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Jun 16, 2026
Leading a Nonprofit in Uncertain Times with Liz Schurgin
Leading a Nonprofit in Uncertain Times with Liz Schurgin
00:00
25:31
Transcript
0:00
Today, we're welcoming Liz Schergen, the executive director of the Greater DC Diaper Bank.
0:06
As a nonprofit leader, she is passionate about challenging systemic inequalities, utilizing creativity as a tool for change, and building strong teams and organizations.
0:16
Prior to the Diaper Bank, Liz served as executive director of the DC Youth Orchestra program. Under her leadership, the organization more than doubled its staff, board, and budget, and tripled its reserves.
0:27
She's also on the faculty of the University of, of Maryland, is a musician, improviser, and mother. Welcome, Liz. We're thrilled to have you. Thank you so much for having me.
0:36
So this year, there's been a lot of change and uncertainty, um, that, that some of us are aware of more than others, but especially for organizations that support women and families.
0:47
Can you share a moment, uh, when an unexpected challenge came up over this past year and, and just talk to us about how you navigated as a leader? Absolutely. This past year has been really an exercise in the unexpected.
1:04
I stepped into this role in April 2024. I am helping transition the organization from its founder to its next chapter, and all I heard from the team was, "We want a stabilization. We want stabilization."
1:19
And then 2025 happened, and it seems that just about every month, if not every week, we're pivoting from one thing to the next.
1:29
It has been a difficult year for, for women and, and families, where the Greater DC Diaper Bank is already addressing what we call a hidden public health crisis.
1:40
We knew that going into 2025, nearly one in two parents and caregivers of young children struggle to access enough diapers to keep their child healthy and dry. That is known as diaper insecurity.
1:52
You need diapers to put your kid into childcare, and you need childcare to go to work or to school. Diapers are not covered by SNAP. They're not covered by WIC, and that's where the Greater DC Diaper Bank steps in.
2:05
We work with a series of human and social service organizations in Maryland, DC, and Virginia to these essential items, diapers, and other baby essentials to families that are experiencing need.
2:17
And this past year was tough, in part because we work through a variety of partners. They were also experiencing everything that was going on.
2:24
Over 80% of them reported that they have experienced an increase in parents and caregivers seeking services and support, and we live in Washington, DC. So we were directly impacted by the government shutdown.
2:38
We are impacted by kind of the changes in employment here. So we rest in the highest unemployment in the nation right now, and that has a trickle-down effect into organization like ours.
2:50
We have a highest level of need, reaching the level that we experienced during the pandemic. So need is up, and resources are down.
2:58
And so what do you do in this tension, this paradox of like we are in service to our community, the community is hurting, and we have less to go around than what we historically have had?
3:09
And we did everything we could, appealing to different entities to see if we could get more corporate donations, if we can get more financial contributions.
3:18
At the end of the day, we're not impermeable to kind of the environmental trends, and, and giving is down, especially in mid-level and low-level.
3:27
We knew that going into 2026 that the only thing that was certain was that it was going to be uncertain. So what did we do in that situation? We decided to really focus in on our mission,
3:40
and we elected to pause two of our programs so that we can have a greater impact with our kind of main program.
3:50
You know, the 80 par-partner organizations that we work with, every single one of them receives diapers from us. And over time, we had taken on a variety of other kind of supports.
4:00
So we know that, for example, if you're experiencing diaper insecurity, you're three times more likely to experience hygiene product insecurity.
4:07
So soap, shampoo, all the things that you need in order to stay healthy, there's a high correlation between these two types of insecurity.
4:16
And so we had adopted a program that really provided our partner organizations with these different types of hygiene products. While working in a nonprofit, there's a lot of stakeholders.
4:25
Uh, there are a lot of people that are involved in the decision-making. As the executive director, I am not the sole decision maker.
4:31
I make decisions in conjunction with the, my, the board of directors, with our team, with our partner organizations, and we came up with a feedback loop in which we were able to kind of connect with all of our partner organizations and ask what was really important to them.
4:47
And we brought this to our team and to our board, and we said, "Look, diapers are the most important thing, and we don't have as many resources as we've historically had."
4:59
And so in a moment where the pull and the desire is to do more because there is more, we elected to focus our impact on what had the greatest, I would say, outcome for our, our, our partners and, and, and by extension, their families.
5:17
So that was really hard. It was not something if you had asked me a year ago, would I say, "Are we going to be focusing or narrowing our programs and our product offering?" I would have said like, "Absolutely not.
5:29
The need is incredibly high." But we realized that moving forward, this is how we can continue to have the greatest impact and help and support more parents and caregivers in our region.
5:41
So as you're reacting and adjusting to the changes that are, are going on and sort of continually around the corner, I wonder if you could talk to us a little bit about keeping resiliency in your teams and your partnerships, especially in these really resource-constrained conditions.
6:00
I have to say the People who work in the human services space, I think by nature are incredibly resilient. I think you have to be.
6:08
And we just came out of the pandemic, kind of shared trauma that put an excessive burden on the human services space. And here we are kind of in a, an acute crisis mode.
6:23
And in crisis, like I've always framed my approach to kind of shortening the runway a little bit.
6:29
It's not so much like lowering expectations, but rather celebrating smaller wins because it can be really, really hard to see the big picture when you're in the thicket of chaos. And so
6:43
I think it's about celebrating the resilience that already exists in the team and acknowledging that the work that we are doing is hard, it is emotionally draining at times, and that I think that teams are the greatest resource that anyone has in the nonprofit space, and second to that is their time.
7:02
We have to protect their time, and we have to show care towards their time, and we have to show care towards them.
7:07
And myself included in this, I only have so much emotional bandwidth that I can give to this job and still take care of myself, and if I'm not taking care of myself, then there's absolutely no way that I'm taking care of my team, and by extension, the greater organization.
7:25
And so we talk about how we can spend our time wisely, how when it's a tough day, it's okay to take a, a step away and breathe out, and how
7:37
throughout the year we've been messaging, "If you need space, if you need a moment to breathe, please, please take that."
7:45
And I've done as much as I can to model that when it's been an especially hard day, if there's a shift in policy or we had news that one of our partner organizations folded, and being able to take a step, breathe, and to recenter is really important.
8:02
And so I think there's acknowledging that and not, not just kind of pushing through that.
8:07
Acknowledging that things are hard is, is part of how we keep the forward momentum, but also kind of making sure that we're shortening the runway.
8:16
It's like, okay, what was the one thing we're going to accomplish this week? Great. Let's celebrate that. Let's celebrate all that we accomplished this past week.
8:26
We just did an exercise this past week where the whole team reflected on one thing that they were proud of on behalf of the organization.
8:33
And if I'm to summarize what our, our team kind of came away with was they were really proud at how they showed up for our partners and by extension, the families that they were serving, and that we were able to do this by taking care of ourselves and acknowledging and giving space to how hard this work is.
8:51
It is hard to live in a space and have the daily reminder that half of parents and caretakers out there are struggling with their basic needs. It's a really harsh reality.
9:03
Becoming a parent for me was the hardest thing I've ever done, and on a daily basis is still the hardest thing that I will ever do.
9:10
And to think that there are so many people that are struggling with the, the basic needs, their, their essentials is, is hard.
9:18
But I think the way that I have framed it that has given me inspiration and I pull my energy from is like this is a reflection. The diaper bank is a reflection of the greater good of our community. We're all showing up.
9:32
We're here. We're taking care of each other. The way we work is we, we take excess diapers from the community.
9:38
So parents, you know, moms whose kid just grew from one size to the next, there is a whole network in which they can get these extra diapers to us.
9:46
So we're showing up and we're taking care of each other, and I lock into that on a daily basis, and I think as much as I model that and remind that to our team, and they remind that to me, I mean, the thing about being in a leadership role is I, I learned just as much from the people that I have the privilege of working with as I hope that they would learn from me, and so I see that on a daily basis of how they show up and their bravery even when things are really hard.
10:10
I think that point about you also creating o-opportunities for people in the community to contribute as well.
10:16
You guys are, are allowing folks who don't spend all of their time on a particular cause to at least contribute and feel like they are a part of the solution that's working. In that vein, we, we're also in the DC area.
10:31
We're in northern Virginia. We feel the impacts of the shift as well. Many of our, our close friends, uh, are out of work still and are really looking for mission-driven work.
10:43
They've, they've left the government or a contractor for the government and, and they have been focused on making an impact their entire careers, and they, they wanna continue doing that in some capacity.
10:54
A lot of them are looking to the nonprofit sector, and I'm curious if you could speak to the qualities or skills that stand out most when you're hiring or if you have particular advice for these people trying to translate experience that they've had into the nonprofit space.
11:13
So one of the things that I've learned is that every space has its own language, and so many people have, like, wonderful skills and talents, and it...
11:23
So much about finding a job, I mean, I, I do believe there's a big amount of luck in it, but I also believe that it's about being able to tell the story of what your skills and what your experience is in the language of whatever organization or industry you're trying to transition into.
11:41
And, you know, I think about our organization. We had-- We were fortunate in that we were able to hire three positions this past year, and two, all three people came from experiences, but not necessarily one-to-one.
11:55
No one worked at a diaper bank before. No one worked at a food bank before. And w- I think what made them successful is us understanding truly, like, how what they've done in the past will translate into this space.
12:09
Again- Working in a nonprofit, there is always some sort of consensus around decision-making.
12:16
So I think the people who are the most successful are the one who create, um, or tell the story in a way that other people don't have to use their imagination, so making it so, so easy.
12:27
We happen to be one of the largest diaper banks in the country. We have a huge distribution.
12:32
We serve a large number of babies and their families, and we have somewhat of a, a, a high-profile platform of which we operate off of, uh, with respect to being in the basic needs space.
12:46
And still there are days when I am literally counting diapers, and that is part of the job.
12:52
So understanding, like, I think if you're coming from a very big, large corporate or nonprofit environment and understanding even though we are technically large by the way we distribute and our program reach, that there are many, many times that you will have to, like, roll up your sleeves and do things that are outside of scope of what might be traditional.
13:18
And I think what works really well in our organization is people who come to it with that spirit and that energy.
13:24
I had a, a, a good friend of mine who also was affected by kind of the reductions in force that happened, and incredibly smart, incredibly talented, and it's a hard time to get a job in, in this region.
13:38
And we were talking about how all the research out there shows that volunteerism just has total positive effect on the individual.
13:48
It correlates with higher happiness, having kind of other orientation and being able to connect to other people, have general positive outcomes on, on people's health, and so I was like, "Come in and volunteer at our organization."
14:02
And it was really delightful to see how that gave her a sense of purpose while she was going through this job search, which was hard and grueling, and we all celebrated when she finally got a job.
14:15
And I think she was also able to see and get some perspective on, like, what our organization and what it looks like and how it functions.
14:22
If you're looking to make a transition into the nonprofit space and mission-driven work, I highly recommend going and volunteering at a variety of different organizations just to get a sense of how they function, what the culture is, really what the expectation is around their employees, and what works and what doesn't 'cause, like, every company, every business has its own, like, priorities and what they look for, um, in individuals and, and employees and team members.
14:51
If you're looking to make a change, it-- that can be a really daunting process, so being f- as familiar and however you can gain comfort that you know the space and you know the language of that space can help.
15:02
Like, we buy 10 million diapers a year. The concept and the terminology around procurement is not something that is readily used in our space.
15:12
And the same concept in terms of if you've worked in procurement in a different industry, say, USAID, that is applicable. It's just, we just talk about it as we wholesale purchase. We purchase a lot of product.
15:25
We purchase a lot of diapers, and that's just how we speak about it.
15:28
So being able to say that this is how my experience in procurement translates to what you are doing here at the diaper bank, I think is an example of something that could help, um, people who are looking to step into the nonprofit space.
15:42
I think this is incredibly useful. I wonder if there's any specific examples if you're interviewing someone, what catches your attention when you're, when you're speaking to someone?
15:52
I was just wondering if there's, there's, uh, something that happened or an interaction that you had where you're like, "Oh, yes, that, that does actually apply here."
15:59
I've, I've been referring a lot to, uh, how in the nonprofit space, even as the executive director, I am not the main decision-maker when it comes to things that could have a profound impact, whether it's financial or physical, on this organization.
16:18
And so recently, I have had a lot of conversations with people where they talk to me as if I can make the decision, and they want to know what my vision is.
16:29
And I am very clear on what my vision is, but I am also very clear that I don't have the capacity to make that decision. In the corporate world, sometimes the CEO or the executive can make these decisions.
16:44
Oftentimes, they make these decisions. You invest in a CEO because of their vision and the way that they make decisions to support that.
16:51
And so knowing that that is, like, a fundamental difference between, like, say, the corporate world and the nonprofit space, and mind you, different size organizations and different structures of nonprofit have slight variations to this, knowing that shows kind of an informed perspective.
17:11
You need to know if you're coming in for a leadership role that the board of directors is a significant component of how the organization operates, even though it work- lives in the governance space.
17:23
That shows to me a level of knowledge and sophistication that even if they've never had that experience working directly with a board of directors, the fact that they are aware that there is certain situations where they-- we would need to tap into the board's expertise or rely on their decision-making.
17:43
They set the strategy, for example. That shows me that they are informed enough that this wouldn't be kind of a culture shock.
17:50
'Cause that's the one thing that sometimes I'm, I'm concerned about when I'm hiring is, like, I can see how smart this person is. I can see how capable they are. Their experience is amazing.
18:00
I would love to bring that in because a lot of times the people who are making it to the final round, any single one of them could do the job and do a really great job doing it. As much as I want the organization to...
18:12
have value added by bringing this person in, I also wanna make sure, even though this is not necessarily my space, that I'm aware of their learning curve coming into this.
18:21
So, um, I think it's just a general familiarity and understanding that things work and operate and function somewhat differently that sometimes helps me have confidence.
18:31
It's really about painting a picture of what would I look like in this organization and not relying that the other side has perspective and has the same imagination. I have this problem.
18:42
I walked into the human services space f- as a performing arts person, and I was like, "I'm still a musician. I think about this, and I approach this work as, as a musician."
18:52
But I also had to be able to translate the stories that I did, how fundraising for a youth orchestra, how that is translatable to fundraising for a human services organization rather than...
19:05
And this was a learning curve for me of being like, "Oh, well, yeah, of course it's tran- it translates."
19:10
But, um, I have to-- I had to recognize that it was on me, incumbent on me to really paint that picture in a way that was easy to understand.
19:20
I think that's really useful, and it's worth spending time working on how to demonstrate that.
19:25
Demonstrate that you have thought about how you or your skills translate, especially, like you're saying, for roles that aren't at entry level.
19:33
To pull a little bit more on your musical background, I-- And this is more of a sort of a personal question, but I, I wonder, you know, you guys are on the front lines.
19:43
You're, you're really delivering necessities to, to women, to children.
19:48
And then, at the same time, a lot of the higher level things that are going on in the world, you, you guys are really exist because certain systems just aren't working, right?
19:59
And I wonder how you navigate that, the high level systemic issues and actually executing on the ground like you do on the day-to-day. Um, how do you keep focused on, on the function?
20:11
That is an great question, uh, one that I am tackling right now because I truly believe if you don't know a problem exists, then how are you going to fix it?
20:21
Most people who haven't had the lived experience of diaper insecurity are surprised to hear that diaper insecurity is, in fact, real and as prevalent as it is. So
20:35
we are also in this position where diaper insecurity has existed for a long time. You know, it was really during World War II that disposable diapers took off, and for a while, they were a thing of privilege.
20:52
And then when women started entering the workforce more en masse during, during the women's liberation movement, you started to see the necessity of disposable diapers because it's easier for childcare providers.
21:06
So all of a sudden, disposable diapers, sometimes called paper diapers, they went from being a luxury to a necessity.
21:15
And interestingly enough, in certain situations now, cloth diapers are still considered a luxury because you need access to the right type of equipment or service to clean them.
21:28
And so we've seen this kind of flip around diapers, and there's, like, so many things. The public awareness and public consciousness is, like, decades behind.
21:39
And so we're in this moment right now where we are addressing something that is significant. We are aware of there's a childcare crisis in, in this country. There's a maternal health crisis in, in this country.
21:53
Pay equity is still not where I think anyone in this community would hope it, it, it is at this point. If you're missing work, you're missing income.
22:02
Period product insecurity, which goes hand in hand with diaper insecurity, it's, it's so perpetuating, and the fact that so many people don't know about it makes it really, really hard to find a really, truly systemic solution.
22:19
And so I think what we're doing in the way we, we kind of overlap working on the front lines and addressing diaper insecurity directly with also raising awareness and giving voice to this is to really find groups and organizations that
22:37
are doing adjacent work and kind of tap into the network and do a, a small amount of education. What that looks like on an operational level is, for example, volunteering.
22:47
We-- Like I said, we purchase ten million diapers a year. We distribute around 11.
22:53
So a million of our diapers come in through the community, and we need volunteers in order to turn around those diapers to get them back out to the community.
23:02
A million diapers is three thousand volunteer hours, so we need a lot of volunteers. So h- wh- where do we go? We look to partner with organizations that are already, like, working in this space. Right.
23:14
Parent and teacher associations. We look at Girl Scout groups. We look in corporations that have, like, family resource groups.
23:22
Anything that is there that is, is already working in the maternal health space, it's working in women's leadership, it's working in pay equity, we look to go connect with them, and we try and connect the dots and say: Look,
23:35
please be aware that this is a real issue. And then we also address that on a policy level.
23:40
So I will say that my role this year is really to kind of step out and add a little bit more voice to this within the framework of our own community. One of the things that we found is that there really isn't...
23:52
there wasn't, as far as we know, a network of all these h- human service organizations that brought them together because they all serve babies. And so that is interesting. We have re-entry programs.
24:04
We have, like, healthcare programs. We have community health organizations. We have religious organizations that weren't really talking to each other for a variety of reasons.
24:14
So we're starting to think about, and really, and really pressure test, since they are connecting and we're all addressing kind of the same hole in our social fabric, what is the role that the diaper ba- bank has, and by extension, what role do I have?
24:27
But right now, I really see myself as a connector, connecting people to this hidden public health crisis and raising awareness and just finding groups that are already really invested in the work we do, but just don't know that this exists.
24:42
That feels like an excellent path forward in an uncertain time, connecting more of community and people who are, are focused on similar, if not the same issues, and like you said, they're really all intersected.
24:54
This was excellent. Thank you so much for your insight. Where can people find you, and where can people learn more about the diaper bank?
25:02
To learn more about the diaper bank, you can go to our website, www.greaterdcdiaperbank.org. You can also find us on all of the social platforms.
25:12
You can find me on LinkedIn, or you can find my email address on the website and reach out to me. Um, I'm pretty accessible on that front and always looking for ways to connect.
25:23
Well, thank you for joining us, and thank you for your service for our community. We really appreciate it. Thank you. It was wonderful to speak with you today.
FemmeFactor
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