Dear friends,

I hope the long weekend gave everyone a welcome break. There’s a lot going on across the sector, and it will be important for us to step back sometimes for rest and perspective. Doing so makes it possible to step forward—so we can each lead well, sustain our efforts, and accomplish our share of the work. As always, Avalon is with you.

Annapolis had snow last week, and I appreciated the quiet background during a busy stretch of work.

Guidance on Executive Orders

The National Council of Nonprofits is sharing resources to support organizations as they navigate the impacts of executive orders. In case you missed their February 7 webinar, “Executive Actions and Their Impact on Charitable Nonprofits,” you can access the recording and other helpful resources on their website. They provide an overview of the orders and analyze the resulting federal landscape for nonprofits.

In addition, The Nonprofit Alliance provided guidance around executive orders that limit DEI initiatives, including “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (the “DEI EO”) and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” (the “EJ EO”). This is an important read for nonprofit leaders across the sector.

Testing, Testing

Analytics VP SB Birnie shared an oldie but goodie from Heroic Fundraising Blog and Future Fundraising Now on three essential questions to ask when testing:

1. Why are we testing?
2. What’s your hypothesis?
3. What if it wins?

For more advice, SB also recommends Future Fundraising Now’s 7-part series on smart testing. It was written for “nonmathematical fundraisers” and is a great starting point for folks who are newer to data-driven marketing.

Great Leaders Delegate

In “Leaders Shouldn’t Try to Do It All” (Harvard Business Review), A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin note that good leaders prioritize work with strategic value. However, great leaders go one step further and prioritize the strategic work they alone can accomplish. This means delegating work that others can do equally well or better—and devoting more time to work that adds unique value. To strengthen those important handoffs, here are 9 tips for delegating well:

• Know what to delegate.
• Play to your employees’ strengths and goals.
• Define the desired outcome.
• Provide the right resources and level of authority.
• Establish a clear communications channel.
• Allow for failure.
• Be patient.
• Deliver (and ask for) feedback.
• Give credit where it’s due.

History in the Making

The Declaration of Independence will celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026. This may feel far away, but many organizations are already planning for it, including several Avalon clients. To highlight just one, Trust for the National Mall recently launched a great site previewing its projects and plans. If you’re wondering what to call this anniversary, there are plenty of options: Do you prefer Semiquincentennial, Bisesquicentennial, Sestercentennial, or Quarter Millennial?

There’s an Emoji for That

Did you know there are currently 3,790 emojis? And now we have a way to keep track of them: Emojipedia is an “online encyclopedia of emoji managed by people who research emoji.” Thank you to COO Kerri Kerr for sharing this resource with our team. 🙏😎

Meeting-Free Week

February 24 – 28 will be a meeting-free week at Avalon. All deliverables will remain on schedule, and your teams will be available for urgent conversations if needed. Thank you for your support as our staff carves out time for deep focus!

“High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)”

– Cal Newport, Deep Work