Operations That Make Nonprofits Work

In the nonprofit world, urgency is constant and that makes operations easy to neglect. Yet operational excellence is often the difference between a mission that scales and a team that burns out. This conversation focuses on nonprofit operations, process improvement, and leadership clarity through a surprising origin story: learning business systems inside McDonald’s. The point is not fast food, it is repeatability. When an organization can explain how work gets done, it can train faster, protect quality, reduce errors, and improve donor and client experience without relying on heroics. That is the hidden engine behind sustainable impact, healthy culture, and staff retention.

This session features insights from Nickie Froiland of MODIS9, exploring the operational habits that make mission-driven teams run smoothly. The conversation connects process discipline to clear priorities, decision authority, and the hard leadership work of letting go so a team can grow. From parsing out key priority rankings to navigating the identity shifts of leadership transitions, this framework brings operational leadership into plain language.

Transcript

Donor Data Benchmarks For 2026

SPEAKER_01 0:00

In 2025, donor behavior broke the assumptions most teams still used to plan. FundraiseUp's Pulse of the Donor 2026 gives you benchmark data on what changed and what to do next. Download the free report today at fundraiseup.com.

Nikki Froiland On Nonprofit Operations

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, joined today by my new best friend. I'm so excited for today's conversation. Nikki Froyland is with MODIS9, and we are digging into the operational side of the house today. We spend a lot of time on the podcast talking about marketing and fundraising and all of those pieces that are so critical. But we're digging into that critical side of the house today that can make or break an organization. So I'm so excited to have Nikki's perspective. Nikki, welcome in. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Oh my goodness. And welcome to you, new best friend. So thank you for having me. Thank you for inviting me into your sphere, Megan Spear.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, so excited. So tell the audience a little bit about yourself and kind of your background that brought us to the conversation today.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

You never know where to begin that story. Tell you a little about myself. I love to start by saying I'm a I'm a girl from Iowa. I grew up on a farm. We didn't farm. I'm a truck driver's daughter. I spent my summers on the road with my dad, going from stop to stop, dropping and unloading whatever he was hauling, which might have been uh meat, or it might have been mail, or it might have been makeup. And I first learned about business by being in the semi with my dad, and I fell in love with business. At the age of 15, I started a job, my first job, which was at McDonald's. It was February 3rd, 1990, when I started my first job. And because I had been on the road with my dad, I went into that job ready to learn. And I fell in love with being in business and working in business. I remember on my first day, we got a bus load of people, and I had no idea how we'd handle this busload of people, but my manager knew how we'd handle it. So they came and brought me cups and they told me what to do with the cups. And 20 minutes later, a bus of 45 people were all well cared for and gone. And I was enamored. By 16, I had an application to own a McDonald's. I spent the next seven and a half years of my life studying, actually went to college, McDonald's University. It's a real university. I flew up from Iowa to Minneapolis. My owner would fly me up to take courses while I was in high school. When I graduated high school, I decided not to have a traditional education. I wanted to get into business and learn how to do business. That was the right decision for me. Went to a new market, moved to Rochester, Minnesota, so that I was just a little bit away from home and started making my own life. So I with my then fiance, now husband, who uh entered my life when we were 17 and we are about to celebrate 31 years of marriage and 24 years of working together.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Wow. There's I mean, we could do a whole episode just on that.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, it's a pretty, it's a pretty special situation.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah, that's an amazing story. I love that. Okay, so uh let's go back though to this this kind of the process piece that you just mentioned. So, right,

Learning Process Discipline From McDonald's

SPEAKER_01 3:44

a bus pulls up and they give you a process that says this is what we have to do with the cups so that we can do the thing. Which does kind of maybe feel like a light bulb moment to our business operations. Yes, it is. And at the same time, it's at least a lot of the organizations that I've worked with over the years, it's the piece that they miss. Right? The we don't I don't know how we do what we do, we just do it. Right? We don't there's not a process for yeah, there's not a process for a lot of things. And so I'm curious as you take that kind of lens and framework of uh I got my start in the process.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

When there's organizations that you're working with who have maybe neglected that part, because to be honest, nonprofit leaders are they're they are solving the world's problems. So we don't always take the step back to like to document the process or figure out how we do it. We just do it because people need to get fed or animals need to be cared for or children need educated. So when you go to work with an organization, where do you start on understanding process and helping them see the importance of it?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I heard that question and I will answer it. You are also affording me a connect the dots moment that I haven't had before. And so you know how Steve Jobs says you can only connect the dots looking backward, not looking forward. So, fun fact, I did begin my business career, began being enamored with process. And to map out a few examples in McDonald's, when I was 15 years old and the bus came, they handed me cups and they said, This is the fill line for the ice. You fill ice to this level, and then you fill the cup to this level with the liquid. And it made it very easy. When I continued to pursue my interest in understanding the way business really operated, and when I went to college for McDonald's, I literally started learning how everything was done. And so, in the five stores that I worked at in Rochester, Minnesota, I I ended up initiating a training program that we'd never had. I, anyhow, it just was a phenomenal opportunity. But here are some of the things I learned at McDonald's that, to your point, businesses can tend to overlook. And now, and then I'll share with you how we have them as part of our company today. So, one of the things that I learned how to do is manage labor costs. If you have this much, if you have this many sales in a day, your labor needs to be this much. And you can predict your sales based on the weather. You can predict your drive-thru sales based on the weather. So learning that was important. I learned how to calibrate equipment. A lot of people might not know what that means, but if you go to McDonald's, your Coca-Cola is going to taste a certain way, your coffee's going to taste a certain way, your fries, etc. The oil in the fry for the fries has to be a certain temperature and it has to be a certain level of cleanliness, and it has to cook at a certain heat for a certain period of time in order for them to turn out the way they do. If any of those variables are off, they're not the same fries. So manage costs. I learned how to create a schedule of 45 people that ranged, we had 21 hours of working in a day that had to be covered. Learned all of these things from the ages of 15 to 22. Phenomenal. Yeah. Fast forward, our company, MODIS 9, MODIS is Latin for the word movement. 9 is a number that's said to be sacred and represents fulfillment. It's why we exist. We exist to help businesses and people find fulfillment. To your point, sometimes what's lacking for them to find fulfillment is they don't have clear enough processes. Too oftentimes, though, they think it starts with the process, or they think it starts with roles and responsibilities, and it

Set Priorities Clarify Authority Fix Overwhelm

SPEAKER_00 7:49

doesn't. It starts with establishing clear priorities. Okay, say more about that. Yeah. So I was in a workshop yesterday. We were, we had there were three of us there, and there were 27 people from a 495-person company that were in the room. And of those people, we were navigating what's standing in the way of cross-departmental collaboration in your organization. And guess what we learned? We learned that none of them are bored at work. None of them have too little on their plate. I think most of us can relate to that. I have so much to do, so much to do, so much to do. I'm in the throes of that right now with the new stage of growth that our company is going through. What it came down to though is their question was how can I convey to my to my managers, to my higher-ups, how busy I am? And I said, Well, it's going to be hard to convey that because they're busy too. I said, Well, what you need to convey is, okay, I got these nine things on my plate. They all seem like they're due at the same moment. And it is not physically possible to get them done in that time. So I need your help learning which of these are truly the higher priority, and which of these can we flex on a little bit? Because if I attempt to do all of them right now, they will not be done well. And that that it brings us to priorities.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

So good. So okay, I want to go two ways with that. Which the first is the management side of it, and the second is the the employee side of it. But I wanna I'm curious from the manager side, right? Because they're the one who's kind of setting the tone for these folks. What does it look like for them to alleviate that problem? Are there processes that can get put in place to regularly be checking in with your folks that alleviate and kind of take away that overwhelm? And I think a lot of times the folks on the other side, it's not that they don't want to do the work, right? And they don't, we don't want to be perceived as not wanting to do the work. We don't want to be perceived as the complainer. So are there ways to approach that conversation candidly to say, like, here's the state of the things, I'm not trying to get out of it. I'm not trying to get out of the work. Can you help me do it better? I'm curious your opinion on on how to handle both sides of that conversation.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

It's a fantastic question. And funny enough, so when we started this company, we started it with a view of how to help organizations and the people within them achieve their biggest ambitions. And the company was founded on helping business owners realize everything you love in your business is a reflection of you. Or executives. Everything you don't love in your business is a reflection of you. So own all of it. If you love it, know that it's a reflection of you, and pinpoint what are you doing to help create an environment for that. If you don't love it, know that it's a reflection of you. And pinpoint what are you doing and create an environment for it to be more what you want. With that said, the services that we started with were something called the company way, which is about culture and operations together, and then executive coaching, and then customized workshops. And we've always taught a business development or in the world of nonprofit, a fundraising process. Well, uh, a while ago, we hired a CEO to run our company, and our CEO helped us figure out we were missing something. If you think about a business's services in a circle, our circle was incomplete. And what we now offer is a service called operational advising. And so for the last almost two years, I have been able to watch our company, the company I founded with my husband, I have been able to firsthand get a view of what's it like when you give operational guidance. We weren't doing it like we could have been. It's been so fun. So, to answer your question, on the manager side, the manager generally is getting so much thrown at them, either from the universe or their clients or the demands of whatever is happening to them. And so then they're throwing what they can as fast as possible so that they have the best chance of getting it all done. What managers often do not do well is make sure that the priority is clear. Is this an A priority? Is it a B priority? Is it a C priority? John Frazier, our CEO that I just mentioned, he likes to say if everything's an A priority, nothing's an A priority. Yes. We have I have another client who likes to say, we have to recognize the difference between signal and noise, which is a Steve Jobs thing. So fantastic way to think about it. What's the difference between signal and noise? So from the manager perspective, that's those are the first couple. The other piece where managers often overlook, because you just don't know what you don't know, or you don't know what the other person needs to know that you might not be thinking about. And so what often gets overlooked is who has what level of authority. Okay. Those two right there are fantastic. Yeah. A priorities, B priorities, C priorities, and then who has what level of authority. With those two in place, you'd see things moving much faster. On the employee side of it, you bring up a fantastic question because when the employee goes to their manager, their owner, their whoever it is, the last thing the employee wants to do is sound like they're complaining. The last thing the employee wants to do is say, I don't want to do the work. Sometimes, though, the only thing the employee can think to do is say, I don't know how to handle everything you're bringing to me. And unfortunately, that's an unhelpful frame for the employee to bring because the boss, the higher up, doesn't understand what aren't you getting. So my recommendation, if you're in the employee seat, is you go to the person that you report to or that need you need help with on this. And you first let them know that you're not sure what to do, and you're really excited to help, and you need their help knowing the best way that you can help them. That first, that initial frame is going to be so helpful. That initial frame is gonna be so helpful. So I'll say that again. You go to the person, and you know you have too much on your plate, but that is not what you lead with. You go to the person and you say, I'm in a bind. I am pumped to help us get done what's in front of us. I'm not sure how to get it all done. So I need some of your time to think through this well with me, and I know we'll come up with an elegant solution, which is a term that a dear friend of mine who runs a nonprofit in Austin came up with. I love this elegant solution. So conversations, my last point for you, Megan, the conversation goes well or poorly from the very first couple of sentences. So it's the initial frame that you walk in with that matters.

Pulse Of The Donor Report

SPEAKER_01 15:48

In 2025, donor behavior shifted across channels, devices, and giving frequency. FundraiseUp just released their 2026 Pulse of the Donor report that unpacks what happened. Your donation form is now your most valuable asset. Donors who trusted their experience gave more, gave again, and told others. Stop guessing what will work in 2026 and start using real data. Download FundraiseUp's free Pulse of the Donor report today at fundraiseup.com.

Letting Go To Grow Your Team

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And I think there are a lot of folks out there who are founders of in the nonprofit sector who are maybe hesitant to release that CEO title, right? The whole the organization has been about them for so long that sometimes that's that succession planning is hard. But it also speaks to I think uh to you as a leader, recognizing maybe what your strengths are and what you want to focus on. So I'd love you to kind of talk us through that process that led you to saying, I'm not in the right seat on the bus. And I need to put someone in that seat for us to move forward. Because that does take, as a leader, I I mean, kudos to you, it takes a dose of humility to be able to say, This is what I want to do. We need somebody who can who can take us forward. And I I think as as a nonprofit sector, we tend to struggle with that a little bit. Um so I'd love your perspective on maybe what led to that decision and how that process was for you.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Thank you for asking, and thank you for being intuitive enough to know just how painstaking that process can be. Humiliating is a great word.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

I go no, I did not say humiliating. You I said it takes humility. Correct. You are right.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

You're right, not humiliating. No, no, no. Yes, it you're right. It does take humility. Yeah. You know, there's a few things that that led to that. One is I have a fairly dominant personality, and that might be saying it a little too lightly. So I I have long been, ever since I was itty bitty, five years old, I have long been an independent player. I got this. And, you know, so fast forward, I'm not five anymore. I'm 51. And I've still been a very strong independent player. I love though the quote that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. And if you want to, if you want to go far, go together. And I'm a lucky girl because as you heard me say, I get to be married to a man that uh the only thing we fight about is him wanting more time with me. And that's that's a tough problem to have. Come on, how am I gonna complain about that? Right? So he and I, as you heard, have worked together, and he realized that we are far too interested in helping other people achieve their dreams than we are to make sure our own dreams happen. He also realized that he was at a crossroads because he knew there were some shifts that needed to happen in terms of how I allocated my time that could put us in position to grow our company. And he didn't know how to convey the message to me to help me realize that I needed to change the way I spent my time. And he is an incredibly elegant man. And so he very elegantly said to me that he thought we should hire a CEO. Really, at the end of the day, we're very mission-driven. We're a for-profit. There's you work with a lot of nonprofits. At the end of the day, what unifies us is we're all mission-driven. And our mission is to help people and businesses unlock their ability to achieve their greatest ambitions. And I'm gonna spend the rest of the days of my life doing that, whether with MODIS 9 or whether I'm on vacation. Well, the thing is, we reached a point where we realized we wanted to be able to bring our impact throughout the country. In order for us to do that, wouldn't it be helpful if we worked with somebody else who had that experience with professional services companies so we could learn from him without having to learn some of the mistakes that he's learned along the way? Also, as founders, there we have egos wrapped up in this. We have our identity. Our identity is wrapped up in this, and so we I would say we simply had a moment of clear reflection. And in that moment of clarity, we went, we're gonna do this. And we knew that bringing someone in was the right thing. And lucky us, we had a mentor of ours who recommended us to meet this friend of his that has scaled uh nine other professional services organizations. And we met we met him thinking that maybe he'd be a member of our team to be a coach and advisor for our clients. And after we met him, we said, no, no, no, no, he's ours. And the thing is, it is not for the faint of heart. You have got to be willing to look yourself in the mirror and own every wrinkle that you love and every wrinkle you don't love. And I could not be more clear when I say it is an identity shift. And I'm I would say 20 months in, we've gone through some of the hardest parts. And as I sit here with you today, I am beginning to see who I am as a human that will always get to do what I'm really good at. And there's a possibility of me being the wife I want to be, the best friend. There's so much more available. The single thing though a person has to do is you have to be willing to let go. And what I've found is when you let go, you let in. It's only from letting go that you're able to let in what is needed. And so as I've as I've been going through this process of being a teammate, I'm not a solo star player anymore. You gave us amazing news today. And the best part about it was it was our whole team who did that. That wasn't the Nikki show. That was a team of people that care about our mission. So I will just tell you it's highly rewarding. When you learn to let go and you you embrace the terror and the fear that goes along with it, and you're like, maybe, just maybe, something bigger than me is on the other side of this. And when you see that something bigger than you is on the other side of it, and you get to help develop the careers and lives of other people, all in support of your mission, they're I'm thrilled to let go.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Yeah. Oh, that's such a good word. That's such a good word. And I think it's, I mean, we have so many incredible founders in the nonprofit space who are passionate about their thing. Uh but oh the idea of being able to relinquish a little of that, right? And be able to change their involvement in the day-to-day and all of those pieces is so hard to think about. So I I hope that everyone finds that to be a really exciting encouragement to to let go, but also that there are extraordinary things on the other side when you do, and you can't, it's exciting to think about. So I appreciate you sharing that encouragement uh in that moment with our audience for sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

And I love that you use the word extraordinary because that is exactly what it is, Megan. It is extraordinary. And in order to find the extraordinary, you must be willing to release the ordinary. And it is scary and it is hard, and I have had sleepless nights, and I've experienced more anger over the last year and a half than I've ever allowed myself to feel in my life. That's the key thing, though. I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling. Yes. And and I used those feelings to learn more about me and where I was getting in my own way. And because I've been willing to do that, I'm making it possible for the beautiful people in our organization to do what they're capable of.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Yeah, that's so good. Someday we're gonna do a podcast switch, and I'm gonna have you be on as the guest host, and we can talk about my story of moving up into a CEO role and realizing that I hated it and stepping out of that role in this very similar process because sometimes you do just have to let go for your own personal benefit as well as the organization. So, yes, we can have a whole separate conversation down the line.

Workshops That Solve The Elephant

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Okay, so tell us a little bit. We you've mentioned a little bit about it, but if somebody is curious about Modus 9, wanted to learn more about the organization, what's the best way to find you guys, connect with you? Tell us a little bit about the company as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yeah. Well, you heard about the company's foundation. It was how are we going to help unlock founders, CEOs, and executives to achieve what they've been hoping to achieve and wanting to achieve, yet they haven't found the unlock in the ability to do it. And we started as Freulin Consulting because my last name is Froiland and so is his. And we didn't think we were gonna have a team. And two and a half years into the business, we had we had a full book, we couldn't take more clients. Some of those clients still nine years later work with us today and have never taken a break. We are we are very lucky. I think that also speaks to the results that we achieve. So if an organization and if people are saying, how could we have clarity of our succession planning? We're here. If people are saying, Why is our leadership team kind of avoiding certain issues? We do an elephant workshop and we help get into get to the bottom of it. The elephant, in our definition, is something you know is there, but you're either consciously or subconsciously ignoring it or avoiding it. And I will I will tell you, it's the joy of a lifetime to see what happens when people realize they never needed to ignore or avoid anything. Yes. If people wonder, how could I get in lockstep with my partner so that we could decide some of the next steps in our future? I'll tell you what, business moves at the rate at which you make decisions, life moves at the rate at which you make decisions, and your decisions are contingent upon how aligned are you with the people that are part of those decisions. We run monthly partner meetings for our clients. And through those, they stay in lockstep. You know, when there's a little fracture, those little fractures don't heal themselves. Those little fractures just divide more. And I like to think about little fractures as a pebble in your shoe. If you're walking along and you got a pebble in your shoe, you would real quick take your shoe off, take the pebble out, and keep walking. When we run into pebbles in our shoe equivalents in day-to-day interactions, we just let them happen. If we did that with our foot, our foot would be permanently injured, right? Absolutely, it'd be terrible. So MODIS 9 is 100% committed to helping people achieve what they're setting out to achieve, whether that's more revenue, greater accountability in the organization, greater employee retention, stronger collaboration amongst the team, clearer ideas of what we want in our future, better alignment amongst the partners, critical information on how to make key decisions, clarity on how to run effective operations. And our clients are small businesses. Our average client is 40 to 400 employees, and we have smaller clients, and we have some who are a little bigger than that, but we're not corporate America. We're here for small business, nonprofit, and for-profit. A lot of our clients are health and human services. They are real estate developers, some are family office, so they do both nonprofit and for-profit. And there's a piece I was missing that'll come back to me. Health and human services, nonprofit and for-profit, family offices, real estate developers, and professional services.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Okay. I love it.

Books That Expand Leadership Perspective

SPEAKER_01 29:59

So here on the podcast, we have dubbed 2026 as the year of learning. And so our closing question to everyone in this season is what is a book that you would absolutely recommend everybody read, whether on this topic or not, but just a this is one that really inspired me, impacted me, changed how I thought about something. This is one that I would recommend everybody put on their to-read list.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Yeah. Well, the first thing I would say is I don't often give recommendations without understanding a little bit about the person. I don't know if you've ever, if you've ever been in a conversation where somebody's talking about their favorite vacation and then they tell you you should go there, but they love to hike and camp and you like luxury or whatever the different don't tell me to go do something that I don't even like. Yeah. So with that in mind, I will say I am not a fiction reader. I I've done it, and from time to time I can allow myself to enjoy it. Most of the time I don't. So I love to read things that make me think and help me expand my level of thinking. I'm not a rule breaker, I'm a rule follower. Today I have to tell you two books. Okay. I have to. Uh, I would say, and these are I can't do a one or two. These are two books because they do something very unique for the human and in the world. Strong Ground by Brene Brown. It is her newest book, and it is her best work.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Brene are the second person that I have interviewed in the last couple of weeks to pick that one.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Yeah, in that book. So so the person that said that wonderful, the some of the other colorful information I'll give you on it. Brene takes that book and she creates a compilation not only of the learnings from her research and what she's done that we've read in her prior books. She has also woven in the learnings and research of other significant figures like Adam Grant and many others. And I and so the book comes across both very practical, uh, very easy to follow, and it is almost without ego because it's it's really a team compilation. I think it's excellent. The other book, I think, if you are a person who cares about humanity and you would love to see humanity become what it's capable of, I highly recommend the book All About Love by Belle Hooks. The premise of the book is this: in Belle Hooks' own words, she grew up in a loveless home. And she has been searching to understand what love is for her whole life. The book helps us realize that we are born into this world without a shared definition of exactly what love is. She goes on to say that most of us simply infer what love is based on our experiences. And many of us grow up thinking love is an emotion, a feeling. She then tells us that she found a book written in the 70s by a psychiatrist whose name I forget, and he offers a definition she believes the world would be better for adopting. And she says the definition is love is an action, a verb. It is a commitment to one's own and others' spiritual growth. The book is spent helping you understand that with that definition of love, abuse and love cannot coexist. Yeah. It's so good. Which, you know, brevity is powerful, but it I think it's impossible to stay the same once you've read that book.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

So good. All right. Well, I will definitely be adding both of those to my list. Although the Brene Brown was already on there because the other person I interviewed on this who shared that definitely convinced me as well. So definitely excited to check that one out. Uh Nikki, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your wisdom with our audience today. And hopefully your example is an encouragement to everyone to chase that passion and live let go and live what's on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Yeah. Well, thank you. And as a matter of gratitude, I'll share a final thought. And you did this for me this morning in our first exchange. I will share with you and everyone if you're thinking one way, and that one way of thinking is causing you some anxiety, some doubt, some fear, some uncertainty, it is a signal that finding a new perspective might just help unlock. And I have been afforded the gift of a new perspective today, and the impact it has had on my day and the way I will view things moving forward has been truly meaningful. When I'm coaching a client, the way I suggest they get a new perspective is that you go out into your day as though you're a drone, not the single person that's on the ground. Sure. Instead, drone up. And just see how that might affect the way you go about things. And the the final little thought that I'll share is as I was sitting with a person getting a manicure earlier today, I was sharing with her how overwhelmed I am because I don't know how to get done all of the things that are being asked of me by my team. And I feel incredibly overwhelmed and I don't want to let anybody down. She said, Wow, you are very busy. And I said, I'm so busy. And then she said, You are very lucky. And I said, Tell me more. And she said, I come here and I am here from 10 to 7. And many times my only choice is to wait for the door to open. And your door is opening more times than you can handle. You are lucky.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Oh, that's so good. What a great perspective. Well, thank you for all of that. I really appreciate that perspective so much. Uh, Nikki, thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, to learn more, you can check out Modus9 online and certainly connect with Nikki that way. Uh, this has been another episode of the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, and we'll see you next time.