Simple enough to repeat. Deep enough to trust.
I speak and teach on how nonprofits build belonging and earn trust — for conferences, AFP chapters, board meetings, and staff days.
The Welcoming Nonprofit: The Four Spaces of Nonprofit Engagement.
I make the case that belonging isn't a pipeline — it's a house, with four rooms. The Four Spaces draws on five decades of research into how humans experience space and belonging — Edward T. Hall's proxemics, Christopher Alexander's pattern language, Joseph Myers' spatial theory — and hands it to your audience as a simple metaphor they can use on Monday.
Audiences leave able to name the room each of their supporters is standing in, and to say what they do in a sentence a stranger would actually repeat.
Conference keynotes, AFP chapter meetings, board retreats, and staff days. Virtual or in person. Roughly 45–60 minutes, with an interactive version that puts the room to work.
The Analog Nonprofit: Creating Real Connection in an Age of Automation.
The talk from the book I'm writing now. AI can fake warmth at infinite scale — which means it can counterfeit belonging. My argument: when polish becomes free, effort becomes the signal. This isn't anti-tech — a builder's caution, not a luddite's — it's a way to decide what to automate and what has to stay human.
Audiences leave with a clear-eyed way to think about trust in an AI-flooded sector — and permission to use the tools without quietly eroding the relationships they've worked years to build.
Conferences and staff days wrestling with what AI means for their communications and their donors. This one's newer to the circuit and still taking shape in public — book it while it's fresh.
Want the Four Spaces in the room with your team?
A keynote reframes the thinking. A workshop changes what your team does Monday morning.
We take the ideas from The Welcoming Nonprofit and apply them to your actual supporters — naming the room each one is really standing in, drafting your Sidewalk Statement until it sounds like you, and finding where people get stuck or the ask is too big for the space.
Some teams want the language and the framework to run with themselves; others want to leave with the work done together, live, in the room. We'll shape it around where your team actually is.
Virtual or in person · half-day or full-day · scaled to your team and goals.
Strategic Nonprofit Consulting
I also take on a small number of deeper consulting engagements each year — strategic nonprofit communications work: brand and messaging clarity, fundraising and donor communications, rebrands, and helping teams figure out where AI belongs in all of it. These engagements are shaped one at a time, so the best place to start is a conversation.
Not sure which fits, working with a tight budget, or just have a question? Tell me a little about your organization and what you're up against — we'll find the right shape.