Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact

Eric Ressler
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Designing Tomorrow explores a new playbook for modern social impact leaders and brands to reach their true impact potential.    Why do some social impact brands thrive, while so many others fail to get traction, build support for their cause, and make meaningful progress? Imagine your impact with truly sustainable revenue and resources. With deeper community engagement and relationships. With more influence in your social impact category.   Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, each episode dives into the strategies, mindsets, and behaviors top social impact brands use to play and win in the attention economy. Go beyond high-level concepts to specific tools and tactics you can use today.   Watch on YouTube or listen to new episodes each Tuesday.  Let’s design a better tomorrow, together.Designing Tomorrow is a Cosmic Production. Learn more at https://designbycosmic.com/ Designing Tomorrow is a registered trademark of Design By Cosmic, Inc. 

  1. 6일 전

    Design Your Board (Or It Will Design Itself)

    What if the biggest barrier to your mission isn't funding, or talent, or market conditions — but the people sitting in your boardroom? Not because they're bad people. But because they don't have clear expectations about their role. They weren't trained on the very real skills required for governance. And they're shoved into systems that don't allow them to bring their best strengths to the table. In this episode, I sit down with Rob Acton, founder of Cause Strategy Partners, to explore what separates boards that multiply impact from boards that drain resources. After serving as a nonprofit CEO for 11 years and watching boards either accelerate or anchor organizations, Rob has spent the last decade placing over 3,000 board members across 1,500 organizations — and he's figured out exactly what makes the difference. It's not about finding wealthy donors or well-connected people. It's about design. Because most nonprofit boards aren't built — they just happen. A friend of a friend. Someone who can write a check. A warm body to fill a seat. That's governance by accident. And governance by accident creates dysfunction by design. In our conversation, we explore: The invisible hand problem: when boards feel like barriers instead of assets [01:59]The three foundations of effective boards: expectations, design, and culture [04:43]Why you shouldn't apologize for setting high expectations [06:33]Building strategic diversity beyond demographics [07:42]Getting outside your existing network to find the right candidates [09:46]Where to draw the line between board and staff work [10:15]The collaboration model: why boards can't set strategy alone (but CEOs can't either) [12:27]What fiduciary oversight actually means in practice [13:54]The B minus problem: why boards get mediocre grades from their CEOs [14:48]Why less than 5% of board members ever receive governance training [17:28]Where the buck stops: who's responsible for board training [18:32]What crisis reveals about board quality [42:38]Why high-capacity people lean in when things get hard [43:36]Notable Quotes "I can't think of anything worse than a nonprofit organization — we don't operate around the edges of society, we're taking care of homelessness, kids, the sick, the environment — to have a board that's actually draining resources instead of contributing." — Rob Acton [04:03] "I've seen people apologize for the roles and responsibilities and expectations. That makes me sad. There's no apology. You're stepping into a role where you'll be one of 10, 12, 15 people shepherding this important work." — Rob Acton [04:43] "Don't just ask 'who do we know?' Really be thoughtful around what is the right mix of backgrounds, experiences, skill sets, industries that we need represented in these strategic conversations." — Rob Acton [05:11] "When a board has delegated everything else to the CEO and said 'okay, we'll just raise money,' they've really lost track of their core responsibilities." — Rob Acton [09:18] 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.

    48분

  2. 12월 2일

    What Happens When Organizations Can't Dream

    What happens when organizations can't dream? Not because they lack vision. But because they're too busy scrambling to make payroll, chasing emergency grants, firefighting the latest crisis. Scarcity doesn't just drain bank accounts — it steals the capacity to imagine what's possible. In this episode, I sit down with Jamye Wooten, founder of CLLCTIVLY in Baltimore, to explore what he calls "reactivism" and how the social impact sector got trapped in a cycle of moving from crisis to crisis, hashtag to hashtag, never building the institutions we actually need. After years on the front lines in Ferguson and Baltimore, Jamye stepped back to create what he calls an "imagination incubator" — and he's putting real resources behind it. We dig into what it actually takes to give leaders the space they need to dream, the hidden costs of the grind we celebrate, and why capital (not training) is what builds capacity. In our conversation, we explore: Why scarcity steals imagination — and what that costs us [01:47]Creating containers for imagination: CLLCTIVLY's $75K residency program [04:30]The capacity building myth: why organizations need capital, not more training [12:22]What funders get wrong about outcomes and sustainability [06:08]Participatory grantmaking and putting people before projects [09:22]How philanthropy shifts priorities every 3-5 years — and why that's devastating [10:09]The missing VC-style pipeline for social impact organizations [12:00]Partnership vs. paternalism: reimagining funder-grantee relationships [19:27]Navigating the DEI backlash and building sustainable funding models [16:31]From $5,000 to $1.2 million: how individual donors built Collective Give [19:00]Creating power balance in philanthropy spaces [22:12]The personal cost: "Dad, you're so close, but so far" [30:44]What keeps Jamye going when the work is relentless [29:17]Connect with CLLCTIVLY and what's next [33:56]Notable Quotes "We've been trying to create a container for imagination and to provide space for other folks to pause and imagine the future that they want to see." — Jamye Wooten [03:43] "Capital will help you build capacity. What does it mean to get the upfront capital that allows me to go hire my CFO and my CEO and begin to build out a team? Most folks are building as they climb without this type of infrastructure." — Jamye Wooten [13:40] "We may celebrate the hustle, the bootstrapping and the grind and resilience of community. It will also take you out." — Jamye Wooten [09:45] "I would love to see foundations and funders make a long-term commitment to really bet like they want organizations to win." — Jamye Wooten [11:22] "The times are urgent, we must slow down." — Jamye Wooten [29:40] P.S. — Struggling to align your mission with your message? Cosmic helps social impact leaders build brands that actually reflect the change you're creating. Let's talk about your vision: 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.

    37분

  3. 11월 11일

    Fewer Donors, Bigger Checks. Interpreting the Latest Giving Data.

    We break down the 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy with the researchers who created it — exploring what this concentration means for nonprofit sustainability and the future of philanthropy.  There’s a number that keeps showing up in conversations about American philanthropy. And it tells two completely different stories depending on how you read it. Over the past decade, charitable giving from affluent households increased more than 30%. That’s remarkable. That suggests a sector that’s thriving. Resilient. Responding to need. But here’s the other story that same data tells. Donor participation dropped from 91% to 81%. Twenty million American households stopped giving to charity entirely. First-time donor retention? Below 20%. Fewer people are writing checks. They’re just writing much bigger ones. So which story matters more? The one about record-breaking totals? Or the one about democratic participation collapsing? To answer that question, I wanted to talk with the researchers who created the data in the first place. Amir Pasic is the Dean of Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. It’s the world’s first and only school devoted entirely to the study of generosity. He oversees Giving USA — the longest-running report on American charitable giving. Bill Jarvis is the Managing Director at Bank of America Private Bank. He’s spent nearly two decades tracking how wealthy Americans give through the Bank of America Study of Philanthropy. He bridges wealth management and charitable giving in ways few others can. Together, they’ve surveyed over 15,000 affluent households since 2006. Their 2025 findings reveal a sector at a crossroads. And that crossroads is exactly what we’re exploring today. 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.

    52분

  4. 11월 4일

    Why Good Orgs Stall Out

    The biggest barrier to your next stage isn’t lack of vision or resources. It’s the moment you stop imagining what could be and start protecting what already is. 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.

    8분

  5. 10월 21일

    Why Facts Don't Change Minds

    In this episode, we're joined by Drew Dumsch, President and CEO of the Ecology School at River Bend Farm in Maine. Drew co-founded the organization 26 years ago with a premise that felt radical then and feels essential now: that ecological literacy — learning to read the landscape the way you learn to read a book — is foundational to creating engaged, compassionate citizens capable of understanding complex systems. This conversation challenges the assumption that more information will save us. Instead, it offers a different path: one grounded in systems thinking, regenerative principles, and the radical act of kindness in a moment defined by casual cruelty. Key Topics Discussed Why traditional environmental education fails to create lasting changeThe disconnect between climate knowledge and climate actionSystems thinking vs. factual learning: what creates ecological literacyHow regenerative principles extend beyond agriculture to learning and leadershipBuilding bipartisan consensus in an era of toxic polarizationThe relationship between hope, understanding, and agencyMeeting people where they are vs. demanding perfectionWhy collaboration (not competition) is the only path forwardThe role of compassion in climate actionWhat it means to reimagine the future now, not later Notable Quotes "Being told facts is not the purpose of education. Facts are part of becoming a well-rounded human being and an engaged citizen, but I think a huge gap is that as a society, we lack the ability to understand systems." — Drew Dumsch "You could create sustainability through fascism and cruelty. It may be sustainable, but is that a vibrant community you want to live in?" — Drew Dumsch "Showing up to work every day is my act of rebellion." — Drew Dumsch "Hope is based on both understanding of what can be and then agency to be a part of that." — Drew Dumsch "People want the simple solution. That's boring. I think the level of diversity in solutions is exciting and creative." — Drew Dumsch Resources The Ecology School at River Bend Farm Website: theecologyschool.org LinkedIn: The Ecology School Instagram: @ecologyschool Mentioned in the Episode: The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education by Daniel Goleman and Peter SengeMaine Outdoor School for All networkLiving Building ChallengeP.S. — Feeling a disconnect between your mission and your brand? Cosmic helps social impact leaders build trust through story-rich brands, compelling campaigns, and values-aligned strategy. Let's talk about how to elevate your impact: https://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.

    32분

  6. 10월 14일

    Growth Isn't Linear. It's Cyclical.

    Once you see the pattern, you can't unsee it. 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.

    6분

  7. 10월 7일

    What Political Campaigns Know That Nonprofits Don't

    Mike Nellis has raised over $1 billion for progressive campaigns and causes. As the founder of Authentic and former Senior Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, he's seen what work — and what doesn't — in digital fundraising. In this conversation, we explore what nonprofits can learn from campaign strategy, the dangers of volume-driven marketing, and why authenticity might be the only sustainable advantage left. Notable Quotes "The biggest thing that moves the needle is volume. It matters a lot more how many times you're posting than the quality of the content." — Mike Nellis [6:25] "Running an ethical and effective fundraising program that's rooted in storytelling can raise you a lot more money than the churn and burn stuff. If you build it over time, you raise more money." — Mike Nellis [5:46] "I can't stop Donald Trump from being the tyrant that he is. But a lot of times people ignore their physical and mental health, ignore their family, ignore their community when they could strengthen all those relationships. You want to make the world a better place? You start bottom up." — Mike Nellis [30:57] Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction [02:12] Political vs. nonprofit fundraising: What's different? [05:02] Building meaningful relationships over churn and burn [06:25] Volume matters more than quality in the attention economy [09:06] The culture problem: Why nonprofits move too slowly [10:38] Bulk buy acquisition: An ethical dilemma with no solution [11:15] Is there a breaking point coming for digital culture? [13:59] The impersonation problem and bad faith actors [14:49] Why the digital cliff won't come [16:44] Building a million-person audience with a team of one [17:21] Joe Rogan's content ecosystem and the clip economy [18:34] "I'm the same asshole in every room": On authenticity [20:22] The Russian nesting doll theory of content [21:57] Mid-roll: About Cosmic [22:53] Why nonprofit leaders need to communicate like humans [23:59] The distrust of intellectuals and academia [25:14] Simple messaging wins: Build the wall vs. the blah blah blah act [27:37] How social change actually happens [30:24] The concentric circles model: Self, family, community, world [31:30] Why local action matters more than national outrage [33:04] Raising good men in a world of bad role models [34:39] Andrew Tate and the young men crisis [36:06] School shootings and focusing on what you can control [36:43] Choosing to be a joyful warrior [37:25] Why the Democratic Party can't become the party of grievances [38:54] Where to find Mike P.S. — Feeling a disconnect between your mission and your brand? Cosmic helps social impact leaders build trust through story-rich brands, compelling campaigns, and values-aligned strategy. Let’s talk about how to elevate your impact: https://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.

    40분

  8. 9월 30일

    What If It’s Not All Falling Apart?

    The dominant narrative this year has been that everything’s falling apart. But what if we're manifesting a social impact doom loop? Why I have a newfound resurgence of hope and optimism for this work. 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.

    8분
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Designing Tomorrow explores a new playbook for modern social impact leaders and brands to reach their true impact potential.    Why do some social impact brands thrive, while so many others fail to get traction, build support for their cause, and make meaningful progress? Imagine your impact with truly sustainable revenue and resources. With deeper community engagement and relationships. With more influence in your social impact category.   Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, each episode dives into the strategies, mindsets, and behaviors top social impact brands use to play and win in the attention economy. Go beyond high-level concepts to specific tools and tactics you can use today.   Watch on YouTube or listen to new episodes each Tuesday.  Let’s design a better tomorrow, together.Designing Tomorrow is a Cosmic Production. Learn more at https://designbycosmic.com/ Designing Tomorrow is a registered trademark of Design By Cosmic, Inc. 

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