In Praise of Idleness As we head into the ‘holiday’ season I am mindful that this period often feels like anything but a holiday. Here’s a reminder that idleness has a real value. Reading for pleasure, watching a movie, resting and enjoying undistracted time with friends and family are worth doing simply because we enjoy…
Impact Economy essay collection from NPC Momentum is building across the impact economy like never before. With the launch of the Office for the Impact Economy and the Collective’s Policy Labs, government, business, and civil society are aligning in new and consequential ways. New guidance from the Charity Commission on how charities respond to the current hostile…
What did the 2025 Autumn Budget mean for the arts? You may be sick of hearing about the budget by now but this is a useful review by Campaign for the Arts. Who stays and who leaves? Mapping arts, culture and heritage careers A really good insight into the current patterns in ACH careers, a…
Autumn Budget 2025: initial response IFS researchers provide a response to the new economic forecast and major policy announcements contained in the 2025 Budget. Become an octopus organisation Shifting the metaphor for organisations. ..we call for a fundamentally different paradigm: the Octopus Organization, inspired by the remarkably adaptive, curious, and intelligent sea dweller. That animal,…
The three factors of feeling welcome Arts organizations thrive, in large part, on their ability to welcome – to notice, name, support, and honor their guests…But there’s a difference between altruistic and commercial welcoming. Blain and Lashley (2014), for example, suggest a continuum of hospitality arranged by motivation of the host – from ulterior motives to containing (monitoring the stranger)…
Overhead is undervalued Great provocation about the value of using ‘overhead’ as a metric. … funders and nonprofits can only swim against the current toward open and honest negotiations around what overhead means, what it indicates (or doesn’t), and how it entangles with the outcomes they both want in the world. New SORP is here…
New Code of Fundraising Practice From 1 November 2025, fundraising regulation in the UK is evolving to reflect modern fundraising practices. Fundraising organisations should review the new code and support guides and begin preparing to ensure compliance. Data Use and Access Act 2025 Useful guidance from Russell Cooke for the implications of the new Act which will…
Why we need systems thinking now How to address complex changes in an interconnected world. Meeting the wicked challenges that society is experiencing is almost certainly beyond the capabilities of even the most inspired breakthrough or design thinkers. In these situations, systems thinking provides a more robust framework for change. Centre for Cultural value The Centre for…
Improving charity Boards Great recent research from the Association of Chairs identifying priorities for development: an overall improvement strategy for the sector, diversity and inclusion, developing a learning culture and establishing clear principles for board behaviour. Valuable reflections from the Decelerator project If you take away just one thing from this blog, let it be…
Abundance and the UK Cultural Sector: Rethinking the Future of Arts and Culture We’re doing a lot of thinking about the future of the sector at the moment, as many others are. This is an interesting piece by Tangram in response to ‘Abundance: How we build a better future’ (Klein & Thompson, 2025) When the…
Demystifying language Really fascinating project if you’re interested in research communication. Everyone in the room was participating in the Demystifying Language Project (DLP), a research and social justice initiative to make scholarship on the politics of language available in public high schools. At that moment, we were all partners in a profound conversation about language and power. Mapping the impact economy…
Toolkits for systems thinking As systems thinking is gaining more currency among funders and policy makers we wanted to share some resources we have found helpful in our own practice HM Government advice for civil servants Systems innovation toolkit from nesta Guidance and a toolkit from NPC The AI glass floor Firms face a twofold…
Motivating futures New research from the Institute for the Future of Work. As AI rapidly transforms workplaces, there is an urgent need – and golden opportunity – to steer it towards greater opportunity, not deeper inequality. As evidenced in our Pissarides Review, better technical skills and ‘AI literacy’ alone will not be enough for young people from low-income…