Supersize me?
True confession: I was not always a popular feminist, even my feminist peers. I didn’t believe that just because we wanted to be regarded as equal to men—we already knew we were, if not superior to—that we had to be the same as men. We didn’t need to mimic them, working ridiculously long hours, barking orders, wearing suits, being cut-throat; but rather, we could be just as successful if we played to our strengths and did things our way, bringing Read more
June 5th, 2009 0 Comment Gimme a V
More than several times on these pages (wait, do blogs have pages?) I have expressed my concern—no, let’s call it what it is, my fear—that nonprofits are so focused on surviving this economic downturn that they are paying no attention to the future: in what condition will they arrive at the other end? Surviving, unlike being pregnant, does come in degrees. There is the degree of, “Phew! Just made it! We’ve got no staff, barely a program, a blind board, but we are still, Read more
May 29th, 2009 0 Comment Viability at any age
Locally, the news is out: thanks to Chris Hepp, a The Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, news of our recent economic impact survey of Delaware Valley nonprofits hit the streets this week. From Philadelphia Mayor Nutter’s office to an astute board president to folks just wanting to know more, it’s getting attention. I just hope it isn’t too late!
Why would I say such a thing? Because I am worried. One of the most troublesome outcomes of our survey is the revelation that the Read more
May 22nd, 2009 0 Comment When it’s not good for nonprofits to emulate for profits
Behind as always in my reading, I just caught an amazing statistic in the March 30 edition of Newsweek. I was scanning the article, as I confess to being quite bored with the debate as to whether Washington or Wall Street is to blame for the current economic situation.
The Newsweek story featured both sides of the debate. Skimming each short snippet on the writer’s opinion, I came across one from Jim Chanos, “In 1998 Business Week put out Read more
May 15th, 2009 0 Comment Be Your Own Stimulus
I love Alaska. It is the one place I’ve always wanted to visit that has so far eluded me. So, don’t get me wrong when I say this: finally, something good has come out of Alaska! In fact, it is so good, I wish I’d thought of it first. Well, I’d thought of it, and, in fact, even said it; I just didn’t bother to write it down. What is it? A warning: stimulus dollars may not be good for the Read more
May 8th, 2009 0 Comment Built to Last
Last Friday, The Nonprofit Center was fortunate enough to have Billy Shore, founder of Share our Strength, Community Wealth Ventures and author of numerous bookshttps://www.lasallenonprofitcenter.org/educational/shore_articles.php, articles, contemplations, etc., be the keynote speaker at our annual Nonprofit Strategies Forum. An entertaining public speaker, he intermingles the right amounts of humor and seriousness to keep his audience entertained and cerebral, both at the same time. And his messages are ones that need to be heard, regardless of the economic times.
For example, he asked the question, Read more
May 1st, 2009 1 Comment The Opposite of Vulnerable
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I’ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability—the vulnerability of individuals, of organizations, of communities, of societies. No surprise, I guess, given the current state of the economy.
And then this morning, two staff of The Nonprofit Center walked into the office to find Read more
April 23rd, 2009 0 Comment A Dog Eat Dog World
As much as it pains me to admit this, there have been times in my life when I found it just didn’t pay to read a newspaper (add, in today’s world, use any means to keep abreast of the world affairs). Today might just have to be the start of one of those periods.
Did something major happen today? No, I just started doing a little catch-up reading at lunch, and my reading started and ended with the March 12 Read more
April 17th, 2009 0 Comment Separate the Wheat from the Chaff
So, the question gets asked of some presidential economic advisor in some NPR interview (and, I’m sure, is repeated in many other interview settings), is $1 trillion going to take care of getting rid of all of the “toxic assets” banks are currently holding? The response, in summary: well, minimally, it should go a long a way.
We are talking about sums of money that the vast, vast majority of nonprofits, let alone their clients, can’t even fathom. It is a sum of money that Read more
April 9th, 2009 2 Comments Strategery
Strategy, strategy, strategy. If ever there were a word that should guide us now, it’s strategy And yet, too many nonprofits don’t “get” strategy. They don’t like strategy. They somehow think it is a dirty word, and not of benefit to them. And thus they continue to go about their business reacting. They react to financial difficulties by reflexively cutting budgets. No strategy is involved, no thought to core competencies, protecting the ability to fulfill Read more
March 26th, 2009 0 Comment 