Inside the work of sharing power. Are we ready?

Recently, I joined Nonprofit Quarterly for a conversation that’s been on my heart for a long time: What happens when we get power?

So many of us building multiracial, multicultural institutions have been trained to focus on gaining access to titles, budgets, and platforms. As a result, we believe that once we “arrive” it will be easier to create the cultures and organizations we need to bring about change. But this approach is incomplete and quite damaging. We need to talk about what it means to hold power responsibly and more expansively. To view it not as a telescope with a narrow view but a kaleidoscope with various opportunities and experiences that we can share and make our institutions stronger.

In my article that accompanied the webinar, I ask us to look at the different kinds of power we have access to. Instead of it being something we “have” or “don’t have,” power shows up as seven distinct levers we can pull and learn to wield with more intention. You can watch the webinar here and read the article. In January 2026 I’ll return to Nonprofit Quarterly in an article series digging into four specific levers of power - money, information, audience, and access to decision makers - that I think are urgent for our sector. 

These ideas aren’t just theory. At our recent Brava Leadership Institute (BLI) retreat, I saw them come to life in real time. Watching this cohort wrestle with what sharing power looks like in meetings, in decisions, in moments of disagreement, reminded me that transformation doesn’t happen through ideas alone. It happens through practice and small repeated acts of courage to show up differently. As one leader shared, “I now know how to diagnose leadership challenges instead of just wondering, ‘What happened there?’”

We don’t have to wait for the future to lead differently. If you’re a leader who wants to build the muscles of power-sharing with clarity and care, applications are now open for the 2026 Brava Leadership Institute cohort. 

Thank you for being in this conversation with us. The work of building a multiracial, multicultural  democracy starts right where we are in how we share space and how we share power.

With care,
Karla