Anyone who has ever had to write a bio will likely agree: writing about yourself can be hard. The same is true for nonprofit organizations. And yet an organizational history is very useful for writing grants, for onboarding new staff and board members, and for educating volunteers about your company. So how do you get […]

  Recently, I broke a shoelace. I pulled the unbroken lace out of my other shoe and took a quick look at it to estimate its length. The lace looked like it was 16 to 18-inches long. That’s when I stopped myself. I knew my mind had played a trick on me. In the past, […]

    For the last 12 years, I have been helping organization’s construct messages using a simple formula. It goes like this: your message = your promise + the incentive – the barrier Here’s how it breaks down… Your Promise — Simply, this is the essence of your organization’s brand identity. It answers the question… […]

A few weeks back I ran a Ragnar. If you don’t know, a Ragnar is a 200-mile race that (in Minnesota) goes from Winona to the Twin Cities. There’s 12-people on a team and we travel in two vans, each taking a turn running three legs over 35-hours. This year, my first leg was six […]

An environmental group that believes land conservation policy should be rooted in the best science available builds a base of supporters that deeply trusts the organization’s point of view.   A social service organization that believes volunteers can play a key role in helping people out of poverty adds over 1,000 volunteers within three years. […]