Musings from a Nerd
I don’t know what is worse: the week before vacation or the one right after you return. Both are generally crazy, the former trying to do get everything in order for your absence; the latter, catching up, while simultaneously needing to move forward. But with the former, at least, you have the anticipation of the vacation—its allure, pull, excitement—which is totally lacking upon return. Once back, all you can think about is how to hold on to all the goodness of the vacation while knowing Read more
Where are Nonprofit Standards?
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The amount of bad, blatantly unethical, or just plain wrong information that supposed experts give out, and which nonprofits accept, is staggering. After all, it came from an “expert,” so how can you push back or question? And what happens when this bad information gets lionized as truth? Let me share some recent examples.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from a stranger who’d found me on the web. He had an intricate story to tell of a board’s deceit, favoritism, unethical Read more
The Board Engagement Metric
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A few weeks ago, I got a request to speak with an executive director and a board president about their organization’s give policy. I always counsel boards that their policy on board giving must come with consequences. Since very few boards are willing to do so, very few organizations have an actual, formal policy (that means written down, approved by a board vote and memorialized in the policy manual—be it virtual or tangible).
The duo I was counseling had done everything it should have: Read more
All Costs Considered
Earlier this week, NPR’s All Things Considered did an interesting story on criminals being charged for court costs and for a public defender. Surprising – yes and no.
Jurisdiction after jurisdiction has been looking every previously untapped income source in order to help pay the bills. If they have already passed legislation allowing the taxation of nonprofit profits, why not start charging criminals for the system the state set up to determine their guilt or innocence?
The Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments convey our nation’s presumption of Read more
Trends in What’s Trending
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What’s trending? How often do we hear that on daily basis? Even before the term was hijacked by social media, trends were important. And yet, it is amazing how little attention nonprofit staff and board members pay attention to them.
One of our consultants just mentioned that he had recently attended his local professional conference. For the past five years, he said, attendance has been dwindling. Is anyone talking about this? Has staff tried to understand the source of this trend? Has the board Read more
Smart Hiring
‘Nobody has seen as many employees and CEOs coming and going as you have, Higgins. How long have you worked here now?’
Lots of people are asking us what the trends are in hiring in the nonprofit sector. All of the different collectors of hiring data in the nonprofit sector that we’ve seen are saying the same thing: nonprofits are hiring. According to Nonprofit HR’s “2014 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey” (the Survey), 46% of nonprofits surveyed increased staff in 2013, as opposed to just Read more
The Ugly, the Good and More Ugly
I have to start with the ugly, as it appalls me that here we are in 2014 and white supremacists still use their ignorance to wreak havoc and presidents still need to push equal pay legislation, while some members of Congress mumble about finally passing the ERA.
And although it also continues to baffle me how people can ignore hard data, here are the facts about pay inequality in the nonprofit sector. It is a sad, yet common pattern that the larger the organization, regardless of Read more
