What Goes Up…
Will social media help or hurt us in the end? The answer to such a ridiculously broad question is, of course, we don’t yet know, only time will tell, the jury is still out on that, and more of the same. Nevertheless, the question deserves serious contemplation, yet seems to receive very little.
Social media itself receives all kinds of attention. A day does not go by that I don’t receive at least one solicitation in my in-box to attend a webinar, workshop, gathering, etc., on Read more
Diagnosis: Nonprofitmania
In May, the American Psychiatric Association will publish the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which will commonly be referred to DSM-5. The current edition of each DSM is perceived as the bible for those in clinical and psychological practice. DSM-5 is already being criticized for expanding the number of possible mental diagnoses. But as a long-time fan of Thomas Szasz, the psychiatrist who authored, among many other writings, The Myth of Mental Illness, that should be no surprise.
With no Read more
No Way to Treat a Partner
There are some great funders out there. I hope you know who you are and can discern the sycophantic “You are wonderful. Thank you so much,” from the true valuation as a great partner. And then there are the rest. And it is about time that you, too, know who you are and see about changing things.
The truth is, philanthropy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists in partnership. Is a person a philanthropist if there is no organization to which to give? And yet, Read more
Respect. Reward. Resist.
More often than not, when people hear the path I have taken from college to graduate school to now, I get a fairly consistent response that suggests that they don’t see how I got to where I am today, that they don’t see my path as particularly linear. But I guess that depends upon how you look at it.
When I look at it, it seems very linear: I have spent my life–not just my career–in different arena within the nonprofit sector, focusing always on gaining Read more
Reality Check
Last week, my niece sent her mother and me a blog written by a colleague of hers. The woman had been home in India when the well-publicized gang rape occurred. The blog was a plea to all Indians -and everyone else – to pledge to end gender based violence.
How was it that after so many years of working to make the world understand that women are, indeed, human beings, with brains, skills, abilities such wonton disregard for women could still be happening?
How is that that Read more
Mismanaging Up
Managing up. I first heard this term in about 2005. Right when I started spending more time talking with and listening to young senior managers. Like many new phrases and ideas, you hear it once and then suddenly you are hearing it all of the time. Now, I’m sick of it! Not because I am hearing it spoken about all of the time but because it needs to be spoken about all of the time. Why? Because people aren’t doing their jobs! And, when I Read more
Underdevelopment
You have a mole in your organization who is thwarting your development function. Do you know who it is? If you are an executive director or board member reading this, the answer is you!
Senator William Proxmire created the Golden Fleece mock award for research projects that he deemed wasteful because all they did was demonstrate what we already knew.
But the truth is that we don’t know something until we have the research that proves that something to be so. Without that research, we don’t know; Read more
We Rock…Pass it on
Last month’s “communiqué” (their word, not mine) from the Listening Post (Lester Salamon at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Policy Studies) provides some great fodder for a new year discussion by boards and staffs alike—if not together. The communiqué reports on results of the Institute’s research into the question of whether there are agreed upon and mutually shared values of the nonprofit sector. In other words, do those of us in the nonprofit sector believe that there is a set of values—unique or not—that nonprofits as Read more
No Apologies Necessary
Nonprofits, like so many of us, are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy—but not just in the ways you might think. Yes, many nonprofits suffered the same kinds of damages and losses that the very community members they served and helped during the crisis. Thus, like their friends, families, neighbors, and fellow residents, they are cleaning up and rebuilding. Nonprofits hit by Sandy, however, also have two unique problems that others in the community don’t have. And all nonprofits need to learn the Read more
