Meet Jeremy Bouman, Founder of RISE in Omaha 👋. Today, RISE operates in seven Nebraska prisons with a 90% graduate employment rate and a recidivism rate a third of the state average. And Jeremy has spent the last decade building a leadership team, a sabbatical policy, and a succession plan designed to outlast him.

In this episode, he breaks down exactly how, including the internal leadership academy, the innovation program open to every employee, and their newly approved sabbatical policy.

Plus: the story of a man serving a life sentence who donated $500 so someone else could take the same program that changed his life. 🩵

Tune in to hear:

• What the "Inside Out" model actually looks like, and why starting the relationship inside prison, years before release, is the thing that makes everything else work
• RISE’s human-centered internal policies, leadership academy, and innovation project + the impact on their team

Episode Highlights:

• Meet Jeremy Bouman (00:38)
• The Inside Out model: building trust before release (09:05)
• 70% system-impacted staff and why lived experience leads (09:05)
• Founder-proofing: humility, culture, and getting out of the way (14:10)
• The sabbatical policy and what happened when Jeremy took five weeks off (16:29)
• Succession planning: Rise Leadership Academy and Rise Innovation Project (21:14)
• Two generosity stories that say everything about this mission (27:29)
• One good thing: visit a prison, practice second chance hiring (29:57)

Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/699

📅 Don't Miss These Free Upcoming Events! 👇

APRIL 29: Working Session Live: Forecast Your Monthly Giving Growth in 2026 with Dana Snyder (and the pathways to get you there!)

MAY 14: ImpactUp: Story This quarter, we're going deep on your most powerful (and underused) tool - Story. Local meetups happening worldwide. Find one near you.

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Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

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Kyle S. King started his nonprofit journey as a college junior, raised $100K, and never stopped. Eight books, a publishing company, a keynote career, and the Growth Alliance later — he's spent over a decade helping mission-driven organizations do the deeper work first: aligning leadership, tightening operations, and sharpening the stories that actually move donors to act. 💪

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why burnout isn't a wellness problem or a leadership problem — it's an organizational culture issue, and that distinction changes everything about how you solve it
• The three pillars of "contagious culture" (kindness, community, capital) and why skipping step one means you'll never reach step three
• The counterintuitive advice Kyle gives every leader who wants to grow: stop adding. Play defense first. Stop the leaks.

This conversation will challenge how you think about culture, leadership, and the small moments where real impact actually happens. 🩵

Episode Highlights:

• Meet Kyle King (00:41)
• Roots: Sankofa and the backstory that built everything (3:15)
• Contagious Culture: Kindness, Community, Capital (6:44)
• The root cause mistake nonprofit leaders keep making (10:00)
• Why burnout is an organizational culture problem (15:05)
• Leading with heart when you're running on empty (20:00)
• Play defense: building momentum by stopping the leaks (25:30)
• The barbershop story and the $800 check (30:26)
• One good thing: better people build better organizations (35:01)

Episode Show Notes: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/698

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Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

Say hi 👋
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

"You don't manage volunteers. You have to inspire them."

Jeff Byard figured that out after 14 years in Alabama emergency management, six years as a senior leader at FEMA overseeing 185 presidential disaster declarations, and now as Chief Programs Officer at Team Rubicon — the disaster response organization with 200,000 Greyshirts deployed across the country and around the world.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why the shift from volunteer management to community building changes everything — and exactly how Team Rubicon made that shift at scale
• How 3,500 volunteer leaders lead a Greyshirt nation of 200,000 — and what that organizational structure teaches every nonprofit leader
• Jeff's One Good Thing: don't let perfection get in the way of good.

Episode Highlights:

• Jeff's origin story: Marine Corps to FEMA (3:08)
• Joining Team Rubicon and the "for impact" sector (6:36)
• You don't manage volunteers — you inspire them (7:48)
• What Team Rubicon does: 1,000 service projects a year (9:14)
• Volunteer management vs. community building (12:00)
• Veterans + "kick ass civilians": the 50/50 dynamic (14:51)
• Making volunteers your core capacity at scale (16:13)
• 10 simultaneous operations in Hurricane Helene (16:51)
• The philanthropy moment that made Jeff cry (20:55)
• One Good Thing: don't let perfection get in the way of good (25:04)

Resources Mentioned:

• Team Rubicon
• Tunnels to Towers Foundation
• Jeff Byard on LinkedIn

Full Episode Landing Page: https://www.weareforgood.com/episode/697

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Join the We Are For Good Community—completely free.
Join fellow changemakers, share takeaways from this working session, and keep collaborating in a space built for connection, inspiration, and real impact: www.weareforgoodcommunity.com

Say hi 👋
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter