CSR Communications

BoardCQ™ Change Readiness Assessment for Nonprofit Boards Live Demo and Deep Dive
2025-10-22 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Live via Zoom
Is your nonprofit board a booster, a blocker, or at best, neutral in times of change? With the social sector in upheaval this year, the answer to this question will determine the future of your organization.
The nonprofits still on solid footing heading into 2026 will be there because they have change-ready, change-capable, and change-resilient boards.
The boards that will help their organizations navigate tomorrow’s uncertainty have one critical advantage: they know exactly where they stand on change readiness and what gaps they need to close to lead through the rapid change ahead.
Most don’t.
This Webinar and Demo is for you if you are:

A program officer or foundation leader watching grantees struggle and seeking better ways to help protect their mission and your investment

A membership organization whose members are facing layoffs, funding cuts, leadership transitions and more, and you want to be part of their solution

A nonprofit executive whose board needs to move from crisis management to strategic response to become your steady partner in navigating change

A nonprofit board chair or member wondering if you’re doing enough (or enough of the right things) to support staff and find a viable path forward

Board CQ™ Demo and Deep Dive Wednesday, October 22nd | 11:00 am – 12:00 pm ET via Zoom
What You’ll See:

Demo of BoardCQ™, our proprietary change readiness index for nonprofit boards, measuring your board across the eight characteristics that separate organizations that adapt easily from those that don’t

Real examples of how boards use their results to build the governance muscle needed for uncertain times

What change-ready boards do differently when facing leadership transitions, funding challenges, and strategic pivots

The Reality: Crisis management has become a daily routine. The cost of waiting to assess your board’s readiness is too high when every decision matters more than ever.
Why Now: The gap between optimism about the nonprofit sector’s future and confidence in boards’ ability to lead us there is widening. Board CQ ™ gives you objective data about where your board stands and clear steps to close that gap.
Register Here
The best time to measure change readiness was yesterday. The second-best time is now.

[Executive Forum] How Funders Can Adapt 2026 Grantee Capacity Building Plans to Meet Shifting Needs
2025-12-02 10:00 - 11:00
The Reality: The ground beneath your grantees has fundamentally shifted this year. Nonprofits and funders agree that an increasing share of social impact is at risk from unexpected events.
Why It Matters: Every dollar and resource provided counts more than ever, and you need to feel confident that what you provide will make a difference for the organizations, causes, and people you support.
What nonprofits need from funders today is different from what they needed 18 months ago. And if your capacity-building plans aren’t focused on organizational resilience, then the gap between what you’re providing and what your grantees actually need will grow in 2026.
The Challenge: If you’re designing 2026 learning communities or capacity-building initiatives the same way you have for the past few years, you’re solving for yesterday’s problems. How do you adapt your plans to meet the needs of now?
Join peer foundation leaders to explore:

Lessons from T. Rowe Price Foundation’s Leading Through Change: The Board’s Role cohort – what worked, what surprised them, and what they’re applying to 2026 planning;

What nonprofit leaders are looking for from funders now that’s different from 18 months ago (from a CEO/board chair living it);

Practical ideas for adapting your 2026 capacity-building and grantee learning community plans.

This forum is for you if you’re finalizing 2026 plans and wondering how to invest time, energy, and dollars wisely and effectively.
Special guests:

Sabrina Thornton, Creativity & Innovation Program Officer, T. Rowe Price Foundation

Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger, President & CEO, Data Quality Campaign; Board Chair, Maryland Reads

[Executive Briefing and Open House] Organizational Change Capacity: The Make-or-Break for Achieving 2026 Goals
2026-01-20 11:00 - 12:00 | Live via Zoom
If you’re leading any change in your organization in 2026, such as AI rollout, re-organization, strategy shifts, resource re-allocation, or leadership succession, or operating in an uncertain environment that brings change to your front door (whether you’re ready or not), then this open house is for you.
Virtual Open House
January 20th | 11:00-11:45 am ET via Zoom
Organizations with strong change capacity meet or exceed objectives 88-93% of the time. Those without? 13-15%. Boost your change capacity in 2026 by partnering with CSR.
Here’s just a sample of what’s sure to create more uncertainty, disruption, and change for you and your organization in the next 12 months:

88% of companies are now using AI, but 94% are stuck in pilots. Half the employees fear AI will eliminate their jobs, so they’re either resisting it or hiding their usage from the boss.

Middle managers, the people essential for successful change initiative implementation, are burning out (or being laid off) at alarming rates. Those remaining have little training or professional development, especially in change management, leaving more on the plate of senior leadership and threatening productivity across the organization.

Only 27% of leaders think their teams are aligned. What’s worse? Only 9% of employees do, resulting in missed goals, unclear or competing priorities, overwhelm, and turnover.

100% of CEOs will have an AI strategy in 2026. Meanwhile, only 6% of employees believe it’ll benefit them long-term. This means resistance, pushback, and AI implementation initiatives that go off the rails right from the start, undermining any potential ROI.

Nonprofit CEO turnover is at record highs, yet only 27% of nonprofits have succession plans, and your board might not be equipped to ensure a smooth transition.

You can avoid unnecessary costs, get your middle managers functioning at their best (to keep things off your plate), realize the ROI on your AI and other change initiatives, and achieve your 2026 goals.
Join our Open House and we’ll show you…

The change capacity gaps most leaders overlook.

Highlights from yet-to-be-published research we conducted in 2025, including the state of middle managers and common mistakes in nonprofit mergers.

How we help organizations build the change capacity that makes AI adoption, or any major initiative implementation, go smoothly, delivering 68%-300% ROI.

A demo of BoardCQ™, our change readiness assessment for nonprofit boards, that offers valuable insight and actionable recommendations to prepare for leadership transitions, AI, mergers, and other changes facing the social sector next year.

If you have an immediate need, this Open House is a no-stakes way to vet us and see if we should be at the top of your call list.
If you’re not in the market right now for what we offer, then now is the best time to learn about us so that you have a ready-to-go resource in your pocket when you do need it.

[Executive Forum] Trends Among Trends 2026 is Here: Learn What’s Really Driving Change This Year and How to Make It Work For, and Not Against You
2026-02-10 11:00 - 12:00 | Live via Zoom
Every major publication, and many minor ones, for every industry and field, publishes trends in January. If you’ve wondered how anyone can possibly keep up with even the most relevant ones, let alone make time for trends outside one’s industry or field, then this Forum is for you.
We’re back with our most popular topic of the past several years! We’ve done the heavy lifting with a meta-analysis to discover the trends among the trends, the patterns that transcend industries and fields, and the forces driving the opportunities and risks for 2026.
With AI adoption accelerating, middle management collapsing, and strategic alignment at historic lows, understanding these patterns NOW is how you position your organization ahead of disruption rather than react to it.
Virtual Executive ForumTrends Among Trends 2026February 10th | 11:00 am-12:00 pm ET via Zoom
Join fellow executives to discuss insights and ideas for what these trends among trends mean for your organization this year.
The Next Big Thing Executive Forum is a monthly series that brings together small groups of C-Suite executives and senior leaders for off-the-record, peer-to-peer, idea-exchange conversations. We cover topics essential to defining, designing and successfully realizing your “next big thing,” whether it’s a new strategic initiative, internal policy shift or significant organizational transformation. There’s no fee to participate and no sales pitch at the event. To honor our “off-the-record” commitment, recordings are not made available. The real value is being “in the room.”

[Executive Forum] Q1 Fractures Equal Q4 Failures: Why Your Executive Team Alignment Can't Wait Until Mid-Year
2026-03-19 11:00 - 12:00 | Live via Zoom
Join peer executives in our Next Big Thing Executive Forum for an honest conversation about what happens when your leadership team isn’t on the same page (or working in opposition to one another), and why waiting to fix it costs more than you think.
When: Thusday, March 19 @ 11:00 am ETWhere: Live via Zoom
The Reality: Only 27% of leaders believe their employees are aligned with organizational goals. When you ask employees, just 9% agree. That gap — reported in Axios HQ’s 2025 State of Internal Communication Report — is a leadership alignment problem. And it starts at the top.
Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review published two separate articles in January 2026 on the persistence of strategic misalignment. One, from an Oxford professor, argued that most leaders overlook alignment entirely because they assume it’s already there. The other showed how strategies that look coherent in the boardroom routinely fail at the next level down.
Why It Matters: Research across 410 companies found that highly aligned organizations grow revenue 58% faster than their misaligned peers. Here’s the Q1 urgency: the fractures happening in your executive team right now (like unspoken disagreements, competing priorities, and decisions that keep getting relitigated) don’t stay contained. They cascade. By the time you notice the damage in Q3 or Q4 results, you’ve already lost months of momentum, good people, and strategic advantage.
Bottom Line: The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets.
During this forum you’ll join peer Executives to discuss:

Why executive teams that “seem” aligned are often the most at risk — and the specific warning signs you’re probably overlooking right now

What’s actually driving the gap between your leadership team’s perception of alignment and the reality showing up in your results

Practical, proven approaches to closing alignment gaps before Q1 fractures become Q4 failures

This forum is for you if decisions are constantly being revisited, your team spends more time in meetings rehashing priorities than making progress, or you sense that people publicly agree but privately pursue different agendas. It’s also for you if you know alignment is off but aren’t sure where to start — especially if you want to get it right in the next 60-90 days.
The Value Is Being in the Room
The Next Big Thing Executive Forum brings together small groups of C-Suite executives and senior leaders for off-the-record, peer-to-peer, idea-exchange conversations. We cover topics essential to defining, designing, and successfully realizing your “next big thing,” whether it’s a new strategic initiative, internal policy shift, or significant organizational transformation. We charge no fee to participate and make no sales pitch at the event. To honor our “off-the-record” commitment, we do not make recordings available.

AI Activity isn’t AI Productivity: 3 difference-makers executives should implement now for results in 2026
2026-04-09 11:00 - 12:00 | Live via Zoom
Join peer executives at our Next Big Thing Executive Forum for a candid conversation about AI deployments that deliver on promised results and those that not only fail on ROI but actually decrease morale and productivity.
When: Thursday, April 9 @ 11:00 am ETWhere: Live via Zoom
The Reality: BCG’s research found that 95% of organizations are busy, spending money, and not seeing results in AI adoption. (BCG, The Widening AI Value Gap, September 2025)
Why It Matters: Without the right foundation, AI amplifies overwhelm. People feel busier, not more productive, and adoption stalls. Investing in the technology is the easy part. Closing the gap between AI activity and AI productivity is the leadership work most organizations haven’t done yet.
Bottom Line: Real results without the usual resistance happen when leaders build the conditions for them.
During this forum, you’ll join peer executives to discuss:

Why AI fluency (not AI tools) is the actual differentiator, and what it means for how you lead, model, and set expectations at every level of your organization

The most common places AI implementations break down, where overwhelm overtakes adoption, and what change-capable leadership looks like in practice

How to build an organization that can keep adapting without burning out your people or losing their trust in the process

This forum is for you if your AI investments are generating more activity than results, your people are overwhelmed, or you’re not sure your leadership team has given the organization what it needs to actually succeed with AI, not just deploy it.
The Value Is Being in the Room
The Next Big Thing Executive Forum brings together small groups of C-Suite executives and senior leaders for off-the-record, peer-to-peer, idea-exchange conversations. We cover topics essential to defining, designing, and successfully realizing your “next big thing,” whether it’s a new strategic initiative, internal policy shift, or significant organizational transformation. We charge no fee to participate and make no sales pitch at the event. To honor our “off-the-record” commitment, we do not make recordings available.

Safeguarding Impact | A 3-Part, Data-Rich Webinar Series for Funders
2026-07-14 11:00 - 2026-07-28 11:30 | Live via Zoom
If you’re a funder right now, you may feel as if you’re making decisions in the dark, and the stakes have never been higher. Federal funding cuts have already hit some sectors hard, and the ripple effects on others are still coming.
CSR is launching Safeguarding Impact, a data-rich, three-session webinar series designed specifically for foundations and corporate philanthropy teams who need to know what’s actually happening across the nonprofit landscape, which sectors are most affected, which communities face compounding risk in the next 12–24 months, and what you can do between now and year-end to protect the impact of your investments.
Sessions will feature leading voices from across the field.
Three sessions on Tuesdays at 11am ET / 8am PT.
📅 July 14 · July 21 · July 28
What the series covers:
Session 1 — Tuesday, July 14: What’s actually happening
Join CSR’s CEO, Nancy Murphy, and Lee Fabiaschi, Vice President and Director of Learning Communities, Ares Charitable Foundation, for a conversation about safeguarding impact. Lee will share how Ares Foundation has adapted its grantmaking and other support over the last year, what they’re doing now to set grantees up for 2027, the impacts they’re seeing across issue areas and geographies, lessons they’ve learned, and questions they’re still grappling with. Nancy will describe three challenges that often hinder philanthropy’s efforts to shift strategy, even when it’s absolutely necessary.
Session 2 — Tuesday, July 21: Making change by choice
Over the last 18 months, a lot of change has happened in the social sector. It’s time we started making change by choice: intentional, strategic, and thoughtful change about the future of social impact ecosystems in communities across the country. This session features CSR consultant Moyra Knight, a former corporate communications executive and president of the Astellas Global Health Foundation, and CSR’s CEO, Nancy Murphy, discussing how to secure buy-in from internal stakeholders, grantees, and community partners for changes to strategy and programs.
Session 3 — Tuesday, July 28: From insight to action
In this session, we do what we do best at CSR, move you from insight to foresight to action. CSR’s CEO, Nancy Murphy, will be joined by a to-be-confirmed social sector expert to summarize the latest data on federal funding cut impacts by cause/issue area and geography, plus a look ahead at the ripple effects still to come. You’ll walk away with data-driven, credible insight to inform community investment decision-making and strategy.
Register once to attend all 3 and receive the recordings if you can’t attend live.

[Executive Forum] When You Change What People Do, You Change Who They Think They Are: Leading Role Redefinition in the Human-Machine Era
2026-07-16 11:00 - 12:00
Join peer executives for a candid conversation about one of the hardest change management challenges leaders face right now: telling people their jobs are changing in ways they didn’t ask for and may not trust.
When: Wednesday, July 16 @ 11:00 am ETWhere: Live via Zoom
The Reality: Organizations everywhere are rethinking what humans should do versus what machines should do. The Washington Post reported this month that companies are fundamentally reexamining how work gets deployed as AI agents move from tools to active participants in workflows. That’s the easy part to name. The hard part is what happens to the people sitting across from you when you tell them their role is changing. It challenges identity, status, and security. Change isn’t automatically easier just because the business case is sound.
Why It Matters: Most organizations are treating role redefinition in the AI era as a workforce planning or technology problem. When you layer AI onto unchanged roles, you get overwhelmed people. When you eliminate roles without addressing the human fallout, you get resistance, attrition, and the quiet departure of your best people. When you redesign roles but skip the change management work, you get compliance without commitment. None of those outcomes delivers the ROI you’re counting on.
Bottom Line: You can design the right roles, but if you can’t bring your people through the transition, the design doesn’t matter.
During this forum, you’ll join peer executives to discuss:

Why role redefinition in the AI era triggers a deeper identity threat than most leaders anticipate, and what change-capable leaders do differently to move people from fear to ownership

What it actually takes to build genuine buy-in for AI-driven role changes, especially when the generations making up most of the workforce are somewhere from AI-skeptical to AI-resistant

How leading organizations are sequencing the human work: what has to happen with your people before, during, and after roles change, and where most leaders get the order wrong

This forum is for you if you’re already rethinking roles and responsibilities in light of AI and want to make sure you don’t lose your people in the process. It’s also for you if you’re sensing resistance you can’t quite name, if your change communications around AI feel like they’re landing flat, or if you want to get ahead of this before the identity disruption shows up in your engagement scores and your retention numbers.
The Value Is Being in the Room
The Next Big Thing Executive Forum brings together small groups of C-Suite executives and senior leaders for off-the-record, peer-to-peer, idea-exchange conversations. We cover topics essential to defining, designing, and successfully realizing your “next big thing,” whether it’s a new strategic initiative, internal policy shift, or significant organizational transformation. We charge no fee to participate and make no sales pitch at the event. To honor our “off-the-record” commitment, we do not make recordings available.
