Dynamic Duos
“Philanthropy’s social and economic value in the region”
This phase struck me as funny when I just read it. So, I reread it, thinking I must have missed a word or 10 in the phrase; but, I didn’t. Does anyone else see it, or is it just me?
It is impossible, yes, absolutely always impossible for philanthropy to have a social and economic value in any region on its own. Philanthropy cannot and does not happen in a vacuum. It can and does only happen Read more
Savoring the Nonprofit Culture
During my decades of teaching undergraduates, I would, every so often as was needed, leave my discipline of criminology and teach a sister class on social problems.
A question that I would ask in the first week of the semester was, “Do you have to have experienced something in order to truly understand it? Or can you understand and appreciate something through the tales of those who have?” Answers always came down on both sides. But it didn’t matter, because by the end of the semester Read more
Mission Ridiculous
In association with an assignment to research and critique three mission statements, one of my students recently pointed out that the Stanford Social Innovation Review recommends eight word mission statements as the ideal standard. Seriously?
She also noted some findings from TopNonProfits.com that examined the mission statements of 50 organizations on its top 100 nonprofits list. A few of its key findings?
15.3: the average number of words in the mission statements of these organizations
2: words in the shortest mission statement
235: words in the longest mission statement
Again, Read more
Think you’re Unique?
I have a great respect for and appreciation of social workers. My two sisters and some of my best friends have been social workers. But as a sociologist, and ultimately a criminologist, social worker reliance on the case study method as a valid research method has always driven me crazy.
What we know from studying one is just that: we know that one. To assume that we can learn anything about which we can generalize, can extrapolate from that one and presume we now know Read more
Don’t be a Tool
What I am about to say will be sacrilegious to those nonprofits that have fed at the trough of politicians, but it is high time politicians got out of nonprofits.
While yes, this has something to do with the rash of arrests (indicating there was solid evidence sufficient to convince a district attorney to issue an arrest warrant) of, and allegations about, politicians accused of playing all sorts of hanky panky, funneling money to their favorite nonprofits, there is much more to this decision. The arrests Read more
Hostility toward Nonprofits
I admit I sometimes take it a bit too personally when I hear some of the biased attitudes folks hold about the nonprofit sector. And that bias? Pro for-profits; anti (or at least not pro) non-profits.
This semester I have 20 students in my nonprofit management class in La Salle’s MBA program. The class is an elective, so all have self-selected into the class. Some, by their own admission, did it because it was a hybrid class (a mix of online and face-to-face) and, therefore, very Read more
To a Good Year
For most of us, the signal that summer is over is the start of school, a return to traffic congestion and wry expressions regarding how quickly the season flew by.
Another signal that summer is over is nonprofit boards returning gearing up for the coming year.
I always approach the fall with high hopes for nonprofit boards; that they’ll accomplish all of the positive goals they set for themselves, or talked about setting for themselves, or wished they’d set for themselves. I offer some very simple, basic Read more
Bill and Dan’s Excellent Adventures
I hold in high regard people who have the courage to walk the path less traveled, challenge others regardless of where they are on the org chart or in life, and swim in the waters of controversy. As summer comes to an end, I share with you the ideas of two people whose “different” view of things have hung around longer than either might have expected.
In 2008, Bill Schambra, then and now director of the Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal at Hudson Institute, Read more
Oversight vs. Harassment
What is the difference between oversight and harassment? This is a question that many executives wrestle with as their boards of directors “step up” and “do their jobs.”
Boards have nothing on Rip Van Winkle; most simply don’t slumber that long. Nevertheless, too many do slumber for some periods of time and then suddenly wake up! The wake-up can be due to a variety of reasons but are generally variations on one of two themes: someone on the board gets a bee in her/his bonnet about Read more
