Keep It Simple

This time last year, I had about a dozen issues of a new LinkedIn newsletter sitting in a Google doc. All of the issues were about strategic volunteer engagement, a topic that I really wanted to talk about out loud.

I kept going back to that Google doc, thinking about publishing the first issue on LinkedIn.

But I didn’t. I sat on it and sat on it and sat on it.

I was overthinking a newsletter that no one had even asked for.

It wasn’t until October that I finally hit publish. And the thing that got me unstuck wasn’t a strategy session or a content calendar. It was one question I’d been avoiding: Who cares?

If a handful of people read it and found it useful, excellent. That’s a win. That was always the bar. I’d just built a much taller, much scarier one in my head.

The second I hit publish, the fear evaporated and the fun showed up. I got to write about something I was really into, for people who might actually want to hear about it.

I’ve been thinking about this lately in the context of a book I picked up, Simple Rules by Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt. Their whole argument is: In a world drowning in options and analysis, a few clear rules beat an elaborate plan almost every time. Simple rules promise movement, not perfection.

I am, generally, a person who can work myself into a frenzy over decisions both big and small (just ask my husband). But a simple rule helps. I don’t always ask myself the same question. Sure, sometimes it’s Who cares? Sometimes it might be What’s actually at stake here? The rule is catching myself mid-spiral and asking something, instead of just spinning.

Most of the time, people don’t care about perfection. They just want you to show up.

With love and appreciation,

Sarah

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🛜YOU’RE GONNA WANT TO CHECK THIS OUT

Have you heard about Claude Corps from Anthropic?

It’s a national fellowship program that embeds 1,000 early-career, AI-trained fellows inside nonprofits in the U.S. — fully funded, full-time, for 12 months. Fellows work on real projects; host organizations receive a fellow with salary and benefits fully covered, along with Claude API credits, an implementation grant, and direct support from Anthropic.

Umm, wow wow wow!

While applications are rolling, the cutoff for applying to host the October 2026 cohort is July 17.

Get alllllll the details right here.

❄️AN ULTRA IN…ANTARCTICA?

Stephanie Case is an international human rights lawyer and a professional trail runner who is attempting a world record in Antarctica this November. She’s also a new mom who won a 60-mile race (after a three-year hiatus) while making stops along the route to breastfeed her baby…and she went viral for it.

I read this Athletic/NYT article about Stephanie with my jaw on the floor most of the way through. Do yourself a favor and read it, too.

✒️LETTERS TO AMERICA

250 years ago, a bold letter from a young generation changed the course of history. Now, Made By Us is asking today’s young people to write their own — essays, videos, speeches, art — and put the American story in their own words. Selected letters will be shared by media partners and museums for National Youth Takeover Day on June 27.

If you know a young person age 14-30 with something to say (or you are one!), submit a letter here.

I think this is just so cool. Let’s amplify youth voices!

💘 NONPROFIT LOVE

When Jacqueline Novogratz visited Rwanda in the late 1980s, she spotted a boy wearing the exact blue sweater she had donated to Goodwill a decade earlier — name tag still in it. That moment crystallized her sense of global interconnection. Several years later, she founded Acumen on the radical idea that business can solve the hardest problems of poverty.

Acumen is a global impact investment organization that brings together investors, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists to address poverty and expand access to essential goods and services in low-income communities.

Now 25 years old, Acumen has more than $312M invested across its global portfolio, having backed 241 companies and trained roughly 1,800 entrepreneurs and enterprise leaders through Acumen Academy.

You, too, can take a course through Acumen Academy; learn more here. And to get involved in this incredible organization, visit this page.