Every year, Thread Strategies checks in with our nonprofit partners—our “Spool”—to learn how their year-end fundraising campaigns performed and what worked best. In this post, Thread Principal Liz Siddle shares insights from our 2025 Spool to Sphere survey, including encouraging results, key trends, and what smaller nonprofits experienced during a particularly challenging fundraising year.
Read MoreAt a New Year’s concert, a single lyric—“Put me in, coach”—became an unexpected invitation to reflect on burnout, rest, and what it means to return to work differently. Executive Principal Taryn Deaton shares how taking a sabbatical helped restore her capacity for nonprofit leadership and why sustainable change in the nonprofit sector depends on leaders who are willing to rest as seriously as they work.
Read MoreA sabbatical is an opportunity to test your organization’s resilience. If one person’s absence causes everything to grind to a halt, that’s not a people problem—it’s a systems problem.
Read MoreWe hear a lot about self-care these days as both a tool for our personal lives as well as our professional ones. Oxford Languages defines self-care as “the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.” The term can sometimes feel out of reach, perhaps even wishful or trite.
Read MoreAs we celebrate Thread’s 10-year anniversary, CEO and Founder Loree Lipstein reflects not just on what we’ve built together, but on what we’ve learned along the way.
Read MoreFour of Thread’s most trusted partners celebrate our 10th anniversary by reflecting on what they value about our work and how it is complementary to theirs.
Read MoreOne of the most common threads in our recent conversations with partners has been how to respond to the growing fundraising uncertainty fueled by shifts in the current administration’s policies. In moments like these, going back to the fundamentals can make all the difference.
Read MoreThree members of the Thread Spool share how their nonprofit organizations are navigating fundraising uncertainty.
Read MoreIn this Spotlight, Aza Nedhari, Co-founder and Executive Director of Mamatoto Village, shares how her organization has built its fundraising practices around justice-centered philanthropy principles and holds funders accountable to these shared values.
Read MoreThis experiment challenged me to think beyond my own goals and ego. It showed me that we’re part of a larger ecosystem of organizations working toward a just society. Our missions are deeply interrelated. When we prioritize the collective community over individual organizational success, we unlock new potential for impact.
Read MoreMembers of the Thread spool share their “a-ha” and “amen” responses to UnCharitable
Read MoreMany members of the Thread team have been longtime fans and evangelists for Dan Pallota’s record-breaking TED talk from 2013 that raised important questions about how we perceive and support nonprofits. So, we were thrilled when Dan expanded this concept into the full-length documentary UnCharitable, which is now streaming on several platforms.
Read MoreIn March 2024, Thread launched a brief newsletter of “extras” designed to help you get the job done in your nonprofit fundraising work. Check out today’s second issue, which includes helpful articles and development job postings from our partners in the Thread Spool.
Read MoreA conversation with Tony Francavilla, Chief Development Officer, at DC SCORES.
Read MoreThread Senior Consultant Anna Morozovsky talks about her love of data and why January is a great month to focus on it.
Read MoreIt may be January, but the work of EOY fundraising is not quite done.
Read MoreDuring the summer of 2019, Tracy Shaw was asked to join the board of a local organization she has great affection and affinity towards. Tracy was both flattered AND apprehensive.
Read MoreThread welcomes Sara to our team!
Read MoreA conversation with Larry Hovis, Executive Coordinator of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina.
Read MoreAugust is National Make-A-Will Month, and Thread Strategies Director Mackay Gunn offers an outline for a quick and easy campaign to raise awareness about the opportunity for donors to make a planned gift to your non-profit organization.
Read More
