Something is brewing. All of us in the social impact sector can feel it. I have been doing this for a long time. Consulting for almost 20 years. Working inside mission-driven organizations for even longer. There are ebbs and flows, times of uncertainty and big leaps forward in the work. That has always been true. But something about right now is different and most of us can’t quite put our finger on what.
Here are just a few things I see.
- Funding is contracting on a global scale (sorry to state the obvious). To compound the problem, this is happening at the same time as the needs continue to grow.
- Emotional fatigue is real and people have reached their breaking points. People are disengaging at exactly the moment it is time to lean in.
- Technology is reshaping how we work, how we interact, and what it means to show up as a human being.
Traditional models are not equipped to meet this moment.
I am in the work every day. I consult with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations looking for outside support. They need more than a polished deck or framework that AI can generate in five minutes. They need someone who has lived this work. Someone who knows what it feels like when the margins are razor thin but the mission is in your veins. Someone who can connect with a burned out executive director and dig into a hard problem because they genuinely care. The moment needs most of you reading these field notes.
Who these Field Notes are for
- Executive directors navigating uncertainty
- Foundation leaders supporting grantees who are overwhelmed
- Experienced professionals considering consulting
- Established consultants already solving hard problems
Meanwhile, I am hearing from mission-driven professionals who are being laid off, burned out, or pushed to their limits. People with hard-won wisdom and experience in our sector, ready to tackle this new era of uncertainty alongside us but not quite sure where to start.
The need is there. The knowledge is there. We just need to bridge the gap. The question is how do we do this well?
This is the conversation I want to explore with you monthly in this newsletter, Field Notes on Social Impact.
Over the coming months, I’ll be reaching out to experts I know and trust, adding my own research, and sharing what I learn with you as I dig into the topics that are keeping me and my colleagues up at night. Some of what I have planned:
Why This Moment Feels So Hard
I want to take seriously what is actually different right now. Why nonprofits feel like they are running on a different operating system than they were two years ago, why so many of the most committed people in our sector feel tapped out or uninspired or stuck, and what the future of mission-driven work looks like from where I sit. I want to think with you and out loud about where each of us fits inside it.
AI and What It Means for Us
AI is the through-line of almost every conversation I am having with consultants and clients right now, and most of those conversations are happening in private. I want to bring them into the open. What AI is changing in the daily work of mission-driven organizations, and what it cannot touch. How it is redrawing the line between what large consulting firms charge for and what a one-person practice can deliver. What it means for the value of expertise. And underneath all of it — what it means to remain a mission-driven human at a moment when the tools are advancing faster than most of us can absorb.
Bridging the Gap across Inside to the Outside Expertise
This is where a lot of my own day-to-day thinking lives. When should an organization build internal capacity, and when is it time to bring in outside help? How do organizations find the right outside support rather than the closest available? What separates a consulting engagement that takes root from one that ends up on a shelf? What does good consulting actually look like in this sector — and what does it look like when it goes wrong? And for those of you reading this from inside an organization, wondering whether your next chapter is as an outside advisor: how do you know when, and how do you start?
If any of this resonates, subscribe and let’s figure this out together.
This newsletter is part of a broader education effort I call StrategicHope™. Not because hope is easy. The people I admire most combine two things at once: a clear-eyed understanding of reality and a stubborn belief that progress is still possible. That is the spirit I hope to bring to these field notes.
Warmly and with hope,
Patty Debenham, PhD
P.S. If you are one of the experienced professionals I described above — someone wondering whether consulting might be your next chapter — I want to invite you to something specific.
I’m running a free three-part primer on social impact consulting, starting Tuesday, June 9. Two short videos and one live session on Friday, June 12. We’ll cover what social impact consultants actually do, how to know whether this path is right for you, what organizations are hiring for right now, and how people make the transition successfully.
If that sounds useful, I’d love to have you there. Register here.