About

Jennifer Lentfer is a farm girl turned international aid worker turned leadership coach and communications strategist. As the creator of the blog, how-matters.org in 2010, she was named as one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s “100 women to follow on Twitter” at @intldogooder in 2012. A book that she co-edited with Tanya Cothran, Smart Risks: How small grants are helping to solve some of the world’s biggest problems features the growing community of grantmakers that find and fund visionary, yet under-the-radar leaders around the world. It is available here.

Jennifer is the most recently the Director of Communications of Thousand Currents. In her career in the international aid and philanthropy sector, she has served with various organizations in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, and the US, including Oxfam, the Red Cross, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, and Firelight Foundation, and has consulted with many more. To learn more about her professional profile, see: linkedin.com/in/jenniferlentfer.

Jennifer is constantly looking for ways to portray the realities of people’s lives, their struggles, their strengths – as well as outsiders’ roles and mistakes – in an impatient, “silver bullet solutions” world. She has been teaching “Storytelling and Communications for Social Change” at the University of Vermont Masters in Leadership for Sustainability Program since 2016. With her students at Georgetown in 2014, she published “The Development Element: Guidelines for the future of communicating about the end of global poverty.”

Given that her hometown of Bruning, Nebraska, USA has a population of less than 300 people, it’s no wonder that Jennifer Lentfer found her calling in accompanying people to build and thrive in community.

Let’s work together to usher in political courage, cultural humility, and an ethic of care within your team, your organization, and the social good sector writ large.

To support Jennifer’s work via Patreon, see: www.patreon.com/howmatters

To follow Jennifer’s creative work, see: www.instagram.com/jenniferlentfer/

How-matters.org creator Jennifer Lentfer. Photo: jooprubens.com.

“We appear to have forgotten what is needed to succeed with the people.” ~Njabulo S. Ndebele

“The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.” ~Carl Jung

Why the succulent icon?

Vastly diverse species of succulent plants grow and thrive in some of the harshest and most beautiful places around the world. They are resilient, fractal, and adaptive to changing environmental conditions. Simply put, they are survivors.

Disclaimer:

The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. Content contained herein is not intended to reflect the work of any of my past, present, or future employers or clients.