Social Trendspotter Weekly Blog
Prescription from the Pulpit: What Pope Francis Teaches Us About Change
This week, many of us are celebrating the religious holidays of Easter and Passover. In this time of change, it reminds me of one of my favorite parables – Moishe and the Pope. Over a century ago, the Pope decided that all Jewish people had to convert or be forced to...
START NOW: Leverage Internships for Your Summer To-Do List
Summer is around the corner and you have a to-do list a mile long – what is an ideal solution? Use interns to help tackle it over the summer! We are so excited that apprenticeship (in all its forms: internships, job shadowing and project-based learning) has made a...
Falling in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution
Sunday marked the beginning of spring. When the tulips and irises start blooming, it feels like a fresh start. We’re lucky enough to get these windows of inspiration a few times each year. These days, I find the spring to be filled with promise, but when I was a kid,...
Are You Chasing Money or Your Mission? The Mission-Money Matrix Can Help You Find Out!
When I started with the nonprofit Phoenix House right out of college, I was an idealist. I pursued any program and every grant that would help our clients. I believed success would come from the quantity of grants submitted. Now, with nearly three decades of...
5 Leadership Lessons from Coach K
For those of you who are familiar with Social Impact Architects, you already know that many of our team members are graduates of Duke University. So, we were really excited last week when Coach K coached his final home game to a packed house at Cameron Indoor Stadium....
Crossing the Rubicon: Navigating NEW Strategic Shifts in Your Nonprofit
Everything changed two years ago – so much so, many futurists, including myself, shifted gears from long-range planning to week-to-week survival. At Social Impact Architects, we even changed our website and created a “Nonprofit Coronavirus Resource Center” with all...
Keep Calm and Plan On! Scenario Planning Steps from the Brits
Whether it was the real-life royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle or a fictional one from one of our favorite British shows, such as The Crown or Downton Abbey, the British know how to throw an event. Nothing exemplifies this more than a royal wedding,...
What is the Difference between Social Innovation, Social Enterprise & Social Entrepreneurship?
I am often asked how I come up with blog topics. To answer, some come from collective client work, some are sparked by life experience and others are inspired by great questions from audience members. Since I’ve been back out doing speeches, workshops and keynotes,...
Starting a Nonprofit: Choose Your Own Adventure Carefully
We are living in unprecedented times. As a result, my team at Social Impact Architects is getting even more calls, emails and social media messages from folks who want to start a nonprofit as a way to help. It reminds me of my favorite books as a kid. Remember those...
How to Spot Your Nonprofit Competition
It’s been 14 years since I graduated from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, but it seems just like yesterday. And I still remember the day I learned one of the most important lessons about competition from an unlikely source – Dave Thomas, the founder of the...
