Strut your Stuff
On my drive into work one morning this week (all of 25 minutes), I heard three stories about cutbacks as the result of struggling economies. Some are done deals, others still in the proposal stages. There was the elimination of school bus service in a school district in Colorado (done), slashing the number of prisons in New York State (proposed) and the withdrawal of support staff in the courts of Florida (proposed). I particularly liked one person’s comment in the Florida story: would you send Read more
Nothing Personal
“Is this personal or professional?” asked the executive director of a multi-million dollar nonprofit of his direct report as he questioned a check request for less than $100 for a multi-session professional development program she planned on attending. The announcement of the series had been sent to to executive directors who were asked to share it with appropriate staff, and was offered by a very well-recognized management support organization dedicated to improving the operations, management and governance of nonprofits so that those organizations can become Read more
When is a Nonprofit Not a Nonprofit?
Last week’s blog led to a reader sending me a series of thoughtful questions (see comments). The first question, however, generated a swift and blunt reply.
His question asked how I would classify a nonprofit organization “whose only revenue stream is governmental grants. Are they a ‘non-profit’ or just a ‘quasi-government’ agency…?” I love easy questions like this. My answer? I classify this as a “nonprofit flirting with death!”
Forget the debate on nomenclature and focus on the big picture: long-term sustainability. Any nonprofit that is funded Read more
Gotta Right to Sing the Blues
Maybe it is time to have a new nonprofit classification. I’d call it “the really large ones that operate more like a for-profit than a nonprofit and give the rest of the nonprofit sector a bad name and make all nonprofits suspect in the minds of the public, the media and too many legislators.” But I’d call them “pseudo nonprofits” for short.
The current impetus for this thinking is Blue Cross/ Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The company revealed earlier this month that it paid its former Read more
Dirty Money
Now is clearly not a popular time to suggest that nonprofits should think carefully before accepting a gift—as gifts of dollars or those things that can easily translate into dollars—are such desperate commodities these days. But the reality is that now—and always—is the time.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal published an article identifying a number of American and British nonprofits—institutions of higher education and think tanks—that had, knowingly, accepted gifts from the Gaddafi Family Foundation and/or the Libyan government. The prestigious London School of Read more
I’m So Tired
I like to think that I am a very tolerant person, and that I can listen to people complain again and again, even about the same thing. But I have reached my limit with one group of people and one of their constant complaints. I am tired, and I mean really, really tired (think Madeline Kahn as Lilly Von Schthupp in Blazing Saddles), of hearing otherwise capable and competent executive directors—and I am only talking about them, not the others– complain about being over-worked, never Read more
Double Standards
A few weeks ago, Daniel Rubin of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a column about a woman who had spent a year tracking all of the charitable solicitations she had received – those she’d given to, those she hadn’t; how many solicitations she received from each; the “giveaways” she had received, etc. Naturally, she, and many of the readers of Rubin’s column expressed dismay over the volume of solicitations received and, more importantly, the money that nonprofits were “wasting” sending out all of these requests for Read more
Get it in Writing
How do I love thee, nonprofit sector? Let me count the ways. Well, first: Are we not a collegial sector; one tempered by mutual respect? By the presumption that we are a team, working in partnership to achieve mutually defined and shared goals?
No, I am not naïve. I’ve worked and volunteered in this sector for decades. I know the reality. And I know that those who come into the sector truly understanding and valuing the presumption I outlined above, execute that presumption–fully. Those who Read more
Board Members Gone Wild
I was recently asked, by a group of executive directors, how do you contain a rogue (my word, not theirs) board member. (Not a new or uncommon question at all.) A few days later, I got an email from a wonderful board president seeking time to speak with me for advice on how to deal with—you got it—a rogue (again, my word, not hers) board member.
If you have ever seen footage of the impact of a rogue elephant, you know the damage that one lone Read more
Own Your Reputation
How often have you heard: “The only thing we have is our reputation?” You’ve probably heard it from a parent, teacher, advisory, mentor, sales coach—you name it. As it is for individuals, so it is for organizations. The most prized possession an organization has—for profit or nonprofit, though my concern here is only with the latter—is its reputation. So, why oh why would we turn it over to others to manipulate?
It is why I rail so against most nonprofit’s conflict of interest policies, designed to Read more
