Category: Event Takeaways

Catalyzing Public Sector Investment and Accountability in Impact Work

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

Private sector capital and impact initiatives can achieve lasting, population-level impact when they connect to public systems, budgets, or policy ownership that sustain and scale the work.

During a June 16 virtual Leader Roundtable, leaders from across the NationSwell ecosystem explored how the private sector can more deliberately catalyze public sector engagement by using corporate and philanthropic initiatives to attract public partners, unlocking government funding, and embedding accountability into public systems over time.

The conversation offered practical approaches for aligning incentives, navigating political and bureaucratic realities, and designing efforts that move from private leadership to durable public stewardship — the most salient takeaways appear below.

Key takeaways:

Lead with listening to understand where public partners see gaps. Rather than arriving with a fixed model to pitch, effective organizations begin by listening and asking government leaders and community partners which challenges they are trying to solve, then work to design solutions that fit the local landscape. This approach strengthens local buy-in and increases the likelihood that initiatives will take hold and scale.

Use data as the common language for cross-sector collaboration. Data is the currency that aligns public, private, and nonprofit partners around shared priorities. By combining local evidence with compelling stories, organizations can help public officials identify systemic barriers, demonstrate return on investment, and build the case for redirecting public resources toward interventions with the greatest long-term impact.

Design for public ownership. The strongest partnerships are intentionally built to transition from privately supported initiatives to publicly sustained systems. Rather than creating programs that rely indefinitely on corporate or philanthropic investment, design models that governments can adopt, fund, and institutionalize through public infrastructure.

De-risk innovation to unlock public investment. Blended funding models can help governments invest with greater confidence by demonstrating measurable results before assuming long-term costs. Whether through philanthropic funding or shared public-private investments, these approaches create a pathway for public systems to absorb and sustain proven solutions.

Build trust and shared ownership that outlast any single organization. Lasting impact relies on cultivating trusted relationships, opening doors to communities, and creating networks that continue learning and collaborating long after an individual organization steps back. Success comes not from maintaining ownership, but from empowering local institutions and networks to carry the work forward.

Leverage each sector’s unique assets. The most effective collaborations bring together complementary strengths rather than relying solely on financial contributions. Organizations contribute technology, operational expertise, talent, data, and convening power alongside investment, while governments provide policy authority, public infrastructure, and pathways to scale. Together, these assets create solutions neither sector could achieve independently.

NationSwell MainStage: Restoring Purpose in America: Common Purpose through Service

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

Across the country, Americans are searching for deeper connection: to one another, to their communities, to a shared sense of purpose. At the same time, trust feels increasingly fragile, social isolation remains widespread, and many people are looking for concrete ways to bridge divides that can often feel too large or too entrenched to overcome.

Service offers one meaningful place to begin. By inviting people to work alongside one another in pursuit of a shared goal, service creates opportunities for connection that are grounded in action, presence, and mutual responsibility. It can help young people cultivate empathy, confidence, and civic-mindedness; help communities build bridges across lines of difference; and help institutions create more durable pathways into leadership, belonging, and public life.

During NationSwell’s MainStage event Restoring Social Connection in America: Common Purpose Through Service and Community Engagement on June 8, 2026, panelists explored how service can function as both a personal and collective pathway — supporting young people as they move between education and career readiness, strengthening mentorship and intergenerational relationships, and helping communities build the infrastructure needed to make connection possible at scale.

Our featured panelists included Secretary Jonny Dorsey, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation, and Senior Advisor to Maryland Governor Wes Moore; Jennifer Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director, Einhorn Collaborative; Aneesh Sohoni, CEO, Teach for America; Ginneh Baugh, Chief Impact Officer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America; and Greg Weatherford II, Director, The Allstate Foundation and Social Impact.

The conversation offered a hopeful reminder that restoring social connection does not require waiting for perfect conditions — it can begin through small, practical invitations to serve, to mentor, to lead, to listen, and to show up for one another. Some of the key insights from the discussion appear below.

Watch the event in full:

Takeaways:

  • Service can be a threshold experience. Early experiences with service can shift the way young people engage with the world around them, helping them to cultivate empathy, curiosity, and civic-mindedness in ways that ultimately strengthen social cohesion.
  • Service helps young people create career pathways out of purpose. Research shows that today’s young people crave purpose-driven careers and experiences — an opportunity to position service as a meaningful first step toward leadership, human skills, and long-term professional growth.
  • Mentorship is a practical antidote to social isolation. Connection requires presence and mutuality, not credentials or perfection. Mentorship opportunities are a portable, accessible way to help people build trust, feel seen, and cultivate relationships across lines of difference.
  • Youth-led service strengthens communities. Research shows that youth-led service can help meaningfully strengthen career readiness, connection, and resilience, making it both a viable career development strategy and community impact strategy.
  • Government, philanthropy, nonprofits, businesses, and local institutions all have a role to play in making service possible at scale. The Maryland Corps/Service Year Option is just one example of how service can address real public problems, bridge social divides, and connect young people to workforce opportunities.
  • Invite young people into service early, and make the pathway visible. Young people are ready to lead, but adults and institutions have a responsibility to invite them in. Speaking to young people early and often about service as a meaningful pathway to leadership and purpose can create the necessary first conditions for them to take a meaningful leap.

Key Quotes:

“As human beings, we are social animals. We find meaning through connection; we find love in our relationships with each other. Social connection is not a nice-to-have; this is a necessity for individual and collective thriving. The most important moments in your life likely have to do with other human beings who you felt loved by and engaged with.”

— Jennifer Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director, Einhorn Collaborative

“Our current college generation wants purpose-driven careers, and they’re thinking deeply about community. Put yourself in the shoes of an average 22-year-old: it was sometime during elementary school that social media came to be for them, and it was sometime during middle school and high school that they confronted the pandemic. Both have been drivers of social isolation in many ways, and so it’s not surprising that they’re pushing back and rejecting some of the institutions that they feel isolated them. They’re in search of being part of a community.”

— Aneesh Sohoni, CEO, Teach For America

“There is a mutuality to mentorship that really doesn’t happen in any other dynamic. One of the things we say all the time is, ‘You don’t have to be perfect, just present.’ Being able to show up as your true self is one of the things that mentorship allows people to do.”

— Ginneh Baugh, Chief Impact Officer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

“One of the things that really stands out from the research is that 82% of young people are already involved in some form of service, especially when you broaden the definition beyond what’s previously been reported and look at everyday acts of kindness young people are doing. We also saw that there were really strong links between youth-led service and career readiness, connection, and resilience. It was important for us to make sure that that got to live itself out.”

— Greg Weatherford II, Director, The Allstate Foundation and Social Impact

“The beauty of service is that you are solving multiple problems at one time. You are creating value in multiple ways at one time.”

— Secretary Jonny Dorsey, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation; Senior Advisor to Governor Wes Moore

Reimagining Workforce Readiness: Why Mental Health and Human Skills Will Define Success in the AI Economy

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

What if the greatest barrier to workforce readiness wasn’t a lack of technical skills, but the absence of systems that help young people adapt in an ever-changing world? As AI continues to reshape industries and traditional career pathways, the future of workforce readiness may depend less on what young people know and more on how effectively they collaborate, communicate, regulate stress, and navigate uncertainty. Emotional intelligence, mental health, and relationship-building are increasingly emerging not only as “soft skills,” but as essential ones.

On June 10, NationSwell convened a group of cross-sector leaders for a virtual roundtable that moved beyond compliance-driven approaches to career readiness, instead examining how relationship-centered environments, identity safety, and well-being practices hold the potential to strengthen resilience, deepen engagement, and improve long-term workforce outcomes. Some of the most salient takeaways from the discussion appear below:

Key takeaways

Invest in early career opportunities as a mental health and workforce strategy. Employment can serve as one of the most effective antidotes for mental health challenges, addressing immediate needs, like a paycheck and a support network, and unlocking long-term potential. Organizations should invest in internships, cross-departmental learning, and other early career opportunities as a means to support young people’s wellbeing and build a stronger workforce pipeline.

Reframe “soft skills” – especially relationship-building – as critical and durable work competencies. As AI takes on more knowledge-based tasks, human connection becomes an increasingly valuable differentiator. Mentorship, peer coaching, cross-functional apprenticeships, and volunteer opportunities can strengthen relationships, improve mental wellbeing, and support workforce development. Participants also emphasized the unique “win-win-win” of employee volunteering and mentoring through nonprofits, which can generate benefits for individuals, communities, and employers altogether.

Embed emotional intelligence across workflows, trainings, and culture. As young people increasingly turn to AI for mental health and career support, they miss opportunities to build socio-emotional skills, like self awareness, social awareness, and relationship management. Organizations can integrate emotional intelligence into everyday work and interactions (especially feedback processes) to strengthen human collaboration, trust, and help-seeking. Dedicated culture roles – such as culture coaches, trauma-informed specialists, and wellness buddies – can then amplify this programming.

Design employee engagement programs that help young people navigate stress, uncertainty, and change. Young people face a number of stressors – from climate anxiety and loneliness to social expectations, relationship violence, and rapid technological change – leaving them feeling overwhelmed and powerless. Leaders emphasized that civic engagement, community participation, and knowledge can help transform this anxiety into agency by giving young people a greater sense of purpose or efficacy over their environment. 

Tailor workforce training to meet educators and managers where they are. Teachers and managers, especially those operating in under-resourced systems, face their own bandwidth constraints and mental health challenges related to AI use and integration. Effective training requires understanding the different realities, priorities, and constraints across sectors, and co-developing tools and resources that range from low-lift, integrable touchpoints to deeper, long-term engagements.

Establish AI guardrails that help young people use AI safely and effectively. With AI regulation, ethical standards, and safeguards still evolving, many young people feel a general anxiety over the technology and many organizations lack clear guardrails for how to best support youth mental health and workforce development. As guardrails standardize, organizations can continue to promote basic AI literacy and responsible, ongoing learning about AI’s impacts and risks. 

Fueling Rural Prosperity on Rural Terms

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

Rural communities are seeing renewed interest from outside capital — data centers, manufacturing sites, energy infrastructure, and more – promising jobs and tax base growth. But these investments often come with tradeoffs: land taken out of agricultural use, heavy demands on water and energy systems, and decisions made far from the people most affected.

Together with leaders from business, philanthropy, and the social sector, participants took part in a conversation on how to invest in rural economic prosperity without stripping local communities of agency, exploring what responsible investment looks like when rural regions are asked to host large-scale infrastructure and enterprise and how models that prioritize local ownership, shared decision-making, and long-term community benefit can compete with extractive approaches.

Some of the most salient takeaways from the conversation appear below:

Key takeaways

  • Center rural communities as engines of innovation, not simply recipients of intervention. Rural regions are already generating meaningful experimentation around AI, workforce development, agriculture, healthcare, and cross-sector collaboration. Effective place-based strategies recognize and amplify the ingenuity already present within communities rather than approaching rural America through a deficit framework.
  • Define success with communities, not for them. Sustainable rural investment requires local residents, institutions, and leaders to shape priorities, define outcomes, and articulate what prosperity actually looks like in their context.
  • Invest in quality-of-life infrastructure as an economic development strategy. Metrics like job growth and GDP rarely capture whether a community feels resilient, hopeful, or connected. Strong schools, childcare systems, healthcare access, elder care, and community institutions are not secondary benefits of growth; they are often the conditions that make growth possible in the first place. Communities that prioritize livability and belonging are better positioned to attract and retain talent over time.
  • Build trust through local leadership and local hiring. Outside organizations move more effectively in rural communities when they work through trusted local relationships and invest in leaders who already understand the community’s culture, history, and priorities. Hiring locally and empowering community-based intermediaries accelerates credibility and deepens long-term impact.
  • Treat limited bandwidth — not lack of creativity — as the core capacity challenge. Many rural communities already possess strong ideas, entrepreneurial energy, and civic commitment, but operate with too few people carrying too many responsibilities. Strategic investments in staffing, technical assistance, and leadership development can unlock local momentum.
  • Fund partnership-building and coordination work, not just programs themselves. Coalition management, relationship-building, convening, and cross-sector alignment are often essential to rural progress, yet are chronically underfunded. Backbone organizations and intermediary partners can play a critical role in expanding local bandwidth and helping communities coordinate around shared goals.
  • Invest in local talent pipelines to create lasting economic resilience. Rural workforce strategies become more durable when communities are able to cultivate talent from within rather than relying exclusively on imported expertise. Leadership development, local service programs, education partnerships, and community-rooted career pathways can help ensure that investment remains embedded locally over time.
  • Develop more granular and community-informed data systems. County-level data often obscures important differences between neighboring communities and can fail to capture local realities altogether. Stronger rural investment strategies require more localized, mixed-method approaches that combine quantitative metrics with qualitative insights gathered directly from residents.
  • Avoid assuming that rural prosperity must look like rapid growth. In many communities, success is defined less by expansion and more by stability, continuity, and preservation.

The 1% Tax Floor and Innovative Approaches to Corporate Impact ROI

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

A new tax reality is changing the economics of corporate philanthropy: companies can now only deduct charitable contributions that exceed 1% of taxable income. That shift is forcing a more explicit conversation inside businesses about the most financially advantageous approaches to philanthropy and how—or whether—those investments generate business value alongside social outcomes.

During a May 19 virtual Leader Roundtable, senior corporate impact and philanthropy leaders from the NationSwell community kicked off a conversation on how companies are reassessing philanthropic budgets, rethinking the balance between grants, in-kind assets, and ordinary business expenses, and sharpening how they define and measure impact ROI. Some of the most salient insights from the discussion appear below:

Key Takeaways:

Collaborate cross-functionally to establish the best organizational approach for navigating the 1% tax floor. To understand the best way for your organization to navigate the 1% tax floor, it is important to align with legal, tax, and government affairs teams early and strategically. Adjustments differ depending on organizational makeup, budget cycles, and legal parameters; bunching or front-loading grants is one mechanism that organizations are considering, but other strategies include shifting the balance between corporate and foundation dollars, reclassifying some philanthropic spend as ordinary business expense, or considering the use of donor-advised funds (DAFs). 

Proactively identify and introduce opportunities for shared value inside of your organization. Social impact leaders should work toward identifying opportunities to center their work around business strategy rather than aligning community programs to a business case retroactively. Programs can be set up for success if they meet the business’s standards for rigor, are grounded in data and collaboration with business leaders, and are communicated in the language of the business. 

Lean on both quantitative and qualitative frameworks to bring a human dimension to measurement discussions. Measuring hours, dollars, and people reached is important, but these metrics alone only tell part of the story. Stories and case studies can be equally important in communicating impact, especially when discussing long-term change. 

Frame social impact initiatives as a talent development and retention driver. Some organizations are partnering with HR and L&D teams to build a more defensible, data-driven people ROI story focused on employee engagement and retention. They are analyzing the relationship between impact programs and talent outcomes – engagement, retention, skill development, and more – using existing survey data or, in some cases, developing new surveys to collect and study primary data.

Invest in human skills development as a business opportunity. With increased AI adoption, the skills that volunteerism and community engagement build — collaboration, empathy, leadership — are becoming more strategically valuable to businesses. Organizations that reframe their impact programs as a vehicle for developing these skills may be better positioned to make credible ROI cases to the business, while also providing value to employees seeking these opportunities.  

Leveraging AI & Technology to Connect More Communities to Quality Healthcare

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

Technology is reshaping healthcare access, but progress is uneven. AI, digital tools, and data platforms have the potential to extend care to underserved communities, address workforce shortages, and improve outcomes. At the same time, gaps in infrastructure, trust, and governance risk widening disparities rather than closing them.

On May 5, NationSwell convened a group of leaders from the healthcare, technology, philanthropy, and the social sectors to unpack how AI and technology can be used to connect more communities to quality care. Together, the group focused on practical strategies for deploying technology responsibly, building partnerships that center community needs, and ensuring that innovation strengthens equity, affordability, and trust in healthcare systems. Some of the most salient takeaways from the discussion appear below:

Key Takeaways:

Ensure that technology empowers community health workers as relationship builders. AI and tech are most valuable when they augment the work of community health workers rather than substitute it. The trusted, relational role that CHWs play in their communities is the irreplaceable foundation of effective care connection. All technology deployed should be designed to protect and extend that capacity.

Design AI tools with CHWs and communities. The most responsible AI adoption in healthcare requires community health workers and the communities they serve to be active participants in tool design. Without mechanisms for feedback, bias mitigation, and accountability, technology risks widening the very health inequities it aims to address.

Prioritize data security and trust as foundational. Organizations working at the intersection of technology and community health must treat data stewardship with the same rigor as the healthcare system itself. Achieving certifications, committing to governance structures, and designing platforms that bring AI into the human loop are essential to maintaining the trust that makes community engagement possible.

Address the full picture of need, not just point-of-care data. Existing data systems often capture only what brings someone into the healthcare system, missing the co-occurring social determinants of health that shape outcomes. Continuous, relationship-based data collection with the support of technology can surface a more complete and actionable picture that enables both better resource connection and effective advocacy.

Invest in AI literacy and critical capacity for the CHW workforce. Community health workers need both the practical skills to use AI tools effectively and the critical frameworks to evaluate how those tools are designed and deployed. Approaches that build competency while also developing CHW voice in governance and advocacy are critical to ensuring that the workforce shaping communities is not left behind as technology advances.

Build toward interoperability and sustainable models. For community-based organizations to achieve lasting impact through technology, they must be able to integrate securely with healthcare payer systems. Achieving interoperability opens pathways to revenue that sustains mission-driven work in ways that philanthropic funding alone cannot.

Shift the question from “can we?” to “should we?” Across sectors, the most important orientation toward AI adoption is not simply capability, but intentionality. Keeping the focus on how technology can better serve CHWs, and continuously asking whether each application advances their interventions, is the compass that keeps this work on the right path.

Building a More Inclusive and Empowering Narrative Around Wealth

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

Across the impact field, efforts to advance economic mobility and inclusive growth are encountering friction with the language we use. Wealth is often understood narrowly as accumulation or privilege rather than as a practical foundation for stability, choice, and long-term opportunity. When the narrative is muddled or loaded, it becomes harder to build durable public support for policies and programs that expand economic power.

On April 23, NationSwell invited leaders from the philanthropy, business, and social sectors to a conversation on how the impact field can develop a clearer, more inclusive narrative and vocabulary around wealth. Together, participants discussed how words like ownership, assets, security, and opportunity are landing today, where they fall short, and how reframing can better support economic mobility and inclusive growth initiatives. Some of the most salient takeaways from the conversation appear below:

Key takeaways:

Shift narratives from individual financial behavior to structural drivers of wealth. While personal choices play a role, wealth outcomes are often shaped by structural factors, such as employer retirement benefits, housing markets, and federal policies, rather than individual choices. Personal stories often highlight how factors like low wages, lack of access to capital, student debt, and historical inequities (e.g., redlining, exclusion) shape financial outcomes over generations. It is important to move away from framing wealth as purely a result of personal decision-making and toward acknowledging systemic influences. 

Use more relatable language to describe wealth and financial well-being. The term “wealth” can feel abstract or associated with extreme affluence, making it hard for many people, especially young people, to relate to. Reframing wealth in terms of savings, financial stability, or the ability to handle everyday expenses makes the concept more accessible. For example, wealth in practical terms can be described as having savings that provide a buffer against unexpected events and enable future investments like education or housing. This framing reflects how many individuals and young people actually experience financial well-being.

Normalize investing as accessible to all income levels. Individuals and communities often have the capability to build wealth but lack access to financial, social, and knowledge capital. Research shared in the discussion showed that many individuals, including those with retirement accounts, do not see themselves as “investors” and instead associate investing with a narrow demographic. Shifting this perception, so that people view themselves as investors regardless of income, is critical to changing long-term financial behavior.

Move beyond financial literacy toward asset-building opportunities. Programs focused only on budgeting or financial literacy don’t meet the needs of all populations. More effective approaches include pairing guidance with tangible opportunities – such as matched savings programs, early investment accounts, homeownership support, and youth “earn and learn” initiatives – that enable actual wealth accumulation. Additionally, social capital, especially through mentorship, is a key mechanism for helping individuals navigate systems like financial aid, education, and homeownership. Building and scaling these relationships can support broader access to economic mobility.

Bridge place-based and national approaches to wealth-building strategies. It is important to combine locally tailored strategies – grounded in community history and context – with broader national resources and infrastructure. This balance can help scale solutions while maintaining relevance to specific communities.

Improve how insights and solutions are shared across philanthropy. Philanthropy does not  always effectively share knowledge about what works. Better distribution of actionable insights, especially in accessible formats, is a major opportunity for increasing impact in the community wealth-building field. 

When and How AI Can Improve Grantmaking

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

AI is moving fast, but grantmakers are rightly cautious. Funders are under pressure to move money more efficiently, learn faster, and support grantees better, all without adding risk, burden, or opacity to an already complex system. The question is no longer whether AI will touch grantmaking, but where it can actually add value—and where it shouldn’t.

On April 16, NationSwell invited philanthropic and impact leaders to take part in a conversation on the practical use of AI in grantmaking. The conversation featured ideas about when AI can meaningfully improve decisions and workflows and how to adopt it in ways that strengthen, rather than undermine, equity, accountability, and relationships with grantees. Some of the most salient takeaways from the discussion appear below:

Key takeaways:

Assess where AI meaningfully adds value across the grantmaking process. Rather than applying AI indiscriminately, organizations should take a step back and evaluate workflows end-to-end to determine where these tools can be most effective. A thoughtful, system-level approach can promote AI application in ways that enhance, rather than complicate, existing processes.

Use AI to streamline manual and error-prone grantmaking workflows. Financial due diligence can be a highly manual, time-intensive, and error-prone process, often involving spreadsheet-based analysis or visual review of financial statements. AI tools like Grant Guardian were developed to improve accuracy and efficiency in this specific workflow. 

Reinvest time savings from AI into deeper grantee engagement. Small grantmaking teams often face hundreds of applications, creating capacity constraints. AI can be used to support summarization, rubric-based pre-review, and prioritization to help manage this volume. The reduction in processing time, from hours to minutes, can allow staff to spend more time having meaningful conversations with grantees and improving the quality of their work. 

Recognize and normalize AI use among applicants and grantees. There is growing recognition that applicants and grantees are using AI to improve efficiency, particularly in drafting and responding to applications. When used thoughtfully, this can help reduce administrative burden, though differentiation still relies on the substance of proposals and outcomes.

Consider supporting grantees’ capacity to adopt AI tools and infrastructure. As AI becomes more embedded in workflows, there is an opportunity for funders to think about how grantees can access and use these tools effectively. Supporting this capacity, particularly through flexible, operational funding, can help organizations integrate AI in ways that enhance their work, rather than treating it as a one-off programmatic expense.

Develop and deploy AI systems with responsible AI principles. Specific principles should guide all AI adoption work in grantmaking, including safety and transparency, community-centered design, bias mitigation, human-in-the-loop validation, enterprise-grade security, and sustainability considerations. Start AI adoption through structured experimentation with clear guardrails, and consider empowering early adopters to test tools within defined parameters (e.g., “stoplight” approaches to acceptable use). These frameworks can also support clearer communication and transparency about how AI is being used.

Consider AI disclosure as contextual and relational: Whether and how to disclose AI use in grantmaking processes depends on organizational policies and levels of AI involvement. While practices may vary between organizations, especially as technology grows and with wider experimentation, keep a relational and trust-based mindset.

Maintain human oversight as a core requirement in AI-assisted workflows. AI is never a substitute for human judgment, and validation and verification by users must be built into the process. Being explicit about this, both internally and externally, can help reinforce trust, particularly in a field like philanthropy that is deeply relationship-driven and values human expertise.

Design for customization of AI tools to reflect different evaluation contexts. Grantmaking organizations assess financial health and programmatic fit differently, and AI tools can be configured with varying metrics, thresholds, and profiles to match those needs. This flexibility can also support more context-sensitive and equitable evaluation approaches; for example, assessing early-stage organizations differently than more established ones. 

Predicting the Future of Work: Using Data to Build More Inclusive Workforce Systems

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

As AI and automation accelerate change across the labor market, predictive analytics offer powerful tools to anticipate which jobs, skills, and communities face the greatest risk – and where new opportunities are emerging.

On April 14, NationSwell convened a group of cross-sector leaders for a conversation on how data-driven insights can inform equitable training pathways, smarter investments, and workforce systems that are more responsive, inclusive, and resilient – ensuring workers are prepared for what’s next. Some of the most salient takeaways from the discussion appear below:

Key takeaways

Build workforce systems around capabilities, not credentials. A skills-first labor market only works if the underlying data infrastructure can recognize how people actually build skills through work, not just through degrees. When systems continue to privilege credential proxies over demonstrated capability, they miss large pools of qualified talent and reinforce inequities that workforce initiatives are meant to solve.

Pair predictive tools with better upstream data. Forecasting tools are only as strong as the signals they rely on. If workforce data continues to over-index on traditional credentials or lagging indicators, even sophisticated models will reproduce old blind spots; the real opportunity is to feed these systems richer, skills-based, real-world signals that surface emerging pathways earlier.

Invest in verified outcomes data, not just self-reported program metrics. Too much workforce decision-making still depends on incomplete or anecdotal outcome data. Expanding access to administrative wage data and other verified sources can help providers understand which programs are actually driving employment and earnings gains, and make more strategic decisions about what to scale, refine, or retire.

Use labor market data to map mobility, not just demand. It is not enough to know which jobs are growing. More useful systems help workers and practitioners understand how people can move from one role to the next based on shared skills, adjacent occupations, and realistic transition pathways, especially in a labor market where workers will increasingly need to pivot across sectors over time.

Treat durable human skills as core infrastructure. As AI and automation continue to reshape tasks, foundational capabilities like problem-solving, judgment, adaptability, collaboration, and communication are becoming more valuable. Technical requirements will keep evolving, but these underlying skills are what allow workers to remain resilient and mobile across changing tools, roles, and industries.

Redesign learning environments for experiential learning, not just memorization. Traditional teaching methodologies are increasingly challenged in a labor market where workers are expected to interpret information, make decisions, and adapt in real time. Experiential learning where people must apply knowledge, navigate ambiguity, and solve real problems better prepares learners for a world in which execution is increasingly automated and judgment is the differentiator.

Center the learner’s lived experience when designing workforce pathways. Workforce systems often default to employer demand signals and institutional priorities, but durable pathways require equal attention to how individuals actually make decisions. People choose careers based on identity, values, belonging, perceived risk, and developmental stage so the strongest systems help learners navigate options rather than simply presenting them.

Avoid replacing one rigid pathway with another. As enthusiasm grows around alternatives to four-year degrees, there is a risk of steering lower-income learners into workforce tracks while more privileged peers retain access to broader optionality. The goal is not to substitute “college for some, training for others,” but to build multiple high-quality pathways that preserve dignity, mobility, and long-term choice across backgrounds.Reframe middle-skill and nontraditional career paths as real engines of mobility. Many high-demand roles outside the traditional college track now offer strong wages, lower debt burden, and meaningful advancement potential, yet outdated perceptions still diminish their value. Shifting both rhetoric and practice to put career and college readiness on more equal footing is essential if workforce systems are going to reflect today’s economic realities.

The New Playbook for Impact Comms and Public Reporting

Posted on by Brianna Provenzano

The standard playbook for corporate impact reports and public communications has been unsettled by shifting political pressures, cultural attitudes, attention scarcity, and the introduction of AI. Yet companies still need to explain what they stand for, show progress, and build credibility with employees, investors, and the public. The organizations currently excelling in this space share a set of key attributes: a deep understanding of their audiences; auditable data; insight-driven storytelling; and the ability to adapt.

During an April 7 virtual Leader Roundtable on The New Playbook for Impact Comms and Public Reporting, leaders from the NationSwell community challenged us to rethink how data and narrative interact to showcase how the data shapes the story. We’ve collected some of the most salient insights from the conversation below, should you wish to revisit them:

Key Takeaways:

Design your communications strategy around clearly defined audience segments. Effective storytelling starts with identifying who you need to reach and what matters most to each group, then tailoring messages to reflect their priorities. This often requires translating technical language into relevant business or social outcomes and creating multiple entry points into your core narrative. Always ask, “Why should this audience care?” and adapt messaging accordingly.

Anchor communications in credible data and use narrative to bring it to life. Build reporting on auditable data, then use storytelling to explain the outcomes and human impact behind those numbers. Treat data as the backbone of your communications, and narrative as the mechanism that connects evidence to impact. This allows you to humanize outcomes rather than leading with corporate frameworks alone, ensuring your message sticks.

Maintain a consistent core message while adapting delivery to changing external conditions. Establish stable principles and core truths, but adjust tone, framing, and distribution channels as political and regulatory contexts shift. Flexibility in messaging preserves credibility, manages risk, and ensures communications remain relevant in dynamic environments.

Focus storytelling on narratives that deliver the greatest strategic value. Prioritize concise, data-backed, and purpose-driven communications over exhaustive reports. Highlight stories that connect social impact to business goals, emphasize outcomes, and avoid overcommunicating. Limited attention and reporting space require identifying the stories that move the needle most effectively.

Align impact initiatives directly to business performance and risk mitigation. Link programs to measurable business outcomes such as revenue, talent retention, or risk reduction to demonstrate their material importance. Position impact activities as contributors to core enterprise value, showcasing how “doing good” drives both social and business outcomes. This tactic proves especially critical when engaging executive leadership, including the CFO and other financial decision-makers.

Create a cross-enterprise ecosystem of reporting. Engage key stakeholders across functions, such as materiality, risk, and assurance, to build a connected village of reporting that supports consistent, credible communications. Identify the connective tissues between social impact, business performance, and brand positioning to uncover better opportunities in the marketplace.

Frame workforce and inclusion communications around enterprise-wide value. Emphasize outcomes that benefit the full employee population, such as talent development or retention, rather than narrowly focusing on specific population groups. Expand DEI storytelling to include pathways for veterans, first-generation employees, and multiple demographic segments to maintain credibility and mitigate potential backlash.

Leverage technology and AI to accelerate data analysis and broaden reporting capabilities. Deploy digital tools to streamline data collection and analysis, model potential outcomes, and generate actionable insights efficiently. Consider AI tools to explore multimedia formats for your reports to increase audience accessibility and engagement.