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Partnerships Networks Project Resources Best Practices Catalyst 101 Providers Consultants Feb 05, 2026

Building What’s Next Together With Our Network

Updates for the Catalyst Network on feedback expectations, our Fall 2025 rebrand, and how providers can stay engaged as new opportunities grow in 2026.

At Catalyst Exchange, Catalyst Network providers are the catalysts in our work. Your expertise, care, and commitment to impact are what make every successful match, every strengthened organization, and every lasting change possible.

As the Catalyst Network continues to evolve, we want to share a few important updates: what’s changing around feedback expectations, what our Fall 2025 rebrand means for the network, and what’s coming next as we look ahead to 2026. Our hope is that this leaves you feeling informed, valued, and energized for what we’re building together.

Clarifying Feedback Expectations: Transparency with Care

As our project volume continues to expand, we’ve been refining how we communicate feedback, especially around proposal and selection decisions.

Here’s what we want to be clear about:

  1. Partner organizations make final decisions. Our role is to support partners in clarifying their needs, facilitating alignment, and sharing feedback when it’s available.
  2. Feedback opportunities are becoming more concise and more actionable. In response to provider input, we’ve worked with partner organizations to focus feedback on the most relevant, practical insights – clear takeaways that can support learning and future opportunities.
  3. Feedback is one-way and passed along as received. When partners choose to share written feedback, we pass it along directly. We don’t edit, interpret, or facilitate back-and-forth discussions.
  4. Not being selected is often about alignment, not ability. Many Catalyst projects are highly competitive, and decisions frequently come down to timing, context, or specific needs, not the quality of your work or your value to the Catalyst Network.
  5. Surveys matter. Our surveys help us understand what’s working, where support may be needed, and how we can strengthen the experience for both providers and partners.

We know feedback is essential for growth. Our goal is to offer it in ways that are honest, respectful, and genuinely useful – balancing transparency with fairness, and honoring the time, care, and expertise Catalyst Network providers bring to this work.

A New Name, the Same Mission, and Bigger Possibilities

In October 2025, Catalyst:Ed officially became Catalyst Exchange. This reflects the reality of what we’ve become, and where we’re headed as an organization and as a network.

The name Catalyst Exchange speaks to the heart of our model: a dynamic exchange of expertise, learning, and leadership across a growing ecosystem of mission-driven organizations. While education remains core to our work, we’re now engaging more deeply across the public and social sectors, creating new pathways for Catalyst Network providers to make meaningful impact.

What this means for the Catalyst Network:

  • More cross-sector opportunities with organizations tackling complex, systemic challenges
  • A stronger tech platform designed to support matching, communication, and project management
  • Greater reach and demand for provider expertise, leadership, and perspective

Through expanding place-based partnerships and responsive support offerings, we’re seeing more opportunities to connect Catalyst Network providers with organizations that need their expertise most.

Looking Ahead to 2026: Growing Impact, Deepening Engagement

As we look toward 2026, our focus is on expanding opportunities for meaningful, values-aligned work. In the year ahead, we’re introducing platform enhancements that make it easier for Catalyst Network providers to find the right projects, navigate the platform, and manage their work more smoothly.

Staying engaged is simple:

  1. Join conversations and check announcements in the CE Collective
  2. Watch for email updates with new projects and network news
  3. Share feedback through surveys and informal feedback loops

Thank You for Being Part of the Catalyst Network

Everything we do at Catalyst Exchange is grounded in a shared commitment to integrity, equity, learning, and collective impact. The Catalyst Exchange Provider Guiding Principles are lived out every day by the Catalyst Network: in how you partner with organizations, support one another, and lead change in communities across the country.

We’re grateful to be in community with providers who bring not only deep expertise, but also humility, curiosity, and care to this work. As the Catalyst Network continues to evolve, we’re excited to keep learning, building, and exchanging alongside you.

Here’s to what’s next, and to the impact we’ll continue creating together!
Catalyst Exchange

Catalyst Exchange