By Tom Peterson Just as our most-important muscle, the heart, pumps oxygen and nutrients to the cells in our body, another heart supplies life to our communities. You see this heart in what a people do, especially how they treat others. Acts of heart are often unnoticed: speaking kind words to a lonely […]
“Give me twenty-six lead soldiers and I will conquer the world.” By Tom Peterson What is the most powerful human force? Some say it’s reason, some say love, some say cooperation. They all depend on communication. So does your cause. Having a great message is not enough, you also need a way to […]
By Tom Peterson Storytelling is an ancient art. It’s what makes us human. And stories are the building blocks of culture. Because they speak to our emotions they are the heart of an effective message. They resonate. Get to know the power of stories. They can move the rest of […]
By Tom Peterson Not too long ago many nonprofits looked askance at the idea of marketing. In the mid-nineties, an organization I worked with was raising about $3 million a year from what we would today call marketing. Some colleagues—particularly Michael Cervino, who had helped grow Habitat for Humanity—and I had […]
By Tom Peterson Maybe there are a few oddballs doing something right. And maybe they can point the way for the rest of us. In facing a tough social challenge positive deviance tells us to look for any outliers who may be like everyone else but who found […]
By Tom Peterson If you happen to be in a role of hiring staff, key volunteers or outside vendors consider that every position you get is a precious gift. A cause’s most valuable asset is its collection of people, so a leader’s top job is find and keep the most insanely talented folks possible. Most […]
By Tom Peterson Every year Oxfam reports on the massive gap between the world’s super-rich and the poor. In 2017 the report named just eight men—Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim Helu, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Michael Bloomberg—who have more wealth than the poorest half of people on earth. Some […]
By Tom Peterson Do you see yourself in here? You are needed. No matter who you are you have some gifts, some talents, some skills to lend to some cause. Look for yourself in the following list: The one with ideas, with creativity. The one who can borrow an idea they saw somewhere else. […]
By Tom Peterson On the front of the penny we see an image of Abraham Lincoln. Even though a coin is a small space, it’s a public space and the words and images belong to all of us. When we pass a few pennies to a cashier, we’re probably not thinking about Lincoln’s role as […]
