July 7, 2025 | Communications
When everyone is asking for help, lasting impact comes from inviting participation rather than requesting rescue. A wave of financial instability is building across the nonprofit sector. Policy changes are threatening major funding streams, and health and human...
June 30, 2025 | Talent
Ellie Wilcox joins us this summer as our Community Voice Fellow. A biology major also minoring in public health, Ellie comes to us as part of Davidson College’s Nonprofit Leadership Fellows program. A rising senior, Ellie is a volunteer Spanish teacher at a...
June 26, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
In recent years, the governance landscape for nonprofits has become increasingly complex. Between political turmoil and policy change, economic uncertainty, shifting funding patterns, and evolving community needs, nonprofit boards and executive teams are navigating...
June 10, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
For many nonprofits, June brings the end of the organization’s fiscal year. It’s a time when organizational leaders are deep in the process of approving budgets, planning summer retreats, and preparing for a new set of challenges in the year to come. This...
May 12, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
In 2025, nonprofit chief executives are being asked to do more with less — and to keep staff motivated through it all. The workforce landscape is shifting, and while mission remains a powerful draw, uncertainty for the nonprofit business model is creating burnout and...
May 12, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
At a moment when social good work feels more critical than ever, many leaders are wrestling with an increasingly urgent question: How do we keep our teams motivated, supported, and committed in the face of rising pressure and uncertainty? Workplace culture isn’t just...
April 22, 2025 | Corporate Impact
In the intricate landscape of nonprofit support, some of the most critical needs often go unnoticed. This is the story of how one innovative grant helped transform a dance organization’s future by embracing a radical approach to philanthropy. Traditional grantmaking...
April 8, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
At Next Stage, we’re always listening for the signals beneath the noise. And right now, those signals are blaring. We recently surveyed nonprofit and social good leaders to better understand how today’s political and economic shifts are impacting organizations on the...
April 2, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
For many in the social good space, the world feels upside down. That’s why we’ve launched a new survey series — to explore the uncertainty and turn it into something useful. Our first survey asked leaders from across the social good ecosystem to weigh in on the...
March 7, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
The nonprofit and social impact sector is bracing for a new kind of crisis — one driven not by a sudden disaster, but by the slow erosion of federal funding for health, human services, and conservation efforts. The trickle-down effect will be widespread, creating a...
February 7, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
The world of social good is a bit upside down right now. The federal spending freeze announced early last week set in motion a flurry of communications from current and past Next Stage clients, all seeking clarity on what it meant and how to navigate it. While the...
January 13, 2025 | Nonprofit Leadership
It’s a new year, and that means new opportunities for your organization to build a strategic roadmap. Strategic planning is Next Stage’s cornerstone service line. It’s a process we’ve guided more than 100 organizations through—from nonprofits and...
