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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2024 Nonprofit Trends: Building Your Dream Team
One of the most anticipated events of 2024 is the Summer Olympics in Paris. More than 10,000 athletes from around the world will come together in this iconic event in 32 sports and 329 events – with breaking (a.k.a., breakdancing) being the newest. The theme of this...
Favorite Inspirations to Celebrate the Holiday Season 2023
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Nonprofit Trends and Inspiration: Top 5 TrendSpotter Favorites of 2023
Winter solstice falls on December 21 and, in some cultures, is known as “the day the sun stands still.” It is the shortest day of the year – with just 8 hours and 46 minutes of sunlight. It is also the astronomical beginning of winter. From this day forward, days will...
5 Truths about Solving Social Issues
There have been rumors lurking in the corners of social entrepreneurship gatherings. I have heard them whispered: “There are investors who want to pursue impact investing, but we don’t have the right deal flow.” Impact investing is growing rapidly. A recent piece in...
The State of Generosity in America
The holiday season brings many ways to give and receive generosity. To me, generosity is a virtue defined as willingly giving away your time, money and attention – without expectation of anything in return. This feeling is a hallmark of the season. People are nicer,...
Reasons We Are Thankful
This Thanksgiving comes at a history-making moment for my hometown of Dallas – it is the 60th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death. For this year’s Thanksgiving blog, we wanted to share some of his insights that have stood the test of time. But, I also wanted to...
How Opportunity Assessments Can Help Nonprofits Size up New Opportunities
Because the social sector is in the business of changing the world, we often are inclined to see every need or idea as a call to action. The result of taking on too many opportunities comes in the form of mission creep, donor confusion or staff burnout. Research...
How Multiple Intelligences Can Improve Nonprofit Leadership
In 2002, I attended the Drucker Institute’s annual conference. Based on an impromptu speech I gave during one of the workshops, I was selected to meet with Peter Drucker himself. He was a legend, and I never expected to have a real audience with him. To my surprise,...
Nonprofit Boards Behaving Badly
In 2015, I had the honor of participating in the OpEd Project. The project encourages women and minorities to write more editorials and opinion pieces about subjects that are important to them. I collaborated on this piece with three Dallas-based nonprofit CEOs...
