The big idea and the stuff

🤠 Hello! Thanks for being here. Let's talk about what your big idea is–the one that will change how people act, think, behave. First, a big shout out to new folks. Thanks for joining us Sarah, Jean, Shanta, and Amber!

Be the big idea. Not just the stuff that happened along the way.

There are a couple ways to describe a story:

• You can talk about the plot–the beginning, middle, and end–what happens, who is involved, what's said and done. You may describe the action, the buildup, the climax.
• Or you can talk about how the story changes the reader (or watcher or listener). You can show people how the story affects their emotions or shapes their sense of the world.

The difference is one of ambition, leadership, and scope of your vision. Do you seek to do things? Or do you want to change people's lives?

This isn't about diminishing the work. Whether you're a writer, producer, organizer, coder, doctor, teacher, or anything, really, you're out there doing the work every day. It's about making meaning along the way.

I see this gap show up again and again in communications strategy, fundraising, and even job searching (the three areas where I spend my time these days).

There are articles, blog posts, emails, and social media posts that describe what's going on, who's doing what, who should do what, why it's good or (more often) bad. We talk about how many people showed up, how many people gave, what Trump said. It's a chronology. A reporting. Or it's a telling of what to do, say, think.

These are stories as information and facts. The knowledge is almost certainly useful. But so are the terms you scroll through before updating your phone software.

We can use these facts in our day to day life. But they compete with other facts and stories. They get lost.

Then we come upon a story that explores or exposes people's lives, emotions, and ideas in ways that might shake us up and force a rethinking our goals or ideas. The best of these stories do their job without telling us what to think and do.

These stories are also full of facts, ideas, and accounts of what happened. But they start with a higher purpose. Think of memorable speeches. You don't need to remember to the details of what Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, or John F. Kennedy said to remember how one of their speeches made you feel about yourself and others.

Now think about the day to day of job searching, resumes, interviews, and describing your career. We're continually looking at or writing bullet points of tasks, qualifications, experiences. It's a process of checklists, basic qualifications, pieces of data. No wonder nobody feels like they stand out or are evaluated on their humanity.

A common piece of advice for job seekers is to avoid listing tasks and duties in a resume. Instead show the impacts. You didn't write 50 articles in two months. You created a series of stories that increased readership by 35% or exposed a hidden scandal that changed city government.

The reality of a labor surplus is that tasks, even the impacts you made on revenue or sales or growth, are just an admission fee. Everyone has them. They are, for the most part, interchangeable nickels and dimes and quarters scattered across the table.

Be prepared to bring a story about how your knowledge and change work will affect people, systems, and behavior if you're working in the knowledge and change sectors. Standing out is not a 40% rate of change compared to someone else's 35%. It is a vision of how the people, products, and stories affect people and create sense and solutions in a shaken world.

Facts, tasks, data...we're drowning in those. Help people remember how you made them feel, think, and believe.

Bright Ideas

In Memeification and digital slop: AI and the fog of war, Nic Dawes writes that "...the U.S. has surrendered unrivaled dominance in scarce, expensive information and cultural assets in exchange for a political economy of media that widely distributes cheap, abundant ones." The value of information, news, and stories (aka content) rapidly drifts to zero in a landscape of distrust and hyper-individualism. [Coda]

How I found trans joy in backcountry splitboarding is a powerful personal reflection on the power of nature. [Ollie Hancock / High Country News] via Leah Sottile's newsletter

The warming of our winters, the privatization of public lands, the policing of trans bodies — none of those are separate battles. They are all battles in the same war against the pursuit of happiness. 
– Ollie Hancock

We Write to Wage War: The Radical Black Press As A Liberatory Technology [Ryan Sorrell / Kansas City Defender]

Looking for an accessible dive into paywalls and their impact on revenue, news access (and consumption), civic knowledge, and the folks looking for solutions? Of course you are. So read How Paywalls Starve the News Coverage That Matters Most by Luis G. via Madeleine White at Audiencers

Ashley Woods Branch started Detour Detroit in 2107 and, nine years later, shares a story of detours that will echo true for most all entrepreneurs in news, social good, or biz: A cheetah coat, a failed startup and lessons learned.

Audience growth is the work: Why nonprofit news must build belonging, not just readership [John Adams / Institute for Nonprofit News] via Blue Lena

The School for Moral Ambition is accepting applications for its US Food System Reform Fellowship until April 27th.

Future Community Jobs

Don't forget the full job list. It is always fresh and somewhat squeezable. 🍋

Audience, content, journalism and news roles

• Climate Reporter (contract) : The 19th [Remote in the US] ⏱️ April 15
• Investigative Reporter : The Examination [Remote, Global] ⏱️ April 17
• Creator lead : More Perfect Union [Remote in the US]
• Senior Storyteller : Each Day Communications [Remote in the US]
• Contributing Writer (contract / multiple roles) : Magic Canoe 🛶 [Remote in Salmon Nation: Alaska, British Columbia, northern California, Idaho, western Montana, Oregon, Washington, and the Yukon] ⏱️ April 5
• Senior Product Manager : The Atlantic [New York City / Washington, DC]
• Senior Editor, Editorial Review : NPR [Washington, DC]
• Editor in Chief : Rest of World [Remote Global]

Communications

• Senior Director of Communications : Reproductive Freedom for All [Washington, DC]
• Program and Communications Coordinator : The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability [Palo Alto, CA] ⏱️ April 17

Nonprofit organizations

• Assistant Director of Online Engagement and Fundraising : Smithsonian Institution [Washington, DC]
• Manager, Digital Partnerships : Climate Power [Remote in the US]
• Principal Engagement Manager : Movement Labs [Remote in the US] ⏱️ April 13
• Writer and Associate Producer : Climate Central [Remote in the US] ⏱️ April 14
• Regional Campaign Manager : Greenlight America [Remote in MN, WI, MI, IL, IA, MO, and AR]
• Program Manager : The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund [Remote in the US]
• Head of Strategic Communications : Recoding America Fund [Washington, DC strongly preferred / Remote] ⏱️ April 27
• Digital Specialist : Climate Reality Project [Washington, DC]
• Policy and Campaigns Advisor : Foxglove [Remote in the UK] ⏱️ April 24
• Conservation Outreach Specialist : National Wildlife Federation [Remote in Texas / Nacogdoches or Lamar County preferred]
• Field Organizer : Wild Montana [Missoula, MT] ⏱️ April 10

Fundraising and Development

• Development Director : The One America Movement [Washington, DC]
• Lead Recurring Giving Specialist : Wikimedia Foundation [Remote]

Foundations and Philanthropy

• Senior Program Officer : The Freedom Together Foundation [NYC]
• Conservation Networks & Facilitation Manager : WILD Foundation [Remote in the US]

Agencies, data, politics, products & more

• Senior Account Executive, Digital : Mal Warwick Donordigital (MWD) [CA, DC, GA, IL, MA, MD, MN, NC, NJ, NY, PA, SC, VA, WA ]
• Vice President / Associate Vice President, Advocacy Tech : Assemble [Washington, DC or New York City / Remote possible] ⏱️ April 9
• Research Associate : Workbench Strategy [Remote / East Coast US hours]
• Director of Sales, All Healthy : Optimism [Remote]
• Programming Associate : Dialog [Remote in the US]

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.