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Leading Change with Empathy: The PAUSE Framework for Nonprofits with Heather Hiscox

In this episode of The Responsive Lab, Carly and Scott sit down with Heather Hiscox, social impact strategist and author of No More Status Quo, to unpack how nonprofits can lead organizational change with empathy, inclusion, and clarity. Heather shares the story behind her innovative PAUSE Framework — a practical, five-step method to navigate uncertainty and build sustainable change.

From challenging the myths of startup culture to redefining change management through a lens of love, care, and equity, Heather reveals the tools nonprofit leaders need to stop defaulting to consultants or technology as a silver bullet — and start empowering their teams through behavioral change and continuous learning.

Also in this episode, Heather shares how to:

  • Redesign your change processes with intentional empathy
  • Shift from assumptions to co-designed solutions
  • Use stakeholder interviews to fuel real transformation
  • Apply behavioral testing before full-scale implementation

Explore more of Heather’s work:

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The Responsive Lab is brought to you by Virtuous.

Virtuous is a software company committed to helping nonprofits grow generosity. Virtuous believes that generosity has the power to create profound change in the world and in the heart of the giver. With that in mind, it’s their mission to move the needle on global generosity by helping nonprofits better connect with and inspire their givers. Learn more about Virtuous and download your free Nonprofit CRM Checklist at virtuous.org/crmchecklist

What you should do now

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Summarize with AI

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Grow generosity with Virtuous

Virtuous is the responsive fundraising software platform proven to help nonprofit organizations increase generosity by serving all donors personally, no matter their gift size.

“Virtuous truly understands nonprofits and the importance of our mission. And their open access to data and built-in custom reports gave us access to the data we need.”
Todd Shinabarger​
Chief Information Officer