testimonials

Time and again, I’ve seen him demonstrate exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and the ability to turn contentious situations into opportunities for progress.

Steve Burton is among those few individuals who possess the rare combination of vision, an ability to motivate and the interpersonal skills to work behind the scenes to accomplish organizational goals. Over the course of my career in national sales management, I have had the pleasure of working with many remarkable business managers who were driven toward the achievement of excellence. However, it was my 5-year experience in volunteer work with Steve for the Mile Hi Church Foundation where I learned to strategize for the long term while obtaining immediate objectives.

The Foundation was struggling when we began our work in 2003. Its corpus was under $100K; only 60 from a church membership of more than 5,000 had committed any portion of their estates; recent changes to federal tax law and economic decline eliminated the funding we relied upon for operation and talk of disbanding the Foundation by church leadership was continual.

From the beginning, our need to generate revenue to keep the organization afloat was dire and after months of research and discussion, the board embarked on a seven-year project that produced more than enough for our annual financial requirements, permitting the Foundation to gift the overage to the church. Like all effective managers, Steve permits those who inherently jump into a task to do so without impedance while encouraging greater participation from those who are less inclined. And that is why our program succeeded.

But Steve’s empowering management technique is not his most effective trait. He does not isolate himself or the organization. He actively engages with those whose interest could determine its future. Because the MHC Foundation was on shaky ground during those early years, Steve made a point to regularly provide updates of our progress to church leadership, and it was this practice that reversed misgivings. Of course, numbers matter, and the corpus that once languished below $100K is now valued at more than $2 Million.

As stated, I learned much from Steve. Over a short period, and by his direction we accomplished great things that remain a source of pride, and I am confident in his ability to elevate the success of your organization. 

I have known Steve Burton for more than fifteen years, during which we worked closely on numerous projects while I served as chair of the board and he led the organization as Executive Director. From the beginning, I was consistently impressed with Steve’s ability to think outside the box, to carefully consider the perspectives and concerns of all stakeholders, and to craft solutions that addressed the needs of the majority.

Together we developed new programs and secured funding that, at times, seemed almost impossible to find. Steve had a remarkable ability to connect with donors—including some anonymous ones I still don’t know how he reached—and ensure that vital initiatives were funded and sustained.
One of the most impressive examples of Steve’s leadership came after he had already left the organization. About a year later, his successor resigned just as a $3 million camp project in Oregon was in jeopardy. Donors who had pledged support were becoming uneasy, no funds had yet been collected, and the seller was growing increasingly nervous—all of this unfolding in the uncertain period following COVID.

Recognizing Steve’s unique capabilities, I reached out to him and asked if he would return to stabilize the project. He immediately took charge, re-engaged major donors, reached out to secondary and tertiary supporters, and successfully secured the necessary funding. Steve also negotiated a favorable agreement with the seller and the credit union, ensuring the camp’s purchase went forward. In addition, he formed and chaired the project’s first board of directors, laying the groundwork for its continued success.

Today, that camp stands as a thriving, vibrant place—one that I am deeply proud to have helped bring to life. Its success is due in no small part to Steve’s leadership, vision, and ability to rally people around a shared goal, even in the most challenging of times.

I was honored to work alongside Steve Burton in a shared leadership role for a multi-million-dollar international not-for-profit organization. This religious institution served over 1,500 ministers, many of whom participated in a defined-benefits retirement program administered by the organization. What started as a routine leadership position quickly evolved into a high-stakes situation when Steve identified the retirement plan’s imminent collapse and the organization’s underlying financial turmoil.

Leveraging his extensive business and political acumen, our leadership team entrusted Steve with the responsibility of addressing the escalating retirement crisis. I vividly recall a pivotal meeting where Steve’s unique blend of diplomacy, negotiation, and strategic “breaking of china” helped the well-intentioned retirement committee grasp the gravity of the situation and the urgency for immediate changes.

In close collaboration with the committee chair, Steve meticulously crafted a fair and balanced plan to distribute $12.5 million back to participants and phase out the failing retirement plan. This arduous process necessitated months of strategic planning, coordination, and consultation with legal experts, crisis management professionals, and our board of directors, with Steve at the helm.

Steve and the committee chair then embarked on a nationwide tour, hosting large-scale assemblies, intimate group sessions, and individual meetings with affected ministers in the retirement program. Through authentic communication, empathy, and openness, Steve not only secured unanimous agreement for the proposed plan but also successfully averted a costly legal battle and the near-certain bankruptcy that had been forewarned.

Steve’s visionary leadership, adept diplomacy, creative problem-solving abilities, and genuine compassion not only resolved a critical financial crisis but also revitalized the organization’s stability. This triumph laid the groundwork for a successful merger with its sister organization just two short years later, solidifying Steve’s legacy as an exceptional leader with the rare ability to transform high-stakes challenges into extraordinary opportunities for growth and success.

I met Steve in 2001 when he was a small business owner, and I was on the board of our local chamber of commerce. We immediately began collaboration on solving a water issue with the town and after a successful resolution, Steve joined me on the board. After the first year, Steve was president, and I was treasurer. For the next 7 years, under Steve’s guidance, the Carbon Valley Chamber of Commerce grew from 40 members to over 300. We found an office space and hired the chamber’s first executive director.

Some of the work we did to strengthen advocacy for businesses included:

• Organized as a 501-c6 and guided (or defeated) local referendums
• Hosted the original Carbon Valley Summit Meeting – a quarterly meeting to foster and develop positive relationships between all three towns in the Carbon Valley and the chamber
• Set up the first Carbon Valley Chamber golf tournament, which to this day is the primary fundraising event for the chamber
• Worked with large and small businesses to stimulate economic development
• Successfully negotiated agreements between businesses and community leaders
• Fostered good will within the community
• Under Steve’s leadership, we built a formidable organization – capable of commanding respect from leaders of three different towns, and working in partnership to improve and grow the local business environment.

I was CFO of a five million dollar per year nonprofit organization when I worked with Steve Burton. As the CFO I had to work closely with Steve on financial issues – mostly from the management and expense side of the organization as opposed to fundraising.

During a time when donations were difficult to come by decisions had to be made to preserve the ongoing viability of our organization. The first thing I noticed about Steve was his incredible ability to prioritize vendors to get them paid properly. He was also adept at when and where to reign in expenses. Long before it was the norm Steve reduced our travel budget drastically by switching to virtual meetings. He even managed to convince others in the organization to take the annual convention and change it to meeting in person only every other year and meet virtually in the intervening years.

Steve and I worked together to adjust our banking relationships to improve services, reduce fees and protect designated funds.

When I started with Steve, he was one of three co-directors. He ended up being the only Director as salaries were saved when the others left the organization. He did this by working tirelessly as an example to staff but also demonstrating a strong ability to appropriately delegate tasks to others who had the ability to handle them and save him time. His time management skills are exceptional.

It was not merely executive duties he managed. We had numerous departments where turnover in personnel required us to evaluate processes and duties. He was the leader in making our organization a perfect example of doing more with less. We consolidated positions and streamlined duties to execute with fewer personnel but without over-working them.

Finally, I have to mention Steve’s ability to understand and handle employees. He has an excellent ability to manage and give advice without getting in the way of allowing staff to do their jobs without micromanagement. He is also adept at employee conflict resolution. I sat in on a specific conflict which Steve navigated through to the satisfaction of both parties. I was so impressed with this I consulted Steve after he had left the organization when I ran into and employee conflict that I was trying to resolve.

When Mr. Steve Burton was employed by Centers for Spiritual Living, he began and led the effort to establish a foundation that would sustain and ensure the future of the organization known as Centers for Spiritual Living. The process was begun in 2009.

On 11.17.2011, the Science of Mind Foundation (Foundation) received its 501 (c) (3) status from the Internal Revenue Status. The Science of Mind Foundation was given the designation of a 509 (a) (3) supporting organization to Centers for Spiritual Living. Although our IRS document begins on
11.17.2011, the newly formed Board of Directors had been working since 2009 to establish the By-laws and Articles of Incorporation.

The Foundation is governed by a nine member Board of Directors in which Mr. Burton was instrumental in their selection. The Foundation board consists of three members from Centers for Spiritual Living Leadership Council and six members chosen from the community.

The Foundation began with a gift of $700, 000.00. Mr. Burton oversaw the effort to secure an investment firm to manage and invest the funds. Vanguard was chosen and managed the investments until early 2025 when the funds were transferred to Mercer Investments.

Under the direction of Mr. Burton the investment corpus grew from $700,000.00 to $6,454.232.55 in 2025. The growth came from a plan by Mr. Burton to use any bequests that came in, to be set aside for the Foundation. Mr. Burton also managed the fundraising effort to bring in these planned giving donations. The larger community of Centers for Spiritual Living, with the Science of Mind Magazine, was encouraged to place the Foundation into their Planned Giving.

As well as a large and growing investment corpus, the Foundation now has a staff of two to manage the day-to-day operations. Both of these staff were hired during the time Mr. Burton was involved with the Foundation.

Because of his leadership the Foundation has grown and flourished and has a bright future of growth and expansion in the future.

I have had the distinct pleasure of working with Steve Burton since 2012. Steve and I accomplished and completed a financing that was unique to my firm and had never been done in the history of the firm dating back to 1913. Steve’s knowledge and understanding of the core credit issues that were required to meet the standards of a public offering were the reason we completed the transaction. Steve and I also worked on several more transactions and it was Steve’s ability to communicate, to other debt issuers, what the financing metrics were that were needed to move the deal forward as well as communicating what the required corporate board structure and governance needed to be. Steve was very good at assessing all the operational and financial deficiencies of a potential issuer and working with the issuer to help them “get their house in order” before moving forward with a public financing. Steve would be an asset to any organization.

When I first met Steve Burton, I was serving as Vice President of my nonprofit organization and he was the Director of Operations for his. To say our two nonprofit organizations were “friendly” would be a stretch—they had split into separate nonprofits more than 50 years earlier, and deep-seated animosity still remained.

Our first meeting was on a conference call. I had assembled my entire executive team, expecting Steve to do the same. Instead, he showed up alone. Within minutes, I was impressed. Despite being the sole representative for his side, Steve carried himself with confidence, insight, and diplomacy. That initial conversation not only defused a potential lawsuit over disputed intellectual property rights but also became the starting point of a multi-year collaboration that ultimately led to the successful merger of our two organizations.

The merger itself was no easy feat. There were landmines everywhere—some old, some freshly laid. At the same time, Steve was leading his own organization out of a financial crisis involving a severely underfunded Defined Benefits Pension Plan. As a longtime CPA and tax consultant, I knew how dire the situation was: a $25 million retirement plan that was $12.5 million underfunded. Every significantly underfunded defined benefit pension plan I had seen close down commonly experienced intractable challenges including drawn-out and tedious government interference, with potential plan participant-initiated lawsuits always lurking in the background. Yet, while managing this crisis, Steve also served as my counterpart in the merger negotiations.

One of Steve’s most notable contributions came when he proposed a reverse timeline to keep the proposed merger on track. His plan called for a two-year process in which our respective nonprofit boards would appoint members to a joint 11-person Design Team with authority to build the new organization. To gain buy-in from hundreds of voting delegates across both nonprofits, he created more than 40 joint working committees—engaging members from both sides to find common ground on key issues. This not only ultimately secured merger approval but also built trust and unity between two groups long at odds.

Perhaps most impressive was Steve’s adept handling of the aforementioned underfunded Defined Benefits Pension Plan. The timely merger of the two nonprofits would never have been legally or financially realizable, absent first a unanimous agreement from every participant in that retirement plan, with many of them already retired and drawing monthly payouts. Seasoned industry pension consultants said that unanimous voluntary consent of all the plan participants was unrealistic and nonviable under the circumstances. Steve proved them wrong. He secured full buy-in from every plan participant, eliminating the prospect of any dispute, lawsuit or government interference that could have delayed or derailed the pending merger.

Over the last 17 years, Steve and I have become close friends and colleagues, serving together on multiple nonprofit boards and committees. Time and again, I’ve seen him demonstrate exceptional leadership, strategic vision, and the ability to turn even the most contentious situations into opportunities for unity and progress.

If your nonprofit organization is facing a challenge—whether financial, structural, or cultural—you want Steve Burton at the table.

I first met Steve while serving as the operations director of a church founded by the leader of our denomination. The church was in crisis—the senior minister and the board were openly calling for each other’s resignations, and an outside group was working behind the scenes to gather enough support to force a vote that could essentially take over the church.

I reached out to Steve, then the executive director of the denomination, for guidance. Steve didn’t just give me advice—he stepped directly into the situation. He called the senior minister and key board members individually, then flew out to meet with everyone face-to-face. His ability to listen, connect, and calmly mediate between the two sides was remarkable.

When the annual meeting began, the board chair unexpectedly handed Steve the gavel. Without hesitation, he took the lead. In that moment, he skillfully ran the meeting, making sure all voices were heard, maintaining a tone of respect, and ultimately shutting down the attempted takeover.
Because of Steve’s decisive and diplomatic leadership, tensions eased, relationships began to heal, and the church was able to return to normal operations. His intervention didn’t just resolve a conflict—it preserved the stability and future of the congregation.

During my time as Treasurer of the Board at The Early College of Arvada, I had the privilege of serving alongside Steve Burton, who was our Board President. Those years were transformational for the school, and Steve’s leadership was nothing short of extraordinary.

Steve had the rare ability to see both the big picture and the critical details. He understood that buying our building would provide long-term stability, and he guided the board through that complex process with patience, clarity, and determination. He knew the importance of strong leadership and was instrumental in the hiring of a new executive director who aligned with the school’s mission. He recognized the need for a stronger governance structure and spearheaded the creation of a board candidate process, ensuring that every new member was selected not only for their passion but also for the skills they brought. With his vision, we built a board of professionals that was thoughtful, strategic, and capable of leading a turnaround.

What impressed me most was Steve’s collaborative style. He led with humility but also with confidence, drawing people together and building consensus around difficult decisions. He never pushed his ideas on others; instead, he listened, asked insightful questions, and created the space for others to contribute. That approach not only strengthened the board but also made the entire community feel invested in the school’s future.
The results of his leadership were undeniable. Together, we stabilized finances, grew enrollment, and created a stronger academic environment for students who needed us most. Steve never lost sight of the mission, to serve students who had often been overlooked or underserved. His heart for students, combined with his strategic mind for governance and operations, made him the leader we needed at exactly the right time.

Steve Burton is the kind of leader every nonprofit dreams of having. He is visionary yet practical, decisive yet collaborative, ambitious yet grounded in integrity. He knows how to inspire people, how to bring order to complexity, and how to create lasting impact. I have no doubt that his consulting clients will quickly come to see what I did: Steve is not just an excellent leader, he is a true partner in transformation. Any nonprofit fortunate enough to work with him will be better, stronger, and more effective because of his guidance.

I am writing to share my experience of working with Mr. Steve Burton during his terms of service as Operations Manager for United Centers for Spiritual Living (UCSL) from 2007 -2012 and as Executive Director of the newly formed Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL) headquartered in Golden, Colorado from 2012 – 2020. During most of that same period, I served on the board of UCSL, then as president of CSL. Mr. Burton and I worked together for those years playing prominent roles in the merger of two organizations that had operated separately for nearly sixty years and which many believed was an impossible achievement.

In working with Mr. Burton, I observed him to be highly skilled at directing the business activities of our organizations through times of great change. He is a man with high ethical principles and integrity. He applied his broad skill base to address myriad points of contention achieving a high level of success. His problem-solving methods were integral to many of the outcomes we achieved.

Once Centers for Spiritual Living was established, Mr. Burton provided our organization and its member communities with skillful support through a variety of challenges. One example was when our member community in Orlando, Florida was near bankruptcy from mismanagement, he assembled and led a team of consultants through an extensive process that resulted in that community returning to financial and organizational well-being.

As Mr. Burton was nearing the end of his term as executive director, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, which is a recognition of great distinction within our organization.

I believe any organization inviting Mr. Burton to participate in a prominent leadership role would be well served by his extensive business acumen and high standards of professionalism.

I have had the privilege of working closely with Steve Burton for over fourteen years (2008-2022), during which time I witnessed firsthand his exceptional ability to unite divided organizations and guide them through complex transformations.

When Steve and I began working together in 2008, he was tasked with one of the most challenging undertakings in organizational leadership: reuniting United Centers for Spiritual Living (“UCSL”) and International Centers for Spiritual Living (“ICSL”) – two branches of religious science that had been separated for a half a century – into a newly formed Centers for Spiritual Living (“CSL”).

What Steve accomplished over the following years was nothing short of remarkable. Heorchestrated the work of more than fifteen diverse teams, each addressing different aspects of organizational design, culture, and governance. These teams, drawn from both UCSL and ICSL, worked under Steve’s leadership to create an organizational design model, comprehensive bylaws, a detailed policies and procedures manual, and an affiliation agreement for what would become CSL. Throughout this process, Steve demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to build consensus among people with deeply held and often conflicting cultures, perspectives, and priorities.

Steve and I served together on CSL’s legal committee from approximately 2009 through 2022. Steve coordinated our committee of attorneys from both organizations, skillfully guiding us to reconcile the various design teams’recommendations into cohesive foundational documents. Steve organized our agendas, facilitated productive discussions on complex internal and eternal issues, and ensured we developed appropriate resolutions for annual and special meetings.

Between 2010 and 2011, Steve orchestrated a comprehensive approval campaign that included regional meetings across the country to familiarize member communities with the foundational documents and address concerns. His efforts culminated in the February 2011 annual meetings where UCSL, ICSL, and the newly formed CSL each approved the re-integration with votes exceeding 97%—a remarkable achievement that speaks to Steve’s diplomatic skills and his ability to create genuine organizational buy-in.

Following the successful re-integration, Steve became CSL’s first Director of Operations. During my five years serving alongside him on CSL’s inaugural Leadership Council (2012-2017), I witnessed Steve mediate complex leadership disputes within the Council itself. His intervention led to a strategic realignment of the organization’s executive structure and, in Spring 2016, to his appointment as CSL’s first Executive Director—a position he held until his retirement in April 2022.

Steve’s crisis management capabilities are equally impressive. On multiple occasions, I worked with him to mediate disputes between CSL and its member communities, as well as conflicts within individual communities. In one particularly noteworthy instance, Steve successfully reversed a hostile takeover attempt that threatened a community’s multimillion-dollar property holdings. Through his intervention, he not only prevented the theft of these assets but also restored the community to good standing within the organization.

What distinguishes Steve as an organizational troubleshooter is his unique combination of skills. He possesses the strategic vision to identify systemic problems and design comprehensive solutions. He has the political acumen to work with stakeholders holding vastly different viewpoints and guide them toward common ground. He demonstrates the executive capability to oversee complex implementation processes while developing the skills of everyone involved. And perhaps most importantly, he has proven crisis intervention abilities that enable him to stabilize organizations in distress and restore them to healthy functioning.

Any nonprofit organization facing financial challenges, leadership transitions, internal conflicts, or governance crises would benefit immensely from Steve Burton’s expertise. His fourteen-year track record of successfully uniting divided organizations, resolving high-stakes disputes, and building lasting institutional frameworks makes him uniquely qualified to serve as a professional troubleshooter for organizations in distress. In short, Steve brings the rare combination of diplomatic skill, executive acumen, and proven crisis-resolution experience that struggling organizations need most.