Searching for Mr. or Ms. Right
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I have a friend who works as the second-in-command at a very small nonprofit. Her longtime and very effective executive director is retiring, and the board is searching for a…
Read More Miami Vice
My father-in-law, Joe, alerted me to a peculiar ad in the business section of the Sunday New York Times. Under the listing “Business Franchise Opportunities” were the words, “Charity Director…
Read More Waiting. And Waiting.
There’s an epidemic of deferred philanthropy in this country. What do I mean? Let’s imagine that your house is burning. Firefighters arrive on the scene, and they offer you three…
Read More Accretion Happens
So why does your organization hold a charity golf tournament? Probably because it’s something you’ve always done. My guess is that if you looked into it, you’d find that fifteen…
Read More Naming the Number
A few years ago I was the chair of a nonprofit organization that was urgently raising money for a new building. As part of that effort I called an affluent…
Read More Income Inequality: The Nonprofit Edition
Who here is old enough to remember the William Aramony scandal? In 1991, Aramony, the head of what was then called United Way of America, was found to be having…
Read More Perfection Paralysis
There’s a famous proverb attributed to Voltaire: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” I get the feeling Voltaire may have spent some time hanging around nonprofit…
Read More Sins of Commission
A central principle of nonprofit development is that individuals should not get paid on a commission basis. According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals, paying nonprofit fundraisers commissions is unethical…
Read More Too Much Information
Three aspects of the digital age: It’s very easy to find information, and it’s ridiculously easy to disseminate information, but it’s no easier to assimilate information than it was a…
Read More A Board’s Most Important Role
Good nonprofit boards put a lot of time into strategic planning, creating effective policies, and raising funds – all very important roles. But very few put enough time into their…
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