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Strategy

Featured Posts

Are You Making Fear-Based Decisions?

Are You Making Fear-Based Decisions?

April 23, 2019 By Nell Edgington

As a nonprofit leader you no doubt face an endless barrage of critical decisions. Should we grow this program? Do we add this new staff position? Should we invite this new board member to join? Should we pursue this new funder? The list goes on and on. And often the direction nonprofit leaders choose is […]

3 Questions to Ask Before Saying Yes to a New Opportunity

3 Questions to Ask Before Saying Yes to a New Opportunity

April 1, 2019 By Nell Edgington

As part of the martyr complex from which so many of them suffer, nonprofit leaders often think that it’s best to push themselves and their organizations harder, faster, farther. Nonprofit leaders are continually faced with new opportunities – new client populations to serve, new demands for program expansion from funders, new partnership opportunities. And while […]

What Are The Key Strategic Questions Facing Your Nonprofit?

What Are The Key Strategic Questions Facing Your Nonprofit?

April 4, 2018 By Nell Edgington

At the beginning of any strategic planning process I lead, this is the question I pose to the nonprofit’s leadership: “What are the key strategic questions facing your nonprofit?” Nonprofit leaders who want to plan for the future must first articulate what it is they need to decide about that future. A strategic question is […]

3 Signs of a Bad Nonprofit Strategic Plan

3 Signs of a Bad Nonprofit Strategic Plan

October 8, 2015 By Nell Edgington

I’ve been leading several strategic planning processes lately, and as we wrapped up the last planning meeting for one of my clients (who had been encouraged to create a strategic plan by a funder) my client announced: “I have to confess that when we started this process 6 months ago I inwardly rolled my eyes because I […]

7 Questions To Guide Your Nonprofit Strategy

7 Questions To Guide Your Nonprofit Strategy

February 11, 2015 By Nell Edgington

I’ve been leading several nonprofit strategic planning efforts lately, and I am always amazed at the sector’s general fear (borderline hatred) of nonprofit strategic planning. I get it, strategic planning has traditionally been done so badly that many have just given up on the idea altogether. But that’s a mistake. Without a long-term strategy for what […]

Team work

Make Your Clients Powerful Partners in Your Social Change Work

March 11, 2021 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

Let’s be honest for a second — the state of support inside most nonprofits is pretty sad. It usually goes something like this: a disengaged, dysfunctional board poorly leads a financially strapped, exhausted, and underappreciated staff. Harsh, but fairly true. If I just described your organization, take heart because it doesn’t have to be that […]

Hand up in the sun

What Does Your Nonprofit Really Want?

December 10, 2020 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

So, now that you know the power of the word “Yet” to move you from scarcity to abundance, it’s time to start thinking about what you really want. Perhaps the most egregious part of being stuck in scarcity is that you get so used to thinking there is never enough that you lose touch with […]

plane taking off

5 Traits of a Nonprofit Ready to Take Off

March 5, 2019 By Nell Edgington 2 Comments

In consulting with a nonprofit my role is to guide the organization to the next level. Perhaps they want to dramatically grow their impact or influence, or they want to develop a truly sustainable financial model, or they want to become a national player. Whatever their aim, my role is to help them figure out […]

nonprofit new year

The Opportunities The New Year Holds for Nonprofits

January 9, 2019 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

Happy New Year, Social Velocity readers! The beginning of a new year is usually, for me at least, a time of mixed emotions. I’m excited about the new experiences that wait around the corner, but fearful of the unknown that also lurks there. A new year by definition brings change, and that can be exciting, […]

image of Social Velocity website

A Brand New Social Velocity Website — Go Take a Look!

July 18, 2018 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

Today I’m delighted to announce the launch of a brand new Social Velocity website. I hope you will go take a look! As you know, last Fall I took a 4-month break from social media. I stopped writing the blog and checking Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and spent more time reading books, meditating and figuring out where […]

Trusting Your Nonprofit Gut

June 27, 2018 By Nell Edgington 2 Comments

In the age of Big Data there has been a real push among funders, government, and thought leaders to encourage nonprofit leaders to make decisions based on data. I have been among the many who have heralded the importance of gathering and using data to improve performance. And I still believe data is incredibly important. […]

GEO Guest Post: Confronting Our Complicity in Racial Inequity

May 2, 2018 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

Note: The second guest blogger in this week’s Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) conference blog series is Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, Co-Director of Building Movement Project. His post is below. And don’t forget to follow the conference via #2018GEO. Nikole’s 2016 article about choosing a school for her daughter in New York City’s segregated school district highlighted the systemic […]

When A Funder Takes Your Nonprofit Off Course

January 29, 2018 By Nell Edgington 4 Comments

It’s fairly common knowledge that in the nonprofit sector the relationship between funders and nonprofit leaders is often fraught. A power imbalance between those with the purse strings and those without can sometimes lead to poor decisions about a nonprofit’s future direction. The other day I was advising a nonprofit leader — let’s call him […]

3 Questions To Regularly Ask Your Development Director

July 27, 2017 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

Beyond the mistakes nonprofit leaders often make in staffing their fundraising function, the relationship itself between a nonprofit executive director and the development director (or whatever you call the staff person in charge of bringing money in the door) can often be fraught. In an ideal world, the executive director and development director have a symbiotic […]

Why Philanthropy Must Speak Out: An Interview with Grant Oliphant

July 25, 2017 By Nell Edgington 3 Comments

In today’s Social Velocity blog interview, I’m talking with Grant Oliphant, president of The Heinz Endowments (and frequent contributor to their excellent blog). Prior to running The Heinz Endowments, Grant was president and chief executive officer of The Pittsburgh Foundation for six years. Before that, he served as press secretary to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz […]

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Embracing Abundant Social Change by Nell Edgington

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Reinventing Social Change Book

Download Chapter 1 of “Reinventing Social Change”

and keep up on webinars, training and events when you sign up for the Social Velocity e-list

Embracing Abundant Social Change by Nell Edgington

Social Change Leaders, Take a Leap of Faith With Me

April 16, 2021

Pink Flowers

You Don’t Have to Be Stuck in Scarcity

April 8, 2021

Free Training

Join Me for a Free Training — Your Roadmap to Abundance

March 31, 2021

Your Social Change Work Can Be So Much Easier

Your Social Change Work Can Be So Much Easier

March 25, 2021

Woman holding colorful umbrella

You Have The Power to Change Philanthropy

March 19, 2021

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