Kawaii and the googly-eyed coal guy, fantastic trainings and 40 new job links

👋 Hey there. This is Ted. I run Bright+3 and write the Future Community (that's this).

I'd love to welcome new members including Alex, Karen, Shannon, Sophie, parker, Horlane and Marisa. Also, welcome to Audrey, Abigail, Camille, Shannon, Patricia, Vivian, Zarah, Reed, Jessica.

If you have a moment, click reply. Let me know how Future Community can be helpful. And if you're read anything great lately I'd love to hear about it - even share with others.

For what it's worth, I finished The Great Believers yesterday.

Lots of thoughts on the book (written by Rebecca Makkai in 2018) but one thing that comes through reading about characters living through AIDS in 1980s/90s Chicago: shared cultural and political trauma is real. It shapes lives for decades.

It's hard to predict how today's events will change generations. But they will.

Like you, I've been watching how local business owners and regular everyday people are organizing, offering help, and stepping into harms way to help neighbors in Minneapolis-St. Paul, DC, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. And we're seeing people all over the country organize fundraisers, community events, ICE observer trainings.

In People Won't Wait for You I take a look at more examples of this (the brewery hosting trainings, the Boulder runner organizing a 1,000 person Sunday morning run in honor of Alex Pretti) and ask what nonprofits and campaigns can do when so many communities and supporters are quite literally fighting for the lives of themselves and their neighbors.

Bright Ideas

Some cool training and skill building opportunities out there:

• I'm a big fan of Donor Organizer Hub. Check out their PlayDOHs program: PlayDOHs is a train-the-trainer program for volunteer fundraisers ready to level up, sharpen their craft, and multiply their impact.
• Applications are open for the 2026 Climate Investigations Training Scholarship run by The Centre for Investigative Journalism.
• News Revenue Hub extended the deadline (now February 28) for the Catalyst Subsidy Fund which provides a range of subsidized consulting services to 20 newsrooms.

Kawaii comes to the Department of Energy: Can a lump of coal with googly eyes and a hard hat make coal (and smog and asthma) cute? I doubt it but the effort is an example of how one doesn't need to make a provable policy argument, you just need media that people see and remember. [Kate Yoder / Grist]

Climate and climate change topics are virtually nonexistent in cultural conversation (media, YouTube, TV scripts, etc.) and where they exist it's often people talking about how people talk about climate (like this). That's one takeaway from the latest climate culture narrative update shared by Harmony Labs.

AI use is creating a leadership pipeline problem writes David Rice at People Managing People. Organizations are looking to AI to offload the mundane and "free up" their teams. But using AI to automate parts of knowledge work can create dependencies and blind spots. We're essentially hiding systems, decisions, and challenges from (future) leaders who need to decide if, how, and what work is needed.

The Murder of The Washington Post (gift link) offers a first-hand look at how a city newspaper is community fabric not just for staff but residents. WaPo leaders have been casting off that fabric for years. Bezos has shot the fabric into space. Being part of that fabric, and not just reporting, is what startup news - and many nonprofit organizations - need in order to survive.

Essay of the week: Iranians Don't Need to Prove Their Revolution to You by Sahar Delihani in Los Angeles Review of Books.

To deny people their complexities is to deny them agency. To flatten their struggles into binaries is to reproduce a colonial gaze—one that grants legitimacy only when resistance aligns with its preferred political narratives. This gaze is indifferent to life under dictatorship so long as that dictatorship speaks the right language. It excuses violence, normalizes repression, and renders tyranny acceptable when those forces serve a familiar cause.

Future Community Jobs

Be sure to check out the full job list here.

Audience, content, journalism and news roles

•  Digital Platforms Producer : Capital B [Remote in the US]
• California Energy, Environment and Climate Editor : POLITICO [Sacramento, CA]
• Journalist Safety Advisor : Committee to Protect Journalists [NYC office / U.S. remote - EST]
• Director, Audience and Marketing : Rewire News Group [Remote in the US / DMV, NY, NJ, CO, IL, PA, GA, MN preferred]
• Membership Coordinator : City Cast [Remote in the US]
• Content Producer (Account Associate) : Four Lions Media [Washington, DC]
• Revenue Development Manager : Shasta Scout [Shasta County/Redding, CA / Remote]
• Politics Reporter : CalMatters [Sacramento, CA preferred]
• Chicago Reporter, Chalkbeat : Civic News Company [Chicago]

Communications

• Communications Associate, Social Media : Charlie Health [New York City]
• Freelance Social media & content specialist : Business for Nature [Remote, Global]
• Communications Coordinator : Trust for Public Land [Remote in the US]
• Chief marketing and communications officer : The American Physical Society [Remote in the US]
• Communications Manager : Oceana [Washington, DC]
• Senior Communications Manager : Heartland Fund [Remote in the US]
• Communications Manager : Environmental Grantmakers Association [Remote in the US, New York, preferred]
• Director of Communications : Horizon Foundation [Columbia, MD]
• Deputy Director of Communications & Development : The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice [Newark, NJ]
• Director of Content : Pillars Fund [Remote in the US]
• Digital Communications Manager (part-time / contract) : Free DC [Washington, DC]
• Digital Organizer : California Nurses Association/National Nurses United [Oakland, or Los Angeles, CA]

Nonprofit organizations

• Manager, Digital Content : USA for UNHCR [New York City] ⏱️ February 20
• Manager, Digital Content : USA for UNHCR [Washington, DC] ⏱️ February 20
• Mobilization Director : The Climate Action Campaign [Washington DC]
• Executive Director : Advocates for the West [Boise, ID preferred / Western US]
• Energy Policy Analyst, Interior West : Gridworks [Remote in Mountain Time Zone] ⏱️ February 28
• Senior Director of Youth Development : Asphalt Green [New York]
• Senior Program Officer : First Nations Development Institute [Longmont, CO / Albuquerque, NM]
• Executive Director : Literacy Works [Remote in the US]
• Lead Research Scientist : Harmony Labs [Remote in the US]
• Manager, Strategy Integration : U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee [Colorado Springs, CO]
• Senior Policy Analyst, Immigration and Immigrant Families : The Center for Law and Social Policy [Washington, DC]
• Regional Director, Europe : Amnesty International [London] ⏱️ February 22

Fundraising and Development

• Director of Development and Operations : The Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative (CEEMI) [Denver / Remote in Colorado]

Foundations and Philanthropy

• Director of Leadership & Capacity Building : Inatai Foundation [Washington, DC]
• Senior Director of Philanthropy : The National Women’s Law Center [Washington, DC]
• Director of Infrastructure, Housing : Arnold Ventures [Washington, DC]

Agencies, data, politics, products & more

• Senior Community Manager : Buffer [Remote, Global]
• Account Manager : Four Lions Media [Washington, DC]
• Senior SEO Manager : Alley [Remote]

Future Community is a product of Ted Fickes and Bright+3. Reply or visit Bright+3 to get in touch and learn more about our work. It's fabulous.