Artwork for podcast Future Nonprofit
Melissa Russell on Scaling Innovation, Culture, & Team Alignment (charity: water)
3rd June 2026 • Future Nonprofit • Historic Agency
00:00:00 00:34:12

Share Episode

Shownotes

“When you make the transition from operator to leader, you have to be intentional about how you’re defining success.”—Melissa Russell

What does it actually take to scale a nonprofit without losing culture or clarity along the way?

There’s no one better to show us the way than Melissa Russell.

Melissa carries a wealth of nonprofit leadership experience as the current President of charity: water and former President of International Justice Mission (IJM), where she’s strengthened clarity and culture through seasons of growth and created environments where both results and people matter.

Charity: water is an incredible organization. Not only have they funded over 186,000 water projects in 29 countries, but their innovation to engage donors in seeing exactly where their donation goes is second to none.

In this conversation, you’ll hear how Melissa found her way into nonprofit leadership (or rather, how it found her), along with what she’s learned in such high-level roles about leadership, vision-casting, culture, and innovation.

Listen in!

Find links to resources mentioned and key takeaways in the show notes for this episode: https://www.futurenonprofit.com/melissa-russell

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube