No. DON’T Smile.
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[Note: This post was published in similar form in the Chronicle of Philanthropy December 15, 2014.] The other day a nonprofit organization I admire sent out a Facebook posting that…
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Violent Opposition, For Now
[Note: This was cross-posted October 1, 2014 by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.] Arthur Schopenhauer said, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is…
Read More Labor Day Plus One
We all have our favorite day of the year. It might be a birthday or a particular holiday. For me, it’s Opening Day of the baseball season. For my wife…
Read More Counting Mosquito Nets
If you think it’s simple to measure a nonprofit’s effectiveness, think again. I’ve written before about the failings of Charity Navigator and other rating systems, which resort to vastly oversimplified…
Read More Building the Right Board — Or Not
Do you want to build a great board of directors for your nonprofit? Sure! But it’s harder than it looks. Even if you recruit terrific people, which of course is…
Read More The Greatest Philanthropist You’ve Never Heard Of
. Julius Rosenwald isn’t much remembered today, but eighty years ago he was considered one of the “big three” of American philanthropy, along with John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.…
Read More Think Before You Endow
I was recently asked at a public forum why I don’t like endowments. I answered: “It’s not so much that I don’t like endowments. It’s that nonprofits and their donors…
Read More The Departed
So what should a nonprofit board do when high-ranking staff members leave the organization? This may sound radical, but shouldn’t the board try to figure out why these staff members…
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