Announcing the Next Evolution of Lead

Over the past six years, Lead has made an extraordinary impact, empowering more than 13,000 individuals with career-readiness skills and leadership development, starting as young as six years old. Our journey has been marked by continuous growth—launching a strategic plan in 2022, evolving from Self Love Beauty to Lead in 2024, expanding our foundational curriculum and events, and introducing the Lead Within Platform, which has already supported hundreds of individuals in their leadership and personal growth journeys.

With this progress, we have also prioritized internal sustainability, assessing our strengths, identifying areas for improvement, and planning for long-term impact. Through this process, it became clear that restructuring our organizational model was necessary—not only to scale effectively but to prevent burnout, a growing challenge in the nonprofit sector. By taking accountability and aligning with best practices in sustainability and innovation, we have designed a structure that allows our team to thrive while ensuring funders and stakeholders see the long-term impact they seek in the organizations they support.

Our New Organizational Structure (Became Effective as of January 2025): 

Lisa Tarkington, Founder & President: Lisa, previously the Director, will focus on high-level strategy, business development, and expanding Lead’s impact through innovative curriculum and partnerships. This transition allows her to guide the growth and sustainability of Lead, ensuring the organization remains strong, forward-thinking, and mission-driven.

Kelsey Snyder, Director of Lead: Formerly the Program Director, Kelsey will now oversee daily operations, fundraising, programming execution, and continuous relationship-building. Her leadership in launching the Lead Within platform was instrumental, and this role positions her to represent Lead strategically among key stakeholders.

Missy Reed, Director of Development: Missy will continue to lead fundraising strategies, donor engagement, and long-term sustainability initiatives, ensuring Lead has the resources and support to expand its mission.

Emily Almarouhn, Program Specialist: Emily will continue to implement and grow our programs and special events, ensuring they remain impactful and accessible to those we serve.

Why This Change Matters

At Lead, we teach individuals to operate in their strengths, gain social and emotional skills, and build confidence—and we are committed to modeling that within our own team. Studies have shown that traditional nonprofit structures often lead to burnout, instability, and high turnover, especially in smaller organizations.

Rather than continuing with a model that didn’t work for us anymore and places the full weight of leadership on a single individual, we intentionally restructured our team to prevent burnout, maximize efficiency, and ensure sustainability. The results speak for themselves—in Q1 of 2025 alone, we have already doubled our quarter to quarter impact due to this change.

This structure allows our team to thrive while keeping Lead agile, sustainable, and positioned for long-term growth. We want to not only see growth in our clients and serve our funders, but do the same for our team. We are committed to scaling, innovating, leveraging strengths, and ensuring sustainability—without sacrificing our people.

Before making these changes, we consulted with nonprofit leaders who shared their experiences. They had unmanageable workloads that led to burnout, preventing long-term success, fundraising pressure created ongoing instability and rapid growth became a burden rather than a success due to a lack of leadership support.

Many leaders told us they wished they had made structural changes sooner. Their experiences reinforced our decision to build a model that ensures Lead can continue to grow, innovate, and serve communities—without jeopardizing the well-being of our team.

A Change to Celebrate, Moving Forward Together 

We recognize this model is not traditional to small organizations. However, this approach is not new—it is a proven strategy used by larger nonprofits and forward-thinking organizations.

Funders are increasingly prioritizing sustainability, recognizing that burnout leads to turnover, which ultimately weakens nonprofit impact. Leadership turnover is one of the biggest risks to nonprofit success, and our model ensures stability while avoiding the pitfalls of overburdened leadership.

We are excited for this next chapter and grateful for the incredible team and Board of Directors that makes Lead’s work possible. This evolution reflects our commitment to sustainability, growth, and long-term impact.

For those who want to learn more about our organizational model, our services or the impact we are making, we are happy to share our insights. You can also check out our 2024 Annual Impact Report. 

Thank you for being part of this journey. We invite you to celebrate this milestone with us and continue supporting Lead’s mission.

To learn more about our team and work, visit leadconfidently.org.