New Year Wish List for 2025

Published on: by Gene Takagi Category:MISCELLANEOUS
Magic genie lamp with smoke on a dark background

For many, 2024 was a difficult year ending with little optimism for 2025. But we recognize that positive social change does not follow an ever-uprising path. There are always peaks and valleys. And I so appreciate those champions in the nonprofit sector who keep doing the work and helping lift others up.

With the help of ChatGPT, here are my wishes for nonprofits and their leaders in 2025:

1. Sustainable Funding and Financial Stability

  • Long-term, diversified revenue streams to reduce reliance on single funding sources.
  • Access to affordable loans and grants.
  • Better tools for financial forecasting and scenario planning.
  • Increased support from individual donors, corporate sponsors, and institutional grantmakers.
  • Reduced administrative burden for grant applications and reporting.

2. Technological Advancement

  • Affordable and accessible technology solutions for data management, communication, and virtual collaboration.
  • Tools for program evaluation and operational efficiency.
  • Robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive and private data.
  • Advancement with thoughtful guardrails regarding equity, safety, and general public good.

3. Effective Leadership Development

  • Continuous professional development opportunities for leaders and staff.
  • Support for succession planning to ensure organizational continuity.
  • Resources for fostering adaptive, inclusive, and empathetic leadership styles.
  • Mentorship programs connecting emerging leaders with experienced professionals.

4. Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

  • Clear DEI strategies integrated into every level of operations and governance.
  • Tools for measuring and reporting progress on equity and inclusion goals.
  • Increased representation and belonging of diverse voices in leadership and decision-making roles.

5. Enhanced Impact Measurement

  • User-friendly tools to measure, analyze, and communicate program outcomes and impact.
  • Standardized frameworks for nonprofit evaluation and benchmarking.
  • Greater emphasis on storytelling to complement data-driven reports.

6. Collaboration and Networking

  • Opportunities to build partnerships across sectors, including government, private, and other nonprofits.
  • Platforms for knowledge-sharing, collective impact initiatives, and joint problem-solving.
  • Increased support for cross-organizational learning and capacity building.

7. Workforce Well-Being

  • Competitive salaries and benefits to attract and retain talent fairly.
  • Flexible work arrangements and policies that support work-life balance.
  • Access to mental health resources and wellness programs for staff and volunteers.
  • Opportunities for skill-building and career advancement.

8. Advocacy and Policy Support

  • Stronger advocacy networks to amplify nonprofit voices in policymaking.
  • Simplified regulatory processes for nonprofit registration, compliance, and taxation.
  • Greater public awareness of nonprofit contributions to society.

9. Environmental Sustainability

  • Funding and resources for nonprofits to adopt sustainable practices.
  • Increased focus on climate action initiatives, particularly for environmental nonprofits.
  • Integration of environmental and sustainability goals into program design and operations.

10. Innovation and Creativity

  • Seed funding for innovative projects and pilot programs.
  • Resources to experiment with new approaches to mission delivery.
  • Platforms for sharing success stories and lessons learned from innovative practices.

11. Stronger Community Engagement

  • Tools for engaging, and desire to engage, with communities in meaningful and participatory ways.
  • Strategies to build trust and maintain transparency with stakeholders.
  • Better mechanisms to gather and act on feedback from beneficiaries.

12. Resilience and Crisis Preparedness

  • Training in risk management and emergency response planning.
  • Greater access to contingency funding for unforeseen events.
  • More resources for building organizational resilience.

13. Streamlined Processes

  • Reduced bureaucracy in funding applications and nonprofit reporting.
  • Streamlined collaboration tools for project management and team communication.
  • Support for automating repetitive administrative tasks.

14. Recognition and Appreciation

  • Increased public recognition for the contributions of nonprofits.
  • Greater media coverage highlighting stories of impacts made by nonprofits (and more flexibility given to beat writers to not just write stories of scandals, which may do more harm than good)