where Executive Directors grow — together
Surround yourself with changemakers focused on the big idea
Being the leader of a nonprofit is often an honor of a lifetime.
But being an Executive Director in the nonprofit sector is a different journey altogether.
Executive Directors are driven by their mission and are rewarded by the change they can make in their community. They approach their work with endless passion and with unwavering dedication.
Executive Directors commit day in and day out to advancing the cause they believe in.
Executive Directors are not only leaders but changemakers.
They are also strategic thinkers, continuously experimenting, building systems to create more time in the day, and making informed decisions to drive change.
In my experience as an Executive Director and a Founder, there's no more fulfilling path than being a dedicated leader of an organization.
But that doesn’t mean you have to go on this journey alone.
You are most resilient when in a community of your peers.
That's why I created SproutED.
Inside SproutED, we bring together nonprofit leaders who are pioneering change. Not only does SproutED empower you to make a greater impact, but you also have the opportunity to build community and learn from the successes and challenges of others in the sector.
If you're a committed nonprofit executive director or founder, SproutED is your platform for growth and collaboration.
“It's so worth the investment that we made in ourselves, and in our organization but also to not reinvent the wheel.”
- Heather Hooper, Dementia Alliance of NC
our shared goals
⏳ Find Focus
The heart of any nonprofit endeavor is the community you serve – the individuals you are reaching with your mission and vision.
You won't find quick-fix strategies here in SproutED, but one of our primary objectives is to help you reclaim your time and find focus on a world designed to distract you.
📈 Lasting Impact
Finding stability and building a blueprint starts with a rock-solid foundation that includes creating systems to increase your efficiency and building lasting connections with your community.
When those you serve view you as a steadfast guide, advocate, collaborator, or ally, they are more likely to support your cause and champion your mission.
💰 Raise More
Financial sustainability is a consistent discussion within SproutED. While money isn't the sole objective, it plays a vital role in advancing your organization's goals.
Fundraising is both an art and a science. By increasing your revenue, you will increase your impact, make thoughtful decisions, fulfill your commitments, and further support your vision.
⚡️ Radical Connection
No nonprofit succeeds in isolation. Your journey becomes more impactful and efficient when you collaborate with others.
This collaborative spirit is one of the greatest strengths of our community – together, we elevate each other. As we each thrive, we become a force for positive change.
💡 Here's the big idea
We support nonprofit Executive Directors inside of SproutED to grow as a leader and raise more money by creating a plan focusing on the goals that will move the needle of your mission and developing a collaborative environment to build community.
Together, we emphasize collaboration to allow for exploring new and innovative strategies, building efficient systems, sharing tactics, and celebrating your success.
“The biggest return on the investment for me is feeling like I'm part of a community and that I don't have to have it all figured out.”
- Jo Ellis, Executive Director, Make.Do.
here’s what you get inside the membership
💻
Member Community + Chat
Access to our community forum and our real-time chat inside of Slack.
✨
Access to Industry Experts
Monthly Q+A sessions with experts in the nonprofit sector
📁
Community Swipe Files + Templates
A growing repository of the best examples, templates, and ideas
📣
1:1 Coaching with Rachel
With Office Hours and Hot Seats, you can receive 1:1 coaching from me
👀
A Look Behind-The-Scenes
Quarterly behind-the-scenes How-To videos with community members
📚
All Courses & Workshops
Immediate, full access to all past (and future) workshops & courses
LEARN FROM ME
oh, hey!
I’m rachel 👋🏼 Yep, with a lowercase “r”.
SproutED is where I invest a lot of my time and energy. It’s also the first place I share any new content I’ve created.
I want every nonprofit Executive Director to have a community away from meetings in the board room, programming, and cultivating donors.
🌱 A place where you can grow.
🏠 A place to build community.
🦄 A place that fosters creativity.
🔬 A place that celebrates innovation.
This is why I created SproutED — so I could invest in the Executive Directors who invest their time with me and my work. And don’t mind getting a little nerdy about building systems.
Growth is incremental progress over time.
But I can't teach you everything you need as an Executive Director with a pre-recorded course. I can't help you grow as a leader with a single cohort-based program, either.
Being a leader and running a nonprofit requires a lot of learning skills, mini-campaigns, pushing toward goals, and above all – time.
The best way for me to support you on that journey is through an ongoing relationship.
A place where I can share what I'm learning (including what’s changing in the sector) for months, if not years.
That means that inside SproutED, I am very active in the forum and in direct messages. I send Loom videos and voice memos. I host live sessions every month, including open Office Hours, and connect 1:1 with members.
I also create and curate the best training resources I can to help you build and grow your organization.
SproutED is where I'm able to personalize my experience and insight to you and your specific situation and that is pretty dang cool.
And even better – this is our community. It's a space for us all to learn together in real-time.
don’t just take my word for it — take theirs 👇🏼
so, let’s recap the resources you can access inside the membership
TAP INTO OUR SHARED INSIGHT
💻 A community to collaborate and listen
Slack is where we hang. Think of it as the community water cooler.
From advice to resources, how-tos to virtual celebrations — the Slack community is what you make it. Whether you’re an everyday commenter or a casual GIF dropper, the culture of the community is a collective effort. A constant give and take to ensure everyone feels included and excited to engage.
That's the goal of the Community space. Plus, there is a Community Call each month to connect.
The best way we can help each other grow faster is by sharing honestly, giving generously, and building relationships.
ACTIVELY LEARN TOGETHER
✨ Access to industry experts
Each month inside SproutED, an industry expert from the nonprofit community drops in to share their wisdom with you. Think of these as Bonus Calls, designed to teach you a little something, but more importantly, these calls provide you with face-to-face time to ask your toughest and most technical questions.
You can participate to whatever degree you'd like – you can join our live sessions, watch the replay, or both. Plus, there’s a library of over 40 Bonus Calls you can search and access at any time.
GROWING LIBRARY OF GOODNESS
📁 Templates + Community shared drive
Why recreate the wheel when you can access a growing library of templates and swipe files?
Access all the templates from the SproutED courses at your fingertips, plus a community shared drive with the best examples and ideas.
And if you have questions about how something was used or how copy performed in a campaign, you can connect directly with the member.
RADICAL TRANSPARENCY
👀 Look behind-the-scenes
Each quarter, we pull back the curtain of a specific system or process that an organization has implemented with a BTS How-To video.
These videos are not meant to add more to your to-do list – but to get into the weeds of something specific that is working for an organization and to model what this process might look like, the steps needed to complete it, what’s working and not working and how they got buy-in.
You'll be able to ask questions, understand the goals, lessons learned and what they might change if they were to do it all over again.
And if you have questions based on the video, we can discuss them right inside the Community!
HIGH-QUALITY FEEDBACK
💬 Real + honest feedback
Feedback is a gift. Especially when it comes from mentors and peers who truly understand what you're trying to achieve.
The feedback you receive inside SproutED is high-quality, honest, and empathetic. Whether it’s in the Slack Community or during Year-End fundraising, it's important that we are real and direct with one another, but we also deliver tough feedback with kindness.
Each month, I host an open Office Hours session for you to receive feedback from me directly. And several times per month, especially during Q4, I also open up my calendar to Hot Seats, which are recorded 1:1 coaching conversations and direct feedback on your work right inside the community.
SELF-PACED TRAINING RESOURCES
📚 All of my courses and workshops
Over the last couple of years, I've created several paid workshops. These workshops are very popular and are continually being updated:
These courses are all available inside:
Reclaim Your Time
Fundraising Lab Live
Build a High Impact Board (by Brooke Richie-Babbage)
Creating Your Org StoryBrand
Inbox Zero-ish
How to Systematize the Tasks You Can’t Delegate
...and more!
designed to be small
SproutED is designed to be small (and stay small).
I believe in growing. I believe in scaling. A lot of great things come from large communities. But it's very easy to lose closeness to the community as it grows.
So I've designed SproutED to stay small.
That allows me to invest more of MY time in fewer people and plus, it still gives me the time and space to continue building out other areas of my business.
At this time, SproutED’s Bloom and Flourish membership levels are open for new members. But I don’t anticipate this being the case for much longer. Once these spots reach full capacity. New spots will only be available once a member decides they do not wish to renew.
New spots will be made available first to our Growth membership, followed by our Waitlist.
To be the first to know when spots open up, join our Growth Membership or join our Waitlist!
Current Members
choose your plan
COURSES
⚡️ Access to all courses
⚡️ Access to Template Library + Community Shared Drive
⚡️ Access to all workshops
⚡️ Quarterly BTS How-Tos video with SproutED members
COMMUNITY
⚡️ Members-only community Slack Channel
⚡️ Monthly Bonus calls with Industry Experts
⚡️ Monthly Office Hours + Community with Rachel
⚡️ Hot Seats + Work Review calls with Rachel (increased frequency during Q4)
COACHING
⚡️ Quarterly 1:1 calls (two with Rachel + two with your SproutED coach)
COURSES
⚡️ Access to all courses
⚡️ Access to Template Library + Community Shared Drive
⚡️ Access to all workshops
⚡️ Quarterly BTS How-Tos video with SproutED members
COMMUNITY
⚡️ Members-only community Slack Channel
⚡️ Monthly Bonus calls with Industry Experts
⚡️ Monthly Office Hours + Community with Rachel
⚡️ Hot Seats + Work Review calls with Rachel (increased frequency during Q4)
COACHING
⚡️ Quarterly 1:1 calls (two with Rachel + two with your SproutED coach)
COURSES
⚡️ Access to all courses
⚡️ Access to Template Library + Community Shared Drive
⚡️ Access to all workshops
⚡️ Quarterly BTS How-Tos video with SproutED members
COMMUNITY
⚡️ Members-only community Slack Channel
⚡️ Monthly Bonus calls with Industry Experts
⚡️ Monthly Office Hours + Community with Rachel
⚡️ Hot Seats + Work Review calls with Rachel (increased frequency during Q4)
COACHING
⚡️ Quarterly 1:1 calls (two with Rachel + two with your SproutED coach)
NOTE: All pricing is USD
Membership is a 12-month commitment with the opportunity to renew. Monthly payment plans are available.
Need to run this by your Board of Directors or get approval from HR?
MORE ABOUT YOUR COACH
I’m rachel 👋🏼
And I help dedicated nonprofit Executive Directors reclaim their time, build better relationships, and raise more money.
I created the SproutED Membership because as a recovering burned out Executive Director myself, I’ve been in the trenches of an underfunded, limited-resourced, systemless organization.
Like you, I’ve been stressed, overwhelmed and frustrated. 👎
While I understand that running a nonprofit will never be easy, I also know that it doesn’t need to be so hard.
That’s why I created SproutED! So you can have the information and accountability to grow your nonprofit inside a community of other nonprofit leaders who truly get it.
When I’m not helping nonprofit leaders get to a place where they are saying, “I’ve got this!” you can find me:
Doing chores on the farm (I live in Iowa and help run a 500+ acre property!)
Rolling my eyes at one of my free-range and naughty rescue pups who have probably eaten something they shouldn’t have
Meal prepping - hey, I practice what I preach, okay?
Not having the systems in place to do more in less time is costing you - your time, energy, and yes - even money because right now you’re like toddler using glitter for the first time — messy and not a lot is sticking.
I’ve put in the reps
I’ve with hundreds of organizations and presented to thousands through Bloomerang, Network for Good, We Are For Good, Charity How-To, Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, and many other organizations.
Outside of a small shop, I’m a PNW mountain trail runner turned farmer-in-training living on a farm in Iowa with my two free-range + very naughty rescue dogs and my partner, Mike.
Are you ready to finally
focus on the big picture of your organization, acquire the skills you need to run an efficient organization and gain confidence as you grow as a leader
— while surrounded by a community of your peers?
what if I don’t have the time?
Every member of SproutED is busy, wearing a ton of hats and looking to find more hours in the day. Every single one of us.
SproutED is designed to be a resource, not a task.
Of course, if you spend time leveraging the resources (Workshops, Courses, Slack + Coaching Calls) you will get the most out of it. But if you simply use SproutED as a place to get inspiration, bust through roadblocks, or solicit feedback on a pesky board member, you're going to get a lot out of it.
There is a season for everything.
Most members tell me after joining a few calls that they've already gotten their money's worth.
You don't have to dedicate hours per week to SproutED.
...but I bet you'll hang out more than you think. And have the peace of mind knowing you have a support system at your finger tips.