I am sure you have noticed subtle and not so subtle changes in our culture. Watching sports this weekend I remembered when:

• White was mandatory on the tennis court. As well as a quiet, well-behaved crowd and players. Today the Williams’ sisters have brought bright colored, stylish tennis wear court side as well as an attitude along with a younger, loud, enthusiastic audience.
• Quiet on the golf course was also expected – until Tiger fans arrived and brought a new way of watching golf live.
• Remember when we watched football on TV with cameras from the field. Today cameras are strung above the action giving us new and better views of the action.

I think a lot of this is about better engagement and connection with the fans.

In nonprofit and fundraising there is a lot of change going on and it is around better engagement as well.

• Millennials nonprofit, professionals and donors are bringing good, new, different ideas to our work.
• Donors are pushing us to engage with them in better and different ways
• How we define a “major donor” is changing.
• We have more and better tools than even five years ago.
• Nonprofit organizations have multiple channels and devices to use.
• Storytelling has gone from paper to photos to video.

Is your nonprofit organization embracing change or fighting it? Are you leading change?

Remember the book, Who Moved My Cheese? The Heath Brothers book Switch takes a better look at change. Bottom line change is happening all the time. I think change is coming in faster increments today than it was 10 years ago. As a nonprofit sector, we need to learn to review new ideas quickly, try, fail, adapt, try again, adjust and move forward. Standing still is not an option to be competitive in the nonprofit fundraising marketplace.