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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Master Time Management with these Nonprofit Productivity Hacks
My friends and family often ask, “How do you get so much done?” “Jedi mind tricks,” I quip. Lately I have noticed a flood of Fortune 500 CEOs sharing their “productivity tricks,” so my team decided we would share ours – with a Stars Wars twist – as this busy summer...
Navigating Nonprofit Megatrends: Strategies for a Shifting Landscape
Change is all around us – political, social, technological and even generational. Many sociologists say we are at an 80-year shift. Similar to the monumental shift from horse and buggy to automobiles, the very way we live is changing and it is impacting every...
6 Easy Ways Nonprofits Can Become More Eco-Friendly
Next Monday is Earth Day – the first one was held in 1970, more than 50 years ago. Since then, Earth Day has become a global event that has mobilized 200 million people across 141 countries to recognize our role in saving our collective ecosystem. The United Nations...
How Can Nonprofits Help Get Community Back?
On Monday, 15 U.S. states got to witness a total solar eclipse – which was an unforgettable experience. I was on Lake Austin, surrounded by all my new friends at the annual Culturati gathering. But even more poignant was the sense of community – everyone stopped what...
4 Steps to Turn Your Nonprofit’s Volunteers into Evangelists
April is National Volunteer Month, so we wanted to kick off the month by celebrating the heartbeat of every social sector organization – its volunteers! Interestingly, researchers have recently debunked the notion that happiness is the goal of life. In an interesting...
The Collaboration Commandments
As a political junkie, I always look forward to presidential elections and watching the democratic process unfold with the hope that the winning candidate can affect positive change for our nation. But the election process is a contentious one by its very nature....
Are You Elevator-Ready? The 6 C’s for a Dynamite Nonprofit Pitch
Nothing strikes fear in the heart of a nonprofit staffer or board member more than the dreaded question, “Tell me what you do?” After almost two decades of training on storytelling and now with our webinars provided free online, I have pinpointed why it is so...
Lessons from Dr. Seuss on the Power of Storytelling
On March 2, children and adults alike celebrated Dr. Seuss Day in classrooms across America. I love to visit an elementary school and read my favorite Dr. Seuss book – Oh, the Places You’ll Go! – to an enraptured audience of young learners. As Dr. Seuss taught us,...
Want to Stand Out from the Crowd? Social Marketing Lessons from “Don’t mess with Texas”
Saturday was Texas Independence Day – when Texans signed a declaration of independence from Mexico and created the Republic of Texas. To this day, Texans are fiercely independent, which is why our unofficial state slogan, “Don’t mess with Texas,” has resonated with so...
