My first full-time career was in the nonprofit, or civil society, sector with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I’m not sure who inspired me more–the staff or the volunteers–and I feel that I must have witnessed one of the most seamless and successful nonprofit CEO transitions between two incredibly passionate and hardworking individuals. Personally, I feel that I learned just as much about how a nonprofit is run and about marketing, event planning and advocacy as I did about cancer–a disease that, somehow, had yet to directly impact my life even though about 1 in 3 people will develop cancer during their lifetime. That’s not to say that health problems have not plagued my family, but cancer has not to date. Unfortunately, I am sure that it will at some point in my life and I consider myself better prepared to face it having worked with the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

What I’ve learned since working at the Lance Armstrong Foundation is that not all nonprofits are created equal. That is to say that in addition to having different missions and strategies, some nonprofits are more efficient than others, some are more effective than others, some are managed better than others or merely differently, some are better story tellers, some… (to be continued).