culture change begins.
If you listen to the previous episode and found yourself wondering, what does this actually look like in real life? This conversation will give you that perspective.
I am really excited to introduce you to Kimberly Elaha from Colorado College. She is the director of prospect research in the Advancement Department, and we’ve been working together through the Culture Cares system.
I wanted her to kinda walk you through what it’s like to partner with me on this work. First, Kimberly, would you please introduce yourself and tell us about your role in the advancement team.
The Default vs. Design Framework
Kimberly: Hi, Marcia. Thank you so much for having me today. My name is Kimberly Elaha and my title at Colorado College is Director of Research and Prospect Management.
I’ve been at the college since 2014 and have spent the majority of my career in prospect research and prospect development work, helping to provide data intelligence to fundraisers to raise major gifts.
Marcia: Amazing. Amazing. I wanna just tell people the story of how we met.
I was speaking at a Colorado Nonprofit Association event about culture cares and how it can help organizations build healthy, inclusive and empowering cultures where all staff members can thrive.
After I was done with my speech, I saw you make a beeline towards me and introduce yourself and you said, “oh my gosh. We just put together this culture Solutions working group, a committee of interested coworkers who wanted to take your culture to the next level.“
And I remember something you specifically said, you said, “well, we don’t have a culture and we wanna build one.“
And I said, “well, actually the good news is you do have a culture. It’s just by default and not design.” And that’s what we can partner together on.
So Kimberly, from your perspective in how we met that day, take us back to and set the stage for people listening. Like what in my stories or that speech really called to you?
Kimberly: One thing that stood out to me was your speech, you know, because I, in my work, I think in process systems pathways.
And so the fact that she just outlined like, this is how you do it—it wasn’t just a roadmap, it was laid out, it was clear.
There was no ambiguity about culture. Because when you talk about culture, you say “do culture work,” and if you ask someone that, they’ll say, “what is that?” You know, it’s just kind of ambiguous.
And I remember like feeling that inside, like, she’s who we need. And what really stood out to me was the framework.
You provided a framework of how we could transform our culture. And so at the time, I didn’t know what it was necessarily called the CARES model, but it was a roadmap to how cultures can transform. And so that really stood out to me.
Marcia: Why did the Culture Solutions working group get formed, and what was the charter? What was the initiative?
Kimberly: You know, the working groups were formed because there were, we were coming off the heels of a global pandemic.
A lot of leadership changes and you know, as those type of disruptions happen, culture can shift. And our culture had shifted.
And our VP at the time wanted to put some effort toward transforming the culture and set out to hire an external facilitator to help with that along with an internal working group to help move the needle in our culture.
And so, and that was around 2023. And now here in 2026, the group is still thriving and we’re still making progress in our culture.
Marcia: I love it. And why was an external facilitator part of the initiative versus doing it yourself internally?
Kimberly: It was a combination of things because when culture shifts over pandemic, some people working remotely and then you come back together and then we had some different various leadership changes and so all those type of things impact culture—those external forces impact culture.
And so their need was recognized that we needed to get back to some homeostasis, some type of baseline, and if we knew how to do it, we would do it ourselves.
And having someone who wasn’t tied to the organization, looking at it with fresh eyes who could give us some data to tell us where we needed to focus was paramount.
And that’s what you provided for us in those initial visioning sessions or brainstorming sessions, helping us to have a roadmap and a path forward to improving our culture.
Implementing the CARES Listening Tour
Marcia: And what was the culture like when we first met and what is it like now?
Kimberly: You know, it was just a different environment. I mean, it just felt different. I mean, I can’t really explain it into words. It was just a different feeling.
We had, I mean, this is our first time ever being involved in culture work. And, but there was such intentionality and so that had never happened before up until that point.
Marcia: Mm-hmm.
Kimberly: So now that we’ve done the culture work, the environment feels just better. It feels better. It feels different. People seem to be very engaged.
We’re doing a lot of intentional work around culture with our events and our different initiatives. We are getting attendance and engagement.
We are having people volunteer because this is a volunteer peer-led committee. And so people are engaged and wanna be a part of the culture work that we’re doing, and we’re having a lot of fun.
Marcia: It was all about listening so the work continues, right? Because culture’s never static. It’s either getting better or it’s getting worse.
I say that a lot and people understand that people are always changing, so the culture’s always changing.
Kimberly: Yeah, new people come and some people leave and so it is very fluid.
Marcia: The first thing I did when we started working together, we did a CARES listening tour, and that’s where we did an anonymous confidential CARES assessment with 27 questions that measure the exact amount of commitment, appreciation, respect, engagement, and safety.
And we take that data from 40 people and aggregated it and looked for themes and that’s where we surfaced those themes of what people most wanted to improve.
Then we scheduled two visioning sessions with your team because they were bigger. Usually it’s one visioning session for a smaller team, but we did two different visioning sessions to co-create the future roadmap going forward.
And so we had 100% basically buy-in from the team.
Kimberly: I don’t remember the exact first thing that we did. I do remember that we held those visioning sessions.
And I think that’s one of the things that was impressive as well, that although at the senior leadership level they recognized the need to improve culture, this is something that everyone had a voice in.
We came up with shared values. People were really engaged in the work and taking ownership of improving our culture and really recognizing that as a team, we are the culture.
Marcia: Mm-hmm. And you had a staff of about 40 people on your team. Is that right?
Kimberly: Yeah, about 40 at that time. Our team has since grown back up to pre-pandemic levels with around 50 or so people.
Marcia: So the work continues, right? Because culture’s never static. People are always changing, so the culture’s always changing.
Kimberly: Yeah, new people come and some people leave and so it is very fluid.
Marcia: So the CARES Listening Tour surfaced five specific themes that the staff wanted to work towards: workload burnout, trust, morale and engagement.
What was it like to see your team’s experience reflected back to the whole division?
Kimberly: I just remember people being engaged in the conversation in that big room and people just really being engaged in how you were guiding and facilitating and helping us with the conversation.
Marcia: And then we co-created the CARES roadmap together for about 90 days to start and then some focus areas over the next few quarters after that.
Kimberly: And who knew this was gonna lead to where we are now? I mean, we wanted results and we wanted to improve our culture, and we’ve done it.
I mean, we’ve gone from a culture where, you know, Marcia may talk about the model—the red, the yellow, and the green.
We went from red to yellow in such a short period of time. And the transformation was huge.
And we set out to do this for a period of time, and three years later we’re still doing the work because culture, as Marcia had mentioned, is continuous work.
It’s always improving and I don’t think you can ever arrive. You just keep improving things and it’s something that you do slowly in baby steps.
Trust culture does not transform overnight. And there’s always room to improve.
So over the last three years, it’s been really refining and focusing on different things each year to improve our culture, make it the best that it can be.
Psychological Safety and Data-Driven Results
Marcia: This is a really important thing. Some people think that culture is just too hard. It’s too much work. I don’t have time.
But really, we went by this adage—I think this comes from the military—where “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.“
That’s what culture work is. We just slow it down a little bit.
We put in a few implementation pieces that the staff said that they wanted, and you just see the collaboration start to snowball and really impact the end results and the goals that you’re trying to hit.
Kimberly: The surveys and the outcomes from that survey, that’s what guides the work. That’s how the committee decided what we’re going to focus on based on the survey results.
When we see the areas where we need some more support or help, we use it as the roadmap. Otherwise, it’s just a guess.
I mean, going in and saying, “well, I think we should work on that,” but the team said this.
And one thing I’m really proud of is that we are following the feedback from the team. Team members say, “this is what we need,” or “I wanted to try this initiative,” and we implement that.
So the survey results have really helped guide the work. We are still using the framework.
We’re refreshing our posters because this is the path forward and this is a framework that works.
Marcia: And that’s how you get the work done and the implementation done is that everybody feels like a culture ambassador and a contributor to the culture.
It’s a team sport. So once the CARES roadmap was built, what did implementation actually look like more on a daily basis?
I remember some of the feedback was, “we want more connection events.“
Kimberly: You know, it just started, we started doing things as a team. We created a signature event that we do every year, our Field Day.
That was the one where I felt like, oh my gosh, this is so great.
You know, one of the members of the committee, that was her idea to have this Field Day and all the team came together and we are doing this friendly competition.
It was just so much fun and to see the camaraderie and people coming together having a good time. That was really memorable.
Marcia: I wanted to say beyond the field event, and Kimberly and I have talked about this before, it’s not just about feel-good events, it’s about how you feel daily in the office and how you’re able to more easily collaborate with your peers.
That is the ultimate goal—that you are a team. The team is always greater than the individual when it comes to working on big goals.
And you’ve gotta feel connected to your team. And so it’s really important to align how people are feeling valued, respected, and appreciated all the way through the team.
Kimberly: Yes. And I think when that happens, you know, you can’t help but to have a positive outcome in your goals and in your collaboration and supporting one another.
It’s just a ripple effect also, not only in your area, but then when people experience these transformations at work, it comes out into their own lives across the campus and across the college, and also in their personal lives as they interact in their communities.
So the culture work, you just have a pebble drop into the water and then you have this ripple effect. And that’s what it feels like.
Marcia: Yeah.
Kimberly: The reason why a process and structure are important is because it gives a path forward.
All of us in our roles have standard operating procedures, and what is a standard operating procedure? It says, first we do this, and then we do this, and then we do this.
And so in order for things to go fluidly, there needs to be a process and so the CARES model was and continues to be that process to guide our work to move us from the yellow into the green.
Marcia: Yeah, and you’re so data-driven as well. And that’s what you go off of every year that you’re updating and revising your CARES roadmap.
And this work continues without me. You do it on your own and lead the committee forward.
You look at the data from the CARES assessment, and there’s recommendations all throughout that assessment on how we can take our culture to the next level.
Because there’s always another level. And that’s what’s so impressive about you is that you continue to do the work, you take small steps forward, and it just continues to snowball into a culture where people love to work.
Kimberly: And plus I’m building on the work that the other chairs have done before me, and so we continue to build on that work—it’s something that I’m very, very passionate about.
To, because It feels good to, to be involved in something at Work that has a direct impact and we can see the impact directly with our own eyes today in real time.
And without that roadmap though, Marcia, we would be in the dark. I mean, just trying to figure it out ourselves.
I mean, you’ve done the research, you knew the science, and you knew this map can improve culture and also increase organizational effectiveness.
And so if you have a good culture, it could improve your fundraising, or those in the corporate sector, it can help really improve your bottom line when people are working in a positive culture.
Achieving Major Fundraising Success
Marcia: Yeah. And let’s talk about the results that you’ve gotten from your fundraising.
I mean, you were responsible last year for a $20 million fundraising goal. Tell us about that goal and how you achieved it and when.
We always have ambitious fundraising goals, and you reached the goal ahead of time. And it’s always exciting.
However, you know, culture is an important part of that success because when people are showing up as their best selves at work, they can do better work.
And so I would say that there was a correlation between us reaching that goal ahead of time and the culture that we have established.
Marcia: That’s why I shout from a mountain sometimes—culture truly is your growth engine.
And without a healthy, inclusive, empowering culture where staff can be their best and do their best work, you’re not gonna hit those fundraising goals and your bottom line is gonna suffer.
There is a clear line between culture and the financial health and wellbeing of your organization.
I wanna get to the results because that’s what everybody’s wondering about. Why is culture work important?
Well, after a year of implementation, you measured staff perspectives again and what the numbers show is:
- 94% improvement in people feeling safe to take risks (that’s a psychological safety measure).
- 86% improvement in trust.
- 78% improvement in people feeling like their strengths were optimized.
- 68% improvement in appreciation and celebrating wins together.
- 68% improvement in people feeling that mistakes were not held against them.
That is such a crucial data point, because if people feel their mistakes are held against them within a group, they’re not gonna bring new ideas.
They’re not gonna innovate. They’re not going to share their creativity because they feel like they might be punished or shamed or humiliated for sharing that new idea.
So that’s why psychological safety and improving that systematically is so crucial in the CARES process and why it feels different.
You’ve mentioned quite a few times it feels different where you work today versus when we first started together.
It’s because we’ve really nailed down the psychological safety features that people weren’t feeling safe in at the time.
And you improved it with very high percentage numbers.
And I wanna just share with anyone listening, it’s really not hard to improve all of these areas when you’re focused on it.
It’s all about strategically prioritizing a healthy culture.
If you are focused on caring about the culture as a leader, setting everyone up to succeed as a culture contributor—because people are not tired of surveys; they’re tired of lack of action after surveys.
It seems so simple, but it’s one of those really important issues that get pushed aside because you have urgent fires that you’re fighting today.
Keep culture front and center because you know it’s gonna ultimately drive the financial health of your organization, the fundraising results that you get, higher retention of your top talent, and make it easy to recruit people.
And that’s why it’s been working, Kimberly, for years—is that you’ve kept this front and center.
Why do you, Kimberly, why do you care about culture so much that you’re willing to put yourself out there as a leader in this work?
The Contagious Nature of Team Culture
Kimberly: I care about culture because I wanna work in an environment where I look forward to and enjoy coming to work every day.
I really enjoy working on the committee with a team of people who share similar values as me.
We have a committee right now of six of us, and we are all passionate about culture and it’s across the different teams.
So I get the chance to interact with people who I don’t necessarily see every day because they were in three different buildings.
And it’s so refreshing to see us come together for this common goal and each person participate and optimize their talent in whatever gifts that they have.
Everybody is gifted in a different way. We have somebody who’s good with graphic design, who helps with the posters.
Some people who are great with leading one of our events. People are great with coming up with ideas.
I mean, and so the creativity is really infectious. It’s a committee you wanna be on and people you wanna be around, and it’s just this ripple effect.
And people on the team are starting to also bring ideas and say, “why don’t we try this?” or “why don’t we try that?” So engagement increases.
Marcia: Yeah.
Kimberly: It’s not just the people on the committee, it’s how people show up every day as their best selves and they’re able to do their best at work.
So it is definitely a ripple effect and a byproduct of the work that we’ve been doing together.
We planned the events and people show up and have a good time and are able to connect with people.
It’s just really nice to have an environment like that where the work is being done with intentionality, because without that culture work, you may not get what you want.
If you don’t really intentionally focus on it, you may not get what you want.
Because like with any goal or anything you want, you have to put effort into it. If you wanna be strong, you need to go to the gym.
Just sitting down is not gonna do it. It’s not gonna happen just thinking about it or hoping that it’ll happen.
There has to be intention, and without that focus, things just don’t move forward.
And so I’m really grateful that we have a team of people who are focused and just as excited as I am to move the culture forward because I mean, who doesn’t want to work in a great place? I work here, so I want the place to be great too.
Marcia: Yeah. So, and then as we started working together kind of like that first year, what was important about the accountability of having an external facilitator slash partner work with you?
How did the accountability help move the work forward?
Kimberly: It was so important because you know, you did things like a newsletter and things of that nature so we could share with the team.
Just making sure we stayed on track. Because in fundraising, it’s easy for things to kind of fall off because you’re focused on what you need to do in front of you—the fiscal year, the dollar goals to meet.
But having a partner like you, Marcia, to say, “Hey, have you done this? Have you done that?“
And keeping us accountable as a coach was really helpful with keeping us on track.
And you also gave us a framework, a cadence of how to do it.
You really modeled the way that we needed to keep going to move forward to make our culture the best that it can be.
You set the expectation because we’ve never done culture work before. How are we supposed to know what we’re doing if we’d never seen it?
But to have somebody actually model it was really transformational.
Kimberly: Okay, so we hit our fundraising goal last year ahead of schedule, and I think that the culture work had an impact on that because when people are showing up at their best self every day, they feel happy to come to work.
They put forth a lot of effort into what they’re doing and they want to shine. They want to reach goals, they wanna collaborate.
So I think having a healthy culture and reaching fundraising goals ahead of time is just a natural byproduct of that.
I mean, how can it not happen when people are showing up as their best selves every day and wanting to do the best work that they can?
I mean, best plus best equals best, right?
Marcia: When people bring their best selves to work, the organization becomes the best version of itself.
Kimberly: Absolutely. A hundred percent.
Marcia: Kimberly, for someone listening right now and they see themselves in you and say, “wow, this sounds a lot like my team, what we were struggling with in the beginning and what we want to create in our own organization,” what would you want them to know?
Kimberly: I mean, one thing I just really wanna say is that I don’t think any leader could ever go wrong investing in culture because it undergirds everything.
It’s worth the investment. And I think having a true and trusted framework and model sets you up for success.
We had the framework that was tested and validated, and we just plugged ourselves into it.
It’s not something we have to create from scratch.
And it helps us see possibility—that we don’t have to be where we started, that we can go higher, that we could be greater, and that we could have the best possible culture ever.
Marcia: And for those of you listening, if this conversation resonated with you and you’re thinking about the culture inside your organization, I invite you to head to culturecares.com.
There’s an application there for the Culture Cares Accelerator. It’s always worth having a conversation together just to see what’s possible.
I wanna end by thanking Kimberly so much for sharing your experience so openly today.
I know these conversations require honesty and courage, and I am incredibly grateful that she was willing to take us behind the scenes of what it actually looks like to lead culture change from the inside out.
If you saw yourself in this story, or if you’re curious about what it would look like to work together, head over to culture cares.com and learn more about the Culture Cares Accelerator.
And remember, you are meant for great things and you don’t have to burn out to prove it. I’ll see you on the next episode.