The Social Sector often uses basic tools, like hammers and nails to change the world. Instead, we need power tools. 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 motivate and to take action so we can all ultimately 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.

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The Great Nonprofit RESET: Nonprofit Trends & Actions for 2021
Pivot. I imagine you’ve heard or used this word to describe your nonprofit’s activities in the past year. With the devastating impact of COVID-19 on our economy and public health, nonprofits have indeed had to shift quickly to answer the call of their communities....
9 Lessons from a Founding Father of Social Enterprise
I knew of Jerr Boschee long before I met him – he is a legend in the social enterprise space. I now am lucky enough to count him as a close friend and mentor. A standout in the field, he has held many noteworthy positions throughout his career. He is a former CEO...
How to Use Theory of Change to Map Your Nonprofit’s North Star
Finding your direction in the social sector can be daunting. With limited resources and so many competing interests vying for our time and attention, it would be helpful if we had a compass to guide us toward our “north star” of social change – whether it...
5 Ways to Show Your Love to Nonprofit Donors & Volunteers
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. While it is commonplace to celebrate your loved ones on this day, more social sector organization are using this day to celebrate supporters and employees. For some inspiration, my friends and fellow consultants, Tawnia Wise...
Do You Have an Impact Culture?
In January 2018, we named it the year of collaboration. We practice what we preach by collaborating with partners to ensure the social sector gets easy-to-digest, actionable information to energize our work. We partnered with one our favorite like-minded...
How Nonprofits & Social Entrepreneurs Can Answer the President’s Call to Action
Dear Mr. President:Congratulations on a hard-fought race for your first term as president. Your call-to-action in November was inspiring: “Americans have called on us to marshal the forces of decency and the forces of fairness. To marshal the forces of science and the...
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Power of Social Movements
As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. next week and witness the power of the recent movements in the last few years, we are reminded of the importance of social movements to our country’s evolution. Movements were believed to have started...
2021 Nonprofit Trends: Shifting Our Focus to Upstream Nonprofit Work
When I first heard the famous parable about “The River,” I was at a national cardiovascular convening in 2003 held at Mountain Lake Lodge in Virginia (made famous by Dirty Dancing). The presenter told the story: you and a friend are having a picnic by the side of a...
Favorite Inspirations to Celebrate the Holiday Season 2020
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