In 2010, a diverse group of nonprofit and philanthropic partners came together to examine how sabbaticals affect nonprofit organizations and their leaders. The resulting study, Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals for Capacity Building and Leadership Development in the Nonprofit Sector, clearly articulated how…
As I watched the DJ at a friend’s wedding change the music to get everyone out of their seats and dancing, I couldn’t help thinking about how strategic communicators and good DJs think in similar ways. Our colleague Beth Kanter…
If you’ve ever been to the SPIN Academy, the scene to the right probably looks familiar. Taken by Chris Jordan, it features copious amounts of Northern California sunshine filtered through green leaves, the seats around the fire pit at Walker Creek…
These days, everyone is a communicator. After all, how hard is it to send a tweet, post to a blog, or even shoot and upload a video? Many people in charge of foundation and nonprofit communications have taken advantage of…
Holly and I hadn’t even left NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) last week before we were thinking about the implications of all we’d seen and heard for our favorite do-gooders. It’s hard to sum up three packed days of learning,…
Do-gooders achieve great things, but we can always do better (myself included). Sometimes, all we need is some focused training time. For 13 years, the SPIN Academy has brought together a diverse group of people united by one goal: to…
Do you feel like you’re going in circles trying to get people to engage with your nonprofit? Well, it turns out that for your engagement strategy to work, a circle is the right path to be on. Funnel failure The…
Applications for the 13th annual SPIN Academy are now open! The SPIN Academy is a four-day residential communications training retreat for nonprofit leaders. This year’s event will take place August 23 – 26 in Petaluma, California. Once again, the LightBox…
There’s no doubt that social media can trip us up. Who hasn’t been too quick to hit “send” only to later wish to take back that email, tweet, or Facebook post? Recently the