The Monthly Leap - December 2025
Hi there!
Happy December! Usually this is my favorite time of year. I love Christmas, parties, glittery lights, fresh-baked goods, and all the wonderful things that come with the holidays. But this year, it’s all just a lot. Anyone else feeling the same way? There are just so many balls to juggle – which is part of why this post is coming to you so late in the month! This brings me to the topic of this month’s newsletter…a little inside peek into how we’re keeping it all straight at LEAP.
Keep reading to find out:
What's on my mind: Introducing our newest team member
What's coming up: Rest!
A tip of the month: Planning together for the year ahead
A quick request: Help welcome Brooke to the team
I hope this post is a little spot of joy in your month!
Rikki
What's on my mind?
In the nearly two years since I dreamed up LEAP, we’ve grown and changed a ton. To say I’m proud of that growth would be an understatement. But running a business while going to school full-time and generally just living life is no joke. And I truly could not do it without an amazing team of people around me - both at home and at work.
Several months ago, I was talking with a dear friend and former colleague about everything we had going on with the business. We’ve been really honing in on what matters to us and how we can best serve our clients and I had started to realize that I was often the pain point - so much lives in my head and I’m constantly trying to triage tasks last minute.
Any other leaders out there ever feel that way? We try our best but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day!
I knew we needed to get better systems in place in order to keep growing at LEAP. If you’re a client of ours, you know that I want to do all of the things to help you! But me doing all of the things isn’t actually good for anyone. And, while we all want to be proactive with our planning, we can find ourselves being reactive simply because there weren’t good enough plans in place to keep the train moving forward.
As I was talking to this friend of mine, we casually joked that what we needed was a project manager.
Spoiler alert...that’s exactly what we needed - and that friend was the person for the job.
I’m delighted to introduce you to Brooke Wolff, the newest member of the LEAP team. Brooke serves as our Project Manager and Senior Consultant. She has years of experience leading major gift teams and knows our fundraising work inside and out. But she brings a level of coordination and organization that I can only dream of having.
As our team continues to grow, you’ll find that the LEAP vision is shifting from “me” to “we” rather quickly. Externally, not much will change…yet. We’ll roll out new mission, vision, and values statements for the company in 2026. We’ll probably make some updates to our website. And we’re tweaking some services slightly but you won’t notice anything too dramatic changing.
Internally is a whole other story. And I can’t wait to share more about what that looks like as we figure it out ourselves. Thanks for coming along on this ride and supporting our growth! We’re grateful for the opportunity to serve our nonprofit clients and can’t wait to see the impact you all make next year.
What's coming up?
We’re actually taking a little time off over the holidays! I only had one presentation scheduled for the month - teaching young people who are interested in philanthropy how to make an ask! - plus a couple of days on site with clients that require travel.
But we’re mostly closing down the last two weeks of the year. I know taking some time off will leave us all feeling more energized to jump into 2026.
Tip of the month
As the year winds down, now is a great time to think about how you’ll plan for the year ahead - together. While December is often too busy for deep strategy work, consider carving out intentional time early in 2026 to reconvene with your team, reflect on what worked (and what didn’t), and align on priorities before you hit the ground running. A little shared planning can go a long way in creating clarity, momentum, and a smoother year for everyone.
A Quick Request
Help us give a warm LEAP welcome to Brooke! We’ve introduced her on Instagram and Facebook, and we’d love for you to leave a comment to say hello and help us celebrate her joining the team.
Here’s to 2026!