Our weekly blog, Social TrendSpotter provides you with the latest trends and ideas within the social sector. It merges current thinking with the edge of innovation to inspire, to encourage, to educate and – ultimately – to create a better sector. Social TrendSpotter includes original analysis, but also highlights the latest sector-wide thinking into a user-friendly resource where social sector professionals and students alike can draw inspiration, share ideas and develop new thinking on best practices.
Show Me the Money: Turning Donors into Investors through Your Annual Appeal
You may have already seen them – the countdowns to Christmas have already started showing up as memes on social media. Of course, in the social sector, that means we are already working on our year-end appeals. In the coming months, we will collectively...
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Tools for Creating a Championship Nonprofit Board
My favorite time of year in Texas is almost here – fall and the arrival of the Texas State Fair. During the State Fair, we have all things Texas – deep fried treats, cooking competitions and carnival rides. We also have rodeo shows where cowboys and cowgirls are...
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He Said, She Said: Top Sources of Board-CEO Conflict
In my experience, one of the most persistent challenges facing nonprofits is board-CEO alignment. Whether rooted in personality conflicts or communication breakdowns, problems arising between nonprofit boards and CEOs are all too common. The board-CEO relationship and...
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Sustainability = High Impact + High Performance Social Sector Organizations
“Sustainability” has been a buzzword in the social sector for the past few years, but what does it really mean? Everyone agrees that sustainability is an important factor to evaluate the resiliency of social sector organizations, but few have agreed on a simple...
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Harnessing Superhero Effort to Make Change Happen in Nonprofits
Summer is filled with highly anticipated superhero movie releases. While superhero epics seem like the Greek mythology of our time, with towering men and women possessing deity-like capabilities to save the world, there is something human in their approach that we as...
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A Check-Up for Your Nonprofit: Avoiding Organizational Decline or Failure
Delaying medical care until you are in severe pain can lead to an urgent trip to the emergency room, large medical bills and, at best, a lengthy recovery. The key to good health is addressing problems as they arise and seeking preventive care. In many ways, the health...
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Putting Your Oxygen Mask on First: Self-Care for the Social Sector
Summertime. Bright skies illuminate the day and night – the days are longer and the nights are opportunities to unwind. Vacations offer a time to get off the grid and indulge in self-care. Nonprofit professionals are givers by nature, putting us at significant risk...
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Secrets from the Fortune 500 – Design Thinking Hacks for the Social Sector
Countless hours and millions of dollars went into redesigning the new nutrition label, yet it is already being called a failure. Why? It isn’t the amount of work that went into it. It is that the label was designed by researchers and scientists for rational people. I...
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Creating a Win-Win with Millennial Employees in Nonprofits
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, millennials – born between 1980 and 2000 – are this country’s future. According to a newly released report by Deloitte, they make up one out of every three workers in the United States and will account for 75% of the workforce by 2025. Although...
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