Hello Reader,

I am finding myself in a season of giving, and I do not just mean the holidays.

Over the last few months, whenever someone asked how work was going, I kept talking about the projects that feed my community as much as they feed me.

• Planning and moderating events at my favorite local bookstore Staunton Books & Tea (where I'll celebrate my birthday this week!)
• Facilitating Deep Focus sessions and nonprofit hot seats at my local coworking space.
• Co-hosting and speaking at gatherings around the Valley, from a last-minute Co.Starters session to a Women’s Leadership Symposium to CreativeMornings Shenandoah Valley.
• Dreaming up ways to celebrate and support Indie bookshops across the Shenandoah Valley in 2026.
• Volunteering as a core team member with the ESHIP Alliance.

Even my client work feels deeply fulfilling these days. It is a rare gift to pour myself into one project without a dozen competing priorities.
Financially, I cannot make a habit of giving 80 percent of my time away for free, but wow, it feels good to reinvest in your community.

In 2026, I want to explore how this work can become a true value creator for organizations, communities, and myself.

For my last newsletter of the year, I want to pay it forward and share with you the best things I've uncovered and learned this year:

• Amy Beaird’s Ecosystem Essential: Tools for Clarity in Complexity
• 2026 in review
• Five new Indie bookshop posts (Bookish)
• What I'vee been reading (Bookish)
• Tools and people that shaped my work in 2025 (Shen-Anika-ns)
• My top five reads of the year (Shen-Anika-ns)

Ecosystem Essential: Tools for Clarity in Complexity with Dr. Amy Beaird

If your work ever feels like juggling moving parts in a storm, this one is for you:

In the last issue of Impact Curator, you met my friend and sister-in-arms, Dr. Amy Beaird.

Together, we distilled her most valuable lessons and most frequently used tools: Her Ecosystem Essential: Designing Clarity in Complexity is a free, practical guide packed with resources to help you make sense of the chaos. Inside, you’ll find her simple frameworks for diagnosing ecosystem health, translating invisible work into measurable value, and designing systems that flex instead of fracture.

Amy’s gift to the field is clarity. And now, it is yours.

Download the guide, grab a cup of coffee, and spend an afternoon sharpening how you think, plan, and communicate your ecosystem’s impact.

2025 in review

Before we close out the year, I took a moment to look back at everything we worked on together. What stood out to me was not a big insight or a neat theme. It was the accumulation of small things that shaped this year: the conversations that grounded me, the moments of clarity that showed up at unexpected times, and the steady rhythm of showing up every two weeks to write to you.

This year asked a lot of all of us. It stretched our capacity, challenged our assumptions, and reminded us that ecosystem building is human work long before it is strategic work. At the same time, it brought so many bright spots. New tools. New collaborations. 48 Indie bookshops. New connections with builders around the country.

To close out the year, I pulled together a short snapshot of what we created and explored together in 2025. Consider it a small thank you for being here, for reading along, and for doing the work that often happens behind the scenes but matters deeply.

🏆 2025 by the numbers

A quick look at what we built, shared, and learned together in 2025:

Community and convening

• 10 CreativeMornings Shenandoah Valley events
• Dozens of local gatherings including Deep Focus Hours, book clubs, author events, and nonprofit hot seats
• Speaking engagements at 4 national ecosystem builder convenings
• Many conversations with ecosystem builders across the US

Learning and thought leadership

• 18 issues of Impact Curator
• 11 new podcat episodes
• 6 Ecosystem Essentials created to offer practical tools
• 3 Builder Deep Dives featuring leaders in our field
• 6 new ecosystem-building podcasts surfaced
• Frameworks explored: BANI, Community Weaving, Startup Communities, Impact Networks

Creative side project

• 48 independent bookshops visited for #40BookshopsUnder40
• Interviews and stories collected from booksellers across the US and Europe

Personal milestones

• Three notebooks filled with Morning Pages
• New routines that helped me prioritize rest
• Plenty of joy found in hiking, travel, and everyday moments

Bookish: A world tour of Indie bookshops

With #40BookshopsUnder40 wrapping up, I have been in full publishing mode to make sure each shop gets its moment in the spotlight:

• ​Hamburg Indie Bookshop Crawl​
• ​Paris Indie Bookshop Crawl​
• ​Berlin Indie Bookshop Crawl​
• ​Madison Street Books, Chicago, Il
• ​The Book Tavern, Augusta, GA
• ​Garden Party Books, Rochester, MN

What I read in the last two weeks:

• ​Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite: The cover pulled me in and the story kept me hooked. A stunning multigenerational tale about the women in one family.
• ​Kink: Stories edited by R. O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell. A collection of short stories exploring different kinks. Much less erotic than I expected, more thoughtful and surprising.
• ​Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin. Our December International Book Club read. Far exceeded my expectations. A speculative, near-future Russia written back in 2006.
• ​Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. A tense, atmospheric thriller with an environmental heart set on an Antarctic-like island south of Tasmania.
• ​Self Care, Leigh Stein. Entertaining satire of the selfcare industry. If you need a chuckle, grab this! A great easy read after Wild Dark Shore.

Looking for a gift for the readers in your life?

🎁Shen-Anika-ns: People and resources that gave me joy in 2025

Here are the people, resources and projects that filled my cup to the brim this year. I hope they'll do the same for you:

Three small businesses that made my life and work easier, better, and more joyful:

• ​Visualite Creative. Vika gave Social Venturers a fresh, beautiful brand update and has become my go-to for all things marketing and design. That snazzy shirt you see above? Vika made it for me to wear during my talk "Wealth in Community: Connect. Engage, Belong."
• ​Pure Roots Nutrition. Shelly is my guide for supplements, workout inspiration, and thoughtful resets. She is running a three-week sugar cleanse in January and I will be there.
• ​Jamie Pridemore Bookkeeping. Jamie is the steady, trustworthy pair of hands behind my finances. If you need someone to keep your receipts straight and send monthly reports, talk to Jamie.

If you want an introduction to any of these wonderful women, I am happy to connect you.

My top five reads of 2025

I've read A LOT this year. Here are my top 3 books from 2025:

• ​All the Way to the River, Elizabeth Gilbert
• ​Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid
• ​Lügen, die wir uns erzählen, Anne Freytag (German only, sorry!)
• ​Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby van Pelt
• ​We all want impossible things, Catherine Newman

As for bookshops, I cannot pick a favorite any more than I can pick a favorite child. Instead, I invite you to wander through #40BookshopsUnder40 and see which ones capture your heart. I will wrap up the project later this month and share my highlights in the first issue of the new year.

If this year taught me anything, it is that giving does not only flow outward. It roots us. It steadies us. It reminds us that our work is part of something larger and more human than our calendars and deadlines.

As you head into the end of the year, I hope you take a moment to notice what grounded you, what carried you, and what you were able to build with others.

If this newsletter has supported your work in any way, feel free to forward it to a peer who might need the encouragement.

Thank you for reading, for building where you are, and for being here.

I'll be back in your inbox in the new year!

In camaraderie,

Anika

P.S. Missed my last newsletter? Check out the previous issues of Impact Curator.