Board Development, COVID-19, Guest Blogs, Organizational Assessments, Social Impact Architects
2020 has been a roller coaster ride for all of us. As nonprofit board members, we know that it has also put nonprofit governance to the test. At Social Impact Architects, when we brief boards on strategic planning, we put governance and culture in the middle of...
Communicate, Evaluation Planning, Impact, Impact Measurement, Program Development, Social Impact Architects, Storytelling
Last month, The New York Times published a great article – Social Programs Can Sometimes Turn a Profit for Taxpayers – that put SROI (social return on investment) and cost-benefit analyses into the mainstream. In it, Seema Jayachandran, an economics professor at...
Business Planning, Grow, Growth/Scaling Plans, Impact, Impact Measurement, Lean Start-Up, Program Development, Social Impact Architects
“Evolve or die” – this saying is even more true today than when I started Social Impact Architects. Just 10 years ago, I learned about social business plans in business school, but today traditional business plans are being replaced by a more efficient tool – the...
Collaborate, Ecosystem Mapping, Impact Measurement, Social Impact Architects, Social Movements, System Change
In the nonprofit community, we often talk about our clients “falling through the cracks.” As a result, we spend a lot of time conducting case management sessions to help each and every client navigate “the system.” But, these are often only temporary fixes for our...
COVID-19, Employee Engagement, Executive Coaching, Growth/Scaling Plans, Lead, Organizational Culture, Social Impact Architects
In my “entrepreneurial culture” workshops at Duke and other places across the country, we always talk about one key concept – employee ownership. If you want your nonprofit to go to the next level, employee ownership is key to unlocking this success. Ownership doesn’t...
Annual Traditions, Collaborate, COVID-19, Issue Based Blogs, Social Impact Architects, Social Movements, Summer Reading, System Change
Is it really July? Somehow 2020 has simultaneously moved fast, but also very slow. It is a strange paradox of living during a pandemic – every day is never-ending, yet the days fly by. In fact, there is a study of this phenomenon – chronemics or the study of the role...