We just attended the BC Non-Profit Leadership Conference last week. What an amazing event!
This was my third conference in three weeks. I’ll be honest: I’m physically exhausted. But mentally? I feel energized and inspired.
There’s something incredible about being surrounded by so much positive energy and intention. It was moving to hear everyone’s stories and missions, and it reminded me again why this work matters so much.
Throughout the event, there was so much wisdom shared; and we also dove into the real, persistent challenges that the non-profit sector continues to face.
At Serious Otters, we’re a for-profit company and we choose to serve purpose-driven organizations. That comes with a responsibility to reflect often on whether we’re truly acting as allies to this space, or unintentionally contributing to its problems.
How do we stay on the right side of that line? Here’s what we’ve learned (and continue to remind ourselves):
1. Make sure creating impact is part of our values and in all of our strategies.
Helping others and making meaningful change needs to be baked into our why, not just something we say on a slide deck.
And we need to live that value in every project and every internal conversation. When the whole team is connected to the same purpose, it helps us stay grounded and mission-first even when the inevitable pressures of money and scarcity creep in during challenging times.
2. Align our business model with our values.
We’ve worked hard to make sure our business model actually supports our mission. And this has been a learning journey.
Along the way, we’ve seen how the traditional hourly model, even when used with the best intentions, can quietly work against impact. It’s not that agencies or teams lack integrity. In fact, many work incredibly hard to stay mission-first despite the pressures of the model.
The issue is that the model itself creates a subtle but real tension: it inherently rewards longer hours and drawn-out timelines as a path to higher revenue. This runs counter to what most of us actually want for our clients: faster progress, smarter solutions, and more agility to adapt and amplify impact.
It can also quietly erode alignment and trust. When your incentives as a service provider are tied to maximizing time spent, it becomes harder to fully embrace a mindset of “let’s get you where you want to go, as quickly and effectively as possible.”
That’s why we’re rolling out our Ripple Amplifier partnership model: designed from the ground up to prioritize outcomes, creativity, and speed. It encourages us to help our partners move faster, amplify their impact sooner, and make those ripples travel further, without being constrained by a model that was never built for this kind of work.
We know this approach won’t be for everyone and that’s okay. But for the kind of deep, trust-based, mission-aligned partnerships we aim to build, we believe this is the right path forward.
3. Keep learning and bettering ourselves.
If we want to be the kind of partners our clients can rely on, we have to keep growing.
We need to continually sharpen our skills and deepen our expertise, so our partners can focus on what they do best: delivering on their mission.
And as we grow, we can also help them do more with their resources. Efficiency, clarity, cost-effectiveness, it’s all part of how we help mission-driven organizations stretch every dollar and hour toward greater impact.
4. Treat our team fairly, with good pay and opportunities to grow.
Being impact-first doesn’t mean underpaying our people. In fact, the opposite is true.
When team members are stressed about personal finances or feel undervalued, it affects their work. And when that instability becomes too much, talented people leave, which harms not just us, but also the missions we support.
We believe that a strong, well-compensated, supported team is the foundation of doing great work for our partners. That’s why we’re committed to balancing fair compensation with sustainable business practices that allow us to keep doing what we do, without burning out or bleeding talent.
5. Create impact beyond the work itself.
Of course, delivering great services is our primary focus. But we’ve also learned to think beyond that.
We want every interaction with our clients to lift them up, not wear them down. Are they leaving our meetings feeling clearer, more confident, and supported? Or are they walking away stressed and confused? That matters and it ripples outward.
We intentionally aim to create a positive human experience in our partnerships, because how people feel while doing this work affects how well they can serve their own communities.
And we also look for ways to give back beyond our direct client work. One example: our team launched the Ripple Affect Initiative, through which we donate a portion of our revenue to community-selected charities. It’s one small way we ensure that our ripples reach even further.
We’ve got other initiatives in the works too, and I can’t wait to bring them to life and share them with you soon.
Final thoughts
I hope these five reflections spark ideas for other purpose-driven allies out there.
If you’re working in this space, I’d love to hear what your team is doing to align business with mission and support your partners more deeply. The more we share and learn from each other, the stronger this network of impact can become.
Let’s keep learning and let’s keep creating ripples that matter.
