Resetting the Table’s Post

Another design nonprofit BUSINESS dies. Design practitioners must understand that, for-profit or not, a business must make enough money to fund its activities. When I say another dies, I refer to my beloved IAI, which collapsed under different external pressures but same root causes IMO. Design education must include at least the basics of business, just as basic education must include math.

Sad to see IxDA winding down. Sounds like a highly stressful time for the org’s leadership. Thanks to everyone who’s cleaning up the mess and especially to Andrea Mignolo, MBA, PCC for the clarity of your communications. Beyond the stress and suffering, I see this as a further data point re: the changing landscape for design. While it may be too early to tell whether the problems that led to this situation were inherent to the org or caused by the changing context (likely: both), the fact remains that the post-pandemic world looks different. A key open question now: how do we build a community of practice in a world where in-person conferences are no longer a viable means for funding community orgs? Perhaps a more bottom-up, federated approach is in order? Other ideas? /cc Grace G. Lau Vanessa Foss https://lnkd.in/g65zhhNW

I’ve had many conversations recently with clients who are feeling the impact of the economy, election and global conflicts. There is a greater demand for their work, more opportunity, more need to grow but when it comes to philanthropy and partnership, it is less reliable and the future murky. We can likely all relate to this - the day-to-day demands of our work, homes, and communities are immense in a world that feels pretty unstable and murky. Ilana Lipsett reminded me last week of one of my favorite authors, first introduced to me by my dad, Rebecca Solnit. When the world feels dark and inhumane, her words have a way of making me feel optimistic, seeing the light amidst the darkness, and inspiring my activism. In that spirit, I’ve been thinking… Because we are a nimble events firm, we can flex to support our clients and what they need in this time of uncertainty. Here are examples of projects we are available to partner with clients on that require a smaller investment than large projects but still offer our team’s magnificent muscle, expertise, and creativity: 🌱 a 50-100 person gathering 🌱 a holiday party 🌱 a field day for your team 🌱 a half-day summit 🌱 a series of small donor gatherings 🌱 an event-in-a-box toolkit for your team 🌱 annual report presentations to funders 🌱 planning templates, coaching, and counsel And so on. If this piques your interest, schedule time so we can connect. Even if it’s early ruminations, I love to hear what organization’s need, what they are thinking about, and sharing how we can partner. It’s a no pressure conversation, simply exploring whether or not partnership might make sense. The opportunity an event presents is to move MANY all at once to connect, feel a sense of community, and invest in critical social impact work. Coming together helps us continue to emerge and unite around possibility. We all need that now more than ever. Schedule time here: https://lnkd.in/gUK_Tika 🔸🔸🔸 Hi 👋 I’m Rhiannon. Gather Collective is my events firm. We work with: ✨ Corporate, nonprofit, and thought leader clients to produce transformational events that move their work forward (think: off-sites, retreats, galas, cocktail parties, summits, conferences, and more). www.gathercollective.co 👑 I also host a community supporting women to go from stretched-thin and isolated to recalibrated and connected: REIGN. www.reignqueen.co 

🤔 How do we unite and rally diverse organizations, associations and businesses to tackle complex community needs? Collective Impact is the key to drive meaningful change. Dive into our latest article and discover how cross-sector collaboration can be deployed to solve today’s most critical challenges! 🤝#MissionDrivenMarketing

Read the most downloaded article in the history of The Foundation Review! In "Four Network Principles for Collaboration Success," authors Jane Wei-Skillern and Nora Silver explore four counterintuitive principles critical to collaboration success. They offer insights into how nonprofit leaders can ensure their collaborations have a dramatically greater impact than the sum of the individual parts. In a new prologue, Wei-Skillern notes that there is more interest in and need for this approach than ever, and still much work to be done. 📖 Read the full article for free: https://lnkd.in/gkvy_rh3 #TheFoundationReview #Collaboration #Foundations

If you’re an employee looking to activate culture change within your organization and may need some additional support to attend the Culture Impact Lab experience, we want to provide 2 options for support and assistance: 1. "Convince your boss" packet and discussion guide to bring back to your leadership team: https://lnkd.in/d2Hkqfzp 2. Application to apply for our sponsored scholarship awards: https://lnkd.in/dEtgm6bi This is designed to support individuals who may not have sufficient financial backing to attend the lab. The grant aims to extend accessibility to individuals working in various sectors, particularly those engaged in Non-Profit or Community Leadership, Startups or Entrepreneurs in Accelerator Programs, B-Corps, Current Students or Professionals Lacking Organizational Support. Our grant awards are provided by sponsors, so award amounts will vary and will depend on the amount of sponsorship money we are able to secure. If you're interested in sponsoring a changemaker to attend the Culture Impact Lab, check out our Sponsorship Packet here: https://lnkd.in/dcCFRkhk

It takes more than talk to tackle complex community problems—it takes action and a united effort. Collective Impact is how we move the needle, from local issues to global change. This article by Dennis McMahon offers the roadmap for aligning goals and pooling strengths to solve the complex challenges that matter most. 🌄 #MissionDrivenMarketing

Membership organizations are reporting higher levels of disengagement and decline than ever before. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact membership is not a recognized subject of expertise. There are no degrees, defined requirements, career paths, or educational tracks. This means the strategies essential to member engagement and growth have remained largely unknown, overlooked, guessed, or left to chance. It also means associations have continued to borrow best practices from business and non-profit models or relied on the traditions of the past. Join Sarah and the Arizona Society of Association Executives for a half-day workshop, "MemberShift: Why Members Leave and the Strategies Proven to Bring Them Back". Whether your association is struggling to engage younger members, show value, manage change, or strategize for the future, Sarah can help you create a meaningful ‘MemberShift’ in the association and place it on a renewed path for success! Early bird rate ends on May 31! #membershiporganization #MemberShift #associations

#EcosystemDevelopment | Have conferences and events really increased? And if we are spending so much time convening and being convened, should we critically examine events and their purpose as closely as we look at programmes? In-person gatherings offer space for solidarity, ideation, collaboration, and celebration. But are we making the most of them? In this article, Natasha Joshi, Associate Director at Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, highlights the organisation's collective insights related to harnessing the real potential of in-person gatherings. She covers four key principles that serve as a good starting point to build better, dynamic spaces for human interaction. Read this article to learn more. https://lnkd.in/dUMaAHvC

The invitation to yet another conference/convening/event makes us groan. Arrrgh / Ughhh / some eye rolls. It means another day wasted listening to boring panelists drone on on a far away stage, followed by a flash second of question time with the audience, that will undoubtedly be hogged by that 1 person the Conference Police places there on purpose, who will give an entire treatise on nothing to do with the panel, but how amazing they themselves are. We try to sneakily do emails on our phone while sitting through the conference. We try to find an abandoned corner and do some calls. At the end, it feels like the convening is a day that's taking us away from our actual work, doesn't really add learning or value, and yet keeps us there, because... dhan dhan dhan - networking! This is why even the best convenings will see more people crowding around the prodigal water cooler/ tea-coffee table, than are sitting inside listening to the 3rd consecutive talk of the day. Finally! FINALLY, FINALLY Natasha Joshi has written and put out there how we can make our convenings meaningful and valuable. The insights Varun Hemachandran, from Agami , Kuldeep Dantewadia, from Reap Benefit, and other fantastic conveners have shared are real, hands on examples of the small details we can pay attention to while organising our convenings that will really bring the #socents to the yard! #convening #conference #nopanel #banpanels #manel