Giving Compass' Take:

• Advisor Jim Hickman discusses the importance of nonprofits embracing digital tools in order to expand their reach and build capacity.

• What is your organization doing to keep up with the changing landscape? It goes beyond just being "online," but means making a true effort to align technology and advanced data collecting with one's mission.

• Here's more about the art of nudging technology adoption within the social sector.

Recently, the team at Open Impact published a timely report, “The New Normal: Capacity Building During a Time of Disruption,” with funding from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. It examines how we are responding to the forces buffeting the nonprofit sector and the need for new mindsets and behaviors, in both funders and grantees, to move social change “never backward, always forward.”

The “new normal” requires a shift from a “we can’t” or “our funders won’t” mindset to a more design-thinking inspired “What if we could” mentality. The report’s focus on adaptive leadership and emerging leaders is an important contribution to the capacity building field. That said, when fighting for social change, you never want to confuse a clear vision with a short distance.

One the major challenges and opportunities for impact at scale facing many nonprofit organizations is the proliferation of data and the power of digital technology. How do we mitigate the risks and harness these forces of change to drive improvement and impact?

Read the full article about how technology can save nonprofits by Jim Hickman at medium.com.