Hi! I’m Allison and I’m an evaluation and organizational learning consultant. I truly believe that if we (non-profits and consultants who work with them) learn from the people we support and from each other, we can achieve system change.

I love using strengths-based tools and bringing concepts from positive psychology into my work. And part of that is also acknowledging when the system is the problem. This could be a system within your organization, or the broader system. The thing is, often problems in the system are not flaws, they’re there by design.

When I talk about automating and creating better internal processes, I see it as a form of resistance. If we can stop spinning our wheels and focus more of our energy on the things that matter and have the potential for long-term change, we actually have a fighting hope of making the world a better place.

Today, the idea of doing things differently feels pretty unattainable. It’s my third day in a row with sick kids at home. I’d planned to take International Women’s Day off - it’s been a long few weeks and I could really use the break. Taking care of sick little ones is not what I had in mind.

I’m convinced that the non-profit sector has been holding society together since we started outsourcing community and prioritizing capitalism and individualism. I wrote a LinkedIn post about this in the fall, talking about the fact that the non-profit workforce is strugling and there are broad implications far beyond the sector.

The passion and compassion that non-profit professionals have is unmatched. In some ways, it’s what’s been holding us back - the fact that people will take less pay and less ideal working conditions in exchange for work that makes us feel good. It’s also our greatest strength. Join me in finding at least one small thing that you can do differently to push back on the system.

How is the system holding you back? How much of my philosophy on life was inspired by Empire Records? Reply to this with your favourite “Damn the man. Save the Empire”-type quotes!

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