Category: Purpose-Driven Culture and Leadership

Welcoming New Advisors to NationSwell’s Strategic Advisory Team

Posted on by NationSwell Team

Driven by our steadfast commitment to advancing bold, effective leadership across the impact sector, NationSwell continues to deepen the ways we serve our community, expanding the insights, expertise, and strategic guidance available to help members lead with clarity and drive meaningful change. That’s why we’re thrilled to welcome three exceptional leaders to our Strategic Advisory team: Kim Dabbs, Shannon Schuyler, and Celeste Warren (pictured left to right).

They join a distinguished group of NationSwell Strategic Advisors who bring real-world experience to the challenges and opportunities facing today’s impact leaders. Together, this group supports our members across some of the most strategic and exemplary work and needs in the sector, including building resilient organizational cultures, embedding impact into business strategy, the practice of impact leadership in organizations, architecting strategies that are differentiated and built to last, and leading on issues ranging from workforce innovation to diversity and inclusion to corporate responsibility.

Kim, Shannon, and Celeste bring deep expertise and a proven track record of leading transformational change across sectors. They will support our members in a variety of ways, including one-on-one consultations, roundtable conversations, and tailored guidance. Through these engagements, they will offer new opportunities to advance impact, strengthen strategy, navigate complexity, and accelerate our members’ most important work. Their involvement will help deepen the value of membership and expand what is possible for the leaders in our community.

We’re proud to welcome them into this remarkable community of changemakers and excited for the impact they’ll have in shaping the future of social good. Read on to learn more about their journeys and the expertise they bring to the NationSwell network.

Kim Dabbs

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Belonging and Purpose, Social Innovation, Organizational Culture, DEI, Identity and Purpose, Workplace Culture, Organizational Development

Kim Dabbs is the Global Vice President of Impact at Steelcase, where she drives social innovation and fosters inclusive environments. With a background as the Executive Director of the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology and a residency at Stanford’s d.school, Kim brings deep expertise in creating equitable spaces.

 She is the best-selling author of You Belong Here: The Power of Being Seen, Heard, and Valued on Your Own Terms, which provides a framework for cultivating belonging. Kim is also the founder of To Belonging, a global community of changemakers exploring the intersection of identity and purpose. As a sought-after speaker, Kim has delivered keynotes at organizations like Google, Microsoft, MIT, and The Guggenheim, helping leaders create inclusive and impactful workplaces.

Shannon Schuyler

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Culture Activation; Aligning Purpose with Performance; Value Creation through Operational and Revenue Resilience; C-suite and Board engagement

Shannon Schuyler brings over three decades of experience transforming how organizations drive sustainable success through cultural innovation and purpose alignment. At PwC, she held multiple global leadership roles, including Chief Purpose Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, Chief Diversity Officer, Climate Risk Leader, Corporate Responsibility Leader, co-Leader of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, and President of the PwC Foundation. She has guided C-suite executives and boards across industries in embedding purpose, values, and sustainability into organizational strategy, culture, and stakeholder engagement. Shannon has also served on nonprofit boards, leading strategic planning, pro-bono funding initiatives, and executive succession.

Her insights on the link between culture and strategy have earned recognition from Fortune, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Insider, and Fast Company. Named one of the 100 People Transforming Business and a World Changing Woman in Conscious Business, Shannon is a sought-after speaker and advisor who helps organizations align purpose, culture, and strategy to achieve lasting business and societal impact.

Celeste Warren

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Organizational Culture, Talent Development, STEM Education, Leadership Strategy, Change Management

Celeste Warren is the Founder of Celeste Warren Consulting, LLC, where she guides organizations in implementing impactful diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. With over 28 years of experience, she previously served as the Vice President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Merck, where she led global diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and developed diverse talent pipelines.

Celeste is also the co-founder of Destination STEM, Inc., a nonprofit focused on supporting students of color and students in need pursuing degrees in STEM. Her work has earned her recognition as one of Black Enterprise’s “Top Executives in Global Diversity and Inclusion” and Diversity Global Magazine’s “Influential Women in Global Diversity.” She was also named Chief Diversity Officer of the Year by the National Minority Supplier Development Council in 2024.

A published author and frequent speaker, Celeste’s diversity, equity and inclusion insights have been shared globally across major platforms, publications and conferences.

To learn more about our membership community, visit nationswell.com/membership

The NationSwell Council on “The Movement to Reconnect”

Posted on by NationSwell Team

Experts have been sounding the alarm on a quiet crisis unfolding across the country: Americans are more disconnected than ever. A growing body of research points to rising rates of loneliness, fraying community ties, and a deepening sense of isolation that cuts across age, geography, and background. The costs are profound — not only to individual mental and physical health, but to our collective resilience and social fabric.

Against this backdrop, the NationSwell Council set out in the second quarter of 2025 for a Salon series dedicated to “The Movement to Reconnect”: the tapestry of solutions — such as increasing funding, inclusive programs, and spaces for meaningful interaction — that help foster stronger, more resilient communities.. In a time when polarization and disconnection often dominate the headlines, these conversations offered something different: a reminder that healing is possible when we come together in warm, curious, and collaborative ways.

We’re proud to present a selection of the insights that were shared during the course of the series — along with some powerful reflections from the leaders in attendance — below:

Key Insights

1. Service creates shared purpose and builds belonging. Participating in service-oriented activities can strengthen community ties, provide individual meaning, and counteract divisive ideologies by grounding people in shared action.

2. Polarization is flattening our relationships — and our humanity. When people are reduced to their political or cultural identities, empathy and curiosity suffer. Creating space for constructive dialogue can restore dimensionality and connection.

3. We need both bonding and bridging. Affinity spaces allow individuals to recharge within shared identity groups, while bridging spaces foster trust and understanding across difference. Both are essential for social cohesion.

4. Ritual and moral frameworks matter for belonging. Practices like gratitude, storytelling, and trauma acknowledgment — often rooted in religious tradition — can be adapted to modern settings to foster collective meaning and connection.

5. Crises are catalysts for community renewal. Moments of collective hardship can serve as inflection points to rebuild stronger, more inclusive social bonds — if we seize them with creativity and shared values.

6. Narratives shape connection. Stories that emphasize resilience, interdependence, and shared futures foster unity; divisive or fear-based narratives drive alienation and distrust.

7. Inclusive, systemic solutions are needed. Programs alone won’t solve disconnection. True impact requires structural changes, inclusive design, and active participation from those most affected.

8. Connection must be resourced and rewarded. Sustained funding, capacity-building (like train-the-trainer models), and recognition for community leaders are critical to scaling what works.

9. Higher education and local communities are key incubators. Colleges and municipalities are well-positioned to model and scale tools for connection — but must build facilitation expertise and ground efforts in local realities.

10. We need a new metric of success: community care. As we reimagine what it means to thrive, collective well-being must be valued alongside personal achievement—centering care, interdependence, and shared responsibility.

11. Loneliness is a public health crisis — and Gen Z is at its center. Young people report record levels of loneliness and a lack of meaning or purpose, exacerbating the youth mental health crisis and signaling urgent need for systems-level support.

12. Human connection is both a basic need and a powerful social tool. Strong interpersonal bonds are essential for emotional well-being — and also serve as the foundation for broader societal resilience, civic trust, and collaborative problem-solving.

13. We lack spaces for spontaneous, organic interaction. Despite widespread desire for face-to-face connection, many communities lack accessible “bumping spaces” — like parks, plazas, and community centers — where casual encounters naturally occur.

14. Technology is distorting social norms and deepening disconnection. Social media has normalized passive communication and amplifies polarization, making it harder — especially for youth — to initiate in-person connection or bridge divides.

15. Connection across differences requires intention and infrastructure. People are eager to connect across race, class, and ideology, but few are given the tools, invitations, or safe settings to do so meaningfully.

Recommended Resources

Reflections from Council members

We asked members in attendance to respond to the following prompt: “How can organizations redesign their workplace cultures to promote stronger interpersonal relationships and a sense of belonging among employees?”

“Workplaces are becoming more diverse, including more intergenerational with Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. It is necessary for them to adapt and create more inclusive environments. What is important is to humanize the workers. This can include opportunities to get to know each other. This goes beyond happy hours. It can be through ERGs. It can be through offsites. Options that speak to each generation and also identities that span generations is a strategy I have seen work.”

  • King Adjei-Frimpong, Director of Stakeholder Engagement

“If an organization is fully remote or hybrid, it’s important to invest time and space for meaningful connection to take place online. For example, as part of your weekly team coordination call, have your team share what they did over the weekend. Or bring another prompt for people to respond to. When you do meet in person, make sure to allocate time for connecting and fun. Then, measure your employees’ sense of connection and loneliness at work with this following survey tool to see how well your employees are doing.”

  • Calista Small, Research Manager, More in Common US

“Creating formal opportunities for employees to connect with each other outside of their day to day responsibilities can have a positive impact. At Girls Who Code, we recently had an org-wide step challenge (optional) with meaningful prizes for team and individual winners. Participants were broken up into random teams and it was a way for folks to have fun with and motivate each other to achieve wellness goals while instilling a little healthy competition. 

Consistently using brief ice-breakers at the start of a meeting, whether cross-functional or within a team, provides a light-lift opportunity for folks to keep learning about one another and finding connections.”

  • Tarika Barrett, CEO, Girls Who Code

“The “constant of change” is an invitation to reimagine workplace cultures, to harmonize feeling our best with doing our best. Innovation operates at the speed of trust, and we build velocity by forging affirmation, belonging, and co-creation across people and teams. 

One of my favorite levers – aka antidotes versus the old normal – is storytelling. That is how we can flip disengagement into empowerment, for any generation. I also work with organizations to shape a unity of purpose around goals and processes, which breaks down silos. At a policy level, I am striving to radically reimagine decision making. If we can transform the rooms where it happens – through student advisory boards, Dad Councils, and more – we will catapult our north star goals.”

  • Mohan Sivaloganathan, executive leader and keynote speaker

“I’ve learned from nearly two decades leading social impact organizations that belonging isn’t automatic. It emerges only when the conditions are right. Workplace cultures that foster belonging share a common characteristic — high trust between employees. I know from experience that trust begins with clarity. My mantra is to make the implicit explicit. Leaders do this by setting shared expectations, naming unspoken norms, creating space for authentic emotion (celebration and grief alike), and both setting policies and enforcing norms that make it safe for employees to bring their full selves to work. I’ve seen firsthand that, when that groundwork is in place and reinforced consistently, employees will connect and collaborate on a genuinely human level.”

  • Bethany Rubin Henderson, CEO, Compass Pro Bono

“At the Movement to Reconnect Salon, I found myself most drawn to the question of how we intentionally create space for connection—especially across lines of difference. In a time when division can feel easier than dialogue, I believe deeply in the power of community-rooted relationships to shift what’s possible. Whether within organizations or broader communities, we need to design for belonging—not just hope it happens. That means slowing down, listening with curiosity, and prioritizing trust-building as real work.”

  • Michael Pope, Executive Director, Youth Represent


Stories of Consent: Advocating for Healthy and Safe Relationships

Posted on by NationSwell Team

One in ten high school students experience dating violence before graduation, and comprehensive sexual education has been linked to prevention. Young people are leading the charge in creating more accessible and inclusive education programs and tools. Two of our NationSwell Fellows, Emily Bach and Maya Siegel, are working to scale their efforts, which focuses on bringing consent-based education to high schools and universities. Here’s a closer look at their mission — and how you can help move it forward. 

NationSwell: Tell us about your work and why it’s important.

Across the country, programs that help young people build safe, respectful relationships are under threat. Title IX, the federal statute that protects sexual violence survivors, has been significantly weakened due to the dismantling of the Department of Education. Schools are increasingly being pressured to limit how teachers and administrators discuss healthy relationships. Funding for sexual violence prevention education has been drastically reduced, with further cuts looming. 

Stories of Consent is an organization devoted to community-based consent education, particularly in states and regions where governmental policies make formal consent education inaccessible – or entirely untenable. By sharing personal stories about what affirmative consent looks and feels like, we aim to make consent education more accessible, actionable, and relatable to young people. Our goal is to fill legislative and policy gaps to ensure that young people have the tools to form safe, healthy relationships. 

NS: You both have worked alongside high school-age youth to build Stories of Consent. What are some lessons from collaborating with these young people?

Currently, if consent is taught in schools, young people typically learn about it through legal language or punchy acronyms. They learn what actions could lead to jail time. In some states, they’re taught that consent is as easy as FRIES: freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic, and specific. This is a great foundation – but it can’t be the end of the conversation. How many of us pause to run through a checklist before kissing someone?

We are almost always navigating consent in the context of our relationships, interpreting various forms of communication. Young people know this, even when their education doesn’t reflect it.  They often turn to friends for advice on situations our education system fails to formally address. They learn about consent through public media and the internet. These facts reveal something important about consent education: even in states without mandates, consent education is happening – but it tends to happen on an individual or interpersonal basis. 

Stories of Consent acts as a structured space for young people to have conversations about how consent looks, sounds, and feels in the context of their lives. We offer some ground rules for engagement – like defining affirmative consent – but we also encourage young people to engage with the project on their own terms. They bring the questions. We help create a safe space to explore the answers.

NS: How is implementing your education programming with college students different from students in middle school?

The best educational programs adapt to meet the people they serve. This often (but not always) means that college students are looking for guidance on navigating consent in increasingly complicated situations. For example, most of us would agree that discussing the relationship between consent and alcohol use would be inappropriate in a middle school classroom. But with college students, it’s one of the most common and relevant topics of discussions. Our project is designed to address consent in the kinds of situations students are most likely to encounter, and it naturally evolves with those situations. 

Importantly, this dynamic holds true across different identity groups. Our stories have been used in a support group for transgender students, where a facilitator focused on stories from LGBTQ+ youth. They’ve also been used by feminist groups to examine the different expectations placed on women’s sexuality. We collect stories from people of different ages, backgrounds, identities, and experiences so students can see themselves in the stories — and find language that fits their own experiences.

NS: What do you hope your work will accomplish long-term?

Long term, our goal is to contribute to a cultural shift in how the next generation understands consent. For example, 50 years ago, the culture around drunk driving was vastly different. It was frowned upon, but not widely seen as a serious safety risk. That perception changed through advocacy – largely led by mothers – who highlighted its dangers and potential long-term impacts on others. As a result, rates of drunk driving have substantially decreased. 

Our goal is to foster a similar cultural shift around consent. We want it to be widely understood as necessary for any healthy romantic or sexual activity. We believe that shift will only happen when young people understand the human impact of practicing consent. 

NS: How can people get involved?

Visit storiesofconsent.com to read or share a story, or bring Stories of Consent to your school or organization. Teachers, students, school administrators, and community organizers can also reach out to us to host Stories of Consent exhibits at their schools. We provide the materials for free. Our contact information can be found at our website or on our Instagram page, @storiesofconsent. 

Additionally, we partner with SafeBAE to train young people to become educators in their communities through their Peer Educator Training. If you’re interested in becoming a peer educator or supporting one, visit safebae.org to learn more. 

Learn more about the NationSwell Fellows program: https://nationswell.com/studio/nationswell-fellows/

Meet NationSwell’s Strategic Advisors

Posted on by NationSwell Team

In today’s environment, impact leaders need trusted, experienced partners in their corner. To provide cut-through personalized support and deep value to the impact leaders we serve, NationSwell is thrilled to welcome six extraordinary leaders into our community as Strategic Advisors.

One of our aims at NationSwell is to fast-track our members to the most valuable and actionable insights, knowledge, best practices, relationships and thought-partnership that they need to accelerate their impact and lead at their best. These days, there is no time to waste. 

Our Strategic Advisors have been admired and effective practitioners. They have led the functions that our members lead, have sat in their seats and bring practical insights, perspective and approaches that will help our community members to navigate the current waters effectively, with principle and in service of impact work that is built to last. They will join NationSwell tables, provide 1:1 advisory sessions and contribute to the spirit of mutual support, connection and inspiration at the center of our community.

Most have been long-term members and dear friends. We are thrilled to welcome them now as Strategic Advisors. Get to know them below.

Dr. John Brothers

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Philanthropy, Nonprofit Leadership, Social Policy, Community Development

John Brothers most recently served as President of the T. Rowe Price Foundation and T. Rowe Price Charitable, overseeing $750M in assets. He founded and led Quidoo, an international consulting firm, for over a decade before merging it in 2015. At T. Rowe Price, he spearheaded initiatives like the Elevation Awards, DesignFest, and Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, establishing the firm as a leader in trust-based philanthropy and community partnerships.

Dr. Brothers has over 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience, with expertise in youth development, social services, and the arts. He has taught social policy and nonprofit management at NYU, Rutgers, and served as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard. He also holds honorary and visiting roles at Queens University Belfast and the China Global Philanthropy Institute.

A prolific writer and speaker, John has contributed to Stanford Social Innovation Review, Nonprofit Quarterly, and Huffington Post, and been featured in major media including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Inspired by his upbringing in poverty, he began his career as a community organizer and case manager, advancing to leadership roles that support vulnerable families across the U.S. and internationally.

Maggie Carter

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: CSR, Health Equity, Impact Measurement, Tech for Good, Cause Marketing, Community Resilience

Maggie Carter is a senior advisor and consultant specializing in strategic planning, impact measurement, program development, and partnerships. She previously served as Director of Social Impact at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she led initiatives in health equity, disaster response, environmental equity, and tech education. 

During her tenure, she co-directed Project Sunflower, earning the Ukraine Peace Prize. Before AWS, Maggie was Vice President of Corporate Partnerships at UNICEF USA, overseeing corporate engagement, philanthropic grants, and cause-related marketing. She also served on the Steering Committee for UNICEF Innovation. Previously, as Deputy Director of the Shot@Life campaign at the United Nations Foundation (2011–2014), she co-created the award-winning “Get a Shot. Give a Shot.” campaign with Walgreens. Maggie began her career in social responsibility and community relations with the National Basketball Association and the Atlanta Braves. She is pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at George Mason University and holds a Bachelor’s in Health Sciences from James Madison University.

Tom Key

EXPERT IN RESIDENCE
Areas of Expertise: Career Advisory, Talent Networking

Tom has built his career in executive search and career advisory, pioneering talent networking programs for top management consulting firms, now industry standards. Starting at Egon Zehnder, he founded Bain & Co.’s executive talent network and later replicated it at BCG. In 2022, he joined World 50 Group to expand career advisory services for executives.

Having coached around 1,000 executives, Tom expertly navigates executive and board-level searches across public and private sectors. An avid networker, he connects leaders to accelerate career transitions.

Tom is an adjunct professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, teaching courses on executive search and networking since 2004. In 2025, he began co-teaching entrepreneurship at Brandeis University and advises Emory’s Laney Graduate School on PhD career transitions. He has also spoken at HBS, Kellogg, and Wharton.

He holds a BA in Economics and Asian Studies from Denison University and an MBA from Emory. Tom lives in Atlanta with his wife, dogs, a retired horse, and their twin college-aged daughters.

Michael Kobori

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Sustainability Leadership, Human Rights, Sustainable Finance, ESG Regulations, Industry Collaboration.  

Michael Kobori is an independent Board Director at Bunge Global and recently retired as Chief Sustainability Officer at Starbucks, where he led environmental sustainability, social impact, and human rights. Previously, he was Vice President of Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co., helping establish the company as a leader in sustainable apparel. He has nearly a decade of experience at The Asia Foundation supporting human rights and economic development in Asia. Michael serves on the President’s Leadership Council of The Asia Foundation, the U.S.-Japan Council, and is Executive Producer of Utopia Theatre Project, a social justice theater company. 

Michael has taught corporate sustainability at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and served on numerous sustainability boards and advisory committees, including the Better Cotton Initiative and Sustainable Apparel Coalition. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy and undergraduate degrees in Asian Studies and Psychology from UC Berkeley and studied sustainable finance at Oxford University.

Rose Kirk

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Areas of Expertise: Go-to-market, Responsible Innovation, Impact Imperative, Career Development, Building Influence and Reputation

Rose Kirk is a C-level executive with more than 35 years of experience leading sales, marketing, customer service, go-to-market strategies, and responsible innovation. Beginning as an award-winning journalist, she rose to senior leadership at Verizon across Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing, earning a reputation as an innovator and trailblazer.

She serves on the board of Casella Waste Systems, contributing to its Compensation and Nominating and ESG committees, and has held leadership roles in global nonprofits. Passionate about history’s role in shaping the future, Rose is on the National Archives Foundation board and supports the arts through Texas Women for the Arts.

Rose holds a BS from Arkansas State University and is completing a master’s thesis at Washington University. Featured in outlets like Good Morning America, Forbes, and BBC, she is also executive producer of the documentary Without A Net: The Digital Divide in America.

AiLun Ku

STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Areas of Expertise: Leadership Development, Educational and Workforce Access, Systems Change Strategy, Community Building, Organizational Growth and Management

AiLun Ku is the Vice President of Community and Capacity at the EGF Accelerator, where she redesigns and leads leadership development programs, community-building efforts, and strategic grantmaking to strengthen the nonprofit sector.

Previously, AiLun was the President and CEO of The Opportunity Network, where she scaled programs reaching over 50,000 students annually and secured the largest unrestricted gift in the organization’s history. There, she led all aspects of the organization, including programming, evaluation, finance, operations, and national growth. 

She is a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator, a Pahara Fellow, a Heckscher Leadership Fellow, and a dedicated educator and advisor. AiLun is passionate about access, leadership, and cultivating inclusive, high-impact communities.

Before OppNet, AiLun worked at NYU Wagner, the Equal Justice Initiative, and other social impact organizations. She holds an MPA and BA from NYU and is a 2019 MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow.

To learn more about our membership community, visit nationswell.com/membership

The NationSwell Council on the power of community

Posted on by NationSwell Team

In the first quarter of 2025, the NationSwell Council set out on a cross-country journey for a Salon series dedicated to unlocking The Power of Community.

Designed to explore the ways that a strong sense of community can serve as the foundation for shared purpose, empathy, and mutual support — particularly in times of division — the series convened a number of incredible and diverse cross-sector leaders concerned with the creation and maintenance of robust communities. From incentivizing collective action to the bridging of generational divides to empowering youth to facilitating leadership development, our members shared a number of heartfelt, resonant insights on the ways they’re helping to make their communities stronger.

We’re proud to present a selection of those insights — along with some of the most powerful resources that were shared during the course of the series — below:

Key Insights:

  1. Urgency shouldn’t only arrive with disaster: In moments of crisis, we say yes quickly, clearly, and without hesitation. What would it look like to show up with that same energy and commitment for our communities absent a crisis?
  2. Empathy is a muscle, not a trait: It needs consistent practice. We can build it into our daily habits, our systems, and our institutions. The question is not if we have empathy, but how often we choose to use it.
  3. Be more human, more of the time: In a world that often prioritizes efficiency over connection, how can we slow down and really see the people around us, in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our communities?
  4. Community involvement and collective action: Effective community development relies on the active participation of individuals who are invested in their local area. These community members play a crucial role in identifying and addressing issues that affect their neighborhoods. The collective effort of residents is essential for creating sustainable solutions, as their proximity to the problems allows for a nuanced understanding of local challenges.
  5. Bridging generational gaps: Even in relatively homogeneous communities, a diversity of generations exists, each with its own perspectives and experiences. This generational diversity can lead to conflicts, particularly when young people with innovative ideas clash with older generations who may be more resistant to change.
  6. Youth engagement and empowerment: Engaging and empowering youth is crucial for the long-term sustainability of community development efforts. Key issues that concern young people include: physical safety and mental health; equity and justice; economic mobility; and sustainability
  7. Digital landscape and education: Today’s youth are digital natives, primarily using mobile devices for online activities. However, this familiarity with mobile technology does not necessarily translate to proficiency in computer skills required for higher education and professional environments. Additionally, young people may be more susceptible to online fraud compared to older generations.
  8. Leadership development and empowerment: Creating strong leadership pipelines is essential for the long-term success of community development initiatives. This process should begin early, ideally in junior high school, to build people capital and prepare the next generation for leadership roles.
  9. Cross-sector collaboration and engagement:
    • Cross-sector partnerships are indispensable for community building, as they bring together diverse expertise and perspectives. This collaboration enables communities to leverage a wide range of skills and resources, ultimately leading to more effective solutions.
    • Authentic Engagement: Genuine engagement with communities is crucial. This involves active listening and observation, ensuring that the needs and voices of community members are heard and respected.

Resources:

Books:

Music:

  • “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles
  • “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers
  • “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King
  • “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me)” by The Staple Singers
  • “Good Vibes” by Rebelution
  • “Rise Up” by Andra Day
  • “Beautiful People” by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid
  • “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman
  • “With My Own Two Hands” by Ben Harper
  • “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles
  • “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers
  • “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King
  • “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me)” by The Staple Singers
  • “Good Vibes” by Rebelution
  • “Rise Up” by Andra Day
  • “Beautiful People” by Ed Sheeran featuring Khalid
  • “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman
  • “With My Own Two Hands” by Ben Harper

Podcasts:

  • The Power of Community
  • Masters of Community
  • The Community Development Institute
  • Mosaic’s Community Life Podcast

Other resources:

NationSwell Fellows Accelerator: Empowering the Future of Social Innovation

Posted on by NationSwell Team

NationSwell is excited to reintroduce our pilot NationSwell Fellows Accelerator Program, sponsored by Jon & Wendy Stahl, which offers young leaders the strategic support, connections and leadership development needed to turn their interventions into sustainable and meaningful interventions. This cohort has been moving on the four key areas of the program – building and refining a theory of change, building organizational structure and presence, stakeholder engagement  and storytelling. We are honored to remind our networks of the incredible fellows who have been working with us and introduce a new pair of co-founders joining this pilot program.


EMILY BACH (ANY PRONOUNS)

Emily Bach is an organizer and educator based in Oakland, California. Her research on community-based consent education has been presented across 9 universities, and they currently serve as a peer reviewer at the American Journal of Sexuality Education. Emily sits on the Board of Directors at SafeBAE, Stories of Consent’s fiscal sponsor. 


MAYA SIEGEL (SHE/HER)

Maya Siegel is a digital strategist based in Denver, Colorado. Her work focuses on narrative-centered initiatives to foster a more sustainable and equitable future. She currently serves as the Platforms Manager at FEMINIST, the largest (6M+ followers across platforms) women-owned nonprofit media platform for women, girls, and gender-expansive people, and is a founding board member at Intersectional Environmentalist. 

Together, they are the co-founders of Stories of Consent, the first and only national organization in the United States that uses a youth-led, peer-education model to provide consent education in states without educational mandates. In just a year and a half, they initiated conversations about consent with over 462,000 individuals and have implemented an educational model that impacts middle and high school students across 45 U.S. states. They are excited to be joining NationSwell’s pilot Accelerator Program.


ALEX ANG (SHE/HER)

Alex Ang is a content creator and mental health advocate living in Saint Paul, MN. Through her work, she is dedicated to increasing access to mental health resources and developing storytelling around cultural competency, anxiety awareness and workplace mental health. She currently sits on the NAMI StigmaFree Advisory Board for Workplace Mental Health, and is the host of a mental health podcast, a is for anxious. 

Through these last few months of the accelerator, she has been working on her project, Mental Health Mailboxes, a community-based campaign aimed at increasing access to free mental health resources and acts as a catalyst for mental health awareness, using the power of collective aid and resource exchange to curate a source of mental health stories and resources. The idea is a simple one: Place a Mental Health Mailbox in your community and watch as community-members populate its shelves with an abundance of resources, suited to each community’s culture and location.


JORGE ALVAREZ (HE/HIM)

Jorge Alvarez is a first-gen Latine Social Impact Strategist, Mental Health Advocate, & Creator who has taken his mental health advocacy from lecture halls on his college campus, to millions online, and even to The White House. After being recognized by MTV as 1 of 30 participants to be part of the inaugural Mental Health Youth Action Forum at The White House where he spoke alongside Selena Gomez, the U.S. First Lady, and the U.S. Surgeon General, Jorge went on to consult companies and nonprofits alike on campaign messaging, program development, and BIPOC/youth engagement strategies. Most recently, he advised MTV and sActive Minds, a youth mental health nonprofit, on their national mental health campaign called A.S.K.– the stop, drop, & roll for young people to emotionally support their friends! Online, he uses his love for storytelling to spark dialogue for collective reflection, unlearning limiting beliefs, and breaking cycles leading to his community of +130,000 across social platforms. While he loves creating, Jorge works directly with communities by speaking at venues, universities, and institutions across the U.S. to empower and educate young people and allies about mental health, social media, advocacy, and more. 


JAZMINE ALCON (SHE/HER)

Jazmine brings over 7 years of experience in the mental health advocacy space and is dedicated to transforming the mental health narrative to be more culturally relevant, engaging, and accessible. Her work has been rooted in empowering BIPOC communities, which she has executed through health equity, community, and marketing initiatives in the non-profit and corporate sectors. Jazmine is an Ilocana immigrant who believes that storytelling is fundamental in creating systemic and collective change in how we address youth mental health. Jazmine holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health with a minor in Health and Society. She is also the co-founder of AAPI Mental Health, a digital platform dedicated to redefining the mental health conversation in the Asian and Pacific Islander community. In her free time, Jazmine likes to create art, hang out with her friends and cat, and be outdoors!

Together, the pair have been building on their work in the Accelerator Program. Titled, I’ve Been Meaning to Tell you, this campaign consists of a non-scripted interview-style video web series featuring difficult yet sincere intergenerational dialogue between BIPOC parents or guardians and their children (ages 18-26). Given the impact of cultural, ethnic, and racial nuance, each episode will spotlight how vulnerable and intimate conversations between parents and children of color can lead to a place of understanding. This campaign will not only invoke emotion and demonstrate that having intimate and vulnerable conversations between different generations is possible and why it’s important to do so, but it will also inspire others to have these same conversations. Ultimately, our goal is to use digital content to drive traffic toward culturally relevant resources with actionable next steps with viewers to continue the conversation.

Learn more about the NationSwell Fellows Program here.

NationSwell Recognized with Five Anthem Awards for Social Impact Initiatives

Posted on by NationSwell Team

NationSwell was honored yesterday with five Anthem Awards for its transformative work in advancing social impact. The 4th Annual Anthem Awards was the most competitive season yet with more than 2,300 entries submitted from 34 countries worldwide. Anthem Winners are selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

The Awards recognized NationSwell’s Case for Childcare for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion with Gold in Digital & Innovative Experiences and Silver in Partnership or Collaboration; Place-Based Impact for Humanitarian Action and Services with Silver in Research Projects or Publications and Bronze in Digital & Innovative Experiences; and Civics Inc. in Human & Civil Rights with Bronze in Research Projects or Publications. These honors are a testament to NationSwell’s dedication to strategic partnerships and community-based action to address society’s most pressing challenges.

“We’re honored to be recognized by the Anthem Awards, and we’re incredibly proud of the work behind each of these projects,” said Greg Behrman, CEO and Founder of NationSwell. “The Case for Childcare, Place-Based Impact, and Civics Inc. exemplify our collaborative approach, bringing together leaders from diverse fields to drive scalable impact. This recognition fuels our mission to provide essential support to impact leaders across sectors, and we’re deeply grateful to our partners who make this work possible.”

NationSwell will celebrate its five Anthem Awards at this year’s annual NationSwell Summit on Thursday, November 21. There, over 250 leaders across corporations, nonprofits, foundations, philanthropies, and government will convene to share insights, recognize achievements, and inspire collective action under the theme, “Hope in Action.” 

The Anthem Awards highlight the mission-driven work of individuals, organizations, and companies that drive impactful change globally. NationSwell’s recognition by the Anthem Awards reinforces its position as a trailblazer in the social impact sector. The company remains committed to engaging new partners, expanding the reach of these impact initiatives, and setting new standards for meaningful, community-driven change. 

Awarded Projects

The Case for Childcare Collaborative formed in 2022 to explore the business case for supporting childcare. In February 2024 a comprehensive website was launched to showcase data, success stories, and policy recommendations, underscoring an equitable childcare system’s critical role in supporting families, communities, and the economy. The Collaborative expanded its work this year to explore childcare-for-all benefits centered on frontline, gig, and hourly workers. Childcare solutions will also be featured at the upcoming NationSwell Summit with a panel discussion presented by Pivotal Ventures.

Place-Based Impact is a Collaborative focused on place-based approaches to community development. Through insights and case studies featured on the funder’s guide website, the Collaborative provides practical guidance and real stories of impact in action to inspire more funding that is community-led, place-specific and long term. Forging a new standard in collaborative impact, the work continues to build a leading community of practice around place-based philanthropy.

Civics Inc. was released in May 2024 to empower organizations in supporting civic engagement through insights, tools, and shared knowledge from our community of practice. By advancing civic education and participation, Civics Inc. provides a strategic framework to help employers customize their efforts to contribute to a democratic society.

Interesting in joining a NationSwell Collaborative? Connect with us to learn more.

I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: Intergenerational Mental Health Conversations

Posted on by Syd Goin

Mental health is a growing societal concern which leaders across sectors are increasingly recognizing.  In honor of World Mental Health Day, we spoke with Jazmine and Jorge, two of the NationSwell Fellows taking part in our pilot Accelerator Program, about their work breaking down barriers to mental health awareness and practice in BIPOC communities. They’re producing and refining a digital content series and resource project which  specifically focuses on the dynamics between parents/caregivers and their children, specifically in showing and recognizing help-seeking and help-giving behaviors. This work comes at a pivotal time on the heels of an advisory by the Surgeon General on the mental health and well-being of parents and caregivers. 

NationSwell: Tell us about your work and why it’s important?

We’ve developed an unscripted video series on intergenerational mental health conversations between BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) youth and their caregivers with Dr. Monica Band, a trauma-informed licensed mental health therapist,  along with a digital resource on mental health myths and best practices around having nurturing discussions around mental health. We know, first hand, these types of conversations can be touchy in our communities. 

These will all be available in several languages which is really important to us because we want to ensure that the populations that we’re serving can really use this. According to a 2020 ACS survey, 25% of US households speak a language other than English. We really want to make sure that this is usable for the folks and communities that we’re looking to highlight and center within the work.

One of the big myths that we’re working to demystify is that mental health is a “white people thing”. Due to a lack of understanding, a lot of older folks within BIPOC communities don’t  consider it urgent enough to prioritize, take care of, or even begin to learn about how to have conversations around it. This makes being open and vulnerable with one another difficult which is important when establishing strong connections rooted in trust. 

The inspiration for the video series stems from our personal experiences having conversations with parents and the difficulty in having to translate our mental health struggles. Currently in our communities, it’s often the responsibility of youth to be the ones starting and carrying these conversations. We really want to provide a blueprint to make it less intimidating for both parties. We hope to encourage people to have important conversations with their loved ones so they can be there for each other and build really strong systems of support and care. 

We really aim to help bridge the generational gaps between caregivers and their children to nurture and foster compassion and increase understanding that mental health is a part of the human experience. While it can be difficult to be vulnerable, it doesn’t necessarily always have to be complicated. You don’t need to be an expert to ask people if they’re okay. You don’t need to have a degree to have a conversation about mental health and just show people that you care.

NS: What are the unique barriers faced by communities of color when it comes to mental health?

There are a lot of barriers faced by marginalized groups, specifically people of color, when it comes to mental health. Our project aims to tackle three specific barriers.

First, is the stereotypes in BIPOC communities that exist around mental health, including that mental health struggles are a sign of weakness, that it reflects poorly on the family, and that it’s just airing out a family’s dirty laundry. A report on mental health seeking barriers in U.S. teen populations found teens from ethnic minority backgrounds 49% of Black teens feared being seeing as week or not mentally strong compared to 42% of non-black teens; for Hispanic/Latinx teens reported feeling unsafe, unsupported, and afraid of retaliation as barriers to help-seeking; 47% of Asian teens reported their problems were not serious enough to talk to others about, compared to 42% of the general population. These beliefs encourage isolation and a lack of support from within BIPOC communities.

There isn’t a strong foundation or clear examples on how to support people with mental health needs, particularly young people. This can discourage BIPOC youth from seeking mental help and further encourages parents and caregivers to deprioritize their own mental health.

Second, is the cultural and language barriers.  When folks do begin to seek services, there’s a shortage of culturally competent and sensitive care. Culture is a big piece of people’s identity so finding care that takes this into consideration is very important in people feeling safe, protected, and incentivized to continue care.

Finally, we aim to address historical trauma between BIPOC communities and the healthcare system, which has a history of fostering mistrust – according to a recent survey, 69% of people from ethnic minority groups self-reported distrusting healthcare providers. The healthcare system in the US was not created with Black and Brown people’s wellness  in mind. So the policies, funding, research, representation in media, etc., are void of Black and Brown voices to center our wants and needs.

NS: What are the benefits for BIPOC parents in embracing mental health awareness and practice?

Parents working on normalizing and increasing their awareness of mental health and how to practice caring for others within the community strengthens their interpersonal relationships. Through these unscripted conversations, we’re trying to demonstrate how these discussions can look in real time, modeling what help seeking behavior looks like, and what giving support looks like. 

There is a lot of cultural messaging that encourages children to talk to their parents about what’s going on in their lives, and for parents to ask their children about what they’re going through. But there is a lack of knowledge on how to actually put this into practice, whether it’s conversation starters, supportive behaviors, or ways to affirm a loved one. Our videos will model empathetic conversations between parents and their children. We’re hoping they will act as a guide on what healthy conversations, that strengthen connections and deepen bonds, can look like. 

Our goal with these videos and resources is to nurture open lines of communication between parents and children, especially with the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisories on the youth mental health crisis and the most recent one on parental well-being.

NS: What do BIPOC kids want from their parents when it comes to understanding mental health?

You don’t need to be an expert to show people you care about their mental health. BIPOC parents want to say the right thing and that can make them fearful to approach these types of discussions. Children are not always looking for their parents to fix anything or offer solutions. Instead of assuming what your kids want, ask them what they need and how they want to be supported and center them in those conversations. We want to feel like we’re being seen and understood – 

Ways you can do this are through active listening, asking questions, allowing them to lead the conversation, and trusting and believing what your child is telling you without questioning them. If your child comes to you with something they’re struggling with, assure them that you’re going to be there for them. You don’t need to come with plan A, B or C, just show support in a way that makes them feel heard.

NS: What do you hope your work will accomplish long-term?

Our hope is that by beginning these conversations, we are ultimately promoting a future where mental health discussions are normalized across generations, breaking generational cycles of trauma and suffering in silence.

We want our series and guide to make people feel hopeful and inspired to build stronger relationships and connections with people in their communities.  

NS: How can people get involved?

Please share our story and work with folks you think this could be helpful for and more broadly with your networks. The more people are aware of what we’re doing, the more we can spread our message and ensure these resources reach the people who need them.

If people or organizations are able to provide funds or even resources on how to access funds – we are always looking for grants we can apply for.

We’re currently expanding our team right now, slowly but surely. So, if you’re interested in getting involved in a more hands-on way, connect with us on through LinkedIn: Jorge Alvarez, Jazmine Alcon

NationSwell Fellows Accelerator Program: Accelerating Young Leader’s Social Impact

Posted on by Syd Goin

NationSwell is proud to announce our pilot NationSwell Fellows Accelerator Program, sponsored by Jon & Wendy Stahl. The Accelerator provides young leaders the strategic support, connections and leadership development needed to turn their interventions into sustainable and meaningful interventions, so they have the foundations they need to continue building on their work long after they complete the program.  The four key areas the program will focus on are: building and refining a theory of change, building organizational structure and presence, stakeholder engagement  and storytelling. We are honored to announce the fellows who will be joining our first ever accelerator program. Meet our fellows!

ALEX ANG | Mental Health Mailboxes


ALEX ANG (SHE/HER)

Alex Ang is a content creator and mental health advocate living in Saint Paul, MN. Through her work, she is dedicated to increasing access to mental health resources and developing storytelling around cultural competency, anxiety awareness and workplace mental health. She currently sits on the NAMI StigmaFree Advisory Board for Workplace Mental Health, and is the host of a mental health podcast, a is for anxious. 

Her accelerator project, Mental Health Mailboxes, is a community-based campaign aimed at increasing access to free mental health resources and acts as a catalyst for mental health awareness, using the power of collective aid and resource exchange to curate a source of mental health stories and resources. The idea is a simple one: Place a Mental Health Mailbox in your community and watch as community-members populate its shelves with an abundance of resources, suited to each community’s culture and location.

JORGE ALVAREZ + JAZMINE ALCON | Bridging The Generational Gap


JORGE ALVAREZ (HE/HIM)

Jorge Alvarez is a first-gen Latin Social Impact Strategist, Mental Health Advocate, & Creator who has taken his mental health advocacy from lecture halls on his college campus, to millions online, and even to The White House. After being recognized by MTV as 1 of 30 participants to be part of the inaugural Mental Health Youth Action Forum at The White House where he spoke alongside Selena Gomez, the U.S. First Lady, and the U.S. Surgeon General, Jorge went on to consult companies and nonprofits alike on campaign messaging, program development, and BIPOC/youth engagement strategies. Most recently, he advised MTV and Active Minds, a youth mental health nonprofit, on their national mental health campaign called A.S.K.– the stop, drop, & roll for young people to emotionally support their friends! Online, he uses his love for storytelling to spark dialogue for collective reflection, unlearning limiting beliefs, and breaking cycles leading to his community of +130,000 across social platforms. While he loves creating, Jorge works directly with communities by speaking at venues, universities, and institutions across the U.S. to empower and educate young people and allies about mental health, social media, advocacy, and more. 


JAZMINE ALCON (SHE/HER)

Jazmine brings over 7 years of experience in the mental health advocacy space and is dedicated to transforming the mental health narrative to be more culturally relevant, engaging, and accessible. Her work has been rooted in empowering BIPOC communities, which she has executed through health equity, community, and marketing initiatives in the non-profit and corporate sectors. Jazmine is an Ilocana immigrant who believes that storytelling is fundamental in creating systemic and collective change in how we address youth mental health. Jazmine holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health with a minor in Health and Society. She is also the co-founder of AAPI Mental Health, a digital platform dedicated to redefining the mental health conversation in the Asian and Pacific Islander community. In her free time, Jazmine likes to create art, hang out with her friends and cat, and be outdoors!

Together, Jorge and Jazmine are working on a project titled “I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You,” and it’s a campaign consisting of a non-scripted interview-style video web series featuring difficult yet sincere intergenerational dialogue between BIPOC parents or guardians and their children (ages 18-26). Given the impact of cultural, ethnic, and racial nuance, each episode will spotlight how vulnerable and intimate conversations between parents and children of color can lead to a place of understanding. This campaign will not only invoke emotion and demonstrate that having intimate and vulnerable conversations between different generations is possible and why it’s important to do so, but it will also inspire others to have these same conversations. Ultimately, our goal is to use digital content to drive traffic toward culturally relevant resources with actionable next steps with viewers to continue the conversation.

ERICKA KAMANOU-TENTA | Agents of Change


ERICKA KAMANOU-TENTA (SHE/HER)

Ericka Kamanou-Tenta is an American-Cameroonian purpose-driven Social Entrepreneur who firmly believes in the transformative potential of decolonization to drive positive change and foster community development. She is a recent graduate of NYU where she studied Global Public Health with a minor in Social Entrepreneurship, and a current MPH Candidate at Yale University. Her fervor for African development has led her to start building a Pan-African movement, dedicated to nurturing leadership within Africa and its Diaspora through entrepreneurship.

Her project focuses on developing an entrepreneurial training ground or program that empowers African and Black young adults to see themselves as agents of change and overcome the mental limitations caused by centuries of colonialism.   

To learn more about the NationSwell Fellows Accelerator and how to get involved, please reach out to Minna Son (Director of Programs & Strategy, NationSwell Studio).

What I Mean When I Say I’m an Impact Strategist

Posted on by Amy Lee

Ever since I left the law firm where I started my career, many of my friends and family have struggled to understand exactly what I do for a living. My kids are convinced “talking to people and writing emails” is the sum of my job. In reality, post law, I spent ten years at a global branding agency, and I now proudly hold the lengthy title of Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Director of Studio at NationSwell. The through line to my winding path has been my ability to give people useful advice to help them achieve their goals.

And that in essence is what I mean when I say I’m a strategist — specifically, an impact strategist, since I now have the honor of working with leaders on the cutting edge of driving social and environmental impact, through my role at NationSwell.

For those that don’t know, NationSwell is an executive membership community and consultancy serving change-makers who are advancing solutions to meet the world’s most urgent challenges and opportunities — including addressing economic inequality, racial and social justice, climate resilience, workforce development innovation, health equity, and much more. In short, we serve the people in every sector who are trying to make the world better for all of us.

The consultancy offer at NationSwell runs through our Studio — an award-winning team of analysts, advisors, designers, event planners and program managers working in partnership with organizations to help them achieve their specific goals: from defining the impact strategy that guides their non profit partnerships, grant-making and employee engagement, to running Collaboratives of diverse partners to take collective action for change, to engaging audiences and driving support for solutions through creative storytelling.

Perhaps it’s helpful to break down what that work looks like in practice.

Rather than run through all the things we can do, it’s more interesting to focus on what makes us distinctive. At NationSwell Studio we go beyond standard consulting to be our partners’ hands-on champion for impact: blending strategic rigor and creative ambition with unabashed humanity and thoughtful understanding of the issues we’re tackling. We inspire our partners to explore new perspectives on the work and make it possible for them to reach new goals. And we measure our impact not just through effective outcomes, but also through the innovative, equitable processes we use to get those results.

Let me give you a few examples:

  • The NationSwell Studio sits at the heart of an impact ecosystem of members working on intersecting issues, including leaders from and working directly with impacted communities. It can seem easier to come up with solutions that work for institutions first, and assume individual needs. In contrast, we ensure community expertise and original insights inform our strategic work, and we use connections, facilitated events and — where possible — co-working with those communities, to make sure that beneficiaries have a seat at the table to shape how businesses and philanthropies direct funding and support.

    For example, we worked with American Family Insurance to create a blueprint for how they and other companies could act as authentic partners in progress to young climate advocates. As well as conducting an extensive ‘empathy tour’ of interviews, we included several young advocates on our team, planning and facilitating a series of workshops with other climate activists. This collaboration was essential to ensure that those sessions felt sensitive to the participants’ wellbeing and state of mind, were trusted and generative forums for discussion, and that the recommendations on investments, partnerships and capacity-building that followed were co-created by the very people they were intended to serve.

  • While we see common patterns in what our partners need, and constantly leverage the bank of proprietary insights created by our in-house Insights Team, we also like to be in a state of constant listening at NationSwell: absorbing what our community of members are raising in 1:1 meetings and discussions at our 150+ annual events. This allows us to keep our partners on the cutting edge of change by proactively innovating to meet community needs.

    For example, as social, environmental and health multi-crises hit a peak in 2020, it was clear that these challenges could not be solved in silos. So, we drew on our combination of skills across the organization to launch NationSwell Collaboratives — a platform that brings diverse leaders together to drive action together around shared goals. Collaboration isn’t easy, and many feel they lack the capacity to make it work. Our award-winning approach allows partners to bridge gaps and work with ease together, share inspiration and research, and co-create industry-building content and experiences. This year, our Case for Childcare Collaborative launched a microsite that makes the business case to accelerate caregiving support within companies.

  • Dipping in and out of industries is standard for communications agencies; but in the impact space you cannot afford to skim over the surface of an issue. Our Studio holds a unique position, sitting within a wider membership community of experts from all sectors, and acting as an engine of deep issue area expertise that we are constantly building alongside our community partners.

    For example, NationSwell is working with American Pride Rises — an organization dedicated to upholding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and to fighting back against the anti-American attacks on DEI. We have been collaborating their team to create events and materials that reach key audiences across many different platforms. This work is informed by our ongoing NationSwell events and research dedicated to DEI, including NationSwell’s recent report focused on ‘Making Corporate DEI More Durable’.

  • Lastly, the impact sector can get very jargony, very quickly. There is an abundance of annual reports and white papers offering windows into smart initiatives that others have undertaken. However, impact professionals can fall into the trap of talking only to themselves, and losing out on the opportunity to inspire wider circles — like their employees and consumers — to get behind a cause or solution. At NationSwell Studio, we push ourselves to find inventive ways to engage audiences with complex issues, through smart, emotionally resonant storytelling — starting always by establishing a clear understanding of our audience and what we want them to think, feel and do.

    For example, we helped the The Greater Good Science Center bring to life their playbook on bridging differences, creating a series of social videos that explain different techniques in unexpected ways, that were picked up by national media given their relevance to current divides in America. In collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, we created a personal video series shining a light on stories of the community health workers who are often overlooked by traditional health narratives — including Native American communities, rural communities, and formerly incarcerated people. Plus, in the spirit of turning the white paper on its head, we create interactive, multi-format digital experiences to move the sector forward: like the Place-Based Impact in Practice Collaborative digital resource for funders that recently launched, offering one-of-a-kind peer guidance and case studies to drive more equitable philanthropic approaches.

I hope this has given you (and my kids) a useful insight into the work we do at NationSwell Studio. If you are a leader with a mission and a problem to solve, get in touch — we’d love to be your champion.

Our award-winning Studio develops clear strategies, compelling stories, and illuminating Collaboratives that move influential audiences to action while driving impact. Learn more.