Hello friend,

Welcome to Theory of Change. Every Thursday, I send a 4-minute breakdown of a framework that will help anyone to think strategically and work smarter.  If you were forwarded this email, feel free to sign up here.

As USAID’s latest shift reminds us, the nonprofit world moves fast—funding freezes, policy pivots, and shifting priorities can happen overnight. If you’re leading a purpose-driven organisation, you need to do more than react. You need to articulate the impact, adapt your strategy, and rally support—quickly.

But let’s be honest: thinking conceptually on the spot is tough. Turning insights from articles, reports, and community feedback into clear, funder-ready narratives can feel overwhelming.

For over a decade, I’ve used a system that makes it second nature—transforming everyday reading into grant proposals, strategy memos, and thought-leadership pieces with minimal turnaround. It doesn’t require a galaxy brain, just a smarter way to capture, connect, and reuse ideas.

It’s called Zettelkasten. And it’s saved my (vegetarian) bacon on many an occasion.

Let's get into it.

🗄️ ZETTELKASTEN 🗄️

What is it?

Build a living web of ideas—not a filing cabinet (he says, using an emoji of a filing cabinet).

Instead of taking notes you never revisit, Zettelkasten helps you:

• Capture useful insights from what you read.

• Connect ideas over time to spark new thinking.

• Continuously reuse your knowledge for writing, fundraising, and strategy.

You know those nonprofit leaders who always seem to have a killer blogpost at their fingertips, no matter the situation? This is how they’re doing it.

How it works

1. Take atomic notes: When you read something interesting, distill the key insight in your own words (no copypasta). Each note should be one idea, one note—no long summaries.

2. Link ideas: Connect new notes to existing ones. Found a great insight on community engagement? Link it to past notes on volunteer retention. Over time, this builds a network of knowledge.

3. Surface insights, Review and revisit. This system naturally surfaces connections that fuel your writing, fundraising appeals, or strategic thinking.

Why it works

It stops the forgetting curve: when you actively engage with ideas, they stick, saving you a lot of time later. You’ll never start from a blank page again—your past reading is now fuel for the future and, ultimately, that’s what turns you into a thought leader (sorry, you probably hate that word more than I do. But it’s a hell of a lot better than thinkfluencer).

Remember: consistently connecting ideas is original thought.

When to use it

Zettelkasten isn’t just about organising notes—it’s about having the right ideas, ready to go, when you need them most. Here’s when it becomes invaluable:

• Emergency presentation: crisis hits, and you need to brief your board or donors on its impact. Instead of scrambling, you pull key insights from past reports, funding trends, and community needs—giving you a clear, informed message in minutes.

• Collab call: a potential partner asks how your work aligns with their mission. With a well-structured knowledge base, you can quickly pull relevant case studies, impact stats, and key talking points—positioning yourself as the perfect fit.

• Urgent fundraising pitch: you suspect a funder is ready to deploy a bunch of emergency grants, but time is tight. Your existing Zettelkasten links past programme insights, beneficiary stories, and key metrics—helping you draft a compelling pitch without starting from scratch.

• Funding plan rewrite: a major funding shift means your organisation must pivot. With a connected web of insights on past projects, funding trends, and sector shifts, you can craft a well-reasoned, data-backed strategic response fast.

Get started

• Step 1: Pick a simple tool—Apple Notes or Google Docs are good if you have a structure, but Notion, Obsidian, Roam allow you to use backlinks which makes things easier (albeit for more upfront investment).

• Step 2: After reading something valuable, write down one atomic note (key insight in your own words).

• Step 3: Link it to related notes with hashtags or collector notes—keep your knowledge growing.

This is one of the best guides I’ve found on how to properly adopt Zettelkasten and make it work for you.

Take it to the next level

• Tag strategically – organise notes with themes like “funding” or "disinformation"

• Use your notes to write – each note is a potential Bluesky post, blog article, or speech idea.

• Set a daily note-taking habit – five minutes a day compounds.

🔮 FUTUREPROOFING 🔮 

Funders (and even entire funding sectors) rethink their strategies all the time. You can reduce your exposure to these changes.

• Connect past insights to new priorities – when a funder pivots, your Zettelkasten lets you quickly pull relevant case studies, past projects, and research to align new proposals.

• Stay grant-ready – instead of scrambling for the right language, you’ll have a repository of funder-aligned ideas at your fingertips—streamlining proposal writing and increasing win rates.

• Craft funder-relevant thought leadership – funders don’t want groupthink; they want expertise and community proximity. By connecting trends across time, you can publish articles or whitepapers that position you as a leader in your space.

Your knowledge is your biggest asset. Make it work for you.

🪁 PARALLEL PLAY 🪁

Three valuable distractions, because we all need some right now.

• Kyiv Type Foundry is conserving the architectural heritage of Ukraine by pulling typefaces out from underground.

• I’ve written all my best fundraising proposals while listening to Mogwai. They have a new album out.

• Worried (amongst all the other things) about social media ownership? Nick Coudry pulls together new concepts for a people-powered internet.

🌊 WAVE GOODBYE 🌊

Thanks for being here.

I want to say sorry to all those affected by the radical shifts in funding that have occurred over the past week. Your tough jobs just got tougher. I’m constantly in awe of your collective leadership and strength. Keep going.

If you are looking for new sources of funding, check out my free funding database. It’s been downloaded and shared thousands of times.

(Word of warning though, it’s now a bit out of date. I’d love to dedicate time to update it in-line with everything that has happened - if you are a funder and want to support me to do that, I’d love to hear from you - just hit reply).

In addition: I’ve made my online fundraising course free for anyone reading this newsletter. Follow this link and it should give you a 100% discount. 

Finally, I have a YouTube channel where I talk about life and stuff (and put some of this newsletter’s frameworks into practice). Check out my latest video: The year of magical thinking. Busy times require even more reflection than usual, I'm learning.

See you next week,

Adam

p.s. If you were forwarded this email and you like what you see, you can subscribe for more.