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You’ve Changed Your Language. Now How Do You Change Your Culture?
Making dignity-driven communication stick across your entire organization. Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered the what and the how of reframing; why “social benefit organization” is a stronger identity than “nonprofit;” why asset framing builds donor trust, and how to apply both in your everyday communications. But here’s the truth most language guides skip:…
Read MoreSay It Differently: A Before-and-After Language Guide for Social Benefit Communicators
Concrete substitutions, real examples, and the formula that makes asset framing work in practice. We’ve spent the last two weeks making the case for why language matters, how “nonprofit” undersells your mission, and how deficit framing quietly erodes donor trust and community dignity. Now let’s get practical. This issue is a working reference. Bookmark it,…
Read MoreThe Psychology of Framing: Why Your Words Are Literally Shaping Your Donors’ Brains
What neuroscience and narrative research tell us about the stories we’re telling and the ones we’re not. Last week, we asked a deceptively simple question: Why do we define our organizations by what they’re not? This week, I want to take that question deeper into the science of why framing matters so profoundly, and what…
Read MoreDiversifying Fundraising & Grant Writing Resource Bundle
This curated resource bundle was created for nonprofit leaders and teams who want to strengthen their fundraising approach, diversify revenue streams, and build stronger grant writing foundations. These articles offer practical insight on reducing dependence on a single funding source, expanding fundraising strategies, and positioning your organization more effectively for grant opportunities. Diversifying Fundraising Survival…
Read MoreStop Saying “Nonprofit.” Start Saying What You Actually Do.
Words that define us by what we’re not can never fully describe who we are. You’ve probably introduced your organization a thousand times. At galas, on grant applications, in elevator pitches. And chances are, you’ve used the word “nonprofit,” probably within the first sentence. Here’s a question worth sitting with: Why do we define ourselves…
Read MoreWhen the Compass Goes Dark: What the Seneca Babcock Collapse Teaches Every Nonprofit Board
The story coming out of Buffalo is heartbreaking — and preventable. The Seneca Babcock Community Association, which served more than 1,200 youth and seniors through a variety of human service programs, lost its nonprofit status after its Executive Director failed to file the required IRS Form 990 for several years. According, to the same article,…
Read MoreLearnGrants Summit Recap 2: Rejection, Sustainability & the One Metric That Actually Matters
Last week I shared the first three sessions from the #LearnGrants Summit — the Retrospective, finding funders in unexpected places, and building a storytelling culture. If you missed it, you can catch up right here. This week, we’re wrapping up with the final three sessions. These got into some deeper territory — how we handle…
Read MoreLearnGrants Summit Recap Pt. 1: 3 Tools Every Nonprofit Leader Needs Right Now
I recently attended the #LearnGrants Summit, and I walked away with pages of notes I knew I had to share with you. Over the next two newsletters, I’m breaking down the six mini-sessions with the kind of practical, roll-up-your-sleeves wisdom that’s hard to find but easy to use. This week: sessions on communication, discovery, and…
Read MoreLeadership, Trust & Surviving in Uncertain Times
This is the final installment of our 3 part series on what I learned from @Candid webinar, “Nonprofit Sustainability: Build Strategies That Actually Work.” You can read part 1 here and part 2 here. Today I’m sharing what the speakers had to say about surviving in uncertain times — from delegation to self-care to community…
Read MoreDiversification Requires Creative Courage
This is Part 2 of a 3 part series on what I learned from @Candid webinar, “Nonprofit Sustainability: Build Strategies That Actually Work.” You can read it here. If Part 1 was about infrastructure, then Part 2 is about income. And not the predictable kind. One of the powerful takeaways from the webinar was simple:…
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