Category Archives: Nonprofits

A Way Through (What structured problem-solving offers the nonprofit sector)

Three articles in, the picture is not a comfortable one. A sector under compounding pressure — rising demand, shrinking capacity, exhausted leadership. Three structural problems that make the crisis so difficult to escape: the double bind that tightens with every … Continue reading

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The AI Paradox (Why the most powerful tool in the room isn’t enough)

There is a moment in many conversations about the nonprofit crisis when someone says, “But what about AI?” The question is reasonable. Technology is real, the capabilities are growing fast, and the appeal to resource-stretched organizations is obvious. If AI … Continue reading

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Three Problems Hiding Inside One Crisis (Why good diagnosis matters more than ever)

The previous article drew on a Massachusetts white paper describing a workforce crisis in the human services sector: vacancy rates four to six times the state average, wages running $17,000 below the median, capacity shrinking as demand rises. A legitimate … Continue reading

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A Sector Under Pressure (On nonprofits, rising need, and a widening gap)

In April 2026, the Providers’ Council, a Massachusetts human services membership association, and the UMass Donahue Institute published a white paper. It is titled Stretched to Capacity: The Workforce Crisis in Human Services. The title is not a metaphor. It … Continue reading

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From Process to Practice: Who Runs It and How

This is the fifth and final post in the series “Problem First: AI-Assisted Problem Solving for Organizations That Can’t Afford to Get It Wrong.” After I published the second post in this series, the one laying out a five-stage problem-solving … Continue reading

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AI as Problem-Solving Partner: Doing It Right

This is the fourth post in the series “Problem First: AI-Assisted Problem Solving for Organizations That Can’t Afford to Get It Wrong.” I ended the previous post with a claim that deserves scrutiny: that the real value of AI for … Continue reading

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The Organizations That Need Problem Solving Most Are the Ones Doing It Least

This is the third post in the series “Problem First: AI-Assisted Problem Solving for Organizations That Can’t Afford to Get It Wrong.” The first two posts in this series made a general case. Organizations are bad at defining problems. They … Continue reading

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