Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership — How Can Nonprofit Leaders Succeed in the Attention Economy?

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With the distractions of instant access to information, are you effectively capturing the attention of the right people in a sustained, authentic, and meaningful way to move your mission forward? Cosmic Founder and Creative Director Eric Ressler joins Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership podcast host Patton McDowell for a conversation about the attention economy, what it means and how it has affected nonprofit organizations. Eric shares why organizations struggle to find, grow and maintain funding and ways that you can cut through the noise to better communicate your message. In this episode, you’ll learn why traditional strategies and approaches are not working in this attention economy and how to leverage the full power of a global digital culture.

“Nonprofit leaders who view problems through the lens of empathy and curiosity will find more interesting and effective solutions.”

Episode Highlights:

• [2:23] What is the attention economy and how does it affect nonprofit organizations?

• [7:55] The journey that led to the philanthropy and technology-based mission at Cosmic.

• [10:35] The clients that Cosmic serves have a focus on social impact.

• [13:45] Why do organizations struggle to find and maintain philanthropic funding sources?

• [18:35] Tactics for cutting through the noise to share the message of a non-profit.

• [22:22] Sharpening and refining your message for maximum impact.

• [26:55] What does the future of social impact fundraising look like?

• [29:51] Shifting away from the metrics that ineffectively judge the progress of an organization.

• [36:30] Final advice for developing the characteristics that impact meaningful change.

• [38:45] Eric’s book recommendation

Quotes:

“We need to look more structurally around how we can create technology that works for us instead of
taking advantage of us.”

“First acknowledge that you are playing in an attention economy. It’s fundamental to the rest of our
views.”

“The story is really not about your organization. It’s about how you can help your supporters create the
change that you’re all working toward.”

“If we keep trying to do things the same way, we’re not going to make progress quickly enough to solve
some of these issues.”

Resources:

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership: Seven Keys to Advancing Your Career in the Philanthropic Sector by
Patton McDowell

Cosmic Agency