Building Local Trust at Scale: How Bob Dalton Is Reimagining Community Impact
“If we're gonna see real change, it has to be done on a local level. My personal mission for the rest of my life is reintegrating localism back into modern society.”—Bob Dalton
Do you ever feel like it’s harder than ever to engage people in your mission?
Nonprofits today compete with influencer culture, political fatigue, and content overload. Bob Dalton has cracked the code on how localism rebuilds trust and why that matters more than ever.
Bob is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and social designer working to reclaim human connection in the digital age. He is the founder of two mission-minded companies: Sackcloth & Ashes, where every blanket purchased sends one to your local shelter; and LOCL, a local-focused social network to truly help neighbors connect.
I (Ted) really respect Bob. His path in life hasn’t been straight. It’s been marked by resilience, bold choices, and a refusal to let fear set the terms. But he sees a world better than the one we live in, and dares to pursue it.
In this conversation, you’ll hear:
- How to build mission-aligned teams
- The impact AI is making on community-building
- How to lead through adversity
- Why localism scales trust and impact
Bob is a confident leader who has so much to teach any nonprofit leader. He understands his strengths, how to align teams, and where user behavior is headed. As nonprofits face competition from influencers, startups, and viral fundraisers, Bob offers a new framework for relevance rooted in trust and local connection. If you care about real connection, team alignment, and reclaiming impact in a noisy world, this conversation is for you.
Links
- Follow Bob on LinkedIn
- Sackcloth & Ashes
- LOCL
- Follow Sackcloth & Ashes on Instagram and Facebook
Key Takeaways
- Connect meaningfully with your people. We heard this in Bob’s passion to connect people’s individual strengths to an overall vision. You can do this too: Support each team member’s individual purpose, be a beacon of light for others, and watch as your mission becomes something bigger than itself. Take the time to understand your people and how they want to contribute to the organization to help them feel valued.
- Recognize the value of localism in your strategy. Localization doesn’t mean limitation—you don’t need to restrict your entire ecosystem to a 10-mile radius. But serving and empowering communities uniquely on a local level allows you to serve people in the most effective ways, no matter where your mission leads you.
- Remember that the hardest seasons are often the ones that will teach you the most. We heard how Bob took the difficulty of his mother’s houselessness and channeled it into the creation of Sackcloth & Ashes, and how he’s learned again and again that when a challenge arises, growth follows. As you are navigating challenging circumstances, remember that those experiences are an important part of growth.
Meet the Guest
Bob Dalton is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and social designer working to reclaim human connection in the digital age. As the founder of Sackcloth & Ashes, he’s donated hundreds of thousands of blankets to homeless shelters through a one-for-one model. Named a Forbes Changemaker and CNN Champion of Change, Bob has traveled to 50+ cities, uncovering a core issue: local communities lack a digital space to connect and be seen. His latest venture, LOCL, solves that by using technology to help people discover and engage with local communities and events.
