A conversation with Stephen Halasnik of Financing Solutions and Shaun Carver, Executive Director of International House Berkeley

Stephen Halasnik, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Financing Solutions, works with nonprofit leaders navigating the financial and operational realities of mission-driven organizations. In this conversation with Shaun Carver, Executive Director of International House Berkeley, they explore corporate-to-nonprofit leadership and what changes when an experienced business executive enters the nonprofit sector. From board governance and fundraising to financial management and organizational influence, the transition requires more than simply transferring corporate skills.

By almost every measure, Shaun Carver looked like the ideal candidate to lead a nonprofit.

He had spent more than two decades in leadership positions across higher education and international education. He understood finance, operations, strategy, and organizational management. He had led teams across multiple countries and managed complex organizations with diverse stakeholders.

Then, in August 2020, he accepted one of the most difficult leadership jobs imaginable.

International House Berkeley, a nearly century-old nonprofit dedicated to bringing students from around the world together to promote cross-cultural understanding, had effectively shut down because of COVID-19. A residence built for more than 600 students was nearly empty, and staffing had fallen from roughly 80 employees to just 12.

Carver knew how to stabilize operations, protect cash flow, rebuild an organization, and restore confidence.

What surprised him was everything surrounding the business.

“I think one of the biggest learning experiences for me was learning how to work with boards.”

That lesson captures something many executives do not fully appreciate until they enter the nonprofit sector.

Running the organization may be the familiar part.

Learning to lead the people who govern, fund, and support it can be much more complicated.

Quick Answer

Moving from corporate leadership to nonprofit leadership requires executives to shift from primarily exercising authority to building consensus, managing volunteer governance, cultivating donors, and balancing mission with financial sustainability. Business skills remain valuable, but successful nonprofit CEOs must also become skilled relationship builders, fundraisers, and advocates for the organization’s mission.

In This Episode

  • Why working with a nonprofit board can be one of the biggest adjustments for corporate executives
  • How nonprofit CEOs lead through consensus rather than authority
  • Why boards must evolve as organizations grow
  • How ineffective board meetings can disengage talented volunteers
  • Why the executive director’s job changes as a nonprofit matures
  • How fundraising resembles a disciplined sales process
  • Why nonprofit CEOs eventually become chief fundraisers
  • How financial management and operational discipline support mission
  • Why successful nonprofit leaders continually reinvent themselves

What Changes in the Move From Corporate to Nonprofit Leadership

Corporate executives typically spend their careers within relatively defined organizational structures.

A vice president reports to a president. A president reports to a CEO. A CEO reports to a board, but may interact regularly with only a handful of directors.

Nonprofit governance can look very different.

Executive directors often work with volunteer boards composed of professionals with dramatically different backgrounds, priorities, experiences, and expectations.

Carver’s board includes 32 volunteer members supported by numerous committees. Reaching alignment is not simply a matter of presenting a compelling business case. It requires patience, education, relationship-building, and listening.

For executives accustomed to clearly defined authority, that can be a significant adjustment.

Consensus Replaces Authority

One misconception about nonprofit leadership is that executive directors simply have less authority than corporate executives.

The better way to understand it is that they exercise leadership differently.

Corporate executives are often rewarded for making sound decisions quickly. Gather the information, evaluate the options, choose a direction, and execute.

Volunteer boards do not always operate that way.

Before a major initiative moves forward, an executive director may spend weeks or months helping board members understand why the change is necessary.

The goal is not merely approval. It is ownership.

When board members understand the reasoning behind a decision, they can become advocates for it rather than observers.

This becomes particularly important because nonprofit boards continually change. Terms expire, new members join, committee leadership rotates, and the board that hired an executive director may look very different several years later.

Governance, therefore, is not a task that gets completed. It is an ongoing leadership responsibility.

Healthy Nonprofits Let Their Boards Evolve

The board an organization needs today may not be the board it needs five years from now.

When Carver arrived at International House Berkeley, much of the board’s attention was appropriately focused on operational matters such as facilities, maintenance, capital projects, and building systems.

The organization was rebuilding.

Today, its needs are different.

As International House approaches its 100th anniversary, leadership is preparing for the largest fundraising campaign in its history. That means the organization increasingly needs board members who can help build philanthropic relationships, connect leadership with major donors, expand community partnerships, and think strategically about its next century.

That evolution offers an important governance lesson.

Nonprofits should periodically ask:

  • Do our committees still make sense?
  • Do we have the expertise we need?
  • Does our board reflect where the organization is going, or where it has been?
  • If we were building this board today, would it look the same?

Those are not signs that something has gone wrong. They are questions healthy organizations ask as they grow.

The Board Meeting Mistake That Disengages Good People

Board meetings can easily become reporting sessions.

Committee after committee provides updates about work that has already happened. Long-serving members may appreciate the information, but newer members can have a very different experience.

They joined because they wanted to contribute.

Instead, they spend meetings hearing about decisions that were made weeks earlier.

Eventually, a dangerous question emerges:

Why am I here?

People remain engaged when they believe their participation matters.

The strongest nonprofit boards therefore do more than report progress. They create opportunities for meaningful discussion, strategic thinking, debate, and shared leadership.

Board engagement does not require everyone to agree. It requires people to believe they have a meaningful voice.

The Job You Are Hired to Do Will Change

When Carver became Executive Director, International House Berkeley was not primarily looking for a fundraiser.

It needed an operator.

COVID-19 had dramatically reduced staffing and operations. Leadership needed to rebuild the organization and its culture while restoring financial stability.

Carver’s business and operational experience fit that challenge.

Several years later, the organization is in a different stage. Operations have stabilized, student satisfaction is strong, and attention has shifted toward the largest fundraising campaign in International House Berkeley’s history.

Carver’s role changed with it.

That evolution is common in nonprofit leadership.

An executive director may initially be hired to solve an operational problem, professionalize an organization, manage growth, or stabilize nonprofit cash flow.

Once those challenges are addressed, the CEO’s highest-value responsibility may shift toward securing the resources required for the organization’s next stage.

Every Successful Nonprofit CEO Eventually Becomes a Fundraiser

This is one of the most significant differences between corporate and nonprofit leadership.

In a traditional company, revenue generation primarily belongs to sales and marketing teams.

The CEO participates, of course. But nonprofit organizations depend heavily on something that cannot simply be delegated to a development department: confidence in leadership.

Major donors are not only investing in programs.

They are investing in the people responsible for delivering the mission.

They want to believe the executive director has sound judgment, a compelling vision, strong financial stewardship, and the ability to convert resources into meaningful impact.

That is why nonprofit CEOs increasingly find themselves spending time with donors, board members, alumni, community partners, and other stakeholders as their organizations mature.

Fundraising Is Not Simply Asking for Money

Fundraising is often misunderstood as the process of asking wealthy people for donations.

Carver’s experience suggests something much more sophisticated.

Effective fundraising begins with relationships.

It means listening before talking, understanding someone’s interests before discussing organizational needs, and finding alignment between what motivates a donor and what the nonprofit is trying to accomplish.

When that alignment exists, the gift becomes the result of the relationship rather than the sole purpose of it.

The conversation changes from:

Will you give us money?

to:

Here is what we are trying to accomplish. Here is why it matters. Is this the kind of impact you want to help create?

That distinction is fundamental.

Fundraising Looks Surprisingly Similar to Sales

Carver’s corporate experience also helped him recognize something familiar about professional fundraising.

  • Prospects
  • Qualification
  • Relationship development
  • Meetings
  • Proposals
  • Follow-up
  • Conversion rates
  • A pipeline

The terminology may change, but the underlying discipline is remarkably similar.

Strong fundraising organizations do not depend on luck. They develop systems for identifying prospective donors, researching their interests, building relationships, understanding what motivates them, and determining whether genuine alignment exists.

Only then does it make sense to involve the executive director heavily in the relationship.

Why the CEO Should Rarely Be Making Cold Calls

An executive director’s time is limited.

Using that time to cold-call potential donors is usually inefficient.

Development and gift officers can handle much of the early work: identifying prospects, researching philanthropic interests, understanding giving history, developing relationships, and determining whether a meaningful connection exists.

Once that groundwork has been completed, the CEO can enter the conversation and do what only the organization’s leader can do effectively.

  • Communicate the vision.
  • Build confidence.
  • Demonstrate leadership.
  • Explain where the organization is going.
  • Help the donor understand what their support could make possible.

That is a much higher-value use of executive leadership.

Great Fundraising Is Both Science and Storytelling

Professional fundraising exists in two worlds.

One is measurable.

Donor meetings, qualified prospects, major gift proposals, campaign progress, conversion rates, and pipeline activity can all be tracked.

The other is much harder to put into a spreadsheet.

  • Trust
  • Emotion
  • Purpose
  • Vision
  • Hope

The strongest fundraising organizations understand both.

Data helps leaders understand whether the fundraising process is working. Storytelling helps people understand why the mission deserves their support.

Nonprofits need both discipline and humanity.

How Corporate Leadership Skills Transfer to Nonprofit Leadership

Executives considering nonprofit leadership sometimes worry that their business experience will not translate.

Much of it does.

Strategic planning, financial management, culture building, accountability, crisis management, operations, and systems development remain extraordinarily valuable.

They may become even more important when a nonprofit faces funding delays, rapid growth, or working capital pressure.

What changes is the environment in which those skills are used.

Nonprofit leaders must combine operational discipline with the ability to build relationships with volunteers, donors, board members, community partners, and other stakeholders who are motivated by mission rather than financial return.

That combination can be extraordinarily powerful.

Financial Discipline Protects the Mission

Business discipline and mission are not opposites.

A nonprofit cannot accomplish its mission indefinitely if it cannot manage its finances.

During COVID-19, International House Berkeley needed disciplined financial management simply to survive. Today, because the organization successfully addressed those operational challenges, leadership can focus on growth and its next major fundraising campaign.

This principle applies far beyond crisis management.

Nonprofits frequently operate with timing differences between when expenses must be paid and when grants, contracts, donations, or other funding arrive. Those timing differences can create nonprofit cash flow pressure even when the organization is financially sound overall.

Leaders need to understand the difference between a temporary cash flow gap and a structural financial problem.

A nonprofit line of credit can sometimes provide working capital during predictable funding delays, but financing should not be used to disguise an unsustainable operating model. The underlying organization still needs sound budgeting, realistic revenue expectations, disciplined expense management, and a clear path for replenishing cash.

The purpose of financial infrastructure is not to make a nonprofit operate more like a business for its own sake.

It is to make sure financial constraints do not unnecessarily prevent the organization from delivering its mission.

Why Corporate to Nonprofit Leadership Requires Continual Learning

A recurring theme in Carver’s experience is growth.

His previous leadership experience helped him rebuild an organization during an extraordinary crisis.

Once that challenge was addressed, he needed to learn another discipline: fundraising.

Carver acknowledged that fundraising did not come naturally to him. Instead of treating that as a weakness, he surrounded himself with experienced development professionals, worked with consultants, studied the process, practiced, and improved.

That willingness to become a beginner again may be one of the most important qualities a nonprofit executive can develop.

  • Funding changes.
  • Boards change.
  • Community needs evolve.
  • Technology changes.
  • Donor expectations change.

The job keeps changing too.

Five Corporate to Nonprofit Leadership Lessons for Executives

1. Do Not Underestimate Governance

Working with a volunteer board requires a different leadership style than managing employees. Trust, communication, consensus, and relationships matter enormously.

2. Expect Your Role to Change

The problem you were hired to solve may not be the organization’s biggest challenge five years later. Strong executives evolve with the organization.

3. Learn Fundraising Before You Need It

Fundraising is relationship-building, listening, storytelling, and communicating vision. Those capabilities become increasingly important as an executive director’s responsibilities grow.

4. Build Systems, Not Heroes

Healthy organizations need repeatable systems for governance, fundraising, operations, financial management, and organizational culture.

5. Never Stop Learning

The most effective nonprofit executives do not need to know everything. They need enough curiosity and humility to keep learning as their organizations change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a corporate executive successfully become a nonprofit CEO?

Yes. Financial management, operations, strategic planning, hiring, culture building, and organizational leadership transfer well to nonprofits. The largest adjustments often involve volunteer governance, fundraising, and learning to lead through influence and consensus.

What is the biggest adjustment when moving from corporate to nonprofit leadership?

For many executives, working effectively with a volunteer board is one of the biggest changes. Nonprofit governance often requires more consensus-building, education, communication, and relationship management than executives encounter in a traditional reporting structure.

What is the role of a nonprofit board?

A nonprofit board provides governance, strategic oversight, financial accountability, and leadership support. Depending on the organization, board members may also play important roles in fundraising, community relationships, donor introductions, and long-term strategy.

Why do nonprofit CEOs need to understand fundraising?

Major donors often evaluate the organization’s leadership as carefully as they evaluate its programs. The executive director is uniquely positioned to communicate vision, build trust, and explain how philanthropic support will translate into impact.

How can nonprofits improve cash flow?

Nonprofits can improve cash flow by building realistic cash forecasts, maintaining adequate reserves, understanding the timing of grants and receivables, controlling expenses, diversifying revenue, and planning in advance for predictable funding delays.

When can a nonprofit line of credit help?

A nonprofit line of credit may be useful when an otherwise financially sustainable organization faces a temporary timing gap between expenses and incoming funding. It can provide short-term working capital for obligations such as payroll and operating expenses while expected funding is pending.

Can a line of credit solve ongoing nonprofit financial problems?

No. A line of credit is designed to address temporary cash flow timing needs, not persistent operating deficits or an unsustainable financial model. Nonprofit leaders should understand the source of a cash shortage and how borrowed funds will be repaid before using financing.

Should nonprofits operate more like businesses?

Nonprofits can benefit greatly from business disciplines such as financial management, strategic planning, accountability, operational systems, and performance measurement. Those practices do not replace mission. They help create the organizational stability required to fulfill it.

Podcast Transcript

Stephen Halasnik:
Welcome, everyone. My name is Stephen Halasnik. I’ll be your host for today’s Nonprofit MBA Podcast. I’m the co-founder of Financing Solutions, and since 2012, we’ve been a leading provider of lines of credit for small nonprofits in the United States.

If you’re interested in learning about a line of credit for your organization, please visit our website at nonprofitmbapodcast.com.

Today, I’m very excited to be speaking with Shaun Carver from both the International House Association and International House Berkeley. We’re going to be talking about the challenges of transitioning from for-profit leadership to a nonprofit executive director role.

Shaun has some great experience to share with us. Shaun Carver is the president of International House Association and the Executive Director and CEO of International House UC Berkeley.

He brings a wealth of experience to this position, with more than 20 years of leadership in international education and a lifetime of living and working in cross-cultural environments. He also served as the assistant dean for graduate programs at the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego and as an executive director at Hult International Business School. Before that, he served in leadership positions at institutions of international higher education in China.

Shaun, welcome to today’s Nonprofit MBA Podcast.

Shaun Carver:
Great. Thank you, Stephen.

Stephen Halasnik:
Before we get into the topic in greater depth, why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about what International House Association is?

Shaun Carver:
International House Association is a newly formed 501(c)(3) designed to bring together the historic Rockefeller International Houses around the world.

The purpose is to bring these institutions together and use our resources collectively to build more of a global audience and a global voice for our mission.

Stephen Halasnik:
And the mission is really about bringing peace to the world. Is that fair to say?

Shaun Carver:
Yes. This really came out of World War I. Our founders, Harry Edmonds and John D. Rockefeller Jr., were involved in supporting international students in New York. At the time, international students were not treated very favorably in New York City.

The idea was to build a community of international students from around the world alongside people from the New York community, giving people an opportunity to come together and meet someone from a country they had probably never visited.

This was the 1920s. People weren’t flying around the world and visiting Tibet, Africa, or even South America the way they do today.

By building a community where people could meet, be exposed to different cultures and views, have conversations, and act civilly, they could build connections across cultures and politics. It created this incredible community designed to make the world a more peaceful place.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. built International House adjacent to Columbia University in New York City. It houses about 700 international and domestic students.

In 1930, he came to Berkeley and opened one here. At Berkeley, we have about 620 students, both undergraduate and graduate, representing around 80 nationalities. There’s no dominant community. Everybody is surrounded by a diverse group.

Considering how divided the world is today, our community is incredibly healthy. We talk about differences. We talk about conflicts. We listen to each other, understand each other better, and try to find pathways forward.

Given today’s environment and the issues we’re facing, we need to take this message beyond Berkeley, Chicago, and New York and take it globally. That’s what the association is meant to do.

Transitioning From For-Profit to Nonprofit Leadership

Stephen Halasnik:
Take me back to before you were involved with International House Association and International House Berkeley.

You went from for-profit enterprises into the nonprofit sector. In your first couple of years, what surprised you about making that transition?

Shaun Carver:
One of the initial challenges was that, in the for-profit world, I generally wasn’t reporting to a board of directors or a board of volunteers. I was reporting to a president or another individual.

Sitting down in an office, having a conversation, and getting alignment was much more efficient than working with a board of 32 people who all come from diverse backgrounds, have different experiences, and bring different things to the board.

Trying to get support to move initiatives forward takes effort.

You have to build consensus. You have to build a group of people who want to get behind you and support new initiatives. There will always be people who disagree, have concerns, or have their own opinions and views.

Learning how to work with boards was probably one of the most important challenges I faced early on.

When you come into a new role, the board you’re working with is essentially the board that hired you. They supported you for a reason, and they want to see you succeed.

But over time, boards transition. People roll off and new people come on. The personality of the board changes.

You have to remain very aware of that and make sure you continue doing the work to build relationships and keep people updated on why you’re doing what you’re doing.

That was one of the biggest learning experiences for me coming from a for-profit into a nonprofit.

Why Nonprofit Boards Need to Evolve

Stephen Halasnik:
Are the majority of your board members major donors to the organization?

Shaun Carver:
That’s interesting. When I came on, the board was very operational. People were recruited onto the board because they had certain skill sets that we didn’t have on staff.

International House Berkeley is coming up on its 100th anniversary. Our centennial is in 2030, and we’re starting to put together a centennial fundraising campaign to support our vision for the next 100 years.

What I need now isn’t necessarily a board that supports me on operations. I need a board that supports the fundraising effort.

The board has to go through that transition as well, and fundraising isn’t always in everyone’s comfort zone.

If you’re an architect and you’re on the house committee to support capital projects or give us advice on electricity, steam, and other building issues, you may not necessarily be comfortable being active in fundraising.

Transitioning a board from being very operational to supporting the organization’s current needs, which for us right now means fundraising, is a challenge for everybody. It’s a big transition.

Stephen Halasnik:
How long have you been involved in the nonprofit sector now?

Shaun Carver:
I’m coming up on about a decade. In my 25-plus years of working experience, almost 10 years have now been with nonprofits.

Stephen Halasnik:
At this point, what percentage of your time is spent working with the board, thinking about the board, and interacting with board members?

Shaun Carver:
It comes in waves.

We have three board meetings a year, and board activity tends to pick up about three weeks before each meeting. Committees are meeting, creating work, getting organized, and preparing to report out.

So it comes in three waves throughout the year, and it’s fairly predictable.

In our current situation, we’re trying to transition the board, add new board members, onboard them effectively, and help committees move their focus from operational issues toward fundraising issues.

Because of that, I’m spending a lot more time on the board than I am on operations.

Stephen Halasnik:
And how many people are on the board?

Shaun Carver:
When we’re full, we have 32.

Stephen Halasnik:
That’s a big board.

Shaun Carver:
It is. It’s grown over time.

As with any healthy board, at some point you have to stop and reflect. Why are we this big? Do we need all these committees? What should we be focused on?

We’re doing some work now reviewing our bylaws and asking whether this is the right size for the board and whether these are the right committees to support what we’re doing.

That’s the healthy part of governance. If you have a good vice chair and a good chair of the governance committee, putting these issues on the table and having conversations doesn’t have to create conflict.

It’s a discussion.

Every organization has to stop periodically and look at where it is. You either adapt and evolve or you don’t. You have to continually go through that improvement cycle.

Keeping Nonprofit Board Members Engaged

Stephen Halasnik:
When you originally said you have three board meetings a year, my first thought was, how do you get anything done with only three meetings?

But then when you said there are 32 people on the board and there are subcommittees, I understood it better. The subcommittees are doing the work, and the three board meetings are opportunities to discuss status and what’s going on with the mission. Is that fair?

Shaun Carver:
That’s actually pretty perceptive.

When I look at this board and where it came from as a very operational board, there was a lot of reporting out: here’s what we’ve been doing.

Board meetings became committees reporting what they had already done.

For newer board members, though, they’re thinking, “I wasn’t part of those decisions. I come to these meetings and things are just being reported to me. What’s my role?”

They want to participate. They want to have discussions. They want to understand their role and how they’re making a difference.

New board members often aren’t the chair of a committee or subcommittee. They come to the board meeting, hear all these committees report what they’ve done, and they’re left asking, “What have I done?”

I think that’s a challenge.

As we’re trying to move away from an operational board toward a fundraising board, there’s another consideration. Operations can sometimes encroach into staff responsibilities, and you don’t want the board giving directions to staff. That’s not a good formula.

Dealing with boards has been a learning process for me, particularly over the last seven years in this role.

Stephen Halasnik:
So when I say “board,” including committees, what percentage of your time would you say you’re spending there?

Shaun Carver:
As we’re going through a campaign and preparing for the biggest fundraising effort we’ve had in 100 years, I spend quite a bit of time working with the board.

We want to make sure we take their input, that they have oversight, and that they feel comfortable with the direction we’re going.

They’re also going through a governance review, and I want to be part of that. I want to have a voice in those discussions.

We also live in a 100-year-old house, so there are capital projects and updates to deal with. The house committee is very active.

I’d say a good half of my job is probably spent working with or preparing for the board.

Stephen Halasnik:
Okay.

Shaun Carver:
Which is probably more than it should be. I should be out fundraising. I should be meeting with donors.

How the Executive Director’s Role Changes

Stephen Halasnik:
I was going to ask what the other 50% of your time goes toward.

Shaun Carver:
When I took over in August 2020 during COVID, we essentially shut the place down. The building was empty. We downsized from about 80 staff members to 12.

To get through COVID, we had to ride out about a year of hibernation and then rebuild the organization.

The first few years were about getting this place back to where it had been before COVID, with a lot of new staff who had never been here before or had come from other organizations.

We had to build an organizational culture and set goals.

Now, as we’ve moved further down that timeline, I’ve built a team that can handle the day-to-day operations so I can focus more on the fundraising part of the role, including leading the biggest campaign we’ve ever had.

Stephen Halasnik:
What percentage of your time are you actually out there fundraising now?

Shaun Carver:
Right now, I’d say about 30% to 35% of my time is spent on the road, either traveling internationally or domestically to meet with donors.

Every Thursday is my fundraising day with my team. We usually book two or three alumni meetings on Thursdays, and I go meet with people around the Bay Area.

So I’d say it’s about a third of my time right now.

As we get further down the road, the expectation is that it will become much more than that. I’ll be the chief fundraiser.

Stephen Halasnik:
When you were hired by the board, what was their expectation about what your key role would be?

Shaun Carver:
Considering the timing, I think they were looking for an operational leader, a business leader. They needed someone with the business skills to downsize an organization, rebuild it, and manage the finances.

The expectation from the beginning was, “We need a business guy.”

If I think about the other candidates, what was probably attractive about my background was that I have an MBA as well as an Ed.D. It was probably the MBA side that they liked. They felt they needed an operations person.

If you go back through the organization’s history, why did the board become operational? I think it was because that’s what the organization needed at the time. They needed an operational board to help support the staff.

The feedback I get from the board now is that they feel like my team and I can handle the operational side.

We run student satisfaction surveys regularly, and we’re performing better than we ever have. Our finances have also been strong given difficult circumstances, rising inflation, and capital projects.

They feel like we’ve got the operational side handled.

Now it’s time to focus on fundraising.

Stephen Halasnik:
It sounds like you’ve stabilized the organization, operations are running smoothly, and now you’re transitioning more into the fundraising role.

Shaun Carver:
And with International House Association, it’s also about expanding the mission beyond Berkeley.

If you look at our mission statement, the end of it is about making the world a more just and peaceful place.

You can’t do that only from Berkeley.

If we really want to have an impact on the world, we need a global community. We need global alumni. We need a voice that isn’t just local to Berkeley and the Bay Area but can speak from a global perspective.

The feedback I get from board members is that they’re happy I have the business acumen to run the organization and make sure it operates in a healthy way, but also the vision to advance and expand the mission.

I think nonprofit leadership is always a balance between business realities and the mission.

Understanding the Nonprofit Donor

Stephen Halasnik:
Has your fundraising team developed a donor profile of the typical person who would be a good candidate to donate to your organization? Have you formalized what that person cares about or what they look like?

Shaun Carver:
It’s interesting. When we look at our donor pool, everyone naturally looks at the alumni base first. Those are the most loyal people because they’ve lived the experience.

I meet people who were here in the 1950s and stayed at I-House for one year. They walk in 70 years later with tears in their eyes. They still have connections with their friends.

It’s a very emotional connection they have with I-House.

Those people support us regardless of their background or particular interests because they want to see the institution continue.

But I was talking to a colleague who mentioned that, in one of their development meetings, the university said about 70% of their principal gifts come from outside the alumni pool.

These are people who believe in the mission. They weren’t necessarily alumni of Berkeley, Stanford, or wherever they’re supporting. They’re looking for a mission they believe in.

Our alumni come from every background. They’re leaders in AI. We’ve had CEOs of Google. They’re at the United Nations. They’re lawyers, businesspeople, journalists. There really isn’t one model other than that they love this place and the experience they had here.

Outside the alumni base, which is where the real opportunity is, it’s about finding people who are aligned with the mission.

There are people who look at the world today and see division. They see people who don’t want to listen to or talk with people who have different opinions. They don’t like that.

They’re asking, “Where are the organizations I can support that are an antidote to that?”

Those are the questions we’re asking ourselves as we look at our centennial campaign. How do we identify those people? How do we get in front of them, talk about our story, talk about our mission and our needs, and gain their support?

Our alumni are a known quantity.

We’ve had a 90th campaign, a 75th campaign, and a 50th campaign. We’ve probably approached many of those people several times over the decades.

Our basic needs haven’t changed dramatically. We need financial aid for scholarships. We need money to support and modernize this old house. And we need support to advance our mission.

The alumni have heard that.

So what’s new? What’s exciting? What will attract people who may currently be outside our ecosystem?

Maybe people want to have a global impact rather than only a local impact here in Berkeley. International House Association gives us something to talk about with those people.

Learning to Become a Fundraiser

Stephen Halasnik:
When you came into the nonprofit sector, were you a natural fundraiser? Did it come easily to you, or did you have to work on it?

Shaun Carver:
The answer is no. I was not a natural fundraiser.

Coming from the for-profit world, we didn’t have to fundraise.

I had supported fundraisers when I was at the university. A donor might have an interest, and we’d work on developing a project or program aligned with their values and what they were trying to accomplish.

But I wasn’t the person sitting down at a dinner table and asking someone for support.

That’s definitely been a learning experience for me.

It’s about surrounding yourself with a good team, believing in your mission, being able to tell the story, being passionate about your purpose and cause, understanding the need, and being knowledgeable about the impact that support will have.

It’s still a work in progress for me. I’ve been working with the team here and with consultants as well.

Why Fundraising Resembles a Sales Pipeline

Stephen Halasnik:
Is it fair to say you’re typically not doing the first call?

I would assume you’re not the person identifying potential donors. You have people working for you who are laying the groundwork so that when you have a conversation with somebody, you can tell them the mission of International House Association and International House Berkeley.

You’re not really doing the cold calls.

Shaun Carver:
Exactly.

Coming from a for-profit world and having managed sales teams in previous roles, I understand the idea of a pipeline.

You start with a list of cold names, and you work through that list to build relationships and get people engaged before you ever have an ask or put a proposal in front of somebody.

I’m somewhat data-driven, so I think about questions like: How many calls are we making this week? How many meetings did we have? How many of those led to engagement opportunities? Do we know what people’s interests are? Where are they aligned with us?

I look at fundraising very much like a pipeline. You’re managing all of these people through a process.

I should be at the end of that pipeline.

One of my principal gift officers or major gift officers should have already done the work and put me in a position where, when I’m in front of somebody, I know what their interests are, I know what their capacity is, I know what our need is, and I can have the conversation and make the ask.

If it gets to that point, we should be fairly confident that the answer is going to be yes.

Having me pick up the phone or send emails to people who are cold and haven’t been engaged is certainly not the best use of my time. I would probably be the most expensive qualification person in the organization, which isn’t how it should work.

It’s about building an organization and building a system.

It’s also about using data. As I’m learning in fundraising, everything is moving toward data and metrics.

How many calls do you need to make to get a certain number of meetings? How many meetings lead to proposals? How many proposals lead to successful gifts?

There’s a science to it, but there’s also very much an art to fundraising.

The Hardest and Most Rewarding Parts of the Transition

Stephen Halasnik:
If you had to pick one thing that was easiest about transitioning from the for-profit world into the nonprofit sector and one thing that was hardest, what would they be?

Let’s start with what made the transition easiest for you personally.

Shaun Carver:
I came in during COVID.

They essentially said, “Congratulations, we want to offer you the job, but we voted last night to close operations for the next year, and you’ve got to shut this place down.”

That was a tough environment to walk into.

But at the time, the board was incredible.

What made it easier was having a board of supporters who were asking, “What do you need? Tell us. We’re there for you.”

It was never easy. But when you’re clicking with the board, everyone is aligned, and you’re all rowing in the same direction, it makes this job so much easier.

As time goes on, keeping the board aligned becomes the challenge.

You have to make sure there’s good governance, that the board doesn’t get locked down on one issue or another, and that people can disagree but still want to work together without things becoming political or contentious.

Our mission is to disagree civilly, so I want the board to be doing the same.

I’m also continually learning. We were talking about favorite authors earlier, and I’m a big reader of books about the growth mindset.

Exposing yourself to challenges is how you grow.

For me right now, fundraising is where there’s an opportunity to grow, and I’m enjoying learning this side of the business.

It’s a challenge, but you welcome it, you do the work, and it’s fascinating.

For your listeners who are nonprofit leaders, being part of a historic organization as it approaches its centennial is an incredible opportunity.

We’re celebrating 100 years of history, including 11 Nobel Prize winners who have come out of this community and leaders across virtually every industry who are part of our International House alumni group.

To have the opportunity to help set the vision for the next 100 years is incredible.

I’ve always looked at this job as a capstone to my career. To be in a position where you can celebrate the organization’s success and also help chart its next 100 years is an incredible opportunity.

I’m very happy to be here.

The Rockefeller Legacy and International House

Stephen Halasnik:
For people who don’t know the history, John D. Rockefeller and his family were extraordinarily influential.

I’ve studied John D. Rockefeller quite a bit, so I know a lot about the family and its history. Their wealth and influence were enormous, and the family also developed a significant philanthropic legacy.

Shaun Carver:
We could do a whole other podcast on the Rockefellers.

When you look at the amount of wealth they created, I’m certainly a product of the philanthropy that came from multiple generations of the Rockefeller family.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. supported International Houses in New York, Berkeley, Chicago, and Paris. John D. Rockefeller III founded I-House Japan. David Rockefeller was an alumnus of I-House Chicago.

You look at the work of the family, including the Asia Society and their support of the United Nations. They bought the land in New York for the United Nations.

A lot of their philanthropy went toward peacebuilding.

I’m certainly a product of that philanthropy. You don’t have to go very far to see a Rockefeller philanthropic group doing something to make the world a better place.

Stephen Halasnik:
The family has been able to continue that giving over generations.

Shaun Carver:
Yes, and there are still Rockefellers involved in the International House movement.

As you go from Rockefeller Jr. to Rockefeller III to David and then to the fifth generation and beyond, there’s a real sense within that family of the work done by their predecessors and a desire to carry it forward.

Stephen Halasnik:
Who’s the head of the family now?

Shaun Carver:
I don’t think I can tell you that. Not because I wouldn’t, but because I don’t know. I’m not sure how the family structures its business these days.

Closing Thoughts

Stephen Halasnik:
This has been a great and very interesting conversation. I really learned a lot.

I’d like to thank Shaun Carver from International House Association and International House Berkeley for coming on today’s podcast.

If you would like more information about a line of credit for your organization, please visit our website at nonprofitmbapodcast.com.

Shaun, if anyone wants to get in touch with you, how would they go about doing that?

Shaun Carver:
Look me up on LinkedIn and connect. Send me a message, and we can take it offline from there.

Shaun Carver, S-H-A-U-N C-A-R-V-E-R. Search for me on LinkedIn, connect, and let’s see how we can support each other.

Stephen Halasnik:
Great. Thanks for coming on today.

Shaun Carver:
My pleasure. Thank you, Stephen.

Stephen Halasnik:
We’re recording this on June 14, 2026, and I want to close the podcast the way I often do.

Burnout is a big issue in this industry, and we all need you.

You’re out there every day trying to make the world a better place, and both Shaun and I thank you for that.

But you’re no good to your family, your cause, your employees, or yourself if you’re burned out.

You have to think about taking care of yourself so that you can help everyone else.

Whether that’s making sure you plan time for exercise, meditation, prayer, having coffee with a friend, or simply taking a walk to clear your mind, it’s all part of making sure you’re at your best every day.

We need you. There are a lot of problems out there, and we need you at your best.

Thank you all for listening to the Nonprofit MBA Podcast. Everybody have a fantastic day.

Building an Organization That Can Sustain Its Mission

The transition from corporate executive to nonprofit leader does not require abandoning business discipline. It requires applying those skills in a different environment.

The strongest nonprofit leaders understand governance, build relationships, develop fundraising skills, maintain financial discipline, and keep adapting as their organizations change.

That financial discipline becomes especially important when funding timing does not match operating expenses. Nonprofits experiencing temporary funding delays or working capital gaps can learn more about how a nonprofit line of credit may fit into a broader cash flow strategy through Financing Solutions.