How Easterseals CEO Kendra Davenport Leads a $100M+ Nonprofit
From The Charity Charge Show - Nonprofit Podcast by Charity Charge
March 25, 2026 · 37 min · Episode 161
About this episode
Kendra Davenport discusses her leadership and financial strategies at Easterseals amidst various challenges.
Running a nonprofit that serves 1.5 million people across 1,400 sites is hard enough in a stable environment. Doing it while federal program funding is under threat, the economy is unpredictable, and your brand is underrecognized outside the disability community is a different challenge entirely. Kendra Davenport has been Easterseals ' President and CEO since 2022. In that time she led a financial turnaround at the national office: no line of credit, no debt, departments that consistently come in under budget, and a long-term orientation most nonprofit leaders talk about but few execute on. In this episode of the Charity Charge Show, Stephen Garten sits down with Kendra to get into the specifics: how she thinks about financial discipline, vendor audits, reserves strategy, board engagement, and building an organization designed to outlast any single leader.
People in this episode
Host: Stephen Garten
Guest: Kendra Davenport
Topics covered
- nonprofit leadership
- financial management
- disability services
- organizational strategy
- funding challenges
Keywords
- nonprofit
- Easterseals
- Kendra Davenport
- financial discipline
- leadership
- disability community
- funding
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Easterseals
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