A Lost Art
During tough times, be it the current one effecting all of us and brought on by the seeming collapse of our economic system or those more idiosyncratic to a particular organization, it is important to pay attention to our most valuable asset—people. So, what are you doing to express loudly and clearly just how much you appreciate all of the good work your paid and volunteer employees do for your organization and the clients it serves?
And before the “but” escapes Read more
November 7th, 2008 1 Comment One of these things is not like the other
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If ever there were a time to be reminded that all nonprofits are not alike, now is it. Independence Blue Cross is not the same as a health clinic in a poor neighborhood. A university is not the same as the local literacy or GED Read more
October 31st, 2008 1 Comment Teach Your Children
One of the most important lessons of economic downturns gets lost in the panic of the moment, allowing too many to miss the lesson. I don’t want that happening. The lesson is quite simple: prepare now for a healthy financial future. If we are always preparing for the future, the present will be taken care of as well. Instead, far too many organizations, and individuals, take care of the present, never thinking about the future.
While many things go through my mind in thinking about the Read more
October 24th, 2008 0 Comment Take Heart
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Unless this year is the exception to the rule, nonprofits should not be worrying about whether or from where their next dollar will be coming. Relax; it will be coming.
According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University (the Center), philanthropy is stronger than the stock market, social upheaval Read more
October 17th, 2008 0 Comment Largest species of bird…or feather duster?
Perhaps this isn’t fair to say, but I do believe that there are some things that we can afford to ignore—at least for a while—and other things that we cannot—not even for a nanosecond. Something that falls into the latter group is all matters financial: your own, your organization’s, the country’s, etc. Recently, a subscriber to our e-mail notices asked to be removed from the list because she had received a notice of two upcoming workshops—one on the basics of Read more
October 10th, 2008 0 Comment In Praise of Nonprofits
I am desperately searching for something uplifting about which to write this week. Surely, there is something good out there? Not so much. But not to worry, I am not going to do what everyone else is doing: talk about how to protect yourself from this economic mess, wring hands about how dire the future looks, bemoan the fact that so many of our nonprofit peers will be working harder with fewer resources. Those of us in the sector know all of this and cannot Read more
Have you lost your compass?
Announcement: there will not be, now, tomorrow or ever, a $700 billion or even an $85 billion bailout for the nonprofit sector. So, when we say we are businesses, don’t get too carried away with that thought. Remember, we are businesses that must be beholden to our mission, balancing our bottom line with how well we are delivering on the promises of our mission. Like so many other examples of the past, we are facing another perfect example of the fact that “we must run like Read more
September 26th, 2008 0 Comment Who needs a bailout?
This week, The Nonprofit Center held its first grantmakers panel of this academic year. As the moderator, I got to ask a number of questions up front before opening it up for questions from the floor.
And even though I knew what the elephant in this room looked like, I intentionally held off asking about it until I made sure that the audience had heard what it needed to hear: what are the strategic priorities of the particular funders represented on the panel, how do Read more
September 19th, 2008 0 Comment Jumbo Shrimp
I love oxymorons, and frequently get tired of having to use the crystal clear example of jumbo shrimp to explain to the uninitiated what an oxymoron is. Thanks to Thomas Wolf, author of Managing a Nonprofit in the 21st Century, I was reminded of one I’d clearly long forgotten: organized abandonment. (It was Peter Drucker who introduced this concept.) Whenever I hear this term, I see a wonderful flower power child running through fields with a billowing skirt, long hair blowing in the wind, flowers Read more
September 12th, 2008 0 Comment Reflections on Reflecting
I don’t know whether it is because I have spent so much of my life in academia or because I am Jewish, and later in life decided to use Yom Kippur as a day to fast and reflect, but September is the start of new years for me. Not the time when you sing Auld Lang Syne and party. But the time when you reflect upon the past year and on what worked, what didn’t, what you want to change and what you want to Read more
September 5th, 2008 2 Comments 