674. Shift 4 — Capacity Isn’t Extra: Build Your Foundation for Sustainable Growth - Brooke Richie-Babbage

Stability isn’t something you earn once you’re “big enough” or “finally staffed up.” It’s something you design on purpose—or you pay for it later in burnout, panic fundraising, and house-of-cards vibes.

In this episode, Brooke Richie-Babbage is back to flip the script on what capacity really means. Capacity is about changing the conditions under which your work happens, so the how of the work gets easier, less fragile + way more sustainable.

We’re talking broken mugs, creaky floors, cash cliffs, “build years” vs. “growth years,” and why “stability is a leadership choice” might be the most freeing (and challenging) mindset shift you make in 2026. If you’ve ever thought, “We’ll feel stable when we finally _______,” this episode’s your loving interruption.

You’ll walk away with clarity + next steps to build real capacity, including how to:

• Redefine capacity + stability as design problems, not personal failures
  → Shift from “I just need the right people / next grant / better tool” to “Where is our organization fragile, and how do we strengthen the container—systems, rhythms, decision-making—so the work doesn’t require heroics?”
• Narrow priorities + clean up decision-making so everything stops bottlenecking at the leader
  → Get practical about choosing fewer, deeper priorities; naming what you’re not doing this year; and mapping who actually owns which decisions—so your ED (or you) isn’t secretly holding six out of ten critical calls.
• Build stability through simple financial + operational rhythms (not just more hires)
  → Learn how to read your own “financial weather patterns,” plan for cash cliffs before they hit, decouple capacity from FTEs, and tap tools, fractional support, your board + community as legitimate capacity—not just “nice to haves.”

Episode Highlights:

Dive Deeper:

Episode 614: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/614

Episode 464: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/463

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