Small Doses…Ripple Effects explores the often-unspoken challenges we navigate as nonprofit leaders—from burnout and harmful power dynamics to strained infrastructure and external pressures—and how these forces shape our health at individual, organizational, and systemic levels. At a time when nonprofits are navigating unprecedented levels of uncertainty, this column asks how we tend to ourselves, our organizations, and our movements in ways that advance our collective wellbeing.

Through personal reflections from her leadership journey and stories shared by nonprofit leaders across the field, Nineequa examines what it takes to sustain ourselves, our organizations, and our communities—and how bite-sized practices can spark ripple effects beyond our imagination.

Rooted in a health and healing lens, the column connects the intimate realities of nonprofit work to the broader forces shaping the sector, centering a focus on collective wellbeing and the evolving infrastructure that yields systems of care. This column calls for conversations about the real challenges leaders encounter, aiming to strengthen leadership sustainability while illuminating pathways for the kind of systems transformation that supports our wellbeing.

What small doses are sustaining you? What ripple effects are you hoping to create?