Social Velocity

Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.

Leadership

Creating Honest Conversations Between Nonprofits and Funders: An Interview With Eric Weinheimer

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In today’s Social Velocity blog interview, I’m talking with Eric Weinheimer, President and CEO of Forefront, the only regional association that represents grantmakers, nonprofits, advisors, and social entrepreneurs. With 1,100 members in Illinois, Forefront provides education, advocacy, and research, and mobilizes its members around issues that are important to the nonprofit sector. Prior to his current […]

When The Searing Truth Comes Into Focus

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It has been a really difficult couple of weeks. And I think for those of us in the social change sector — the sector that works for equity, justice, compassion, inclusion, civility — these days have been particularly challenging. The events in Charlottesville have made obvious that there is so much work to do, and […]

3 Questions To Regularly Ask Your Development Director

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Beyond the mistakes nonprofit leaders often make in staffing their fundraising function, the relationship itself between a nonprofit executive director and the development director (or whatever you call the staff person in charge of bringing money in the door) can often be fraught. In an ideal world, the executive director and development director have a symbiotic […]

Why Philanthropy Must Speak Out: An Interview with Grant Oliphant

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In today’s Social Velocity blog interview, I’m talking with Grant Oliphant, president of The Heinz Endowments (and frequent contributor to their excellent blog). Prior to running The Heinz Endowments, Grant was president and chief executive officer of The Pittsburgh Foundation for six years. Before that, he served as press secretary to the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz […]

What I Learned From My Time Off

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I am back from vacation, and as I suspected it would, the space has given me a new lease on life. I have returned with more energy, more hope, more perspective, and less worry. As I said before I left, I really encourage you also to take some time off this summer. Reject the pervasive […]

Planning for Nonprofit Success: An Interview With David Grant

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In this month’s Social Velocity interview, I’m talking with David Grant. David is the former President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and past chair of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers. He now consults nationally with nonprofits, foundations, and schools and is the author of The Social Profit Handbook: The Essential Guide to Setting […]

This Summer, Create Some Mental Space

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Well, summer is here and with it comes my usual desire to take a big breath. Particularly this year I’m feeling the need for some mental space. Over the past 6 months, we have all been working so hard amid a seemingly endless onslaught of challenging news and developments. And it doesn’t look like its going to slow […]

When Humor Overcomes Hate

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If the news (fake or otherwise) is getting you down lately, you need look no further than my fair city of Austin, Texas to restore your faith in humanity. Austin is a quirky mix of conservatives to the North and progressives to the South and somehow we all (for the most part) get along. Last week our […]

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: May 2017

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May was another fascinating month in the world of social change. There are some interesting shifts happening among the institutions and movements working to improve black lives, new polls point to a surging American liberalism (not conservatism), the suburbs are no longer the route to the American dream, anti-hunger efforts may actually be perpetuating the problem, and a […]