Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Accountability
Capacity Building
Executive Leadership
Founder Transitions
Leadership Transition
Credit: Manish Tulaskar on Unsplash Leadership transition is part of nonprofit life. Every mission-driven organization will face executive change. Yet transition is often treated as an interruption to mission delivery rather than an opportunity to build clarity, capacity, and confidence for what comes next. Burnout, funding volatility, cultural strain, and workforce churn have intensified pressure on our frontline, community-serving organizations. Leadership change now lands on systems with little margin for error. Many boards avoid succession …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Climate Change
Climate Justice
Nonprofit News
Credit: Beatriz Camaleão on Unsplash+ “This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.” Scientists are pretty sure that Earth is hotter than at any time in the last 125,000 years, but the news media is moving on, trying to keep on top of a fire hose of pressing news — from the daily chaos of the Trump administration to the breaking developments in the war on Iran. The shift …
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Author:
Aine Creedon
Categories:
Fundraising
Philanthropy
Image Credit: Cristina Gaidau on iStock When President Donald Trump issued an order encouraging the Department of Justice to investigate the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundation in September 2025, it became clear that even large, traditional grantmakers known for their conservative, top-down approaches were not immune to politically motivated attacks. In response, over 180 philanthropies signed a joint a statement condemning “acts of political violence” while defending their freedom of speech, although many had …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Branding
Communications
Nonprofit Sector
Stakeholder Engagement
Credit: Alice Yamamura on Unsplash Welcome back to Ask a Nonprofit Expert, NPQ’s advice column for nonprofit readers, by civic leaders who have built thriving, equitable organizations. As always, this series offers Leading Edge members the opportunity to submit tough challenges anonymously and get personalized advice. In this column, we’ll publish answers to common questions to strengthen our entire community’s capacity. In today’s issue, Claire Taylor Hansen and Nicole Tufts answer a reader’s question about …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Health Equity
Health Justice
Healthcare
Leadership
LGBTQ+ Rights
Transgender Rights
Credit: Owen Vangioni on Unsplash How do you access medical care when the federal government doesn’t believe you have a right to exist? This is the reality facing many trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming adolescents after the Trump administration’s anti-trans policies have led to multiple hospitals across the nation ending their gender-affirming care programs for minors. In some cases, hospitals have stopped care for adults as well. For the most part, these halts in care …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Climate Justice
Economic Justice
Credit: Library of Congress on Unsplash “This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.” In recent years, as the United States has suffered a series of damaging climate disasters, experts have warned that the nation is headed toward a homeowner’s insurance crisis. Insurance companies dropped hundreds of thousands of customers who live in areas vulnerable to hurricanes and wildfires, and numerous small insurers have gone belly-up after big disasters. …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Civic Infrastructure
Civil Society and Democracy
Immigration
Law
Racial Justice
Credit: Getty Images on Unsplash+ The legal system in the United States is nothing if not complex. Laws are written in elaborate legalese that’s difficult for everyday people to understand. Then there’s case law that’s layered on top of the laws themselves, which dictate how laws are interpreted and applied in the real world. Petitions and other legal paperwork have to be written and formatted in very particular ways. These reasons and more are why …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Activism
Civil Society and Democracy
Narrative Power
Power Dynamics
Race and Power
Racial Justice
Social Movements
Structural Racism
Credit: Alecsander Alves on Unsplash For those of us committed to social justice, the present struggle is not simply about removing fascists from office and restoring the old order. Liberatory change requires that we imagine radically new futures and develop the necessary power to build the world we deserve. But in this struggle, we must ask: What kind of power will we need to build such a world, and how should power work differently within …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Civil Society and Democracy
Narrative Power
Nonprofit Advocacy
Politics
Voting Rights
Credit: Getty Images on Unsplash+ Polling may be an imperfect gauge, but it does provide some high-level insight into how the general population leans. Take recent presidential approval polls, which reveal dissatisfaction among Trump voters, suggesting they may have buyer’s remorse. Such polling data show widespread disapproval of President Trump, signaling the chance to bridge the party divide and sway disaffected Trump voters toward an alternative. This is an especially important endeavor as we head …
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Author:
Coty Poynter
Categories:
Activism
Community Organizing
Immigration
Latinx Voices
Politics
Credit: Markus Spiske on Unsplash In 2025, the volume of calls to the emergency hotline at Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) more than doubled. The hotline received over 12,000 calls in a year, up from nearly 5,000 the year before. In the first week after Donald Trump’s inauguration, more than 600 calls came in. Brenda Rodríguez López, executive director of WAISN, said some callers want legal advice or to report a sighting of immigration enforcement. …
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Author:
Aine Creedon
Categories:
Civil Society and Democracy
Civil Society Research and Reports
Communications
Politics
Photo by 愚木混株 Yumu on Unsplash As our nation hurtles toward pivotal midterm elections, we are certain to hear politicians calling for unity. National polls reveal that worries about polarization have taken the top spot on the lists of concerns for people in the United States, moving ahead of almost every other issue, from affordability to immigration to the state of our democracy. And in a time of deep division, it makes sense they would …
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Author:
Kate Elias
Categories:
Civil Society and Democracy
Racial Justice
WetheCivic
Women’s Rights
Image courtesy of Sara Porter/The 19th This story was copublished with The 19th, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, policy, and power, as well as #WeTheCivic: America 250, a narrative movement centering the multiracial nonprofit and civil society workers, organizations, and communities in America 250 narratives. This story was originally reported by Errin Haines of The 19th. Meet Errin and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. In the lead-up …
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