Imagine you are a manufacturer of widgets. You have a sizable factory and a loyal customer base. Your business is growing steadily and you’re making money. One day your best…
Here’s a story that has all the plot elements of a Hollywood spy thriller. International intrigue! Soviet agents! Stolen art! A fabulously wealthy politician caught red-handed! Money, money, money! And…
Here’s the scene: A nonprofit board is discussing how to attract new supporters. One board member, in an exasperated but sincere tone, says, “But it’s so hard to interest people……
A friend of mine runs a well-respected rehab center for addicts and alcoholics. I say, “well-respected,” and not “well-known,” because outside of those in the court system and the rehabilitation…
The most generous donors don’t want to pay for everything themselves. When I was a young (still in my twenties) executive director of a small human service agency we had…
In the early years after Alexander Graham Bell’s big discovery, people couldn’t agree on how to respond when the telephone rang. About half the people said, “Hello!” (That was the…
[Note: Raising the issue of excessive CEO salaries prompted a lot of comments from readers, most off-line, and additional posts from me. But here are my final words on the…
Let’s talk about nonprofit salaries. The greatest expenditure by most nonprofits is for staff salaries, which makes sense: a nonprofit typically doesn’t produce goods, as a manufacturer does, but services,…
For several years I went without a wristwatch. I had accidentally driven my car over the cheap Timex I owned, and I soon realized that I didn’t really need a…