Jan 12 2025 28 mins
Lacey Kempinski is a former in-house fundraiser, turned Mom, turned consultant. After more than a decade of in-house fundraising, Motherhood changed the trajectory of Lacey’s career. In 2018, when she was due back to work after her second parental leave, Lacey took a leap and founded Balanced Good.
She’s on a mission to better support parents and organizations in the non-profit sector. Balanced Good provides parental leave coverage – from the day-to-day hands-on work to big picture transition planning – Balanced Good believes that a supported transition to parenthood will benefit both our sector and the parents working in it.
Lacey has a bold vision that all parental leaves are viewed as a celebrated life milestone and not a feared employment gap.
She loves continuing to immerse herself in all things fundraising. While also balancing that with LEGO building, endless folding of laundry, and a love for hiking, canoeing, and all things outdoors.
Main quote:
Leaving well to me is thoughtful. It's intentional. And it's critical for the missions that we serve to continue to grow, make impact, and create the change we want to see in our sector and the world.
Additional Quotes:
As an employer, just asking, how can I support you? What can we push forward? And how can we fill your role and get things done while you are focused on your number one priority. Isn't that powerful? How good would it feel if somebody asked you that when you were navigating these hard, hard pieces in life?
Our program goes through what needs to be done. Who is going to do it? What should be prioritized? What can be given grace and extended timelines? How can we push forward mission critical work and de-prioritize non critical work? And then how can we do all of these things thoughtfully to ensure that employees, not just the employee going on leave, but employees all around are satisfied? That’s good staff retention. And we're being thoughtful about the humans that work in our sector.
To connect with Lacey visit the Balanced Good website.
LinkedIn: Lacey Kempinski
LinkedIn: Balanced Good
Whether you are preparing for your own parental leave or a team member's, this handy workbook will help you walk through the steps to create a solid plan for the next! Parental Leave Planning Workbook
US Surgeon General's announcement: Mental Health and Wellbeing of Working Parents
Parental Leave in a Day Program: Helping employers and employees make a thoughtful plan as the navigate preparing for parental leave.
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Take the Transition Readiness assessment
To learn more about Leaving Well
This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley