October 2025 – Folding The Full Frame Initiative with Katya Fels Smyth

In late October, we were fortunate enough to be joined by Katya Fels Smyth, a season nonprofit leader who very recently sunsetted her 18 year-old organization Full Frame Initiative, a national US organization devoted to promoting community and workplace wellness. With the ending of her organization, she has now shifted her attention to writing, thinking and advocating for more funds and care to be devoted to civil society closures.

Read on for more about what she shared.

a supernova instead of a black hole

In 2024, the Full Frame Initiative was in what some might consider an enviable place. They were well-funded by many prestigious foundations and donors, and were exploring how they would position themselves to possibly have to weather another Trump administration. However, as they looked around, they noticed that their donor base was stagnating and shrinking and the appetite for the sort of systems change they were doing was waning. Having managed nonprofits through many eras, Katya could feel the winds of change blowing.

With spectacular nonprofit explosions like that of Benefits Data Trust made it clear to her that if a sunset wasn’t managed well, it would leave not only a services and advocacy vacuum but could create an actual black hole in the space where it once stood. She began to consider a strategic ending, wondering whether they could produce a generative ending, a supernova instead of a black hole.

“When you are on a bridge, everyone can see you from all sides. So you need to lean into your values more than ever at that time.”

Katya Fels Smyth

bad closures linger

Since Katya approaches things from a systems change lens, she is brutally honest in pointing out that while many eyes have been opened by the abrupt and brutal defunding of USAID, nonprofits have been exiting communities in this manner for generations. As such, she was insistent that this wind down honor the people they served.

In speaking with her staff, Katya also learned that many had never experienced a good organizational ending. Even in cases where the departure was self-driven they hadn’t seen it go well. Learning this also spurred Katya on to making sure this ending went well. Sometimes this meant introducing new practices, like gathering gratitude lists, fears, and regrets. Other times, they found it was important to keep regular cadences like 1:1s and team meetings to help people feel stable in the midst of so much change.

choosing their own adventure

In choosing to close, Katya felt it was important to be as transparent as possible and give her team and partners agency in how they weathered their final season. In the case of the staff, there were conversations about whether funds should be used to give them severance or to host a team gathering (spoiler alert: they ultimately chose both!) . While she wasn’t able to grant all wishes, she did her best to ensure everyone left feeling taken care off.

In the case of partners, they explored how best to close engagements and where there was outstanding contractual work, figuring out who could take the project on in FFI’s absence. As a national organization, the engagements varied greatly and one size certainly did not fit all. Every ending was bespoke and personal, in line with FFI’s mission and values. However, one message that was consistent across every one was that they needed champions to carry forward the work of building confidence, navigating the existing content, and fostering community.

nurturing mission champions

A critical step in making sure that partners were well-situated to move forward with the FFI mission was an all-hands on deck effort to revise and re-issue the extensive library of written resources on their website. They prepaid the website for 8 years and will plan to revisit the page at that time if the content hasn’t already been re-homed on the websites of partners or otherwise been deemed obsolete/outdated.

The next step was pulling together a circle of nineteen stewards to own the transition from organization to network over the next year and a half. Katya issued stipends to ensure that they were somewhat compensated to continue to steward this work. She also made sure to step back and give them the space to ensure

“Ending well takes resources, but bad endings cost too.”

Katya Fels Smyth

Finally, they invited in 250+ champions around the country who were also committed to FFI’s mission, albeit more loosely than the stewards. Over the final months of the organizations existence, they sponsored several in-person and online gatherings to help that community to gel.

Now that — for the first time in over 30 years! — she is not fundraising, Katya is using this moment to speak plainly to funders. She wants to help them understand that closure is not failure and funding good closures is not “good money after bad”. Funding these endings helps secure the investment and ensure that the mission is stabilized and able to move forward.

Thanks again to Katya for sharing!