Two camps are forming around AI in the social impact space. One says boycott it. The other says you're already behind. Meanwhile, the biggest decisions are being made without us. 

Kaz McGrath and Stephen Silveira of Play (PLAI — Purpose-Led AI) make the case for stepping into the conversation, holding space for skeptics and builders at the same table, and using AI as a tool for imagination and mission.

Episode Highlights: 

[00:04:30] "You are behind" — the message the sector keeps hearing 
[00:08:00] What if nonprofit professionals became the builders? 
[00:15:30] Tracking endangered species in the Amazon, led by Indigenous elders 
[00:19:00] The one filter for every AI decision: does it further your mission? 
[00:26:30] The environmental truth: your impact depends on where you live 
[00:35:30] Decisions are being made for us, not with us

Notable Quotes: 

Stephen Silveira [00:26:10]: "People are using AI to be that silver bullet. They want this future we're trying to describe, and they want to say AI is the thing." 

Kaz McGrath [00:35:55]: "These decisions are being made for us, not with us. For us, not without us."

Resources & Links:

• PLAI — weareplai.com
• Conor Grennan's AI Mindset — ai-mindset.ai
• Berkana Institute, Two Loops Model — berkana.org

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

I have this problem, and I have it bad. At Cosmic I'm the bottleneck on more things than I should be, holding onto work because explaining it feels slower than just doing it. Jonathan doesn't get stuck there as often, so we dug into how executive directors and CEOs tell the bottlenecks that are right from the ones capping the whole org, and how to climb out of them.

Episode Highlights: 

[00:01:05] The bottleneck problem, named out loud 
[00:05:05] The real fear behind not letting go 
[00:12:08] Right sizing your role as the stakes rise 
[00:16:10] The ego question every leader has to confront 
[00:21:00] "Just this one time" and how it multiplies 
[00:30:20] The time audit that pulls it out of your head

Notable Quotes: 

Jonathan Hicken [00:02:15]: "I'm a big believer in hire people that are better and smarter than you, and then let them cook." 

Eric Ressler [00:21:00]: "Just this one time I'm going to do it. And then all of a sudden I've done that just this one time five times now." 

Jonathan Hicken [00:26:00]: "You hear stories of executive directors copy editing every single email that goes out. That is the most catastrophic failure of that organization."

Resources & Links:

• Cosmic: Eric's creative agency for nonprofits and mission-driven organizations
• Seymour Marine Discovery Center
• Science Solutions Santa Cruz podcast
• Drafting Our Strategic Dream Team: Eric and Jonathan’s past episode on YouTube

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Nonprofit leaders want more people to see their work, but almost none of them want to be the one posting about it. 

Saralynn Finn and I dig into what changes once you get past that resistance: story stems, a repeatable format for turning an ordinary moment into a post worth reading, and the difference between posting out of obligation and posting because something actually needs saying.

Saralynn brings a nonprofit CEO's 90-day LinkedIn experiment into it, and I bring my own inconsistent posting habits. This is a second conversation, picking up where an earlier episode on visibility left off.

Episode Highlights: 

[00:04:00] Story stems: the copy-meme format built for LinkedIn posts 
[00:10:00] Madeleine Ballard's 90-day LinkedIn pilot, and what it actually delivered 
[00:16:00] Eric's own LinkedIn burnout, and what caused it 
[00:23:00] Personal pages vs. brand pages: where ideas actually travel 
[00:29:00] Authenticity, sanitized brand voice, and what political campaigns already figured out 
[00:34:00] Why LinkedIn rewards patience: posts take three weeks to peak

Notable Quotes: 

Saralynn Finn [00:06:25]: "Story stems, posts with familiar patterns, get three times the engagement of posts that don't have a story stem." 

Saralynn Finn [00:33:20]: "This humility does not require invisibility." 

Eric Ressler [00:16:05]: "I'm feeling a little burnt out by LinkedIn right now, and it's my own fault."

Resources & Links:

• Community Health Impact Coalition — https://joinchic.org/
• Dr. Madeleine Ballard — https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeleineballard/
• The Sidebar — https://theside.bar/
• Saralynn Finn — guest's site and consulting practice.

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Every social impact leader believes in their mission.

Funders assume that too. What they actually want to know is why you, specifically, over the ten other orgs working the same issue, or the bigger name with more reach and a longer track record.

Most leaders answer with passion, good programs, being impactful. Genuine things that still don't add up to a strategy.

In this episode, Jonathan and I dig into a framework we use with clients constantly: naming your organization's exact role inside a broader social impact ecosystem, specific enough to defend, credible enough to believe, and clear enough that funders, staff, and partners all describe your org the same way.

Jonathan brings Seymour Center into it as a live example, working through the question in real time.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:46] Why differentiation is the one thing social impact leaders don't spend enough time on

[00:03:25] Why "we do good work" isn't enough to win over savvy funders

[00:04:45] Jonathan's own evolving answer to what role Seymour Center plays in Santa Cruz

[00:06:38] The vague language and buzzwords that quietly sink an organization's positioning

[00:21:24] Mapping the ecosystem: the first exercise Cosmic runs with every client

[00:27:41] The moments that call for revisiting your role, from new leadership to ecosystem disruption

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:19:20]: "Passion is not a strategy. It's not a position. It's not a role. We can't compete on being the most passionate, because who's going to claim otherwise?"

Jonathan Hicken [00:17:45]: "Someone's like, I love the ocean, I want to save the ocean, so we're going to create a museum to save the ocean. But that's the vagueness we're talking about."

Resources & Links:

- Seymour Marine Discovery Center: https://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/

- The Nature Conservancy: https://www.nature.org/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show

→ Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Sarah Newkirk became executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County in the middle of a capital campaign, the same week Jonathan Hicken took over at the Seymour Center. Five years later, she's landed a $15 million farmland deal, a wildlife crossing Caltrans is now replicating statewide, and a strategic plan built around one question: what would have to be true for this to work? She and Eric talk relationships, risk, and why joy is the real return on conservation work.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Coming in as the new ED mid-capital-campaign, the same week Jonathan started at the Seymour Center

[00:06:30] Beach Ranch: taking flood-prone farmland out of production to let marshland move inland

[00:07:30] Retiring 47-year-old branding and finally owning the "conservation incubator" identity

[00:09:30] Inside the Highway 17 wildlife crossing, now a model Caltrans is replicating statewide

[00:16:00] The Land Trust's three beneficiaries: wildlife, working agriculture, and people, together

[00:26:00] The "what would have to be true" method that turned a twice-failed ballot measure into Measure Q

Notable Quotes:

Sarah Newkirk [00:28:00]: "We made a list of what had to be true, and we made those things true."

Sarah Newkirk [00:39:15]: "When you provide this kind of conservation work to the broader public, the public loves it, and therefore they love you. That is a beautiful, virtuous cycle."

Eric Ressler [00:39:30]: "I love that the answer is joy. I think we need a lot more joy in how this work happens." 

Resources & Links:

• Land Trust of Santa Cruz County — landtrustsantacruz.org
• Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing — landtrustsantacruz.org/protected-areas/highway-17-wildlife-crossing/
• Beach Ranch wetland restoration — hilltromper.com/article/wetland-restoration-beach-ranch-benefits-nature-wildlife-and-people
• Learning the Land podcast — landtrustsantacruz.org/podcast/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

There's a push right now to democratize strategic planning. Survey the community, poll the staff, put the big calls to a vote. 

I get the instinct, but it goes too far. Influence is not the same as decision-making power, and collapsing the two is how good orgs freeze. 

In this episode, Eric and Jonathan draft their ideal strategic planning teams fantasy-sports style from a pool of ten possible inputs, and work out how much weight each voice actually deserves.

Episode Highlights: 

[00:00:00] Drafting fantasy strategic planning teams from ten possible inputs 
[00:02:30] First picks: leadership team vs. the community you serve 
[00:05:15] Influence vs. decision-making power, the distinction that runs through everything 
[00:08:45] Gut and intuition as a legitimate strategic input 
[00:10:45] Data beats opinions, and predictive vs. directional data 
[00:15:45] Why boards should support more than they decide 
[00:28:30] Synthesizing every input into a decision you can own 
[00:33:00] Win-win as a cheat code, and why pleasing everyone signals a weak choice

Notable Quotes: 

Eric Ressler [00:05:35]: "The community should have a lot of influence, but I don't think this work usually works when it's truly democratic." 

Jonathan Hicken [00:11:05]: "We have a saying at Seymour Center here where data beats opinions 100% of the time." 

Eric Ressler [00:33:35]: "If literally everyone is happy, maybe the decision was too obvious and weak."

Resources & Links:

• Designing Tomorrow Spotlight interview with Rob Acton on designing effective nonprofit boards
• Cause Strategy Partners — Rob Acton's firm, focused on nonprofit board placement and governance training

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

There's a number treated like gospel in philanthropy: the 5% annual payout private foundations are required to hit. It was written into law as a floor. 

Kristin Todd has watched it become a ceiling instead. After nearly two decades at the Daniels Fund, a $1.5 billion private foundation, she now leads the NoCo Foundation in Northern Colorado, where she's more than doubled annual grant-making by refusing to let donor dollars sit still.

Episode Highlights: 

[00:01:00] Running a $1.5 billion legacy fund vs. a nimble community foundation 
[00:07:00] Why mergers stopped being a taboo word for nonprofits 
[00:11:30] How NoCo doubled its grant-making by keeping money in motion 
[00:12:30] The 5% floor that became a ceiling 
[00:20:30] Stop calling them charities. They're businesses with social impact. 
[00:34:00] Punching above your weight locally instead of waiting on Washington

Notable Quotes: 

Kristin Todd [00:12:30]: "In the private foundation world, that 5% has become a ceiling, not a floor." 

Kristin Todd [00:11:30]: "We do not want to be a sponsor of DAFs that are warehousing dollars, and in fact we are not." 

Eric Ressler [00:21:30]: "These are the hardest problems in the world that no one else has solved, and yet they're not getting the same attention as the latest AI startup." 

Resources & Links:

• NoCo Foundation — nocofoundation.org
• Daniels Fund — danielsfund.org

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Everyone keeps predicting the death of the website. First it was social, now it is AI. But it is still the one channel you actually own and control, which is exactly what makes it your most durable asset. So when a site has gone untouched for five years and a redo runs six figures, the real question is whether it is worth it, and when.

Episode Highlights:

[00:03:00] The identity impact gap, and when a redo is the wrong call 
[00:10:30] The 10-second homepage test 90% of nonprofit sites fail 
[00:13:00] Brand as coherence: the Apple experience, and your version of it 
[00:17:30] What happens the moment a funder leaves your meeting 
[00:23:30] What funders actually look for: financials, team bios, clear impact 
[00:28:00] The underperforming employee analogy, and the player on your team

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:05:20]: "I still believe that your website is your most important and your most durable asset as a brand." 

Eric Ressler [00:26:20]: "Your website should be your best fundraiser, not your only fundraiser." 

Jonathan Hicken [00:29:10]: "Website is almost the wrong word. It's a player on your team."

Resources & Links:

• Seymour Marine Discovery Center — seymourcenter.ucsc.edu
• Candid — candid.org
• “Are Website's Dead?" — earlier Designing Tomorrow episode.
• Joel Breakstone interview — earlier Designing Tomorrow episode.

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

For the last 50 years, we've operated under a single dominant idea: the purpose of business is to maximize shareholder value. But what if this whole era of extraction and short-termism isn't the natural order at all? What if it's just a blip? Sarah Gillard, CEO of Blueprint for Better Business, has spent 25 years inside major corporations watching what happens when companies forget what they're actually for, and she makes the case that business has both the power and the obligation to change it.

Episode Highlights:

[00:02:42] Two very different business models: profit maximization vs. employee ownership, from inside the same industry 
[00:06:37] The ESG rollback in context: what the data actually shows about corporate commitments 
[00:09:03] The forces of gravity that act on companies as they scale, and why purpose needs structural defense 
[00:12:17] The 70% problem: why intangible assets dominate organizational value but get ignored 
[00:15:27] Rethinking the social contract: why government, business, and civil society can't afford separate swim lanes 
[00:27:07] AI as a force for good or fragility: the questions businesses aren't asking but should be 
[00:37:58] Blueprint for Better Business's two foundational ideas, and why neither is as radical as it sounds

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:25:20]: "We need more in culture imagining what that future could and should be, instead of constantly only warning about what it's looking like it's going to be." 

Sarah Gillard [00:38:40]: "Historically we will see these last 50-odd years as an odd blip. How do we take the most powerful shaper of our societies and just go: just focus on the money? Just weird." 

Sarah Gillard [00:40:20]: "Good intentions are necessary, but not sufficient. You need legal and governance mechanisms that keep you on track even when there is significant pressure to move."

Resources & Links:

• Blueprint for Better Business — Sarah's organization; the one-page AI framework for boardrooms is available on their website
• John Lewis Partnership — The UK's largest employee-owned business, where Sarah led purpose strategy
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson 
• Dear Alice: Utopian anime yogurt commercial — mentioned by Eric as a rare example of positive future imagery

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

Jonathan recently learned that the Seymour Center is about to absorb a permanent new expense in the $150,000 to $200,000 range. On a $2.2 million operating budget, that's roughly 10% of the whole thing, and it's not a one-time hit. 

The instinct for most leaders is to pull back: tighten the budget, pause the big swings, and try again in a few years. But contraction changes the story you can tell funders, and that cost is harder to recover from than the budget hit itself.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:30] Contract or keep pushing? The fundamental question. 
[00:02:00] The outdated overhead myth and why it makes budget shocks worse 
[00:05:30] The power of flexibility that reserves actually buy you 
[00:08:00] Eric's pandemic-era decisions at Cosmic: no layoffs, no pay cuts in 16 years 
[00:12:00] Why liftoff windows are sacred and rarely repeat on your timeline 
[00:17:00] The story you can tell funders when you're in motion vs. when you've pulled back 
[00:20:30] Separating ego from mission in high-stakes financial decisions 
[00:22:30] The case for nonprofit mergers in a shrinking funding landscape

Notable Quotes:

Jonathan Hicken [00:17:00]: "I can go to those meetings right now and sit down at the table and look at these people in the eye and authentically tell the story of this liftoff. If I start to contract, I can't do that."

Eric Ressler [00:18:10]: "There's a saying in the business world: never need a deal. I think we're wired as humans to just be super attuned to desperation."

Resources & Links:

• Seymour Marine Discovery Center — https://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu
• Visibility Beats Impact — Designing Tomorrow podcast episode

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at [email protected]

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.