Happy Donors
So many cultures and faiths teach the adage that it is better to give than receive. While it is done to encourage selflessness while helping those less fortunate. Research indicates, however, that giving isn’t quite the selfless act we think it is, in that is also beneficial to the giver.
Giving both time and money actually ratchet ups a giver’s oxytocin (the “compassion hormone”), as well as endorphins and dopamine, producing what some refer to as the “donor’s high” (akin to a runner’s high).
People who Read more
What Matters to Donors?
For too many decades, nonprofits leaders have been plagued by the fear of overhead: too high and risk losing donors; too low and risk insufficient capacity to do all that needed doing. Then, Dan Pallotta did his famous TedTalk, the Overhead Myth letters came out from the three watchdog groups and Bridgespan and the Ford Foundation jointly suggested that it was time for donors to revamp their funding paradigm.
But, did things change? Sadly, no. Yes, there was a greater willingness to discuss the absurdity of Read more
Nonprofit Leadership Deficit: Protecting Sacred Cows
In 2006, Bridgespan produced a report whose predictions shocked many people.
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Prediction one: between then and 2016, the nonprofit sector was going to need to find 640,000 new executives to fill vacated positions.
Prediction two: by 2016, we would need to find almost 80,000 such individuals per year. The bursting of that bubble was delayed by the Great Recession. But it would appear now that a slow burst has begun. Executive transitions are upon us.
There is no question that a nonprofit is Read more
