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Feb 24, 2026 • 6 min read

I don't have a prediction market to sell you. Sorry.

But I do have a brilliant tool to help you choose email and newsletter platforms. And jobs.

Ted Fickes Ted Fickes
I don't have a prediction market to sell you. Sorry.

👋 Hello hello hello Michelle, Alexis, Jill, Norrie, and Penelope. Welcome to Future Community.

And greetings to Dia, Henry, Tye, Charlotte, Orion, Megan, Jenny, Sarah, Hilary.

Good to see you. Hit reply and say hello if you have a minute!

How to choose a newsletter / email platform.

TBH, debates over the correctness of using one tech product or another can be some of the most arduous conversations you'll ever engage in or witness. And they're constants in the nonprofit tech world.

So why in the world did I post about Polymarket and Substack the other day?

A screenshot of Polymarket's announcement of the Substack partnership. The text reads Polymarket handshake emojis Substack. We are excited to announces that we're going steady with Substack. Starting today Substack authors can access data that has no reflection on reality but does make us some money. Journalism is better when backed by live markets - a statement even we don't understand.

And why am I writing this here now for you, a person interested in the intersection of storytelling and community?

I am NOT writing this to complain about or to people who are running free email newsletters on Substack. I'd like to see you move on from it but I know that can be problematic.

Here's the point: Should we use a tool that is used by authoritarians, polluters, racists, or military contractors? Are we okay using money given to us by donors to pay for services provided by companies actively working to surveil immigrants or misuse personal data? (note: I'm talking about more than Substack here. Meta, obviously. Google. TikTok. Salesforce.)

Sometimes we have no choice. Or the switching costs are too high. Or we would be giving up access to workflows, communities, and information that feels necessary to our job, our revenue, or the continued existence of our plans and expectations.

The Substack+Polymarket partnership is about putting money into the hands of investors. It has nothing to do with offering value to people and organizations who are providing the content and labor that Substack is monetizing and may someday wipe out.

Organizations (and consulting firms, damnit) committed to building community need to be serious about building with tools do no harm.

In the case of Substack, nonprofits and news organizations have a LOT other choices.

We put together a few tools to help organizations sort through some of the newsletter and email tools that are out there and aimed that the nonprofit world.

Check out the comparison tool on this notion page + a more detailed google doc and a "chooser" app that we're testing.

This is an early version of our comparison tool and we'd appreciate any input or feedback.

Bright Ideas

Strategy is a verb, not a document. Dirk Slater at Fabriders offers great takeaways from the just concluded Strategy Design Festival in London. (see below for a great learning opportunity!)

What a one-person membership team taught me about AI in journalism. Sudeshna Chanda of First Draft Media explains how they think about AI in newsrooms. What I like is first the naming of AI elements suited to any organization: automation, data analysis, insights. But Chanda then circles back to the big questions that need addressing before any analysis or insights: have you defined goals and KPIs for measuring those goals. If you don't have frameworks for applying advanced insights you're never going to use the data you get and, trust me, you'll just be throwing away time spinning wheels you don't have.

Funders Must Rethink How to Lead Through Tech-Inflected Uncertainty by Michelle Shevin and Charley Johnson for Tech Policy Press. You'll never have the data you think you need to map out social change and what's working. AI won't fix that. But you CAN invest in the relational infrastructure needed to create and sustain change.

Paid social ads are a mess, especially for nonprofits and social good orgs. Nathan Lewis, a campaign manager at Purpose, offers a useful look at the current situation for those pumping ad money into the Metavoid.

Can you bring some of the determination and togetherness of Dan Sinker's On Joy and Resistance to your story today?

...in spite of the masked bastards, in spite of everything, people are still speaking up, people are still making art, people are still teaching real history, people are still fighting back against the abduction of their neighbors. People still know what it means to feel joy. People still know what it means to be free.

Trainings and Learning

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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, Future Community, and run the Future Community Jobs list. I'm so so glad you're here. And I'm even more thankful that you're doing amazing work to lift up community and support one another.

Got a question that needs an answer? A second opinion? A fresh set of human eyes?

"What's this all about?" you ask. I'm testing something out with Future Community members. Maybe it's a fit for you. Find out more.

Find out more...and ask a question >>
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Ted Fickes
Ted Fickes
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