

August is National Wellness Month. The focus on prioritizing self-care, healthy routines and stress management feels more timely than ever when I log into check the morning news. As Josh described in his blog post a few weeks ago, rising COVID case numbers are...

Belonging Together: How Kinship Fuels Change
“We have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Theresa My Next Stage team members and I recently thought it would be a great idea to re-establish our workplace book club. The book selected for our collective discussion was Tattoos on the Heart by...

Say Goodbye to Stale Cause Marketing
Two weeks ago, we talked about cause marketing and how organizations are moving beyond ‘t-shirt logo marketing.’ It’s worth mentioning again that this was the single most common phrase we heard from our 60+ interviews with area business leaders for The Social Good...

Beyond the T-shirt Logo: How to Build Effective Partnerships
As we conducted interviews during the research phase of The Social Good Report: Profit & Purpose we heard companies say one thing over and over. “It’s no longer about being able to get our logo on t-shirts or event signage. Our team wants something more...

Reflections from a Summer Fellow
By Jacob Hertzinger, Summer Research Intern When applying to be this year’s summer research fellow I set one goal for the summer: to be around incredibly passionate people in the hopes that I could discover my passion. To be completely honest when I accepted the...

DEI: Trust the Experts
In the words of James Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” In 2014, the Chetty Study ranked Charlotte 50 out of 50 for economic mobility. This study revealed that children who are born into poverty will...

The Missing Ingredient Holding Charlotte Back
Today we’re going to take a deep dive into one of the key findings of our recent Social Good Report, specifically the chapter on Social Mobility: “Companies involved in social impact strategies are recognizing the important role community-based organizations play in...

Help Wanted: Three Ways Businesses Can Use Social Good to Close the Hiring Gap
One look at the news and you’ll quickly see one of business’ biggest current challenges – hiring. So today we want to share three ways businesses can use social good to close the hiring gap. Just before the start of the pandemic, unfilled jobs in the United States...

Why Sustainability Matters for Every Charlotte Business
by Josh Jacobson We released the Social Good Report 2021: Profit & Purpose earlier this month and the feedback thus far has been super strong. As we hope you have had a chance to read, we highlight the many different ways nonprofits can be “vendors of social good”...

How ‘Belief-Driven Buyers’ are Changing Brand Engagement
by Janet Ervin In 2018, the Edelman Brand Report documented a trend that is rapidly becoming one of the most important brand engagement factors across the globe – the rise of the ‘belief-driven’ buyer. More than 64% of consumers now make buying decisions based on a...

Here’s Why You’d Better Have an Employee Engagement Strategy
by Josh Jacobson, CEO, Next Stage “Employee engagement” is a big deal for businesses of all shapes and sizes. But what does employee engagement strategy even mean and how is social good playing a role? As outlined in our recently-published Social Good Report: Profit...

Profit & Purpose: What Now?
by Josh Jacobson By now, it is my hope that you have had a chance to download and skim our recent publication The Social Good Report: Profit & Purpose, our first annual community study focused on themes impacting social good in the Queen City. We have received so...