ZIM’s 2026 Resolutions

At ZIM, 2025 was a year full of growth, deep client partnerships, new services, and hard conversations about the complex challenges our nonprofit community is facing right now. We worked with organizations navigating leadership transitions, funding cliffs, board challenges, staff burnout, and an increasingly unpredictable funding landscape. Here are our resolutions for how we want to show up in 2026.

Resolution #1: Continue to be deeply responsive to what nonprofits are actually facing

The nonprofit landscape is changing quickly. Government grants are becoming more uncertain, funding priorities are shifting, and AI is entering the landscape whether organizations are ready or not. At the same time, corporate giving and philanthropy continue to evolve. Nonprofits are being asked to adapt constantly, often without additional staff, funding, or breathing room.

In 2026, we will stay deeply responsive to this reality. This means paying close attention to what our clients are seeing on the ground and evolving our tools, frameworks, and recommendations as conditions change. It means helping nonprofits think through government funding risks, private funding diversification, and long-term sustainability. It also means staying curious about emerging tools like AI without overselling them or pretending they are a silver bullet. Our staff member is dedicated to growing our knowledge on AI and how we can use it ethically and efficiently.

Resolution #2: Deliver high-quality services to our clients

ZIM’s work is deeply relationship based, and our best work happens when we are embedded in a client’s reality rather than simply delivering a product and moving on. In 2026, we will keep prioritizing depth over volume by making sure every engagement is thoughtful, tailored, and grounded in a real understanding of each organization’s capacity. This also means continuing to build new services when we see real gaps in the sector. One recent example is our new corporate research service, which we began offering because clients kept asking for help navigating corporate funding and sponsorships, and because few nonprofits have the time or systems to do that work well internally. 

ZIM’s work is only as strong as the people doing it. In 2026, we will invest more intentionally in staff learning and growth by providing access to professional development tools like Coursera, supporting team members in building skills across strategy, facilitation, research, writing, and creating internal spaces to share learning across roles and departments.

Resolution #3: Solicit feedback to improve our work

ZIM spends a lot of time asking nonprofits to reflect, evaluate, and adapt, and we need to hold ourselves to the same standard. In 2026, we want to more intentionally solicit feedback from clients, not just at the end of a project, but after real outcomes start to unfold.

That means asking whether a strategic plan was actually used, whether a board recruitment process changed governance, whether a grant strategy led to more funding, and whether our work made our clients’ jobs easier or harder. It also means being willing to hear critical feedback and not just positive testimonials. This resolution reflects another core ZIM value, advancing excellence. We cannot improve our work if we only listen to praise. This resolution also reflects ZIM’s commitment to co-constructing a better world. True partnership requires humility. It requires acknowledging that our clients are not just recipients of our expertise, but co-creators of knowledge about what actually works in practice. When we invite honest feedback and take it seriously, we are recognizing our clients as collaborators in improving the field, not just customers receiving a service.

Resolution #4: Center Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA)

ZIM’s IDEA Committee plays a vital role in shaping internal culture, conversations, and values, but too often that work stays internal and invisible. In 2026, ZIM is resolving to more intentionally integrate its marketing and communications with the work of the IDEA Committee.

That means sharing reflections and themes emerging from IDEA conversations, highlighting how equity, inclusion, and access show up in ZIM’s day to day work, and naming the ways we are still learning, evolving, and getting things wrong. The goal is not to position ZIM as perfect or fully figured out. The goal is to be transparent about what it actually looks like to build a more equitable organization in real time. This resolution is grounded in ZIM’s commitment to centering inclusivity, diversity, equity, and accessibility in how we operate, not just in what we say.

Resolution #5: Create a new strategic plan

ZIM has grown significantly over the last three years. Our team is bigger, our services are broader, our client base is more diverse, and our internal systems are more complex. We also believe deeply that every nonprofit should have a strategic plan that is grounded in reality, aligned with capacity, and actually used. We spend a lot of time encouraging our clients to step back, reflect, make hard choices, and invest in thoughtful planning. In 2026, ZIM will create a new internal strategic plan that will clarify what kinds of work ZIM wants to prioritize, what services we want to grow or sunset, what capacity we need to build internally, and how we want to support staff sustainability and retention. This is about setting ZIM up to keep going in a way that is healthy, values aligned, and sustainable. 

Looking ahead

ZIM’s 2026 resolutions are about being responsive, reflective, accountable, and brave. They are about building a consulting firm that serves nonprofits well, treats its staff well, and stays grounded in values in an uncertain world.