What We’re Reading
Difficult Conversations About Director Performance
Every board must discuss difficult issues from time to time – and the right approach can have a positive impact on the outcome….
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Nonprofit Communicators, It’s Time to Level Up!
I recently contributed an article to the Communications Network’s biannual journal, Change Agent, called It’s Time to Level Up!
In the article,…
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Social Media as an Organizational Game Changer
If you are one of those nonprofits still approaching social media as simply another tool in your belt, you are very much missing…
What We’re Reading
Building the Bicycle While We Ride It: Five Reflections on Nonprofit Co-Leadership
When Ruby Johnson was first hired at FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund in July 2013, she was the only full-time staff member. With the…
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4 Ways to Get Press Coverage for Your Nonprofit
The way some people talk about it, you might think getting your story picked up by the media is the hardest thing in the world. You might also assume…
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The Walmart Foundation Is a Perfect Example of How Corporate Philanthropy is Changing
Recently, we argued that the once-sleepy world of corporate philanthropy is getting a lot more sophisticated as funders sharpen their priorities and “fuse traditional grantmaking with…
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Bringing Together Business and Social Change: Not for the Faint of Heart
In this context, HireUp has illuminated the possibilities and challenges that go along with combining private and public approaches to create innovative solutions to social…
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Data-ness
Some years ago, Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness,” something that has the aura of truth because it just feels like the truth.
When it comes to making a point, numbers have a special appeal, no doubt because they…
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New Postal Rates Will Boost Costs for Charities
Nonprofits will pay anywhere from 2.8 percent to 4.3 percent more in 2017 to ship presorted fundraising, promotional, or informational letters, also known as standard-mail letters.
Under new postage rates set to…
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A Sectoral New Year’s Resolution—Exercise Civic Muscle
During these next four years, the pathways to federal and state support are likely to be longer and narrower. Rebuilding your organization’s civic muscles may be required.
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6 Expert Tips to Create an Awesome Nonprofit Video
Video is one of the best tools to reach prospects in your market. However, it can be difficult to shoot a great video if you have not done it before….
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The Nonprofit Overhead Baby and the Bathwater: A Need-to-Know for Boards
A successful nonprofit must be financially viable, deliver an effective program, and be mission-driven. When thinking of financial viability, trustees should have a clear understanding of the nonprofit’s…
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How Investors Can (And Can’t) Create Social Value
A growing number of socially-motivated investors are seeking to align their investments with their social values and where possible, to enable the companies in which they invest to create more social…
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Giving Tuesday Sees Slower Growth: Wise Nonprofits Will Steward their Fundraising Carefully
Nonprofit leaders across the country are likely holding their breath as they wait to see how the recent election will affect important revenue streams. For many groups,…
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Leadership Development: Aligning Funders’ Good Intentions with Nonprofits’ Real Needs
This articles says that time is right for funders to reconsider how they can make the most of the dollars they invest in grantee leadership development, but they must…
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How to Say “Thank You” to Donors at Year-End
2016 hasn’t been an easy year for many of us. But a word of gratitude—even from the nonprofit organization that one chooses to support—can give someone a reason to smile…
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The burden of student debt can make choosing a nonprofit career—and sticking with it—hard to do. But there’s good news! This article describes…
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What Is the Role of Art in Social Movement? Is Theater a “Safe Space”?
Is theater a “safe space?” If so, safe for whom? Or should it be a place to evoke questioning and discomfort, among other…
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How Boards Can Set a New CEO Up for Success
For more than three decades, Ram Charan has been involved in CEO searches in the United States, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and Europe, as a director, an…
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Across the US, government officials, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, philanthropists, and impact investors talk about the need to pursue not just program outputs but “positive outcomes”—results that make a genuine difference in beneficiaries’ lives. For…
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Our Challenge: How are You Strengthening the Social Economy?
The social economy is the space in which we produce and consume social good. Social good can be created by individual change-markers, by non-profits, by for-profit corporations and every organizational…
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Turbulence Ahead: 10 Questions for Nonprofit Boards to Urgently Ask and Answer
Good governance and effective, efficient management are never more important than when facing a sudden or impending period of instability. As we head into a transition of…
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Your Ladder of Engagement is Holding You Back
The “Ladder of Engagement” has become a common part of the digital organizer’s vernacular. However, as the Ladder of Engagement has proliferated, the design of the different steps on the advancement…
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How to Access the Tremendous Potential of Millennial Giving
Whether we want it or not, change always reaches us. It’s an imperative that’s just as applicable to our individual lives as it is for the nonprofit sector. Regardless, nonprofits…
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How to Fix a Retirement Plan at a School or Nonprofit
If you work for a school or nonprofit of any sort, there is a decent chance that your workplace retirement savings plan is not as good as it…
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