# Todd Hiestand

> Todd Hiestand is a nonprofit strategist, author, and speaker with more than two decades of experience helping mission-driven organizations grow and communicate with clarity. He is the author of *The Welcoming Nonprofit* and the creator of the Four Spaces of Nonprofit Engagement — a hospitality-based framework for how people come to belong to an organization.

The Four Spaces — Sidewalk (strangers), Front Porch (acquaintances), Living Room (friends), Kitchen Table (partners) — describe the rooms supporters occupy on their way to belonging. The core argument: supporters aren't liquid moving through a funnel; they're people deciding whether to come up the steps. Todd works with nonprofits through keynote speaking (*The Welcoming Nonprofit* on the Four Spaces, and *The Analog Nonprofit* on real connection in the age of automation), team workshops that apply the Four Spaces, and a small number of strategic consulting engagements each year. He writes an email newsletter called Letters from the Front Porch. He lives in the Portland, Oregon area.

## Pages

- [About](https://toddhiestand.com/about): Bio and background.
- [Speaking & Consulting](https://toddhiestand.com/services): Keynotes — *The Welcoming Nonprofit* (the Four Spaces) and *The Analog Nonprofit* (real connection in an age of automation) — plus team workshops and strategic nonprofit consulting.
- [The Book](https://toddhiestand.com/the-book): *The Welcoming Nonprofit: How Hospitality Builds Trust, Belonging, and Sustainable Support*, plus the next book in progress.
- [Blog](https://toddhiestand.com/letters): Letters from the Front Porch — an occasional note on welcome, trust, and the work of belonging.
- [Contact](https://toddhiestand.com/contact): Get in touch about keynotes, training, or consulting.
- [RSS feed](https://toddhiestand.com/feed.xml)
- [Full letter text for AI systems](https://toddhiestand.com/llms-full.txt)

## Letters

- [The cost of convenience in the age of AI](https://toddhiestand.com/posts/the-cost-of-convenience-in-the-age-of-ai-2026-08-10) — August 10, 2026. "People don't drive around with their windows down anymore, and it shows." ### This is my latest profound hot take, which might not actually be that profound, but hear me out. Back in the "late…
- [The Four Posts You Meet on LinkedIn](https://toddhiestand.com/posts/the-four-posts-you-meet-on-linkedin-2026-08-04) — August 4, 2026. LinkedIn just added its fun and totally not controversial at all "Seems like AI slop" button. This is fun timing for me. For the last 3 weeks, I have been collecting posts off of the platform and…
- [Oh, the Places I'll Go](https://toddhiestand.com/posts/oh-the-places-i-ll-go-2026-08-03) — August 3, 2026. “Oh, the places you’ll go.” You know it’s really hard to predict where you’ll be in 10 years, and with the way the world is changing, it’s getting harder to predict where you’ll be in 6 months. But…
- [How do nonprofits stay strategically personal in the age of efficiency?](https://toddhiestand.com/posts/how-do-nonprofits-stay-strategically-personal-in-the-age-of-efficiency-2026-07-23) — July 23, 2026. Every nonprofit conference I have gone to recently, nonprofits are being told to adopt AI. The message is similar across different segments of our industry: move faster, automate, do more with less.…
- [Where Does AI Belong in Nonprofit Communications](https://toddhiestand.com/posts/where-does-ai-belong-in-nonprofit-communications-2026-07-23) — July 23, 2026. I said it last week in my talk at the AFP Orange County Chapter meeting, and I'm becoming more convinced that the conversation I'm particularly invested in having these days is how we make real,…
- [You Write What You Read.](https://toddhiestand.com/posts/you-write-what-you-read-2026-07-23) — July 23, 2026. I have been thinking a lot about writing these days and I think the question people are asking more and more is, "did a person write this or is this just some more AI-generated slop." We know AI is…