If you know me, you know that I believe that recurring revenue, specifically sustainable “subscription” giving for nonprofits, is one of the most significant opportunities facing charities today.

Content without Connection is Worth-Less.

If you want learning and growth to occur, then it is important to create a culture where people feel safe and connected.

I’m a teacher at heart. For as long as I can remember, I’ve derived great joy from helping others to learn, understand, and act on new insights.

I used to think that learning was all about the quality of the ideas and the clarity of the explanation (i.e., the act of teaching). But the longer I’ve taught and the more I’ve studied the learning process, the more I realize that I’ve been missing half of the equation.

This week’s Wave Report is a Choose Your Own Adventure-style journey through the power of redemptive entrepreneurship and the intersection of culture and brand.

Have you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure book?

Today, I’d like to give you a lesson on surfing the waves of innovation and creating sustainable growth, and it’s all about attitude. 🏄

The pace of change can feel a lot like the unending pounding of the waves: overwhelming, disorienting, exhausting, and lonely.

Have you ever been to the beach and watched surfers in the water?

They never seem to be in a hurry.

The most recent episode of the Purpose & Profit Podcast features a conversation with Nathan Chappell, co-author of a catalytic book that anyone passionate about causes and the state of philanthropy in the United States should read.

The book is called The Generosity Crisis: The Case for Radical Connection to Solve Humanity's Greatest Challenges, and we discuss it in this latest episode:

Purpose & Profit Podcast | Season 4, Episode 2

One of the joys of the role I get to play in the nonprofit sector is to promote and encourage innovation. Every organization, every institution, every product, and every person is on a natural lifecycle that, left unchanged, leads to slowing, plateauing, and decline.

Season 4 of the Purpose & Profit Podcast just premiered, with an episode on a topic near and dear to my heart.

When I first started speaking and writing about the opportunities that nonprofit leaders have to tap into recurring revenue in light of the subscription economy, I came across the work of Robbie Kellman Baxter.

Expertise has a problem.

I’ve written about it before, so I’ll just summarize it here:

Expertise is often considered a precursor to innovation. Shouldn’t the most innovative ideas come from the people with the most expertise in that field? After all, they have a deep and nuanced understanding of how their field works.

The problem with expertise is that the more expert you or I become in any given domain, the more we accumulate knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. This deep expertise deservedly leads to a high level of confidence. But at the same time, it leads to narrowing one's perspective and being less open to new and fresh (read: unproven and unconventional) approaches.

In other words, if you are holding a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.Excerpt from The Problem with Expertise

This week, I was blessed to give the first two of seven talks I’ll be giving over the next five weeks. My heart is full. 🥹

The first was an opening keynote and innovation workshop for a group of digital nonprofit marketers hosted by Five Q and sponsored by Meta. As a bonus, we got to try the newest Meta Quest 3 VR headsets and my favorite, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

I was so frustrated.

We were playing against one of the worst teams in our league. To this day, I don’t even remember the name of the school, they were so small. Mind you, I was from a small high school myself – about 125 kids. But compared to our competition that day, we were a juggernaut – a powerhouse of adolescent athletic prowess.

It was early in the basketball season, and I was playing point guard. We came in confident – it was an easy game against an easy team at the bottom of the league. We expected to blow them out.

We played terribly. Sloppy ball handling. Picked bad shots. Didn’t move the ball well. Turnovers were frequent.

I’m encouraged.

After years of speaking, writing, and waving the flag for the opportunity for recurring giving programs, momentum is building.

The first sustainer program I worked on was 20 years ago. Back then, if your nonprofit wasn’t doing child sponsorship, missionary support, or membership, it was extremely difficult to build a vibrant base of ongoing monthly supporters. The vast majority of nonprofits were left out, unable to tap into the steady, predictable, and renewable source of regular giving.

Then, starting about eight years ago, I noticed how the explosive growth in the subscription economy was transforming donor behavior. Donors were increasingly willing to give to causes on a recurring basis, causes that would not have historically seen significant sustainer giving.

Have you listened to the Purpose & Profit Podcast?

If you are new here, I co-host a show called the Purpose & Profit Podcast, where we interview business and nonprofit leaders to explore the ideas at the intersection of causes and brands.

We’re closing in on the end of Season 3, so today, I want to point you to two recent episodes. The first provides insights into executive leadership from over 5,000 executives, and the second concludes with how positive change happens and how good gets done in the world.

In Part 1 of this Wave Report, we began to answer the question, “How does one actually use AI?” AI, like the internet, is not one thing. It’s a collection of tools and technologies that can impact nearly every area of our leadership and lives.

Based on hundreds of hours of research, speaking on, helping others, and my own experimentation, I’ve condensed 12 Ways to Leverage AI in 2024.

Part 1 of this Wave Report examined the first six ways to use AI effectively. Today, we’ll explore the final six.

In my 8 Trends to LEVERAGE in 2024 post, the number one trend I called out for leaders to put to good use in 2024 was Artificial Intelligence.

Trend to Leverage #1

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

AI will reach the peak of the hype cycle in 2024, leading to both disappointment and the emergence of more productive and effective uses of AI.

But how does one actually use AI?

I’ve been thinking about predictions lately.

Each January sees a deluge of predictions for the coming year, but I noticed an interesting shift this past January 2023. Last January, the “predictions lists” were full of uncertainty. After all, “no one can know the future for certain” was the common refrain.

I think coming out of the pandemic made a lot of leaders hesitant.

But I don’t think the value of predictions is in their accuracy.

January used to be a black hole. A foggy void. A blank spot. A blur.

Coming off of the busyness of the holidays and year-end, it was a welcome break.

But for most of my life, January simply slipped by. Little to nothing of significance was accomplished as I slowly turned my attention to the year to come. It typically wasn’t until February, sometimes even March, that I felt like I hit a stride for the new year.

Now, January is one of my favorite months. Full of possibility. Clarity. Anticipation. It’s also one of the most productive times of my entire year.

Today, I’d like to share why January can be the most strategically valuable time of your year, how you can cut through the fog, and develop your own personal imago – a vision of a future that will be, but does not yet exist.

My mission today is to get you to schedule time to reflect and plan for next year before the end of this year.

People have asked me about my process of reflection and planning for the coming year, so I want to share that with you in hopes that it might encourage you to be intentional about preparing to have a fulfilling and productive new year.

This Christmas week, I will be taking the day to reflect on the year that was and to consider the year to come. It’s one of my favorite days of the year.

When it comes to breakthrough innovation, expertise has a big problem. 🧐

I’ll tell you why, but first, I need your help – I’m conducting a national study of recurring giving programs in the nonprofit sector.

Do you know of a charity that should participate in the sustainer study? You can nominate them here.

I'll share more about the study in a minute, but let me tell you why we are conducting it and why expertise can be a barrier to innovation…

Did you ever read Choose Your Own Adventure books? I loved – and also hated – Choose Your Own Adventure books. The concept was simple – you as the reader are the protagonist, and you get to choose your own adventure (clever name, huh?).

Black Friday.

Small Business Saturday.

Cyber Monday.

Giving Tuesday.

That’s a lot of made-up holidays.

For this week’s Wave Report, I thought I would resurrect and update a previous edition that I wrote last December, titled “A Case of the (Cyber) Mondays?”