July 20, 2023 | Corporate Impact
“Thank you for your courage in attending this session.” When presenting on the addendum to our Profit & Purpose report, I start by acknowledging the audience. At a time when corporate social responsibility is making headlines for the wrong reasons,...
July 18, 2023 | Community Voice
Written by: Brooke Lackey In my first week as Next Stage’s Community Voice Fellow, I was given my main task of the summer: to explore the Albemarle corridor, one of six Corridors of Opportunity in Charlotte. I was to get knee-deep in the demographics, history and...
July 11, 2023 | Thought Leadership
Anyone else remember the number one question you were asked at the dinner table or when picked up from school while growing up: “What did you learn today?” For me, that question was sometimes easy to answer, and other times it made me realize I might need to pay more...
June 27, 2023 | Communications
Written by: Janet Ervin Next Stages does a lot of strategic planning. This means we always have a front-row seat to the current trends that are affecting nonprofit and impact organizations in our community. While marketing has always been a piece of the puzzle, the...
June 20, 2023 | Emerging Organizations
Written by Josh Jacobson It is nearing the end of June, and you know what that means — the end of the fiscal year for many nonprofits. Leaders at organizations across the region are in the final weeks of securing funding to balance their budgets, completing...
June 14, 2023 | ESG
Written by: Josh Jacobson Why is collaboration so difficult? The longer we work to advance social good through Next Stage, the more we have come to understand that the biggest barrier to achieving success is a seeming inability of people to “play nice...
June 6, 2023 | Values & Culture
Written By: Haley Rafferty Who are you? What is your communication style? Where are you biased? Answering these questions, and others like them, can illuminate your level of self-awareness. For example, I know that I have an expressive face. This can be a good thing...
May 30, 2023 | Community Voice
The Next Stage Team is excited to welcome Brooke Lackey who will be joining us as our summer community voice fellow starting on Monday June 5, 2023. As Next Stage has worked with nonprofits and corporate social responsibility teams the past eight years, our reputation...
May 23, 2023 | Communications
Calling all digital content creators, social media managers and leaders who moonlight in these roles for their organizations – this episode of “Backstage with Next Stage” is for you. Candice and Susan from our marketing team are taking a look at what’s trending...
May 17, 2023 | ESG
Written by Janet Ervin “It’s the wild, wild west” – this is the phrase we most often hear when it comes to describing how companies measure the ‘S’ in their ESG strategy. It’s a common sentiment among the private sector companies we work with. They want to make...
May 9, 2023 | Community Voice
By Helen Hope Kimbrough “The best questions get to the heart of the matter.” – David Ehrlichman, Impact Networks A common first question when meeting someone is “What do you do for a living?” Responses range from reflections on a journey as to how someone got to...
May 2, 2023 | Communications
Written by Janet Ervin I feel lucky to have the chance to work directly with every member of the Next Stage team. One of my favorite partners is Helen because we’re usually working to match community voice to an organization’s messaging efforts. In the course of this...
