

by Josh Jacobson The Glass is Half Empty: My Humble Beginnings with the Blue Chips When I launched Next Stage in late 2013, the stated goal was to work with “small-to-midsize organizations” looking to “get to the next stage.” The reason for this focus was as much a...

Position Opening: President & CEO, Charlotte Museum of History
Position Description: President & CEO Overview Client: Charlotte Museum of History Location: 3500 Shamrock Drive, Charlotte, NC 28215 Founded: 1969 Reports To: Board of Trustees Charlotte Museum of History — Organizational Description Mission The Charlotte Museum...

Imported Organizations (The Community Social Impact Portfolio)
by Caylin Viales “Importing” nonprofit organizations can be a tricky thing to talk about. In fact, I don’t even really like using the word “importing” to describe nonprofit scale. It evokes a mental picture of a cargo ship stacked with hundreds of identical shipping...

Niche Organizations (The Community Social Impact Portfolio)
by Josh Jacobson The alternative title of this post could be “Sustainable Growth – Is It an Oxymoron?” (Answer: No, but it ain’t easy.) A lesson learned early in my consulting career came in the form of a longtime board member for a stable, no-frills human services...

Emerging Organizations (The Community Social Impact Portfolio)
by Josh Jacobson Last year, I overheard a conversation at work. A friend of mine was asked by someone I didn’t know to name some of the prominent social entrepreneurs working in Charlotte. Without hesitation, a list of names were rattled out. The people mentioned...

The Community Social Impact Portfolio
by Josh Jacobson This post launches a weekly series through mid-September outlining a new way to think about stewarding nonprofits in the Charlotte region – the Community Social Impact Portfolio. A couple years ago, I decided to try my hand at investing. My wife and I...

Position Opening: Executive Director, Charlotte Bilingual Preschool
Position Description: Executive Director Overview Client: Charlotte Bilingual Preschool Location: 6300 Highland Ave, Charlotte, NC 28215 Founded: 1999 Reports To: Board of Directors Charlotte Bilingual Preschool — Organizational Description Mission Charlotte...

Framing It: An Arts Response to ‘Leading on Opportunity’
By Hannah Grannemann Josh and I started this blog series in April 2017 with a few goals: Bring attention to the work on social mobility already being done by artists and arts organizations in Charlotte. (one example here) Raise awareness of the arts as a way to have a...

How a broken system led to two Charlottes – and what we are going to do about it.
By Caylin Viales. A big crowd braved the heat yesterday evening to attend Charlotte Magazine’s latest #DiscussCLT event, “How a Broken System Led to Two Charlottes” at Lenny Boy Brewing Co. Moderated by Adam Rhew, associate editor of Charlotte Magazine, the discussion...

Tell Me a Story and Make It Good
By Josh Jacobson In this blog post, I’ll discuss Strategy H: Apprenticeships, Paid Internships and other Work-Based Learning, otherwise known as “Learn & Earn,” though the thoughts here apply to the role of the broader community as a part of implementation of the...

Creating Shared Meaning and Purpose: The Arts and Encouraging Committed Relationships to Improve Outcomes for Children
By Hannah Grannemann In this blog post, I’ll discuss Strategy L: Encourage the formation and maintenance of committed two-parent families, in particular the recommendation to Study, adopt and implement evidence-based programs that effectively encourage young people to...

Small, but Mighty: Workforce Development in the Arts
By Hannah Grannemann In this blog post, I’ll address Strategies F, G, I and J in the Opportunity Task Force report, addressing career pathways outside of college, especially apprenticeships and workplace-based learning. How many jobs in the arts can you name? Actor,...