This Message is for You
It is not often that the IRS gives us a clear “heads up” as to what are some of its favorite things to “catch” nonprofits doing wrong. But such a heads up has come in its interim report (released May 2010) on research it has been conducting on how well colleges and universities comply with reporting regulations. DO NOT STOP READING THIS JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY; THIS APPLIES TO YOU!
The IRS sampled 400 public and private colleges and universities offering Read more
The Road not Followed?
The world looks to the nonprofit sector as the caring, nurturing sector of the economy. We think of ourselves in that way, as well. But honestly, we do not have a lock on those descriptors. While there are many nonprofits that, regardless of their mission, do truly embrace, and live, a caring nurturing mantra for their clients, employees, volunteers, communities, and the world, there are for-profits that do so as well. And there are certainly many nonprofits and for-profits where ideas such as caring, compassion, Read more
Goldilocks is Getting Tired
This is the story of Goldilocks and the three executive directors, though there is no happy ending here. After all, this isn’t a fairy tale but real life!
For the last three years, I’ve been facilitating what we call CLEAR Circles (Cultivating Leadership Excellence and Responsibility) for emerging leaders. Emerging leaders are individuals who serve in management positions reporting directly to the organization’s executive director. CLEAR Circles started almost eight years ago for us as groups of executive directors who meet once a month for nine Read more
Who’s Teaching Leadership?
Leadership Ventures, a nonprofit in Indianapolis with a mission to build and support the volunteer and executive leadership of nonprofits, has only one message on its multi-page website. It is a “Dear John” letter addressed “Dear Friends.” As of 30 June 2010, Leadership Ventures will severe its relationship with the world, closing down, a causality, so they say, of the economy. To me, it is the causality of shortsightedness and a failure to understand.
I do not know Leadership Ventures; in fact, I only learned of Read more
Are you Empathetic?
Merriam Webster defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.” Say what?
WordNet, brought to us by Princeton University, puts it nice and sweetly, defining empathy as “understanding and entering into another’s feelings.” Well, according to a recent study from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, current college students Read more
Politics and Charity
I subscribe to several virtual clipping services that send me, daily, the headlines of stories about nonprofits from around the country and, occasionally, from around the world. I subscribe to several because, despite the redundancy, there are, more often than not, unique items on each service.
But why do I do this? I get more than enough e-mails on a daily basis so why add more that I need to read? First, it allows me to maintain a national perspective. Are the things going on in Read more
Think Globally, Act Locally
Back in the early days of the third coming of the women’s movement in the United States, by which I mean the 1960s movement, there was a push, which for many continues today, for women to seek out and use other women providers. You needed a plumber? Find a female plumber or “Plumber and Daughter.” You wanted to consult an attorney? Go to the female associate or the woman in solo practice. And so on. The thinking was that we would support our community—our sisters–and Read more
Charity Begins at Home
I am happy to report that I have data to support what I had always assumed (or was it hoped?): most parents want their children to become philanthropic. According to a recent poll conducted by the Harris Interactive Service Bureau, commissioned by Pearson Foundation and the Penguin Group, 90% of the 500 parents surveyed say “it is important to raise children to become charitable adults.”
Wanting and succeeding, though, are two very different things. And apparently, most of the 90% of those parents aren’t being very Read more
Excuse the Criminals; Punish the Do-Gooders
Now, I am really pissed (it’s my blog – I can say that). I recently wrote about jurisdictions around the country suffering from insufficient resources that are look to nonprofits to fill some of the gaps. Perhaps through rescinding tax exemptions of the past or by creating new taxes on their services (i.e., beds in hospitals, tuition payments to colleges and universities, etc.)
Case in point: the headline “Delinquents get a break in tax amnesty.” It seems that Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are giving Read more
Who Mentored You?
Even in death, my father is still guiding, teaching and showing me the way things should be done.
This past weekend was my father’s memorial. Though we did not officially invite anyone to speak at his memorial, my sister, brother and I knew well in advance that several wanted to share their remembrances. The evening of the memorial, we asked any one else who wished to say something, to please feel free to do so. And the floodgates opened.
My son, who was to be the last Read more
April 29th, 2010 1 Comment 