Most nonprofit CEOs will tell you they care about culture.
But if you watch closely, you’ll see that for many, culture is treated as a byproduct of activity — something that just “happens” while programs are run, funds are raised, and strategies are executed.
The truth is, culture isn’t a background condition.
It’s the climate in which every decision, every interaction, and every success or failure takes root. Ignore it, and you are gambling the future of your mission on chance.
What Culture Actually Is
Culture is not an abstract vibe.
It’s how people show up for one another.
It’s how decisions are made and how consistently bad and good behaviour is addressed.
It’s whether your staff are staring into the rear-view mirror of historical grievances or scanning the horizon for future possibilities.
These aren’t side notes to strategy — they shape strategy. And yet, too many CEOs leave them to form on their own, as if they are the weather rather than the architecture of the organization.
The Misconceptions and Myths That Keep Culture in the Passenger Seat
There are three common beliefs that quietly keep CEOs from owning culture:
1. “Culture just happens.” They fail to see that culture is as shaped and intentional as strategy.
2. “I don’t know how to change it.” So they avoid it, hoping issues resolve themselves.
3. “It’s always been this way.” The shoulder-shrug mantra of stagnation.
The result? They wait until the lid boils off the pot — when conflict, turnover, or reputational damage forces them into reactive fixes. By then, the rot is already deep.
The Symptoms You Can’t Afford to Ignore
If you want to know whether culture is working for or against you, walk the halls — physically or virtually.
If gossip thrives, your culture is in trouble. It’s the visible smoke from an invisible fire: mistrust, disengagement, and leadership failure.
Even the most brilliant strategy will be foiled by the climate in which it’s born. Wins will be shallow. Change will be fleeting. The mission will stall.
What’s Possible When You Lead With Culture
When culture is a deliberate, ongoing priority:
• Staff see themselves as responsible for the whole mission, not just their piece of it.
• Donor values and staff values align naturally, creating deeper trust and engagement.
• Assumptions get challenged. Programs evolve. Risk-taking is purposeful and rooted in stakeholder realities.
This doesn’t happen because someone in HR has “culture” in their title. It happens because the CEO models, demands, and protects it every day.
The CEO’s Unused Tool
If I could hang a sign outside your office, it would read:
“Organizational Culture: The tool in the CEO’s belt that’s rarely used.”
Culture isn’t something you dust off when challenged. Your core values should be worn daily by every employee — not kept in the back of the closet for special occasions. And you must have the right people in the right roles. Always.
If you want real progress, you cannot treat culture as an afterthought.
It is a foundational, ongoing priority — modelled from the top down.
Your strategy lives or dies in the culture you create.
The question is: will you keep leaving this tool on the bench, or will you finally put it in your hand and use it?