What if the nonprofit that supports your park or agency did more than peddle firewood? What if its fundraising revenue had a few extra zeroes?

That's exactly what's possible with a few small mindset shifts. The Great Outdoors Foundation is proof.

In this episode, Chris sits down with Hannah Inman, Executive Director of the Great Outdoors Foundation, the nonprofit partner to Polk County Conservation that has grown from a scrappy, volunteer-led support group into one of the most impactful conservation philanthropies in the Midwest. To date, the organization has deployed over $250 million toward conservation, water quality, and outdoor recreation, including over $100 million raised for the ICON Water Trails project alone.

Hannah shares the three critical inflection points that transformed the foundation, the mindset shift that made it all possible, and what parks and conservation professionals at every level can learn about building donor relationships, scaling a nonprofit, and removing the barriers that keep great conservation projects stuck on a shelf.

The conversation also gets practical, with specific advice for foundations at three different stages: just getting started, stagnant and in need of new life, and ready to launch.

This episode is the recording of a live virtual call with members of the Next Level Leadership Community in attendance. Be a part of future conversations by joining the community at ParksandRestoration.com.

Key topics:

• The three inflection points that turned a volunteer-led friends group into a $250 million organization
• Why "a 501c3 is a tax status, not a business plan" and what that means for how you operate
• The Conservation Acceleration Fund: $9 million deployed, $44 million in leveraged funds
• How to think about fundraising as relationship alignment, not sales
• How to approach corporate donors when you have no existing relationship
• Recommendations for foundations at three stages: starting, stagnant, and ready to scale
• Why the biggest pitfall right now might be being too risk-averse
• How AI could actually help a small foundation leap ahead faster than ever before

Resources mentioned:

• Great Outdoors Foundation
• Happy Disruptors Podcast
• ICON Water Trails
• Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation

About Parks and Restoration Podcast

The Parks and Restoration Podcast is for parks and conservation professionals who want to become better leaders, because better leadership creates better ecosystems, stronger teams, and more meaningful impact. Learn more at: ParksandRestoration.com

In this episode, Chris sits down with Brett Hoogeveen, co-founder of Better Culture and Mindset LLC, keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, and host of the Better Culture podcast. Brett’s work is built on a simple but powerful premise: culture is undervalued, underappreciated, and when done right, the most powerful lever any leader has.

The conversation draws rich parallels between organizational culture and ecological systems. Just like a prairie is not “done” after one prescribed burn, culture improvement is never finished. It’s an infinite game: ongoing, intentional, and worth every bit of effort.

Brett shares the origin story of Better Culture, rooted in his father’s work building QLI, a catastrophic rehabilitation center in Omaha that became a five-time best place to work. Their employee engagement scores were so high that national auditors flew in suspecting fraud. From those foundations, Brett unpacks what it really takes to build a culture where people want to show up, do great work, and stay.

This episode is the recording of a live virtual call with members of the Next Level Leadership Community in attendance. Join in future conversations by joining the community at ParksandRestoration.com.

Key topics:

• Why culture directly impacts profit, safety, turnover, and quality of life (not just “vibes”)
• Where executives, middle managers, and individual contributors should each start
• The concept of “you bring the weather” and why how you show up every day matters more than you think
• The 7 Principles of Leadership Brett’s father developed in 1991 and why they still work across every industry
• Why measurement is not the most important part of culture improvement (and what is)
• How to deal with the “invasive species” on your team and why high-frequency feedback is the key
• Why strengthening your appreciation muscle is the single best place to start as a new leader

Resources mentioned:

• Better Culture - betterculture.com
• Better Culture Live - Leadership conference, September 23-24, 2026 in Omaha/Bellevue, Nebraska
• Mindset Leadership Program - betterculture.com/mlp
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
• The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

About Parks and Restoration Podcast

The Parks and Restoration Podcast is for parks and conservation professionals who want to become better leaders, because better leadership creates better ecosystems, stronger teams, and more meaningful impact.

Learn more at: ParksandRestoration.com

Chris sits down with Dr. Nick Askew, founder and director of Conservation Careers, for a wide-ranging conversation that spans barn owl behavior, international wildlife management, and the future of the conservation workforce.

Nick shares how a career arc that began with childhood fishing trips and a breathtaking first barn owl sighting led him through Birdlife International, fieldwork in the Pacific, and eventually back to the UK to build Conservation Careers — a global platform now serving over 1.2 million visitors annually and listing some 50,000–60,000 jobs per year.

The conversation covers the surprising parallels between barn owl foraging energetics and how we think about habitat corridors, what employers around the world are actually struggling to find in conservation job candidates (hint: it's not technical skills), and why the sector may need to look outside its own ranks to grow its impact. Chris and Nick also dig into leadership development, the value of coaching over training, and why self-awareness might be the most underrated career skill in conservation.

Topics covered:

• How Conservation Careers grew from a side hustle to a global platform
• The barn owl research behind Nick's PhD — and what it teaches us about habitat connectivity
• What the Lower Derwent Valley nature reserve model looks like compared to US public lands
• Why soft skills and professional skills matter more than employers let on
• Bringing non-conservation professionals into the sector — and integrating them well
• The case for entrepreneurial, commercial thinking in NGOs and nonprofits
• Rewilding success stories, including the Knepp Estate and Isabella Tree's book Wilding
• Nick's one piece of advice for aspiring conservation leaders

Resources mentioned:

• Conservation Careers
• Wilding by Isabella Tree
• Birdlife International
• The Knepp Estate rewilding project

About Parks and Restoration Podcast

The Parks and Restoration Podcast is for parks and conservation professionals who want to become better leaders—because better leadership creates better ecosystems, stronger teams, and more meaningful impact.

Learn more at: ParksandRestoration.com