Community college

👋 Hello and welcome to new subscribers Lily, Madhura, Brittany, and Gretchen. It's great to have you here. Just click reply or reach out if you ever have questions, suggestions, or ideas.

What's been good for you lately?

Has something gone well for you? Maybe you found a new job. Or launched a newsletter. Or saw a social media campaign go wild. Or passed (or stopped!) a bill in your state legislature. Maybe you helped a kid learn to ride a bike.

Did something good happen? How did it go? I'd love to hear about it and even share it back with the Future Community crew (if that's ok). We could all use some good news and real stories. Just click reply, DM me on LinkedIn, or set a time for a short call. Thanks so much.

Newsletter Nerd Club News

Around ten people joined us at Newsletter Nerd Club last week. These really are small conversations where you can dig in, explore, and talk to each other.

The next Newsletter Nerd Club will happen at noon Eastern on Wednesday, June 24th. This will also be free and the conversation will be centered on the questions you bring with you. That said, we're prepping to talk about list and newsletter growth. There are loads of fundamental questions, how-tos, strategies and more that center around growth. Join us.

One of my favorite questions that came up last week was something like this:

Why are the newsletters of writers, creators, and columnists so often interesting while nonprofit newsletters so (sorry) uninteresting?

We were talking about newsletter trends and getting into frequency, voice, niche, authenticity. The questioner observed that a nonprofit newsletter they receive switched from a monthly to a weekly cadence. What seemed fine monthly was too much weekly. Meanwhile, the columnist and creator newsletters that are weekly or more are always solid, interesting, fresh.

Of course this is an ad hoc observation. But the nods and thumbs up around the zoom windows made clear that other folks felt the same.

My take is that organizations struggle with authenticity and voice. More importantly, they struggle with defining, understanding, and writing FOR their audience (as opposed to writing AT their audience).

There are plenty of good reasons for this. A common one is that many groups define their newsletter audience as "everyone on the email list." So you're bringing all your generic voice into the newsletter. It's easy to lose meaning and purpose.

I'm telling you now, adding everyone on your email list to a fairly general newsletter that lacks defined goals is going to do one thing well: encourage unsubscribes. Get as specific and value-driven as you can within the constraints of your capacity, goals, and tools. It's better to give five to ten percent of your list something fantastic than give everyone something mediocre.

Community College

(or: how college builds community that launches people into the world and why can't we do more of that for everyone)

I was at our daughter's college graduation a couple weeks ago. In addition to all the emotions and ceremony that go along with a graduation I kept thinking about the intersections of a couple articles about community, loneliness, and thriving.

Before I go on I'll say that everyone's experience is unique and going to college is not the end all/be all nor even appropriate and needed for everyone (though the growing absence of it is part what I'm thinking about).

What I saw with our daughter, her friends, and dozens of other kids we talked to and observed was that the four or whatever number of years spent together created a community within which these people will flow for years if not a lifetime.

Most would say we go to college to learn skills so that we can succeed in the workplace and make lots of money. Sure. That's great and all. But what about the time spent developing social skills, critical thinking, teamwork, community responsibility, or the ability to fail, learn, and get back up. When you're 19 or 21 years old and about to launch in the workplace these (not AI prompting) are the skills you need to thrive.

A few weeks ago I shared Nobody to Call, a report by Sam Pressler and Soren Duggan about the male loneliness crisis. They frame this much talked about topic as less a relic of too much social media and, in part, a result of fewer men attending college. More people are launching into their 20s alone and without communities and networks of support. The men they spoke to were in their late-20s and 30s. A decade or more of struggling to connect is certainly going to create some loneliness.

I don't know that the solution is "go to college, young man." For some, perhaps. But there are few signals that the US is going to be making college for culturally or financially accessible anytime soon.

There are huge knock on effects over time as our politics and culture gets more, not less, isolating. Of course nonprofits are going to be raising more money from fewer and fewer wealthy people. Fewer people will have money. And fewer people will feel or see opportunities to connect being offered from our organizations.

Two questions come to mind. Are these good ones? Hope so. What would you add?

• Is a continued emphasis on digital and online social media a losing game when nonprofits talk about growth and sustainability?
• Can we (should we) more purposefully build for connection with and for young people? How? Who does it? This a challenge the nonprofit sector can't take on group by group. But we can do more in our programs and organizing. And, as a sector, we can press harder for local, state and national governments to act and invest.

Bright Ideas

Why today's content is more than just comms is my favorite read of the week for nonprofit content folks thinking about strategy, org structure, and AI. This comes from Brani Milosevic with insights from Julius Honnor, Chris Tan, Johanna Rüdiger, Paul DeGregorio and others.

Google doesn't care about your website. Should you still care about SEO? Search is not about driving traffic to websites. It's about answering people's questions. The solution isn't rocket science: "Write better content that answers your clients questions," says Lex Roman at Revenue Rulebreaker.

Who needs cognitive skills anyway? Adults Lose Skills to AI. Children Never Build Them. [Timothy Cook / Psychology Today]

Events and Training

• Radical Possibility: How Climate Fiction Can Create Better Futures is tomorrow, June 10th, at 11 am Eastern. Hosted by Grist.
• Donor Organizing 101 Summer Camp. Applications open until June 21.

Future Community Jobs

These are jobs spotted in the last few days. The full Future Community job list is always on and always fresh.

Audience, content, journalism and news roles

• Climate Policy Correspondent : The New York Times [Washington, DC]
• Managing Editor : Tech Policy Press [Remote in the US]
• Senior Editor, California : ProPublica [Remote in California] ⏱️ June 22

Communications

• Vice President, Communications and Marketing : Land Trust Alliance [Washington, DC]
• Digital Communications Manager : Dayenu [Remote in the US] ⏱️ July 13
• Communications Manager : Pacific Mountain Workforce Development [Olympia, WA]
• Manager, Policy Communications : The Rockefeller Foundation [New York City]
• Digital Communications Coordinator : Alliance for Higher Education in Prison [Remote in the US]
• Communications Manager : QCells [Remote / Texas, Illinois, or Florida preferred]
• Director of Communications :  DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) [Washington, DC]
• Communications Manager : Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University [Washington, DC]

Nonprofit organizations

• Associate Director, Digital : American Rivers [Remote in the US]
• Programs Director : San Juan Islands Conservation District [San Juan Island, Lopez Island, Orcas Island, WA] ⏱️ June 15
• Deputy Programme Director : Greenpeace UK [London] ⏱️ July 5
• Chief Executive Officer : Dream.org [Oakland or Washington, DC]
• UK Director : Human Rights Watch [London] ⏱️ June 21
• Associate Director, Paid Media : Earthjustice [San Francisco / New York City / Washington, DC / Los Angeles / Chicago]
• Director of Volunteer and Program Engagement : Open Arms [Twin Cities]
• Chief Research Officer : GoodPower [Remote]
• Senior Director, Critical Minerals and Community Positive Energy Transition : World Wildlife Fund [Washington, DC]
• Executive Director : Dear Community [San Francisco]
• Energy Policy Manager : Climate and Community Institute [Remote in the US] ⏱️ June 23

Fundraising and Development

• Director of Development and Communications : Communities for Just Schools Fund [Remote in the US] ⏱️ June 22

Foundations and Philanthropy

• Managing Director, External Relations : Freedom Fund [New York City / Remote in the US] ⏱️ July 1
• Manager, Program Communications : U.S. Energy Foundation [Remote in the US] ⏱️ June 19
• Senior Director or Director, Principal Gifts : Nia Tero Foundation [Seattle / Remote]
• Senior Manager, Donor Relations : Nia Tero Foundation [Seattle / Remote possible]
• Program Director, Community Impact : Knight Foundation [California]
• Program Officer : Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation [Winston-Salem, NC] ⏱️ June 19

Agencies, data, politics, products & more

• Partnership Lead, Enterprise & Programs : Indiegraf [Remote in US or Canada]

Hey. Ted here. I run Bright+3 where we give changemakers the ideas, inspiration, and tools to create content that builds stronger communities.

I also write this newsletter (aka Future Community) and run the Future Community Jobs list.