Purpose Before Profit: Ellen Glasgow of Diligent On The Benefits Of Running A Purpose-Driven Business
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
My origin story is really about standing next to those leaders, watching how much time and energy they were spending on manual, paper-based processes, and realizing there had to be a better way to honor their purpose by giving them better tools.
In today’s competitive business landscape, the race for profits often takes center stage. However, there are some leaders who also prioritize a mission-driven purpose. They use their business to make a positive social impact and recognize that success isn’t only about making money. In this interview series, we are talking with some of these distinct leaders and I had the pleasure of interviewing Ellen Glasgow.
Ellen Glasgow is Senior Vice President, Mission Driven Organizations at Diligent, where she leads go-to-market strategy for mission-driven organizations across public education, government, and the nonprofit sector. With more than a decade at Diligent — including as co-founder of a company acquired by Diligent in 2018 — Ellen and her team help boards modernize governance, strengthen transparency, and do more with less using Diligent’s governance, risk and audit solutions. She is passionate about helping public servants and nonprofit leaders serve their communities more effectively, even when resources are constrained.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I didn’t grow up imagining I’d spend my career talking about board portals, open meeting laws or audit trails, but I’ve always been drawn to the intersection of purpose and practical execution. Very early in my career I found myself working alongside mission-driven leaders who were trying to do something very hard: serve students, patients or citizens with the same rigor and accountability you’d expect from the best-performing companies, often with a fraction of the resources. Seeing that tension between big missions and limited capacity is what ultimately pulled me into this space.
Over time I became less interested in “software” as an abstract concept and much more interested in very specific people: superintendents, city clerks, nonprofit executives and the board members who support them. They’re juggling compliance obligations, public scrutiny and very human, local issues.
My origin story is really about standing next to those leaders, watching how much time and energy they were spending on manual, paper-based processes, and realizing there had to be a better way to honor their purpose by giving them better tools. That conviction eventually led me to co-found a company focused on governance in mission-driven organizations, which was later acquired by Diligent.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
One of the most interesting things has been realizing just how often governance technology shows up in moments that are much more human and much higher-stakes than people assume. On the surface, we help boards with packets, agendas, records and workflows. But in practice, we’re often helping mission-driven organizations build trust, create a single source of truth, and make better decisions under pressure.
For me, the most meaningful moments are when a customer moves from scattered, manual processes to something that gives them clarity, accountability and confidence — especially in public sector and nonprofit environments where resources are tight and the stakes are community trust, transparency and service.
One story that sticks with me is hearing how customers use governance controls not just for convenience, but for real accountability. In one customer example, audit visibility helped an organization understand exactly what a departing administrator had accessed and changed after leaving on bad terms. That’s the moment you remember this isn’t just software — it’s governance, trust and institutional protection.
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
One mistake I’ve learned from is assuming that urgency should outrun readiness — that if the customer need is real or the opportunity is attractive, you should push ahead and sort out the details later. In governance software, that’s the wrong instinct. If expectations aren’t clear, if the workflow is not mature enough, or if the fit is not right yet, you may win the short-term conversation and lose trust in the long term.
The lesson for me has been that transparent accountability matters more than heroics. I would much rather be explicit about what we can do today, what still needs work, and where we are being careful not to overpromise than create excitement that the customer later has to unwind.
As a successful leader, it’s clear that you uphold strong core values. I’m curious what are the most important principles you firmly stand by and refuse to compromise on. Can you share a few of them and explain why they hold such significance for you in your work and life?
One is respect for mission. Our customers are public servants and nonprofit leaders who answer to communities, not shareholders. I refuse to let us talk about them as “accounts” in the abstract. We need to understand their context, constraints and stakeholders, and measure our success in terms of their impact, not just our revenue.
Second is transparent accountability. In governance, you can’t cut corners — on data security, on accessibility, on compliance with open meeting or transparency laws. If something goes wrong, we own it, we communicate it clearly, and we show our work on remediation. Short-term discomfort is always better than long-term erosion of trust.
Third is people before heroics. I lead a high-performing sales and go-to-market organization, and there’s always a temptation to glorify the heroic save at the end of quarter. I care much more about building resilient, healthy teams where people feel safe raising issues early, asking for help and taking time for their families. Sustainable performance is a value choice, not an accident.
What inspired you to start a purpose-driven business rather than a traditional for-profit enterprise? Can you share a personal story or experience that led you to prioritize social impact in your business?
I wasn’t drawn to this work because I wanted to build a generic software company. I was drawn to it because, early in my career, I kept finding myself alongside mission-driven leaders — people serving students, patients and citizens with enormous accountability and often very limited resources.
What stayed with me was the tension between the importance of their mission and how much of their time was being consumed by manual, paper-based processes. Over time, I became less interested in software as an abstract concept and much more interested in the real people behind these organizations — nonprofit executives, university trustees and elected board members trying to do meaningful work under real scrutiny and constraints.
That’s what led me to prioritize impact. I saw that giving those leaders better tools wasn’t just about efficiency; it was about helping them govern better, be more transparent and serve their community or their mission more effectively. That conviction is what ultimately led me to cofound a company focused on governance in mission-driven organizations.
I’ve never really seen purpose and profit as opposites. I think purpose gives you a sharper lens. It helps you stay disciplined about who you serve, what problems matter, and whether the work is actually improving outcomes for the people and communities depending on those organizations.
Can you help articulate a few of the benefits of leading a purpose-driven business rather than a standard “plain vanilla” business?
Purpose-driven businesses give you a clear strategy lens. When you’re tempted to chase every shiny object, you can ask: “Does this actually help mission-driven organizations govern better, be more transparent or manage risk more responsibly?” If the answer is no, it’s easier to say no — regardless of how attractive the short-term benefit might look.
It also attracts a different kind of talent. People join our team because they want to wake up and help school districts, local governments and nonprofits function better. That shared “why” becomes a powerful filter for decision-making when trade-offs get hard.
How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?
Within Diligent, our Mission Driven Organizations business is successful by traditional measures — growth, retention, expansion — but our mission shapes how we pursue those outcomes. We’re not just trying to sell more software; we’re trying to modernize how public and nonprofit boards govern, engage their communities and manage risk.
We look at a mix of metrics:
- Customer retention and product adoption in school districts, local governments and nonprofits.
- Time saved and process improvements for administrators, including hours reclaimed from packet preparation, manual minutes distribution or ad hoc records requests.
- Transparency and accessibility indicators, such as the number of public meetings streamed, agendas and minutes published online, or policies managed in a centralized, searchable system.
- Board and constituent engagement as a leading indicator of organizational health — highly engaged boards and stakeholders are typically associated with stronger governance, greater mission impact, and long-term sustainability. We also pay close attention to qualitative feedback, like stories of how a city council handled a contentious issue more transparently, or how a school board used better data to navigate a crisis. Those stories are often the clearest evidence that our purpose is showing up in the real world, not just in our messaging.
Can you share a pivotal moment when you realized that leading your purpose-driven company was actually making a significant impact? Can you share a specific example or story that deeply resonated with you personally?
A pivotal moment for me was realizing that the impact wasn’t just in selling software — it was in seeing what changed for the people doing the work every day. When you work with mission-driven organizations, you hear very quickly that they are trying to serve communities, students or donors with limited time, limited staff and a lot of scrutiny. So when a tool gives them back time, improves transparency or helps them make a better decision in a high-pressure moment, that lands differently. That’s when it stops feeling like a product story and starts feeling like mission impact.
The stories that resonate most with me are usually not flashy. They’re the ones where an administrator or executive leader can finally move from manual, paper-based work to a more confident, transparent way of operating. We know those efficiency gains can be dramatic — in some cases, work that used to take hours can be reduced to minutes — and for lean organizations that’s not just convenience, it’s capacity they can reinvest in their mission.
If I were pointing to a specific kind of example, it would be the moments where a public board or nonprofit handles something difficult more transparently, or a school board is able to navigate a crisis with better information and more confidence. Those are the moments where you realize the work is affecting trust, accountability and resilience in the real world, not just showing up in a dashboard.
Have you ever faced a situation where your commitment to your purpose and creating a positive social impact clashed with the profitability in your business? Have you ever been challenged by anyone on your team or have to make a tough decision that had a significant impact on finances? If so, how did you address and reconcile this conflict?
Working with mission-driven organizations means you’re constantly balancing affordability with sustainability. There have been situations where we knew a particular customer needed our solution to meet transparency or compliance requirements, but simply couldn’t afford a standard commercial arrangement. At the same time, we have a responsibility to run a healthy business and to the teams who depend on it.
Those moments often spark healthy debate internally: Are we discounting too much? Are we creating unsustainable expectations? My approach has been to anchor on principles:
We will not create “loss leaders” that jeopardize our ability to serve the broader mission over time.
We will also not walk away automatically from under-resourced organizations doing essential work.
In practice, that means exploring creative options — phased rollouts, grant funding alignment, different packaging — so we can maintain margin discipline at the portfolio level while doing the right thing in individual cases. The key is transparency: being very clear with my team about why we’re making an exception, and equally clear when we cannot.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs who wish to start a purpose-driven business?
First, get specific about your “who” and “why.” “Helping people” is not a strategy. Whose lives are you trying to make better, and how will you know you’ve succeeded? In my world, that might be city clerks responsible for open meeting compliance or nonprofit board chairs struggling with engagement. The tighter that definition, the more useful your product decisions will be.
Second, build a viable business model from day one. Purpose and profit are not enemies; they are constraints that sharpen each other. If your model requires heroic fundraising forever to subsidize basic operations, you’ll spend more time surviving than serving.
Third, surround yourself with people who care about the mission at least as much as you do, but who are willing to challenge your assumptions. Purpose-driven doesn’t mean uncritical. You need teammates who will ask, “Is this really creating impact?”
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Purpose-Driven Business.” If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1. A mission that is measurable, not just inspirational.
A clear statement of purpose is important, but it must be paired with concrete outcomes, such as efficiency gains, transparency improvements or risk reduction, that can be tracked over time. When you can measure mission in this way, you can manage it, refine it and communicate its value more effectively to stakeholders.
2. Deep respect for the people you serve.
Purpose-driven businesses start with the assumption that their customers and communities understand their own context best. The role of the organization is to listen carefully, bring expertise in its own domain, and co-design solutions that reflect the realities on the ground. That mindset should inform everything from product roadmaps to how teams show up in conversations.
3. Willingness to live in the tension between idealism and constraints.
Mission-driven organizations operate within real budget, regulatory and political constraints. A successful purpose-driven business acknowledges those limits and focuses on helping customers navigate them, whether that means simplifying compliance workflows, streamlining manual processes or providing clearer insight into risk. The goal is to advance the mission without ignoring the practical boundaries around it.
4. A culture that celebrates both impact and excellence.
Doing good does not excuse a poor product experience. Purpose-driven organizations need to hold themselves to high standards on reliability, usability, accessibility and support, while continually asking whether their work is moving the needle on the outcomes that matter most. When teams see that quality and mission are treated as inseparable, it raises the bar for everyone.
5. Storytelling as a core operating muscle.
Data and metrics are essential, but they become far more powerful when paired with clear, compelling stories about why the work matters. Internally, that might mean regularly highlighting how customers are using your solutions to govern better or manage risk more effectively. Externally, it can mean showing how your products support broader shifts in trust, transparency or resilience for the communities you serve.
I’m interested in how you instill a strong sense of connection with your team. How do you nurture a culture where everyone feels connected to your mission? Could you share an example or story that showcases how your purpose has positively influenced or motivated people on your team to contribute?
I try to connect the team to a very clear ‘why’: we help school districts, local governments and nonprofits govern better, be more transparent, and serve their communities more effectively. Then I try to make sure the culture matches that purpose — people should feel safe, supported, and respected as whole people.
The moments that motivate people most are when we share real customer stories; when our team hears specific examples of how customers are using our solutions to govern better, manage risk more effectively, or handle difficult issues more transparently, it reminds everyone that their work has real-world impact.
Imagine we’re sitting down together two years from now, looking back at your company’s last 24 months. What specific accomplishments would have to happen for you to be happy with your progress?
Two years from now, I’d be thrilled if three things are true.
First, a meaningful share of public sector and nonprofit boards in our markets are using modern tools as the norm, not the exception. That would show up in adoption metrics, but also in stories of more transparent, inclusive governance.
Second, we’ve deepened our impact with existing customers, not just added logos. That means broader product adoption — using governance, risk and transparency capabilities together — and clear evidence that we’re helping them manage complexity with more confidence.
Third, our own team feels even more connected, supported and empowered. If people on my team can say, “I’m proud of the work we do, I’m growing, and my life outside of work is respected,” then we’ll have built something worth sustaining.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I could inspire a movement, it would be a movement to help mission-driven organizations govern more transparently and accountably, especially in public education, local government, and nonprofits.
What makes AI especially promising in that movement is that many board members in these organizations are deeply committed to the mission, but they are not full-time governance or policy experts. They are often volunteer leaders serving because they care about the institution and the community.
I think responsible, ethical AI can help bridge that gap — not by replacing human judgment, but by giving boards better information, clearer context, and more confidence in their oversight. Used well, it can remove administrative friction, preserve institutional knowledge, and provide the kind of informed support that helps boards ask better questions, respond to evolving requirements, and ultimately further their organization’s impact.
The reason I think that kind of movement could do so much good is that governance may sound abstract, but its effects are very real. When organizations govern well, communities are served better, trust is stronger, and leaders are more resilient in difficult moments. If AI can help mission-driven organizations do that with more speed and accessibility — while staying grounded in transparency and accountability — then its impact could be enormous.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
You can learn more about our work at Diligent by visiting www.diligent.com. For those interested in mission-driven governance specifically, I’d also encourage readers to follow our LinkedIn, or check out Diligent’s resources for public sector and nonprofit organizations, here and here.
Thank you so much for the time, and for these inspiring insights!
About The Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Purpose Before Profit: Ellen Glasgow of Diligent On The Benefits Of Running A Purpose-Driven… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.