Nonprofit leadership through uncertainty requires a clear mission, an adaptable operating strategy, and the ability to look beyond the crisis immediately in front of you. Brian Wenke, Executive Director of It Gets Better, shares how the organization is evolving its storytelling, digital engagement, grantmaking, and youth leadership strategies.

It Gets Better began in 2010 as a social media response to a devastating crisis affecting LGBTQ+ young people. Sixteen years and more than 70,000 shared stories later, the organization now reaches beyond storytelling through grantmaking, leadership development, civic engagement, and partnerships involving young people ages 13 to 18.

Brian explains why authentic nonprofit storytelling cannot be manufactured through a rigid formula. Highly polished content may appear professional, but it can also feel distant from the communities an organization hopes to reach.

“Storytelling is just our superpower,” Brian says. “We’re not all versed in how to use it accurately and effectively, but we all can do it.”

For It Gets Better, that means allowing young people to help shape the stories, programs, platforms, and organizational strategies intended to serve them. Their perspectives also provide a valuable counterweight to traditional performance indicators. Views and reach may look impressive, but they do not prove that content reached or resonated with the intended audience.

The conversation also examines the organization’s growth into a funder supporting work in the United States and through affiliates operating in 19 countries. Brian challenges funding structures that require established nonprofits to alter proven programs simply to fit a grantmaker’s priorities.

“I think we need more funders out there that are willing to be as flexible as the nonprofits they fund have been.”

Key Takeaways:

* Use community voices to validate strategy, not merely to endorse decisions already made.

* Evaluate whether communications reach the intended audience, rather than relying only on views and impressions.

* Balance digital outreach with offline community participation and relationship building.

* Protect proven programs from funding requirements that create unnecessary mission drift.

* Give executive leaders space to maintain a multiyear organizational perspective.

* Treat hope, consistency, and adaptability as operating disciplines rather than abstract values.