Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact

"Evidence-based" has become one of the most trusted labels in social services, and the trouble starts when one strong result gets treated as permanent. Caroline Whistler, co-founder of Third Sector, has spent 15 years helping state and local governments deliver more responsive services. She explains why proven programs can lose their results over time, how rigid contracts and one-way data block learning, and what executive directors and funders can do about it now.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:50] What "evidence-based" actually means
[00:05:35] Why a randomized controlled trial is only a snapshot
[00:09:25] Nurse Family Partnership and the results that faded over time
[00:15:55] Why evidence alone is not enough, but essential
[00:18:20] Contracts that punish providers for adapting
[00:19:25] Data as a one-way street
[00:24:15] How funders can invest in learning and changing conditions
[00:26:30] Where trust-based philanthropy fits with evidence

Notable Quotes:

Caroline Whistler [00:13:45]: "What communities ultimately want is not an evidence-based practice, they want better lives."

Caroline Whistler [00:17:00]: "There's no set it and forget it or, oh, this works somewhere else. We can assume it will work here. People are complicated, the world changes."

Caroline Whistler [00:33:15]: "We can do better work if we center outcomes over centering programs."

Resources & Links:

• Third Sector: https://www.thirdsectorcap.org
• Trust-Based Philanthropy Project: https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org
• Caroline's SSIR article: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/when-evidence-isnt-enough

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Most urgent fundraising appeals aren't truly urgent, and supporters can feel it. Constant false alarms erode donor trust, burn out teams, and leave nothing in reserve for the moments that really need a response. Ambitious work can move fast without the panic, and organizations that ration their urgency get a stronger response when it counts.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:20] Burnout, donor fatigue and the cost of always sounding frantic
[00:04:55] What real urgency looks like: policy windows, funding cuts, sudden departures
[00:08:10] Urgent for you, or urgent for your audience?
[00:08:50] The urgency budget
[00:09:40] How funders reward "new" over proven
[00:19:10] Speed and urgency are different things

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:08:55]: "You basically have an urgency allotment for the year. How are you going to spend it and where?"

Jonathan Hicken [00:26:35]: “False urgency is putting an emotional burden on your audience that just isn’t fair to do. I almost feel like it should be a sector faux pas.”

Eric Ressler [00:21:10]: "Speed is kind of a culture and urgency is kind of a tone."

Resources & Links:

• Cosmic: https://designbycosmic.com
• Seymour Marine Discovery Center: https://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Every cause depends on people knowing what's happening around them, and in a growing number of American communities, nobody is reporting it anymore. Matthew Copeland, Chief Executive and Editor of WyoFile, grew Wyoming's nonprofit newsroom from "three guys and a dog" people to sixteen by asking communities to fund journalism as a public good. He and Eric talk about why facts keep losing the fight for attention, and why every social impact leader should treat access to information as their second cause.

Episode Highlights:

[00:02:05] WyoFile's mission and its three mandates
[00:06:35] The collapse of local news, by the numbers
[00:10:00] Funding journalism like the fire department
[00:11:40] From "three guys and a dog" to 16 staff
[00:29:30] Facts are losing the battle for attention
[00:34:25] Make it human and take it off the platform
[00:42:45] Why your second cause should be access to information

Notable Quotes:

Matthew Copeland [00:43:15]: "No matter what your number one cause is, your number two ought to be access to information."

Matthew Copeland [00:04:55]: "The truth does a particularly poor job of standing up for itself when there's not very much of it around."

Matthew Copeland [00:26:00]: "That competition of ideas is only functional, is only productive if it's conducted in an arena of fact."

Resources & Links:

• WyoFile: https://wyofile.com/
• Institute for Nonprofit News: https://inn.org/
• American Journalism Project: https://www.theajp.org/
• Medill State of Local News 2025: https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/news/2025/news-deserts-hit-new-high-and-50-million-have-limited-access-to-local-news-study-finds.html

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Executive directors are expected to stay fired up all the time, and almost none of them do. Five years into leading the Seymour Center and fresh off a major milestone, Jonathan has hit a motivation slump. The conversation covers how to tell burnout from a slump, why success makes coasting tempting, and what helps leaders find the spark again.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:35] The success hangover after a major milestone
[00:04:40] A leader's mood sets the team's temperature
[00:06:35] The expectation that executive directors are always motivated
[00:08:00] Self-determination theory: autonomy, competence, and relatedness
[00:14:45] Pain as a motivator, and what happens when it's gone
[00:17:00] Seeking inspiration to break the rut
[00:18:15] Burnout vs. lost motivation
[00:19:40] When the slump is really disillusionment or jadedness

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:06:40]: "There's an expectation that the leader, especially of a social impact organization, should always and must always be fully motivated and committed to the cause. And I just don't think that's a realistic expectation because we're all human here."

Jonathan Hicken [00:14:40]: "It's almost like the fear of stagnating might be the thing that breaks me out."

Eric Ressler [00:18:20]: "I think the antidote to burnout is true deep rest, and I don't think true deep rest is going to solve your motivation issue."

Resources & Links:

• The research behind the autonomy, competence, and relatedness model Eric references
• Designing Tomorrow episode on motivating your team: mentioned at [00:01:20]
• Designing Tomorrow episode on not coasting on your momentum: mentioned at [00:14:45]
• Designing Tomorrow episode on building culture at work: mentioned at [00:22:30]
• AAM Museum Leadership Academy: Museum-focused leadership cohort/academy Jonathan joined: mentioned at [00:17:00] and [00:19:10]

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Plenty of people still picture a museum as a quiet building with art on the walls and a staff whose job is to guard what's inside. Victoria Munro, Executive Director of the Alice Austen House, sees an advantage in that assumption: because museums look harmless from the outside, they have room to do serious work on social change and safe space. She explains how she took the velvet ropes down at a nationally designated site of LGBTQ+ history and built programs that turn visitors into co-creators.

Episode Highlights:

[00:07:20] Museums as sites for contemporary connection
[00:10:55] Why art lovers hesitate to call themselves creators
[00:11:25] "Sneaky" programming that turns visitors into co-creators
[00:12:40] A safe space that doesn't look like one: LGBTQ+ history in a historic house
[00:16:20] Taking down the velvet ropes at the Alice Austen House
[00:19:45] Alice Austen, one of the first women to take photography onto the street
[00:30:20] Budgets, strategy, and leadership as creative acts
[00:36:55] Staying motivated through professional community

Notable Quotes:

Victoria Munro [00:07:20]: "We need to look at museums as being not just repositories of historical collections, but being spaces that are sites for contemporary connection."

Victoria Munro [00:13:05]: "Coming and participating in one of our programs isn't going to out you."

Victoria Munro [00:17:00]: "Really, what was that chair saying to that fourth grader? Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Victoria Munro [00:30:20]: "Your yearly budget should be aspirational. It should be based in reality, but there should be things that you are aspiring to."

Resources & Links:

• Alice Austen House: aliceausten.org
• Museums Council of New York City: http://museumscouncil.org
• Victoria Munro on Instagram: instagram.com/munro.victoria/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Social impact teams are happy to experiment. Where they struggle is admitting when the experiment fails. Jonathan and I dig into what design thinking and the scientific method can teach the sector, and why our refusal to name failure may be the thing holding impact back.

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:30] Defining design thinking and the scientific method, side by side
[00:08:00] The real failure point: we won't admit when things don't work
[00:11:00] How science learned to publish its failures
[00:18:00] A closed-door conference where funders aren't invited
[00:24:30] In defense of design thinking
[00:31:00] Knowing where failure is okay and where it isn't

Notable Quotes:

Jonathan Hicken [00:08:25]: "Failure of an experiment is just as valuable as the success of an experiment."

Eric Ressler [00:09:45]: "You don't want to tell your donors you messed up and you failed. But that's the trap."

Resources & Links:

• You Design Your Culture. Here's How : Designing Tomorrow Podcast Episode from August 18, 2026 — https://youtu.be/L9oi0lF4mII
• Stanford Social Innovation Review — https://ssir.org/articles/entry/when-evidence-isnt-enough
• IDEO U — ideou.com
• Stanford d.school — dschool.stanford.edu

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Philanthropy takes heat for being slow to move money, and learning usually gets the blame.

Katherine Haugh, founder of the Convive Collective and a learning partner to some of the largest climate-focused philanthropies in the US and Europe, thinks that critique is fair but aimed at the wrong target.

She and Eric dig into what's actually slowing foundations down, why learning so often becomes a way to dodge a decision, and the two things a foundation needs to genuinely learn.

Episode Highlights:

[00:14:15] The real reason money moves slowly: control and ego, not learning
[00:18:00] Why learning has such a good brand, and how that hides dysfunction
[00:19:45] Learning as a way to dodge a hard decision
[00:26:30] The two non-negotiables: leadership commitment and psychological safety
[00:32:35] Why foundations won't publish their failures
[00:44:30] The "healthy life" metaphor for becoming a learning organization

Notable Quotes:

Katherine Haugh [00:15:50]: "I actually think that the reason why that is, is a function of control and ego."
Katherine Haugh [00:18:00]: "Learning has a great reputation. Learning is a great brand. No one ever says, 'We hate learning.'"
Katherine Haugh [00:28:15]: "You can have excellent evidence, but if your team doesn't feel safe to say what they really feel, it's all for nothing."

Resources & Links:

• The Convive Collective — https://convivecollective.com
• The Learning Philanthropy Framework
• Center for Evaluation Innovation — cited at [00:16:30] as the source tracking how much of foundation portfolios go to learning and evaluation.

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show
→ Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Sandy Gould has spent 36 years studying where people's "superpowers" come from, and his answer is simple: the thing that makes you different is the same thing that lets you create what no one else can. In this conversation with Eric Ressler, the longtime GLAAD advisor and author of the forthcoming book Interlightening explains why conformity feels safe and isn't, and how the same rules that grow an individual grow an entire organization.

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:00] From tech recruiting to GLAAD: a career built on unleashing people
[00:05:30] Why the "why" leads to the what and the how
[00:08:30] How one word, "should," quietly holds people back
[00:15:30] Your organization is just one big person
[00:16:30] Why success is the scariest moment for a team
[00:27:00] Why your team should see you fight

Notable Quotes:

Sandy Gould [00:19:25]: "The difference engine is what drives every human, every group of people, and our life and our world. If you and I were exactly the same, this conversation would be nothing."

Sandy Gould [00:24:15]: "'I don't know' is a very powerful, honest thing to say. But honesty is more important. First, establish trust, then invite them in to help you figure it out."

Resources & Links:

• GLAAD — glaad.org
• Sandy Gould on LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/sandy-gould-077354
• Sandy Gould on Instagram — instagram.com/spidersandy
• Interlightening: Unleashing Your Superpowers — forthcoming on Amazon

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Every leader in the social impact space has failures. But we rarely talk about them. We brush over them, reframe them, paper over them. Michelle Moog-Koussa thinks that's a mistake. She built the Bob Moog Foundation from $15,000 and a stack of Bob's crossed-out notebooks into a 20-year institution, and she runs it like a scientist: write down the idea, test it, and record an honest "didn't work" before turning the page.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:00] Why the social impact sector refuses to talk about failure
[00:04:00] How 60,000 CaringBridge messages gave birth to a foundation
[00:17:00] "You're swinging a miniature bat" and the reframe that changed everything
[00:23:00] Running a nonprofit like a scientist: hypothesis, test, iterate
[00:25:30] The sector embraces the scientific method, except the failure step
[00:31:30] Why fear of failure keeps organizations frozen in planning

Notable Quotes:

Michelle Moog-Koussa [00:27:15]: "Mistakes are the portals to discovery."

Eric Ressler [00:25:30]: "The sector at large does not accept failure with grace."

Michelle Moog-Koussa [00:18:05]: "I don't have a miniature bat. My bat is so big, I just needed more people to help me swing it."

Resources & Links:

• The Bob Moog Foundation — moogfoundation.org
• The Moogseum — moogseum.org
• Spectrasonics Bob Moog Tribute Library — spectrasonics.net/products/tribute/
• Native Instruments Modular Icons — native-instruments.com/en/pricing/modular-icons/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Every nonprofit leader has told themselves the same story: if funders just understood us, they'd fund us. Eric and Jonathan make the uncomfortable case that misunderstood impact is usually a you problem, and that what looks like a storytelling gap is almost always an identity gap. Close it, and funding, talent, and trust all get easier.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:15] The identity impact gap, defined
[00:04:05] Why the gap quietly starves your funding
[00:08:20] Why a widening gap can be a sign of growth
[00:12:50] The three pillars: identity, expression, perception
[00:30:00] "That's a you problem"
[00:38:40] Why trust isn't built on your 990s

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:04:20]: "I would urge orgs to figure out: if there was only one thing that everyone could know us for, what might that one thing be? And do a really good job beating that drum."

Jonathan Hicken [00:25:20]: "It has to start with a deep understanding of self. Before you can get to expression, before you can get to perception, you have to know yourself."

Resources & Links:

• Seymour Marine Discovery Center — http://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu
• Cosmic — http://designbycosmic.com
• Who are you Becoming? https://designbycosmic.com/podcast/who-are-you-becoming/
• Who Are You Becoming — https://designbycosmic.com/podcast/who-are-you-becoming/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Most leaders know how to fight through a crisis. Almost nobody's ready for the moment things start working.

That's where Jonathan finds himself. Five years into running the Seymour Center, the survival years behind him. Funding's solid. The team's humming. He walks the halls, thinks "we're good," and tells me that stability feels strange. Almost uncomfortable. Like a problem he doesn't have the muscle for yet.

What I keep seeing after 15 years is that that's exactly how good organizations stall out. The bold, experimental swings that built the momentum are the first thing leaders quietly retire the moment things feel stable. So the real discipline is refusing to coast, and building from a place of stability instead of scarcity while you still have the calm to think clearly.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:35] Momentum is a different kind of problem
[00:10:45] Three viable paths, one hard choice
[00:19:05] Build from stability, not scarcity
[00:20:10] The trap of business as usual
[00:23:05] Owning your wins in front of funders
[00:29:10] What got you here won't get you there

Notable Quotes:

Jonathan Hicken [00:28:55]: "Keep the foot on the gas, and lean into what I know has worked — which has been big, creative, different, bold swings."

Eric Ressler [00:20:35]: "The trap would be, okay, it's working now, we just move into business-as-usual mode. That's how orgs stall out a lot of times."

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Is culture something you design, or does it emerge from the people you hire? I think you design it, through the decisions you make every day. Jonathan thinks it starts with the people and grows from there. The more we talked, the more the two came together: culture isn't your values poster, it's the consistent decisions a team makes over and over, plus the guardrails and tools that help everyone make them well.

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:22] Why culture always starts with who you hire
[00:05:15] The case that American work culture is broken
[00:15:19] The hardest call: firing a high performer who's a culture misfit
[00:17:12] How good short-term decisions erode culture
[00:26:14] Guardrails: scorecards and "the Seymour Way"
[00:31:25] If you ask your team to grind, do you have to grind too?

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:23:55]: "Culture is built by the consistent decisions and actions that you make as an org, not by your value statement or your posters."

Jonathan Hicken [00:26:50]: "We recently started calling it the Seymour Way rather than core values. Because I can't actually tell somebody what their values are. What I can say is, 'This is how we do it here.'"

Resources & Links:

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni — https://www.tablegroup.com/product/dysfunctions/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Two camps are forming around AI in the social impact space. One says boycott it. The other says you're already behind. Meanwhile, the biggest decisions are being made without us.

Kaz McGrath and Stephen Silveira of Play (PLAI — Purpose-Led AI) make the case for stepping into the conversation, holding space for skeptics and builders at the same table, and using AI as a tool for imagination and mission.

Episode Highlights:

[00:04:30] "You are behind" — the message the sector keeps hearing
[00:08:00] What if nonprofit professionals became the builders?
[00:15:30] Tracking endangered species in the Amazon, led by Indigenous elders
[00:19:00] The one filter for every AI decision: does it further your mission?
[00:26:30] The environmental truth: your impact depends on where you live
[00:35:30] Decisions are being made for us, not with us

Notable Quotes:

Stephen Silveira [00:26:10]: "People are using AI to be that silver bullet. They want this future we're trying to describe, and they want to say AI is the thing."

Kaz McGrath [00:35:55]: "These decisions are being made for us, not with us. For us, not without us."

Resources & Links:

• PLAI — weareplai.com
• Conor Grennan's AI Mindset — ai-mindset.ai
• Berkana Institute, Two Loops Model — berkana.org

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

I have this problem, and I have it bad. At Cosmic I'm the bottleneck on more things than I should be, holding onto work because explaining it feels slower than just doing it. Jonathan doesn't get stuck there as often, so we dug into how executive directors and CEOs tell the bottlenecks that are right from the ones capping the whole org, and how to climb out of them.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:05] The bottleneck problem, named out loud
[00:05:05] The real fear behind not letting go
[00:12:08] Right sizing your role as the stakes rise
[00:16:10] The ego question every leader has to confront
[00:21:00] "Just this one time" and how it multiplies
[00:30:20] The time audit that pulls it out of your head

Notable Quotes:

Jonathan Hicken [00:02:15]: "I'm a big believer in hire people that are better and smarter than you, and then let them cook."

Eric Ressler [00:21:00]: "Just this one time I'm going to do it. And then all of a sudden I've done that just this one time five times now."

Jonathan Hicken [00:26:00]: "You hear stories of executive directors copy editing every single email that goes out. That is the most catastrophic failure of that organization."

Resources & Links:

• Cosmic: Eric's creative agency for nonprofits and mission-driven organizations
• Seymour Marine Discovery Center
• Science Solutions Santa Cruz podcast
• Drafting Our Strategic Dream Team: Eric and Jonathan’s past episode on YouTube

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Nonprofit leaders want more people to see their work, but almost none of them want to be the one posting about it.

Saralynn Finn and I dig into what changes once you get past that resistance: story stems, a repeatable format for turning an ordinary moment into a post worth reading, and the difference between posting out of obligation and posting because something actually needs saying.

Saralynn brings a nonprofit CEO's 90-day LinkedIn experiment into it, and I bring my own inconsistent posting habits. This is a second conversation, picking up where an earlier episode on visibility left off.

Episode Highlights:

[00:04:00] Story stems: the copy-meme format built for LinkedIn posts
[00:10:00] Madeleine Ballard's 90-day LinkedIn pilot, and what it actually delivered
[00:16:00] Eric's own LinkedIn burnout, and what caused it
[00:23:00] Personal pages vs. brand pages: where ideas actually travel
[00:29:00] Authenticity, sanitized brand voice, and what political campaigns already figured out
[00:34:00] Why LinkedIn rewards patience: posts take three weeks to peak

Notable Quotes:

Saralynn Finn [00:06:25]: "Story stems, posts with familiar patterns, get three times the engagement of posts that don't have a story stem."

Saralynn Finn [00:33:20]: "This humility does not require invisibility."

Eric Ressler [00:16:05]: "I'm feeling a little burnt out by LinkedIn right now, and it's my own fault."

Resources & Links:

• Community Health Impact Coalition — https://joinchic.org/
• Dr. Madeleine Ballard — https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeleineballard/
• The Sidebar — https://theside.bar/
• Saralynn Finn — guest's site and consulting practice.

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Every social impact leader believes in their mission.

Funders assume that too. What they actually want to know is why you, specifically, over the ten other orgs working the same issue, or the bigger name with more reach and a longer track record.

Most leaders answer with passion, good programs, being impactful. Genuine things that still don't add up to a strategy.

In this episode, Jonathan and I dig into a framework we use with clients constantly: naming your organization's exact role inside a broader social impact ecosystem, specific enough to defend, credible enough to believe, and clear enough that funders, staff, and partners all describe your org the same way.

Jonathan brings Seymour Center into it as a live example, working through the question in real time.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:46] Why differentiation is the one thing social impact leaders don't spend enough time on

[00:03:25] Why "we do good work" isn't enough to win over savvy funders

[00:04:45] Jonathan's own evolving answer to what role Seymour Center plays in Santa Cruz

[00:06:38] The vague language and buzzwords that quietly sink an organization's positioning

[00:21:24] Mapping the ecosystem: the first exercise Cosmic runs with every client

[00:27:41] The moments that call for revisiting your role, from new leadership to ecosystem disruption

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:19:20]: "Passion is not a strategy. It's not a position. It's not a role. We can't compete on being the most passionate, because who's going to claim otherwise?"

Jonathan Hicken [00:17:45]: "Someone's like, I love the ocean, I want to save the ocean, so we're going to create a museum to save the ocean. But that's the vagueness we're talking about."

Resources & Links:

- Seymour Marine Discovery Center: https://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/

- The Nature Conservancy: https://www.nature.org/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show

→ Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Sarah Newkirk became executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County in the middle of a capital campaign, the same week Jonathan Hicken took over at the Seymour Center. Five years later, she's landed a $15 million farmland deal, a wildlife crossing Caltrans is now replicating statewide, and a strategic plan built around one question: what would have to be true for this to work? She and Eric talk relationships, risk, and why joy is the real return on conservation work.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Coming in as the new ED mid-capital-campaign, the same week Jonathan started at the Seymour Center

[00:06:30] Beach Ranch: taking flood-prone farmland out of production to let marshland move inland

[00:07:30] Retiring 47-year-old branding and finally owning the "conservation incubator" identity

[00:09:30] Inside the Highway 17 wildlife crossing, now a model Caltrans is replicating statewide

[00:16:00] The Land Trust's three beneficiaries: wildlife, working agriculture, and people, together

[00:26:00] The "what would have to be true" method that turned a twice-failed ballot measure into Measure Q

Notable Quotes:

Sarah Newkirk [00:28:00]: "We made a list of what had to be true, and we made those things true."

Sarah Newkirk [00:39:15]: "When you provide this kind of conservation work to the broader public, the public loves it, and therefore they love you. That is a beautiful, virtuous cycle."

Eric Ressler [00:39:30]: "I love that the answer is joy. I think we need a lot more joy in how this work happens."

Resources & Links:

• Land Trust of Santa Cruz County — landtrustsantacruz.org
• Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing — landtrustsantacruz.org/protected-areas/highway-17-wildlife-crossing/
• Beach Ranch wetland restoration — hilltromper.com/article/wetland-restoration-beach-ranch-benefits-nature-wildlife-and-people
• Learning the Land podcast — landtrustsantacruz.org/podcast/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

There's a push right now to democratize strategic planning. Survey the community, poll the staff, put the big calls to a vote.

I get the instinct, but it goes too far. Influence is not the same as decision-making power, and collapsing the two is how good orgs freeze.

In this episode, Eric and Jonathan draft their ideal strategic planning teams fantasy-sports style from a pool of ten possible inputs, and work out how much weight each voice actually deserves.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:00] Drafting fantasy strategic planning teams from ten possible inputs
[00:02:30] First picks: leadership team vs. the community you serve
[00:05:15] Influence vs. decision-making power, the distinction that runs through everything
[00:08:45] Gut and intuition as a legitimate strategic input
[00:10:45] Data beats opinions, and predictive vs. directional data
[00:15:45] Why boards should support more than they decide
[00:28:30] Synthesizing every input into a decision you can own
[00:33:00] Win-win as a cheat code, and why pleasing everyone signals a weak choice

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:05:35]: "The community should have a lot of influence, but I don't think this work usually works when it's truly democratic."

Jonathan Hicken [00:11:05]: "We have a saying at Seymour Center here where data beats opinions 100% of the time."

Eric Ressler [00:33:35]: "If literally everyone is happy, maybe the decision was too obvious and weak."

Resources & Links:

• Designing Tomorrow Spotlight interview with Rob Acton on designing effective nonprofit boards
• Cause Strategy Partners — Rob Acton's firm, focused on nonprofit board placement and governance training

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

There's a number treated like gospel in philanthropy: the 5% annual payout private foundations are required to hit. It was written into law as a floor.

Kristin Todd has watched it become a ceiling instead. After nearly two decades at the Daniels Fund, a $1.5 billion private foundation, she now leads the NoCo Foundation in Northern Colorado, where she's more than doubled annual grant-making by refusing to let donor dollars sit still.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:00] Running a $1.5 billion legacy fund vs. a nimble community foundation
[00:07:00] Why mergers stopped being a taboo word for nonprofits
[00:11:30] How NoCo doubled its grant-making by keeping money in motion
[00:12:30] The 5% floor that became a ceiling
[00:20:30] Stop calling them charities. They're businesses with social impact.
[00:34:00] Punching above your weight locally instead of waiting on Washington

Notable Quotes:

Kristin Todd [00:12:30]: "In the private foundation world, that 5% has become a ceiling, not a floor."

Kristin Todd [00:11:30]: "We do not want to be a sponsor of DAFs that are warehousing dollars, and in fact we are not."

Eric Ressler [00:21:30]: "These are the hardest problems in the world that no one else has solved, and yet they're not getting the same attention as the latest AI startup."

Resources & Links:

• NoCo Foundation — nocofoundation.org
• Daniels Fund — danielsfund.org

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Everyone keeps predicting the death of the website. First it was social, now it is AI. But it is still the one channel you actually own and control, which is exactly what makes it your most durable asset. So when a site has gone untouched for five years and a redo runs six figures, the real question is whether it is worth it, and when.

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:00] The identity impact gap, and when a redo is the wrong call
[00:10:30] The 10-second homepage test 90% of nonprofit sites fail
[00:13:00] Brand as coherence: the Apple experience, and your version of it
[00:17:30] What happens the moment a funder leaves your meeting
[00:23:30] What funders actually look for: financials, team bios, clear impact
[00:28:00] The underperforming employee analogy, and the player on your team

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:05:20]: "I still believe that your website is your most important and your most durable asset as a brand."

Eric Ressler [00:26:20]: "Your website should be your best fundraiser, not your only fundraiser."

Jonathan Hicken [00:29:10]: "Website is almost the wrong word. It's a player on your team."

Resources & Links:

• Seymour Marine Discovery Center — seymourcenter.ucsc.edu
• Candid — http://candid.org
• “Are Website's Dead?" — earlier Designing Tomorrow episode.
• Joel Breakstone interview — earlier Designing Tomorrow episode.

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.