A 111-Year-Old Organization Lost a Third of Its Revenue Overnight: How Helen Keller International’s CEO Turned Crisis Into Reinvention

About this episode

Sarah Bouchie, CEO of Helen Keller International, discusses how she navigated a significant revenue loss and transformed the organization.

When Sarah Bouchie became CEO of Helen Keller International , she led a listening process across the organization and sharpened how they told their story. That preparation proved critical. Within months, a third of the organization’s revenue disappeared. What followed: 300 layoffs, a refusal to close a single country office, and six months later, the Kristof Holiday Impact Prize that raised nearly $13 million. But the reason any of that matters comes down to what this organization actually does. For about a dollar a dose, twice a year, they can save a child’s life. That math hasn’t changed. But the funding landscape has. Here is my conversation with Sarah Bouchie, CEO of Helen Keller International.

People in this episode

Host: The Business of Giving

Guest: Sarah Bouchie

Topics covered

• organizational crisis
• leadership
• fundraising
• nonprofit management
• storytelling

Keywords

• Helen Keller International
• Sarah Bouchie
• revenue loss
• nonprofit
• fundraising
• leadership
• impact

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Helen Keller International, Kristof Holiday Impact Prize