Sarah Newkirk became executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County in the middle of a capital campaign, the same week Jonathan Hicken took over at the Seymour Center. Five years later, she's landed a $15 million farmland deal, a wildlife crossing Caltrans is now replicating statewide, and a strategic plan built around one question: what would have to be true for this to work? She and Eric talk relationships, risk, and why joy is the real return on conservation work.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:30] Coming in as the new ED mid-capital-campaign, the same week Jonathan started at the Seymour Center

[00:06:30] Beach Ranch: taking flood-prone farmland out of production to let marshland move inland

[00:07:30] Retiring 47-year-old branding and finally owning the "conservation incubator" identity

[00:09:30] Inside the Highway 17 wildlife crossing, now a model Caltrans is replicating statewide

[00:16:00] The Land Trust's three beneficiaries: wildlife, working agriculture, and people, together

[00:26:00] The "what would have to be true" method that turned a twice-failed ballot measure into Measure Q

Notable Quotes:

Sarah Newkirk [00:28:00]: "We made a list of what had to be true, and we made those things true."

Sarah Newkirk [00:39:15]: "When you provide this kind of conservation work to the broader public, the public loves it, and therefore they love you. That is a beautiful, virtuous cycle."

Eric Ressler [00:39:30]: "I love that the answer is joy. I think we need a lot more joy in how this work happens."

Resources & Links:

• Land Trust of Santa Cruz County — landtrustsantacruz.org
• Highway 17 Wildlife Crossing — landtrustsantacruz.org/protected-areas/highway-17-wildlife-crossing/
• Beach Ranch wetland restoration — hilltromper.com/article/wetland-restoration-beach-ranch-benefits-nature-wildlife-and-people
• Learning the Land podcast — landtrustsantacruz.org/podcast/

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

There's a push right now to democratize strategic planning. Survey the community, poll the staff, put the big calls to a vote.

I get the instinct, but it goes too far. Influence is not the same as decision-making power, and collapsing the two is how good orgs freeze.

In this episode, Eric and Jonathan draft their ideal strategic planning teams fantasy-sports style from a pool of ten possible inputs, and work out how much weight each voice actually deserves.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:00] Drafting fantasy strategic planning teams from ten possible inputs
[00:02:30] First picks: leadership team vs. the community you serve
[00:05:15] Influence vs. decision-making power, the distinction that runs through everything
[00:08:45] Gut and intuition as a legitimate strategic input
[00:10:45] Data beats opinions, and predictive vs. directional data
[00:15:45] Why boards should support more than they decide
[00:28:30] Synthesizing every input into a decision you can own
[00:33:00] Win-win as a cheat code, and why pleasing everyone signals a weak choice

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:05:35]: "The community should have a lot of influence, but I don't think this work usually works when it's truly democratic."

Jonathan Hicken [00:11:05]: "We have a saying at Seymour Center here where data beats opinions 100% of the time."

Eric Ressler [00:33:35]: "If literally everyone is happy, maybe the decision was too obvious and weak."

Resources & Links:

• Designing Tomorrow Spotlight interview with Rob Acton on designing effective nonprofit boards
• Cause Strategy Partners — Rob Acton's firm, focused on nonprofit board placement and governance training

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.

There's a number treated like gospel in philanthropy: the 5% annual payout private foundations are required to hit. It was written into law as a floor.

Kristin Todd has watched it become a ceiling instead. After nearly two decades at the Daniels Fund, a $1.5 billion private foundation, she now leads the NoCo Foundation in Northern Colorado, where she's more than doubled annual grant-making by refusing to let donor dollars sit still.

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:00] Running a $1.5 billion legacy fund vs. a nimble community foundation
[00:07:00] Why mergers stopped being a taboo word for nonprofits
[00:11:30] How NoCo doubled its grant-making by keeping money in motion
[00:12:30] The 5% floor that became a ceiling
[00:20:30] Stop calling them charities. They're businesses with social impact.
[00:34:00] Punching above your weight locally instead of waiting on Washington

Notable Quotes:

Kristin Todd [00:12:30]: "In the private foundation world, that 5% has become a ceiling, not a floor."

Kristin Todd [00:11:30]: "We do not want to be a sponsor of DAFs that are warehousing dollars, and in fact we are not."

Eric Ressler [00:21:30]: "These are the hardest problems in the world that no one else has solved, and yet they're not getting the same attention as the latest AI startup."

Resources & Links:

• NoCo Foundation — nocofoundation.org
• Daniels Fund — danielsfund.org

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.