As the chief executive officer of Bringing Hope Home, Paul Isenberg believes his primary role is to be a custodian of what the nonprofit has built. “This is primarily dictated by executing our strategic plan in conjunction with our board of directors to stay true to our mission, vision, and values of delivering financial and emotional support to local families with cancer,” he said.
Bringing Hope Home is a nonprofit organization that provides unexpected amazingness to local families with cancer through financial and emotional support. Through the Light of Hope Family Program, the organization offers one-time financial assistance to pay essential household bills for families with cancer.
Under Isenberg’s leadership, the organization hit the $3 million revenue mark raised this past year to help 9,000 families since its inception in 2008. “The demand for our services increases as the news of our great work spreads among our healthcare community partners, and rising interest rates and inflation have impacted this vulnerable population more than ever,” he said.
Another accomplishment this year has been putting processes in place for each segment of the organization. According to Isenberg, his greatest leadership lesson learned this year as a two-time Titan 100 has been to trust his people and give more day-to-day operations to a newly created senior staff. “Two of our fundamental values are creativity and accountability and these two values provide freedom to make an impact and fix problems without being micromanaged by the chief executive officer,” said Isenberg. “One of the greatest luxuries at Bringing Hope Home is that we trust each other explicitly.”
Isenberg said he knows how important it is to delegate challenging tasks to his staff to help them grow and create a collaborative, empowered, productive team. “But, faced with actual workplace demands, it can be challenging to put this into practice,” he said. “Allowing the team to impact daily decisions significantly validates who they are and the value they bring to our team.”
As a leader, Isenberg said that the two biggest attributes he embraces are integrity and caring. “We need integrity to develop trust and run the business, so everyone knows what we are doing, where we are going and why,” he said. “Caring is important so we can develop true relationships based on genuine caring so people can enjoy coming to work and making an impact on the business.”
In his role, Isenberg said it is wonderful to allow people to be their true selves. “I believe one of the things I am most comfortable with is being vulnerable, stepping forward with honesty and candor,” he said.
